I was just looking at tkoutline, a very simple no-install single-pane outliner. Sort of like a "Windows Notepad" of outliners. Could be useful to have such a thing. Unfortunately no update of Tkoutliner has been put out since 2004.

I had a look at the coding in a file created by Tkoutline. It made me wonder - is there any think like a standard encoding for basic outlines? Like a CSV format for outlines. It would be useful to have an outline format that anybody could read using a standard tool. It could be used for exporting an outline from one outline app, and importing it into another.

There are a number of formats, OPML is one of them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPML

tkOutline is a handy little application. I don't believe we will ever actually see any additional updates, not with a four-year gap since the last update. Nevertheless, it still works well. It has a handy little wiki-like linking feature. Put [brackets] around any words and when you click on that word or those words you create and open a new outline.

It also will export to OPML, XML, HTML, and ASCII.

Steve

Pierre Paul Landry wrote:

There are a number of formats, OPML is one of
them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPML

Very interesting. Would be good to see a standard widely implemented.

When I clicked the example OPML documents linked on the Wikipedia page, I got source code, not the rendered document. I suppose browsers don't support OPML yet?

I've been trying out this OPML Editor, I suppose it's the only one?
http://support.opml.org/download

If one looks at the site that jimspoon cited, one will find a familiar name: Dave Winer. He is (or is one of) the creator of OPML He also founded outliners.com, the "parent" of this forum OPML was used to develop an outliner for programmers.
-c

jimspoon wrote:

Pierre Paul Landry wrote:
>There are a number of formats, OPML is one of

>them
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPML

Very interesting. Would be good
to see a standard widely implemented.

When I clicked the example OPML documents
linked on the Wikipedia page, I got source code, not the rendered document. I suppose
browsers don't support OPML yet?

I've been trying out this OPML Editor, I suppose
it's the only one?
http://support.opml.org/download

jimspoon wrote:

I've been trying out this OPML Editor, I suppose
it's the only one?
http://support.opml.org/download

There are a number of outliners that support OPML; Opal is just one of them.

David Dunham wrote:

jimspoon wrote:

>I've been trying out this OPML Editor, I suppose
>it's the only
one?
>http://support.opml.org/download

There are a number of outliners that
support OPML; Opal is just one of them.

The recently-deceased PocketThinker (WIN) used opml.

Derek

ConnectedText also uses OPML in its outliner. It can read OPML files and export outline content to OPML.

A (more widely implemented) alternative to OPML are tabbed plain text outlines. Many outliners support them as do most mind mapping applications I've tried.

As to OPML, I am surprised at how few apps support it given its popularity in the web. (Eduardo, thanks for implementing it in Connected Text). I keep my to do list in a portable Symbian phone app with OPML as the main exchange format. Luckily ConceptDraw MindMap can read & write OPML (Mind Manager 7 can't).

Cheers
Alexander

Your comment, Alexander, reminds me that Brainstorm exports its models (or parts of models) as tabbed plain text. And now Personal Brain can import or export tabbed plain text outlines. Which means that information can easily be passed back and forth between Brainstorm and Personal Brain... almost a reason in itself to get PB.

Steve

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

A (more widely implemented) alternative to OPML are tabbed plain text outlines. Many
outliners support them as do most mind mapping applications I've tried.

As to OPML,
I am surprised at how few apps support it given its popularity in the web. (Eduardo,
thanks for implementing it in Connected Text). I keep my to do list in a portable
Symbian phone app with OPML as the main exchange format. Luckily ConceptDraw MindMap
can read & write OPML (Mind Manager 7 can't).

Cheers
Alexander

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

As to OPML,
I am surprised at how few apps support it given its popularity in the web.

1) I wasn't aware it was actually that popular.
2) It's not a great general-purpose format -- if I recall correctly, it makes no provision for styled text or embedded graphics.

David Dunham wrote:

1) I wasn't aware it was actually that popular.

Well, it's used in many sites next to RSS feeds; check out Grazr ( http://www.grazr.com/info/features ) and look for the blue O logo next to the orange RSS one.

2) It's not a great general-purpose format -- if I recall correctly, it makes no
provision for styled text or embedded graphics.

I agree with the limitations.

By the way, Brainstorm can also export (though not import) OPML. There was a certain fascination of using Brainstorm's OPML with Grazr but those post have been lost from Brainstorm's blog. See the link below to get an idea:
http://teblog.typepad.com/david_tebbutt/2006/11/sharing_feeds_w.html

Alexander

As to OPML,
I am surprised at how few apps support it given its popularity in the web. (Eduardo,
thanks for implementing it in Connected Text). I keep my to do list in a portable
Symbian phone app with OPML as the main exchange format. Luckily ConceptDraw MindMap
can read & write OPML (Mind Manager 7 can't).

CT also exports outlines to FreeMind, as you might want to know.