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Two Pane Outliner Shootout
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Posted by nathanb
May 25, 2018 at 02:37 AM
Mark wrote:
nathanb wrote re Zoot:
>
>> it looks to have an uncertain development future.
>
>Zoot’s developer, Tom Davis, has been working on it continuously for
>more than two decades, so it’s unfair to say it has an “uncertain
>development future.” Very little of the software discussed here has that
>long of a history of dedication. He’s continually tweaking the app and
>the most recent update was May 15, 2018.
>
Thank you for clearing this up, sorry for posting false info. Just looked up some of it’s features again. The integrated connections it offers is pretty great. Makes me think of random stuff I have in Evernote, Pocket, etc on their own islands. It looks to offer a unique way to aggregate a bunch of ‘cloud’ flows without itself being cloud-based. Though to be honest, it doesn’t help to make itself appear ‘in development’ when one of the screenshots on it’s website is showing ‘read-it-later’ and ‘google reader’ integrations. Gone 4 and 5 years now. Another way he’s making it ‘seem’ outdated to casual CRIMPers like me is the “what’s new” page is listing a bunch of features that it’s had for years with no dates on what the ‘most recent’ change was. Though it does have a pretty active discussion board on google groups, however one user appears to be a big driver of that. Either way, you are right, it is a bit more ‘active’ than I was assuming.
My impression was that ZootXT is one of several really unique offerings for which major development peaked several years ago. UltraRecall and ConnectedText are in the same boat. A small developer creates this magnificent thing in their spare time and keeps building upon their vision until it’s so complex that ‘re-imagining’ much of it is too daunting a task for something that’s not bringing in much money. Yet it IS still great, even without a significant evolution of function, and it has a loyal and enthusiastic fan base. So it makes sense to work on maintenance releases. Active development certainly isn’t the whole story and I’m willing to pay for the veterans of this category as a nod to their singular achievement with no pretense or expectations of a string of function updates…..but it’s a risk to trust in a platform whose best years are behind, not ahead. If they show signs of still wrestling the beast (Petko, Pierre) instead of just keeping it alive when their attention is clearly elsewhere (Ultra, CT) it means a lot. Maybe I’m wrong about which category Zoot belongs to.
Posted by JDS
May 25, 2018 at 01:34 PM
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
Does anyone use Zoot anymore?
I used it for many years, but drifted away from it a few years ago. Despite Tom’s dedication and responsiveness, I felt it’s age was starting to show. The lack of a manual was also not helpful. I migrated to ConnectedText (and a few other apps for maintaining my To do list/Scheduling, etc)
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
May 25, 2018 at 03:19 PM
I used to be a devout Zooter, but when Zoot XT came out I have to admit I became flummoxed too often by it. I think Tom tried to shoehorn too much functionality into Zoot. I agree that a manual or a set of video tutorials would help.
I still open Zoot up from time to time to see if I can rekindle the magic, but it isn’t there I’m afraid…
Steve Z.
Posted by Chris Murtland
May 25, 2018 at 06:11 PM
I feel the same. I really loved Zoot 5, even with its limitations. It seemed to have an almost spooky power. It was sort of like a mystery cult, I was an initiate, and I have since been kicked out because I couldn’t keep up with the esoteric rituals when it expanded beyond plain text. However, a black fog just enveloped me and I saw a large Z in the sky, and I feel oddly possessed by the spirit of CRIMP, so maybe I’ll give it another go…
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
I used to be a devout Zooter, but when Zoot XT came out I have to admit
>I became flummoxed too often by it. I think Tom tried to shoehorn too
>much functionality into Zoot. I agree that a manual or a set of video
>tutorials would help.
>
>I still open Zoot up from time to time to see if I can rekindle the
>magic, but it isn’t there I’m afraid…
>
>Steve Z.
Posted by Sharknader
May 29, 2018 at 06:33 PM
What about Evernote? You can use nested tags as nodes in an outline. There is also a free service called Filterize that will automatically let all children tags inherit parent tags. As far as hoisting goes, you can use internal links to notes/TOCs to create more granular outlines.