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Outliner for nonfiction book
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Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Oct 27, 2018 at 08:34 AM
Hi Stephen,
I have never actually needed more than nine levels _for writing_, but MS Word’s arbitrary limitation has nevertheless been a reason for my looking elsewhere for ‘real’ outliners.
My own tool of choice for long and complex documents is Silva Elm Sense, about which I’ve written here in the past, e.g. https://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/3909/0/sense-editor-recent-updates
It’s Windows only, and I hesitate to propose it if you needed it soon, as there is currently an issue with its purchasing; see it here in the words of its developer, Dave Ewins https://www.outlinersoftware.com/messages/viewm/31978
I’m using a temporary build provided by Dave, which implements the new licensing scheme he mentions, but I assume that this only works for existing license holders.
That said, I believe that Sense is in a league of its own as a tool for developing and working on structured texts.
Stephen R. Diamond wrote:
Strange to be looking for something so basic, but it’s still hard to
>find an excellent one-pane outliner with deep levels.
>
>It seems Inspiration 9 is the only real alternative for book-length
>writing. Am I wrong?
Posted by Amontillado
Oct 27, 2018 at 11:49 AM
OmniOutliner for iOS picked up some glitches in an update a few weeks ago, but they were promptly fixed. It can work in either one or two pane mode.
I’d prefer a plain text outliner, but OO works. At present, I need to move between my iPad on my Macs. DEVONthink is working well as a sync vehicle, OmniOutliner for per-project to-do lists as well as outlines, and Ulysses for writing.
Those apps cover what I need and work pretty much the same on iOS and Mac systems. DEVONthink is nice for syncing because the DEVONthink dadtabases become just another browseable location.
Anyway, I’ve heard OmniOutliner criticized for being behind the times, and it doesn’t support tags. OmniFocus, which I’m addicted to, is much more evolved. On the other hand, OO works well.
Posted by Amontillado
Oct 27, 2018 at 11:53 AM
By “another browseable location”, I meant on my iPad where apps, the ipad’s file system, and syncing don’t always prove a good mutual fit. DEVONthink makes syncing simpler, and, of course, does a whole lot more.
Posted by Dr Andus
Oct 27, 2018 at 04:14 PM
Stephen R. Diamond wrote:
Strange to be looking for something so basic, but it’s still hard to
>find an excellent one-pane outliner with deep levels.
>
>It seems Inspiration 9 is the only real alternative for book-length
>writing. Am I wrong?
Dealing with a book-length manuscript in a single-pane outliner is likely to be awkward, unless there are ways to zoom in / hoist.
You could check out Frank’s book on how to write a book in WorkFlowy (which does have zoom, and I believe he had some other bolt-ons such as CSS scripts and various browser extensions to enhance the experience).
And then there are the old options, some which might be still on sale (Outline 4D), while others might not be that easy to get hold of (I’m thinking of the first version of SmartDown).
Posted by Listerene
Oct 27, 2018 at 05:26 PM
UV Outliner is a one-pane outliner which is free, offers rich text, styles and has multi-column support. It reminds of a modern GrandView for Windows