What is the best outliner software for windows ?
Mac has a lot of good options but options for windows are less clear.
Thanks to all member for this wonderful community.

I don't think anyone can answer your question of "what is best" without you first explaining what you'd like to do with the software, and what project(s) you hope to facilitate by using it.

I think he is calling for an overview.

And thats where i see his problem, There is not a single modern application i'm aware off that isn't webbased.
MS is doing a good progress (for them not us) to move everything in the cloud.

Dynalist or Workflowy seem to be currently the way to go.

I want to use the outliner in studying and lectures preparations. I am thinking of
gingko
visual outliner
scapple
threesheets
imapping
iroha note
BTW I prefer offline software

If the ability to write longer texts outweighs the need for an agile hierarchy builder, I'd suggest you also consider Scrivener.

A dark horse option, not dissimilar to Scrivener, is Atomic Scribbler:

https://www.atomicscribbler.com

It isn't robustly updated, but you can download a trial copy to see how it works for you.

Steve Z.

Ahmed fawzy wrote:

I want to use the outliner in studying and lectures preparations

This can mean a lot of different things, which might be best served with different types of software.

"Outliner" - at least as it's used on this forum - is a catch-all term that refers to very different types of software in terms of their use and functionality.

a) One big group could be called "notes databases", which are for capturing, annotating, organising, storing, recombining and recalling information.

b) The other big group could be called "thinking and writing tools," which help with developing ideas and outlines, and then with turning them into a final text.

c) There are also a few that try to combine the above two categories.

Are you looking for a), b) or c)?

Keep in mind that c) normally means increased complexity, a steeper learning curve or some compromise that undermines the functionality of a) or b).

Interesting looking app, "iroha note" -- visually. It's an Adobe Air app, which is somewhat of a dead end, and hasn't been updated, it seems, in a very long time. So there may be no there, there.

Looks like the map view of Tinderbox without the rest of the iceberg.

http://www.at-iroha.jp/en/en-irohanote-intro


Ahmed fawzy wrote:

iroha note

I think I have uses for the three groups

1- I can use group a to make a data base of cards to retrive information
2- I can use group b to outline lecture notes
3- group c may be a good AIO option and I donot mind learning curve

I apprechiate examples of all three groups
Also If the program has a good presentation ability this will be great

Dr Andus wrote:

Ahmed fawzy wrote:
>I want to use the outliner in studying and lectures preparations

This can mean a lot of different things, which might be best served with
different types of software.

"Outliner" - at least as it's used on this forum - is a catch-all term
that refers to very different types of software in terms of their use
and functionality.

a) One big group could be called "notes databases", which are for
capturing, annotating, organising, storing, recombining and recalling
information.

b) The other big group could be called "thinking and writing tools,"
which help with developing ideas and outlines, and then with turning
them into a final text.

c) There are also a few that try to combine the above two categories.

Are you looking for a), b) or c)?

Keep in mind that c) normally means increased complexity, a steeper
learning curve or some compromise that undermines the functionality of
a) or b).

Scrivener Is a good software I like and use it in my writings of papers and books

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

If the ability to write longer texts outweighs the need for an agile
hierarchy builder, I'd suggest you also consider Scrivener.

A dark horse option, not dissimilar to Scrivener, is Atomic Scribbler:

https://www.atomicscribbler.com

It isn't robustly updated, but you can download a trial copy to see how
it works for you.

Steve Z.

Ahmed fawzy wrote:

What is the best outliner software for windows ?

I think I have uses for the three groups

1- I can use group a to make a data base of cards to retrive information
2- I can use group b to outline lecture notes
3- group c may be a good AIO option and I donot mind learning curve

InfoQube should be able to do the job, no problem.

Many users consider it the best and most flexible Windows outliner / information management:
https://infoqubeim.com/drupal5/?q=node/4312

Pierre Paul Landry
IQ Designer

If you already use Scrivener, then you ought to keep using it, maybe supplemented by OneNote and Workflowy/Dynalist for the things it doesn't do well, or at all. The challenge isn't how many different programs you can incorporate into your workflow - that way lies madness and a loss of productivity - but rather how *few* programs you can master and thus extract from them everything you really need to get your work done.

Ahmed, especially for "a" on Dr Andus' list you may wish to look at Citavi, but it also could be useful for "b" and "c"

Daly

Dr Andus wrote:

Ahmed fawzy wrote:
>I want to use the outliner in studying and lectures preparations

This can mean a lot of different things, which might be best served with
different types of software.

"Outliner" - at least as it's used on this forum - is a catch-all term
that refers to very different types of software in terms of their use
and functionality.

a) One big group could be called "notes databases", which are for
capturing, annotating, organising, storing, recombining and recalling
information.

b) The other big group could be called "thinking and writing tools,"
which help with developing ideas and outlines, and then with turning
them into a final text.

c) There are also a few that try to combine the above two categories.

Are you looking for a), b) or c)?

Keep in mind that c) normally means increased complexity, a steeper
learning curve or some compromise that undermines the functionality of
a) or b).

I hope to know better options
I also use mind mapping software imindmap

tightbeam wrote:

If you already use Scrivener, then you ought to keep using it, maybe
supplemented by OneNote and Workflowy/Dynalist for the things it doesn't
do well, or at all. The challenge isn't how many different programs you
can incorporate into your workflow - that way lies madness and a loss of
productivity - but rather how *few* programs you can master and thus
extract from them everything you really need to get your work done.

NoteCase Pro

Two-pane outliners are plentiful and should do what you want. Cherry Tree, TreePad, RightNote and a bunch of others are examples.

If you need to export your notes as a RTF/word document for reports or presentations , consider the export ability of the software

I use WhizFolders, not because it is the 'best'software but because I like the way it exports to a RTF file and I have minimal clean up time spent getting the final word document to the way I want to present it

Any more options ?

You can also try an app I develop called Trilium Notes - https://github.com/zadam/trilium which is available for windows as well.

Amen to that :)

tightbeam wrote:

The challenge isn't how many different programs you
can incorporate into your workflow - that way lies madness and a loss of
productivity - but rather how *few* programs you can master and thus
extract from them everything you really need to get your work done.

I personally prefer to separate work under (1) from that under (2), not so much because of inherent limitations in the relevant software, but rather to support my own focused workflow. In this context, my own choice for (1) is Evernote and for (2) Silva Elm Sense--see more about the latter here: https://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/3909/0/sense-editor-recent-updates

That said, InfoQube should indeed be able to cover (3), as should Org Mode.

Ahmed fawzy wrote:

1- I can use group a to make a data base of cards to retrive information
2- I can use group b to outline lecture notes
3- group c may be a good AIO option and I donot mind learning curve

I am now using visual outliner and imindmap thanks to all for suggestions

For those who already have Notecase Pro (Win/OSX/Linux/Android) and are interested in single pane outliners like the old Ecco Pro or Visual Outliner:

You can switch to single (left) pane Only view, of Tree of nodes and subnodes, by:

CTRL + T

or

View (menu): Change View

Then it is a single pane outliner.

I stopped using Rightnote pro. Has virtually no Outliner tree import/export format. It's sile hjt Treepad outliner import does not import the actual node data. It is a buggy coding, Notecase Pro imports hjt fine, as others like OPML etc. So Rightnote has no outliner compatibility and it is a dead-end app. Most important, Rightnote increasingly has it's infamous crash dialog-box pop-up. Getting worse, not a long term reliable platform investment of precious time. Not interested to work free for the app's crash pop-up reporting bugs constantly and getting paid by my lost data. This happens often with large files. So gave up on it.

The old abandoned Bonsai Natara is also around still. Rumors of dev picking it up last year proved false. But it is a good single pane outliner and many import/exports specially with his unique export template where one can modify the export template to virtually do whatever one wants export-wise. But probably only a handful mod his export templates like me. Still Bonsai is indispensable for some data conversions.

Visual Outliner (Win only) can take a leaft out of Notecase pro and add a second dual data pane for actual data to the node lists which can be set visible for those who want to see it. There are rumors that UV Outliner might be picked up again, it is still free and not only can you add a second column, you can add as many columns as you want. I hope some devs try to go beyond dual pane as UV Outliner showed the potential.

Finally I recommend serious outliner fanatics to get Whizfolders for Windows too. It has many attachments and does not crash like others with complex attachments. It is useful for writing artciles, academic papers, outlines of ideas and stories etc.

Also if you are familiar with command palette in the code IDEs like Sublime Text, you can use Writemonkey 3 (beta) which is difficult to get started on but is unique and useful. You can donate whatever amount to get the version 3 Pro which lets you import the few plugins. Also a free version which is almost he same, for Win/OSX/Linux. You probably will give up on the UI but those that stick with it will be richly rewarded.

There are many other top apps but the above should be enough to get many started.

I don't use Windows all that often, but when I did I used Treepad quite a bit and found it to be very reliable. It's been around forever.

I also found cintanotes a nice outliner and note taker for windows

I run 2 cintanotes in the tray background, other's an older portable version, each a different color theme, used for 2 different fields.