x-whnb: dual pane outliner on Chromebook

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Posted by jaslar
May 16, 2019 at 04:37 PM

I ran across this Sourceforge project. You can find it at https://sourceforge.net/projects/x-whnb/

Author description: “A look-alike Cherrytree, hierarchical notebook (Outliner), done with HTML and Javascript.” It works with multiple browsers, and is portable.

At present, there are basic things about the interface that baffle me (and the Chrome browser might be involved). But I was able to download and unzip, unpack the files, stash them in the download directory of my Chromebook, then run it by opening the deploy.html file. The files are saved locally.

Unlike many projects, it looks to still be alive. It was last updated on 3/4/19

For those of us looking for a two pane outliner on a Chromebook, this is promising. What I found particularly interesting was the ability to do markdown type things: autonumbering, checkboxes, and tables among them. I’m a licensed user of Notecase Pro, and apparently HTML does things GTK does not.

Right now, it still seems rough and new. I can’t get About and the Manual to come up, either. But the creator does seem to be working on things. Others may enjoy dinking around with it. It’s open source, so free, if you don’t count your time!

I can remember a Firefox extension that gave a simple two pane outliner. I haven’t found one for Chrome….

Posted by washere
May 16, 2019 at 05:53 PM

Been using Joplin for a few years, it is single column but might become dual panel in Android but you can swipe to see two in landscape, though not a tree outline. On Windows it is a four column luxury, the dev listened to my request and made the two left columns resizable too and also made a proper dark theme. Safe, secure, free, multi devs helping the main dev, popular and so will go on for a long time as many love it and is open source. Also data is on one’s own free private cloud like Dropbox, not in someone’s basement server charging monthly subscriptions and reading your data before suddenly shutting down to start a new scheme.

However for proper tree outline on Chromebook and Android: Notecase Pro and Halna outliner Pro are both under active development on Android and work well with Chromebooks. I can’t fault them. Both have free versions too and are just a few dollars for pro versions for life on all Android and Chromebook devices.

For single outline with private free personal clouds like Dropbox there are also more options on Android, Chromebook and desktops (Win Mac Linux) apart from Joplin never mentioned here. Joplin and a few other free apps also can import a whole work/project area, eg: your document folder(s), be they in free clouds or laptop or local hard drive, as a mega folder in the left columns. Showing as a folder structure tree with subnodes in a left column. One can then create subfolders which can act as tree nodes and subnodes.

Many posts here have become ads for subscription ventures many of which disappear after a few years. Most customers seem not to use most of them regularly enough to justify the monthly payments, only a minority. Thus, any dual pane app with tree online on Chromebooks is welcome, so let’s hope this keeps being developed.

I wouldn’t prefer any browser based apps over Halna/Notecase Pro on any platform, but would welcome any development specially for Chromebooks and would even buy licenses to show support to such honest devs. If free and open source which would ensure a future if popular, I would support them too and donate.

There are several browser based outline efforts I’ve been watching for a few years. But not keen on browser based stuff generally. Too limited for me. You can keep a Halna file on a free private Dropbox account and have dropsync pro (IIRC I bought it for a few dollars) or free version sync it automatically. The dev is thinking about a cloud option. As for Notecase pro, even on Android and Chromebook, let’s you link up to your private server setting and then can sync files. Much more private server settings on desktop versions.

http://www.notecasepro.com/download.php

https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=halna

Posted by jaslar
May 16, 2019 at 07:56 PM

Great info, washere. Alas, my Chromebook happens to be just old enough that it doesn’t support Android apps—or Halna Outliner would be the cat’s pajamas. (The android Notecase still feels off to me somehow, although I love the desktop offerings.) So far, Dynalist and the distraction-free extension for Google Docs (with the document outliner turned on) really remove any excuse for me NOT to write.

After playing with the Standard Notes online, it looks like that program downloads everything when you log in—which is what supports the search, I imagine. Meanwhile, I’ve learned that it’s really easy to export Simplenote to individual files, so the transition should be painless if I decide to.

Posted by jaslar
May 16, 2019 at 07:56 PM

Posted by washere
May 16, 2019 at 10:55 PM

@Jaslar

Unfortunately a lot of us might have to buy new Chromebooks, updates will stop for each model at different times in the next few years. I can get all android play apps from google store, including Halna Pro which is a must for anyone here on android or Chromebooks, on mine. Half a dozen very important OS announcements were made last week by a few tech giants.

Including full Linux release this year for Chromebooks, and dual boot windows being shelved. Sadly any Chromebook released over two years ago, including Asus C302 and even Sammy Pro models will prob not get full Linux. MS announced the WSL Linux, which I enjoy on Win 10 pro, will also be upgraded to a full Linux, not an emulation this year on Win10. And many great writing apps in Play store too nowadays. You really need the store, and full Linux apps will run on them too. Also multi virtual desktops coming etc etc. Even more important news too but unrelated here.

So looks like I might have to cough up for a new Chromebook too. But the good news is they are getting better and much cheaper. So no problem. I don’t think most professionals can avoid them in the next few years if not already on it. I recommend following this website linked below for news on them, Chromebook success has overtaken the initial over the top claims Google made and even surprised them, it is like an alien virus conquering the planet:

https://chromeunboxed.com/

New Chromebooks models reviewed:

https://www.youtube.com/user/robbystechreviews/videos

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