1. I've read through all the posts and advice on here over several years, looking for a Windows outliner that is still available, without any luck.
I do not want a programme that is cloud based. I want all my mistakes to be visible only to me.I know that the cloud is supposed to be secure and private but as I was told when I was working in the real world 'If you believe that you'll believe anything my lad'.

I have looked at InfoQube and even used it, fleetingly in the past.
It seems that UltraRecall which I evaluated in the past is the only 'live' system available now in Mid 2020.
Does anyone have a modern outliner that is still being maintained in use now?

2. Much software seems aimed at academia where one has to work with publication and/or thesis submission guide lines. To be frank I had enough of that when I was younger.

3. For some years now I have been using a set of programs which although pricey competes on equal ground with MS Word and has been developed over several year by a small team who are really interested . Although it is designed around the needs of academic writing it can be used as a more general word processor.
The suite comprises a word processor, continuous indexing and most useful to me a referencing element which can be configured and not tied to the source being in a PDF or Journal. I use this for creating references which can be manually created. Much of my study involves printed sources, in some cases going back to when Caxton was a boy and thus are very unlikely to have an ISBN
That product is NotaBene. www.notabene.com It works on Windows 7 and 10 and some earlier versions, and they have users working on Macs. It has been used for full length books.
I found this many years ago when suffering from Word frustrations and have used it for my own work ever since.
Unfortunately it does not have an outliner, as far as I know. It's worth a look.

If you're looking for a 2-pane outliner, try the open-source CherryTree. TreeLine is another option.

Wow--- NotaBene! I maintain a Friends account with them, though rarely use the software.
The reason for my not using it? Habit. I just haven't the need (yet) to devote myself to really learning it. For text processing, I use Word; For biblio information I use Citavi (or EndNote), and for search, X1.

I should delve back into it... little reason not to!

WaryJerry wrote:

1. I've read through all the posts and advice on here over several
years, looking for a Windows outliner that is still available, without
any luck.

I've got hopes for the next version of Sheetplanner (Mac only), but I think my use is going to be more centered on it as a timeline tool than a traditional outliner. It doesn't look anything like OmniOutliner, but it does pretty much the same thing with the same stream of keystrokes. I think it's quicker to use than Aeon Timeline, and it can be a nice front end for Aeon, if you want to build Aeon's grid. A CSV export from Sheetplanner can feed Aeon. For me, that's quicker than direct entry into Aeon. In fact, a spreadsheet exported into Aeon is quicker, too, but Sheetplanner gives an advance view of what the timeline is going to look like, and may do all you really need.

For a current time-waster I'm working on, I decided to outline in a word processor. Any word processor, any platform, as long as it has reasonable style support and a navigator pane. It's been strangely liberating.

Styles for headings create the outline in the navigator pane, or whatever your word processor of choice calls it. The document itself becomes the second pane of a two-pane outline tool.

For better focus on topics, I have three style sets that are mostly duplicates.

One puts a page break before every top level heading. Another one puts a page break in front of every heading. The last one doesn't insert page breaks at all.

That lets me flip between one long outline, focus on top level topics, or a granular view.

I've also recently come to grips with the problem of putting too much detail in an outline. What I've decided works best is a mind map, wiki, or something for all those categorized ideas, and an outline that uses major headings for major breaks the story. Chapters, for example, but no categorization into topics and sub topics.

Minor topics are milestones along the telling of the story and don't say how things happened or what categories events fit into, They are just story snapshots. That way I remain flexible when writing.

In short, categorize in a tool that's meant for information organization, outline to produce a map for what's going to be written in the sequence it will appear, probably creating no more than two or maybe three levels of hierarchy. Two is better.

By all means, please feel free to heckle. I'm just learning.

I'd have to give the nod to Notecase Pro (https://www.notecasepro.com/ over Cherry Tree. Notecase is very full-featured, under active development, good across Windows/Linux/Mac/Android.

Academic writing: do check out Zettl (https://www.zettlr.com/ a markdown editor. It has folding and navigation. Again, Mac, Windows, Linux

Another little utility is FromScratch, a very simple outliner that's great for first drafts, or for hoisting in a separate windows, and consulting as you write in another program. Same three platforms.

All are run local, not in the cloud.

And of course, emacs, which can do anything and everything, but does ask for some investment of time.

Well, Workflowy is available for Windows. And DynaList is also available for Windows.

I don’t know how good they are, but the Mac versions certainly run okay.

Cheers,
Bill

So, you want Windows non-cloud programs that are still being developed, and it sounds like the outliner is used for planning and writing documents rather than managing a to-do list. I see two families of programs that could fit:

1) Single-pane outliners where the tree structure is inside one main document. The text (paragraphs, headings, bullets) can easily be moved in the hierarchy using the keyboard.
- MS Word: each document has an outline view, and dragging headings in the view rearranges the document. Maybe not typically seen as an outliner, and perhaps not your preferred text editor
- FreePlane: the mindmap structure is very easy to use as an outliner, and it can be exported to a text document for further word processing
- InfoQube: its outlining capability has become very easy to use in recent updates
- Indigrid: this is plain text only, and can show multiple columns in the outline so you can refer to one part of your outline while you write in another part
- Emacs Org-Mode: also plain text, requires learning Emacs. Both Emacs and Org-Mode are continuously updated
- Visual Studio Code: not quite an outliner, but it can show you the outline structure of your plain text document, so similar to MS Word in that sense

2) Two-pane outliners or hierarchical notebooks where the outline tree is next to a collection of separate documents that can be rearranged in the tree
- Scrivener: the binder and the outline view, allow for sophisticated outlining. I like to use the binder, and make the column a lot wider to write longer titles
- cherrytree: already mentioned, hierarchical notebook with tree of pages
- The Journal: its notes pages can make an outline tree, page titles can be colour coded and icons added in the tree
- Zim Wiki: the newest version has just had an updated Windows build. Open source and free, so easy to check out

For handling references that can be manually created, look at Zotero, which can also be used fully offline. Zotero can integrate with MS Word, VS Code, Emacs, and Zettlr (mentioned earlier by jaslar)

Have a look at RightNote, there is a free version too.
https://www.bauerapps.com/

#1 NoteCase Pro (win mac linux)

#2 RightNote (win)

#3 Halna (Android/ChroemOS)

>ChroemOS

ChromeOS

Oh, sorry, missed the “non-Cloud” criterion.

I’d definitely endorse RightNote – I used it all the time when I was on Windows.

Also interesting is EssentialPIM. It’s much more than an outliner (the Pro version functions as a complete Outlook replacement, too), but it’s very easy to use and the outlining functionality is good. The search function appears to have improved, too (it was a bit erratic in early versions).

Wow!

Thanks for all the suggestions and opinions about them.

Since posting my original query I have continued my search, as I'm sure others have seen from time-to-time a few other possibilities appeared the very next day. Of those one called ActionOutline stood out as meeting most of my requirements so now I am trying the 30-day full version: so far so good.

At Dr Andus' suggestion on his tool box from some time ago I have been looking again at Freeplane, now at v8.6. Seems rather a mouthful to swallow but as in all these programs it should succumb to the application of some effort.

(Just finally on NotaBene, for those who've never seen it just take an hour to look at it. For me who had used Word since the 1900's and WordPerfect before that it was an eye opener. Here was something which took a fresh look at the basics of word processing.)

Jerry

If you like ActionOutline you will love RightNote.
I suggest to download and test it as well.