Does anyone know whatever happened the macOS app, Tree?

It seems perfect for my use case for an outliner. Brett Terpstra states it best when he writes;

"An outliner is an outliner, but Tree adds one thing that makes it infinitely more useful to me and my non-linear thought process: a horizontal view of the outline. It’s basically a right-aligned mind map. Seeing each level of the hierarchy in line with other siblings across different branches suddenly brings the whole brainstorming thing together for me."

https://brettterpstra.com/2012/04/02/app-review-tree-an-outliner-i-can-love/

I am after an outliner very similar to Tree if it is no longer around. Any suggestions?

I loved Tree too. It seems to have disappeared from the App Store.

There is no real competitor to Tree.

Gingko is somewhat similar. I wrote about it. [Working in a Tree-View in Gingko - Bicycle For Your Mind](http://bicycleforyourmind.com/working_in_a_tree_view_in_gingko

macosxguru

I have not found another app that displays the outline horizontally. As you note, Ginko is the only app that comes close.
It certainly is a shame that Tree is no more. :(

By the way, I read your blog @macosxguru and found it to be educational and a great read! Good job. :)

macosxguru wrote:

I loved Tree too. It seems to have disappeared from the App Store.

There is no real competitor to Tree.

Gingko is somewhat similar. I wrote about it. [Working in a Tree-View in
Gingko - Bicycle For Your
Mind](http://bicycleforyourmind.com/working_in_a_tree_view_in_gingko

macosxguru

Thank you Darren.

That made my week.

macosxguru

The dev pulled the app. It can still be downloaded from one of those app repositories like download.cnet.com but you're left with a trial version and no way to pay for it. (But it still works!)

I emailed the dev at the beginning of the year but never heard from him and his website topoftree.co.jp fails to resolve.

Thanks for the suggestion @satis for doing a search on a repository. I found and downloaded the app from download.cnet.com. I loved it instantly!

I tried to do a search for the developer - Kazuhiro Kawana - but could not come up with any working contact information. If I knew how is name is written in Kanji (Japanese version of Chinese characters) I would able to do a better search.

Tree only has a 14-day trial. A major problem that exists is that it crashes when choosing File>Export and choosing a place to save the exported file. Other than that, the app works fine. It has a clean modern UI. In fact, it is like it was just developed. It is shame that this app is not in current development.

Does anyone have a suggestion for where I could find an alternative app?

satis wrote:

The dev pulled the app. It can still be downloaded from one of those app
repositories like download.cnet.com but you're left with a trial version
and no way to pay for it. (But it still works!)

I emailed the dev at the beginning of the year but never heard from him
and his website topoftree.co.jp fails to resolve.

As someone mentioned there's Ginkgo, designed for tree-based writing more than light outlines. Its development has been in limbo for well over a year. You can view the FAQ in Gingko format here:

https://gingkoapp.com/faq and here's a video from the developer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egCKZHsICm8

It was originally online-only in perpetual alpha state then the developer split it into a desktop app and an online service, and they aren't compatible or able to share outlines. And the pricing is peculiar: $2-$21/month for the service, $15-$90 for a desktop license. I bought a license when the desktop app was announced 2.5 years ago but I don't find it trustworthy for the kinds of heavy-duty writing or outlining I do in other apps.

https://gingko.io/

http://gingkoapp.com/

The closest relative of Tree on the Mac might be a mind map configured for right-branching. If you can export to OPML you would be able to use results in a classic outliner, and if the mind map imported OPML format you could work between the two.

Mac users can also use Marked2 to interoperate between mind maps like MindNode and iThoughts, creating outline documents from mind maps, and moving nodes around inside Marked2 to make live changes in the mind map app.

Thanks for the reminder about Ginko @satis. I have also looked at the other solutions. But they do not work for me. I like the simplicity of Tree's horizontal view of the outline. I am surprised that no other outline app supports this view.

Is there any way of unlocking an app when it is no longer supported and you cannot purchase a license? I would like use Tree for as long as possible.

Not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for and if it is worth the expense, but the Chart View in Tinderbox works like an expanding tree. I recorded a quick little demo:

https://vimeo.com/511538483

This is just a close up of the node area. Remember that you can add notes to any of these nodes in a robust text editor.

Steve

Thank you so much for going to all the trouble of making a video for me, @Stephen! :)

It is very much the type of function I am wanting.

I will have to dust off my copy of Tinderbox. I had put Tinderbox away because of the intrepid learning curve. It is about time I got learning! This time I can start with the feature you show in the video.

Thank you again! :)

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

Not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for and if it is worth
the expense, but the Chart View in Tinderbox works like an expanding
tree. I recorded a quick little demo:

https://vimeo.com/511538483

This is just a close up of the node area. Remember that you can add
notes to any of these nodes in a robust text editor.

Steve

Darren McDonald wrote:

I will have to dust off my copy of Tinderbox. I had put Tinderbox away
because of the intrepid learning curve. It is about time I got learning!
This time I can start with the feature you show in the video.

There is a bunch of useful new videos showing how to use Tinderbox done by a relatively new user, Michael Becker:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpnj2U37aI108YoO1L8leYw

If you're member of the Eastgate user forum, you might want to check out this list:
http://forum.eastgate.com/t/mastering-tinderbox-training-videos-complete-list/3967

I am watching the videos to decide whether it's worth the trouble to learn Tinderbox for my use cases. I am still not sure ...

Hi Steve,

Is there any way to display body text in Tinderbox's chart view ?

To my knowledge, there is no way to show the note content in the Chart View pane. As I am unsure of the extent of your familiarity with Tinderbox I will point out that the note content is visible in the note pane to the right of the Chart View pane, so you can see your notes. But you can't see them inline within the Chart View itself.

nirans@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Steve,

Is there any way to display body text in Tinderbox's chart view ?

Thanks.I was looking for a replacement for a horizontal outliner. Right expanding mind maps and [multicolumn editing in scrivener]( https://www.literatureandlatte.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32005 did not quite work. I had forgotten about Tinderbox's chart view, which is much closer to being a Tree replacement - being able to view the body text would have made it a complete replacement. Thank you for the excellent reminder.

Ah, I’d forgotten I still had Tree 2 installed on my main MacBook. I’ve just been playing nostalgically with it. It still works (although the display margins aren’t quite right – the top line is very slightly obscured. But everything else, including the exemplary PDF output, is fine.

And I’m reminded of why it was such a very nice app to use.

Ah well. All things pass, eh?

As I play with it, however, I’m also reminded of Scapple, an app developed by the Scrivener crew. It’s like a mind-mapping app, but primarily textual, and is surprisingly powerful.

However, unlike Tree, it doesn’t do folding.

There are mind-mapping apps that do do folding, however, and even do quite sophisticated things with text – one of the versions of XMind, I seem to remember.

Yep, both versions of XMind support extensive rich-text notes, outlining, folding (in mindmaps and outlines) etc.

XMind 8 is quite expensive, but an annual subscription to XMind 2020 is USD 59 (and covers desktop and mobile platforms). I’ve seen occasional deals, too.

It’s available for Windows/Android, macOS/iOS.

Cheers!
Bill

P.S. But I still love Tree 2

Good grief! I’d forgotten just how powerful Tree 2 is.

For example, I’d totally forgotten that you can mix the tree branch (horizontal) view with hierarchical outlines as you prefer. By which I mean: siblings appear in a column, one above the other. Their offspring appear in the next column along – effectively extending sideways. But if you prefer, you can cause offspring to appear in an indented column immediately below their parents on an ad-hoc basis, meaning you can have any mix of child items extending sideways or extending downwards, anywhere in any column.

Otherwise Tree 2 offers a standard outliner view, of course (you can switch between the “tree” view and what it calls “list” [= Workflowy-like] view at the click of a button). But the above flexibility knocks most other outliners into the shade, and is especially useful if you want to output your outlines to e.g. PDF.

The speed and fluency of it is also very impressive.

I just noticed a new app on the App Store that appears to do horizontal outlines. It is called Dashword:

https://dashword.app

You can switch between horizontal and traditional outlines.

I haven't tried it, so this is not an endorsement of any kind.

Steve

Interesting. Dashword is also a Windows app, but no mobile apps.

Hello Steve,

I saw your post about Dashword and felt nostalgic for Tree again. Taking your inspiration for Tinderbox's chart view again...

![](https://www.dropbox.com/s/ypbvuh6zoe52cl5/screenshot_03.jpg?dl=0

Chart View does not show Text but it does show Subtitle.

As for a "tree" outliner I've been using SimpleMind Pro for many years.

I wrote about it on this forum three years ago (under a different user name):
https://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/8241/0/simplemind-n-pane-outliner-mind-map-colors

SimpleMind Pro is not a powerful outliner, just basic features: check box, todo list, date list -- and that's about all.
Folding in the outliner: yes.
Filtering-highlighting, yes, but only in MindMap view, not in the outliner view.

The best part, the "wow" factor, is click any row in outline view and instantly highlights that topic in Mind Map view.
Both views visible side-by-side.

The outliner is so simple there is no learning curve.
But the Mind Map is very powerful so there some learning, but I found that to be a gentle-slope curve.

SimpleMind Pro in production with updates at regular intervals.

I've been following the Zavala thread here with much interest.
Wondering if it will have "tree" or MindMap features.
I haven't seen Zavala yet because still on Mojave here, but on Zavala's Github page for "Planned Features" I searched for, but could not find, any mention of "tree" or "map".
Did I miss something?

Scapple is my go to for visual thinking- it's very bare bones, but very frictionless for me to use. I agree folding would be really great feature, although I'm pretty sure no new features are planned (in the interest of simplicity.)

There is a iOS app called Mindscope that is somewhat similar, but does have multi-levels. When you tap on an existing item, it opens into its own sub-page (actually I wish you had to press and hold to do that, and tap to select.) I wish there was a Mac version.

http://www.mindscopeapp.com



MadaboutDana wrote:

As I play with it, however, I’m also reminded of Scapple, an app
developed by the Scrivener crew. It’s like a mind-mapping app, but
primarily textual, and is surprisingly powerful.

However, unlike Tree, it doesn’t do folding.

There are mind-mapping apps that do do folding, however, and even do
quite sophisticated things with text – one of the versions of
XMind, I seem to remember.

Did you look at Dashword in Mac App Store?

Sorry, I missed your previoud posting about Dashboard.