Some Thoughts On Outliners

By | August 13, 2004

I suspect not eveyone shares my preoccupation with outliners, or tree outliners, whatever one calls them. Still, it hasn’t stopped me drawing up a list of those that I’ve come across in my travels, in the hope that some of you might experiment with them. Any more suggestions would be welcome. I find them invaluable for saving large chunks of stuff where I can find them again quickly and without too much kerfuffle.

Here’s another one: General Knowledge Base, version 2.0 of which was launched today by Baltsoft, from Lithuania’s Vilnius. What is particularly intriguing about this is that the software supports quite a few languages, including Malay: Just select the language you want from the menu in the upper part of the main window. It costs $30.

I haven’t explored the software any further, but I’ve noticed that there are some key features that any decent outliner needs to work well.

  • Simple: Folk use these things because they’re fast and intuitive;
  • Adding text and notes, and editing them, should involve as few steps as possible. No fancy pop-up windows and forms to fill out;
  • Formatting: Give them the standard formatting tools — nothing less;
  • Drag and Drop: Nowadays we expect to be able to move stuff from one application to another using drag n drop. Not having it is a real black mark in an outliner (you know who you are);
  • Export and import: The easier you make it to move databases in and out of your program, the happier and more comfortable your customers will feel.

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