What is an outliner ? : Summary of a Google Wave discussion

What is an outliner ? (or what are outliners ?)

1-pane, 2-pane, 3-pane, with or without custom fields displayed or not as columns, as pure outliners or as full-featured PIM... a first wave on outliners.

Outliner types are:

Pure 1-pane (with or without rich-text).

Examples: Inspiration outline view, Natara Bonsai, Notemap, StoryView, UV Outliner, Word outline mode

1-pane with custom fields (or attributes).

Examples: B-liner (?), TreeSheets (?)

1-pane with custom fields displayed as columns in the outline.

Examples: ADM, EccoPro, Excel outline mode, InfoQube, ListPro

Pure 2-pane (Simple tree-view in 1st pane, 2nd pane for rich text):

Examples: Jot+, MindSystems Amode, MyBase, NoteCase Pro, Surfulater, Treepad, WhizFolders

2-pane with custom fields.

Examples: MyInfo, UltraRecall Pro

3-pane.

Examples: Evernote, Normfall Manager, Sycon IDEA!, Zoot, most e-mail programs

Hybrid 1-pane / 2-pane (works as both 1-pane and 2-pane).

Examples: InfoQube, MaxThink (?)

Visual Representation

MindMapping: FreeMind, iMindMap, Inspiration, MindManager, MindGenius, MindPad, MindView, VisualMind, Xmind

Dynamic: ConnectedText, MindRaider, PersonalBrain

With PIM features.

Examples: do Organizer, EccoPro, InfoQube, InfoSelect, PersonalBrain, UltraRecall Pro

With automation / agents.

Examples: EccoPro, InfoQube, Notecase Pro, Zoot

With Cloning (i.e. multiple parents) (same item may appear in several locations)

Examples: ADM, Brainstorm, MyInfo, Notecase Pro, Surfulater, UltraRecall, PersonalBrain, InfoQube

With Tagging (item can be labeled with several keywords)

Examples: Evernote, Surfulater, UltraRecall

Oriented towards:

Text, itself can be sub-divided into specialized types for:

Writing

Examples: MaxThink, PageFour, Scrivener, StoryView, SuperNoteCard

Capturing

Examples: Brainstorm

Organizing

Examples: Brainstorm. MaxThink

Numbers (hierarchy database)

Examples: B-liner, Excel outline mode, MindPad, InfoQube

Dates (Tasks/Projects/Schedules)

Examples: Achieve Planner, ListPro, MyLifeOrganized

Documents, i.e. organising data files that are already there

Examples: InfoRapid Cardfile System, X2net OneStore

Rich Note-taking

Examples: Evernote, OneNote

Web collection

Examples: Evernote, ScrapBook (Firefox add-in), Surfulater, Web Research

Publishing (web or other)

Examples: InfoHesiveEP, WebIdeaTree

Miscellaneous Information snippets, usually captured from the clipboard

Examples: ClipCache, ClipMate

Behaviour

Static: you create an outline, and it will always appear that way

Examples: Brainstorm, Excel outline mode, WikidPad, Word outline mode

Dynamic: display options allows you to arrange parts through:

Filtering

Examples: EccoPro, InfoQube, Opal, Surfulater

Hoisting

Examples: Opal, UltraRecall Pro, InfoQube

Sorting

Examples: EccoPro, InfoQube, Surfulater