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#1
August 2nd, 2005, 08:14 PM
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| Simple Outline Processor? Greetings, All; Does anyone remember a very easy to use outline processor for the ancient Commodore 64 called "Thinking Cap"? It did everything you'd expect an outliner to do with a minimum of fuss, just hit enter or tab to move to another heading or subheading. I find it amazing that neither AppleWorks or MS Word for Mac (I'm currently using Mariner Write, but so far I haven't been able to find an outline processor in this program either, and the help screen is next to useless) have an outline program that doesn't require you to go through elaborate menu options for the simplest text outline functions (something like you'd write for a lengthy paper or a book). Now I've seen some outline processors out there like OmniOutliner and Inspiration, but I'm looking for something simple. (Doesn't Mac or MS know how to do anything with simplicity?) Any suggestions for such an outline processor, if one exists for the Mac? Any thoughts would be appreciated from this professional writer.  |
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#2
August 3rd, 2005, 05:09 PM
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| OmniOutliner sounds like what you are looking for.
__________________ G4/1.25 MDD, 1.5 GB, OS X 10.4.5 G4/133 Quicksilver, 1.2 GB, OS X 10.4.5 iBook G4/1.25, 1 GB, OS X 10.4.5 |
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#3
August 4th, 2005, 02:07 AM
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| I appreciate the imput, but the key word was SIMPLE. I've tried the Omni demo, and it's hardly as user friendly as the old Thinking Cap program. Omni has all these bullets and arrows; the program I was speaking of simply would allow you to decend to another hierarchy with a simple touch of the return or tab key, and it would automatically number it appropriately without having to go to the toolbar for an obvious command like "move right." Remember how we used to write outlines for our school papers? A simple outliner would do just that, but it would automatically insert the Roman numeration. Such simple operations seem beyond programmers who, I suspect, like to make programs as complicated as possible. |
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#4
August 4th, 2005, 09:21 AM
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| I have no idea what version of OmniOutliner you tried, but in the current version I can enter an item and change its level in the outline with a tab or shift tab. I do it all the time. Bullets and numbering are optional and simple to turn on or off and even change the style of bullets or numbering if they are turned on. If you don't want text formatting, no one is putting a gun to your head to force you to use that either. Maybe you should take another look at OmniOutliner before you condemn it for optional features or for not having features that, in fact, are there.
__________________ G4/1.25 MDD, 1.5 GB, OS X 10.4.5 G4/133 Quicksilver, 1.2 GB, OS X 10.4.5 iBook G4/1.25, 1 GB, OS X 10.4.5 |
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#5
August 4th, 2005, 01:41 PM
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| Here's a search I did on Versiontracker... http://tinyurl.com/ch3cm Most of them are shareware. There's also an outline view in NeoOffice/J and OpenOffice IRIC, and they are free. |
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#7
August 5th, 2005, 05:41 PM
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| Perfessor, no need to bring firearms into the discussion or personal attacks. No doubt the features you've mentioned are present--you simply have to spend several hours looking for them. As it is, I've already spent too many hours working with the latest version of OmniOutliner. May I suggest an etiquette class for you? |
