I did use both Cloud Outliner Pro and CarbonFin Outliner for lots of things.
Recently, i discovered Outlinely, which does some things better than the above.
Sadly, it is an subscription App too …
I often used them to create inital Mind Maps in iThoughts.
But the more i play around with Drafts, the less i see the need to use Outline Apps.
Those can import and explort as OPML, and i could import into iThoughts and then export again to those Outliners.
So, just a short question: Do YOU still use Outliner / OPML Apps?
If yes, which one and for what tasks?
Or can Drafts fill your Outline needs?
For the most part I use Drafts. However, if I’m working on a big post, I often start in MindNode to gather my thoughts. Once I’m done, I’ll export a Markdown outline to Drafts and get to writing.
The reason for using MindNode: visualization. Sometimes that extra bit helps me. But I use it every-so-often. Most stuff starts in Drafts.
As well as a couple of mind mapping apps (which I use when I specifically want to link out topics in a more spontaneous way or need to present to a room) I do continue to use outliner apps. Primarily these days I use Omnioutliner, though I have some older ones still on my devices by the looks of it; I must migrate that data at some point.
It has support for multiple columns and data types as well as plenty of prebuilt options for templating, exporting and styling. It also permits sorting on individual columns.
Mac Drafts development aside, there’s the cross device availability of the software and though I’m not using the pro version on my Mac, there’s a huge automaton potential there.
I do tend to use it for simple outlining as I have several templates for things like packing and recurring projects but for simple check lists I probably do create the in Drafts more often.
The thing that’s really useful in the app (and typically with mind mapping apps too) I think is the way nested elements can be collapsed and consolidated.
Whilst Drafts has me covered for quick, brief(ish) outlines, I turn to a more specialised app for helping me do that. It’s just like if I were writing a book I’d switch to Scrivener and if I’m writing tehnical documentation for work with diagrams and tables I’d be using Microsoft Word.
Drafts is a starting point for a lot of my content and with version 5 it takes me further than ever before, but there will always come a time when a more specialist app will take you over the line … but it quite possily wasn’t the place to get you started.
Hello nahumck,
I mostly do it the other way around, starting with a fast outline and then exporting to iThoughts (which I prefer over MindNode 4 or 5) to add more details and rearrange things.
I also export them back to the Outline Apps sometimes.
I am going to check, if MarkDown outlines from Drafts can be used as well.
Hello sylumer,
yes, I looked at OmiOutliner already multiple times.
But again, it is an subscription App.
Their number is rapidly growing, which makes me panic…
Anyway, yes - the possibility to indent and outdent, to move single and multiple lines and to collapse whole sections is a great thing at Outline Apps.
Some of this is now possible with Drafts, but not the collapsing, I think.
(Did not yet check all actions)
But then, export to and import from iThoughts is also important for me.
Export is always easy, as iThoughts understands basically edited and arranged text files - as most mind mapper Apps.
But the other way around may be tricky.
This was the reason why I asked - maybe people did also go this road.
But it does not seem so.
Folding text is already in the feature request list in relation to Markdown headers. I’d suggest adding an entry to it for asking for use with outline lists too.
Not to dwell on the product too much, but I don’t think that it is a Pro feature.
As I understand it, Disclosure rows available in Essentials is probably what we all think of in terms of expanding and collapsing an outline. I think it may also be in the free reader. Sidebar Sections is in Pro and may be what has caused the confusion.
If you watch the app video on the app store page you’ll see the first thing they do is uncollapse some rows, so definitely in there. Later in the video they demo the side bar sections functionality.
