Comparison of Outliners
Wikipedia recently cleaned up its list of Outliners, so here's as comprehensive a list as I could put together.
Outliners are great bits of software that help you keep & organize (or keep disorganized, but at least all in one file) bits of text (and other) data. You can read more about them on Wikipedia.
| My Faves | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software | OS | License | Panes | Text Format |
Install? | Notes |
| Treepad Free | Windows | Freeware | 2 Pane | Plaintext | Optional Install | My favorite outliner, Treepad is like the "notepad" of outliners. Stores files in an XML like structure. Has been rock solid & lightning fast for me for years, despite storing tons of information. |
| Tranglos Keynote | Windows | Open Source (Mozilla) | 2 pane | Rich Text | Install | I like it because it can store files in an encrypted format. Development discontinued in 2005. (see also Keynote NF) |
| Action Outliner | Windows | Shareware | 2 pane | Rich Text | Install | This outliner allows you to add colored flags to node. I use it to indicate the status of various "to do items. |
| Treeline | Linux, Windows | Open Source (GPL) | 2 Pane | Database | Install | Can almost be thought of as a portable database more than as an outliner. It enforces a high level of structure, which you may or may not like. Saves files in an XML format, exports nicely to HTML. |
| Have not (or do not) use | ||||||
| Software | OS | License | Panes | Text Format |
Install? | Notes |
| 2DO | Windows | Open Source (GPL) | 2 pane | Plaintext | Install | Appears to be very light weight. |
| Buzz | Linux, OSX, Windows (With Python/ Cygwin) | Open Source (GPL) | 1 Pane | Plaintext | Install | Browser-based XML/OPML format single-pane outliner. Technical proficiency recommended. |
| Dynamic List | Browser Based (.NET source available) | Freeware | 2 Pane | HTML | Online / Install | Browser-based, seem sort of Wiki like. |
| Ecco_Pro | Windows | Freeware | 1 Pane | A very old, abandoned fully-featured PIM which has a lot of ongoing support & is now available as freeware. | ||
| Exstora | Windows | Freeware / Shareware |
2 pane | Richtext | Optional Install | This is really more of a fully-featured PIM than an outliner. |
| fishCode Library .NET | Windows | Freeware | 2 pane | Richtext | A two pane outliner with a stong emphasis on richtext editing. | |
| Freemind | Windows | Open Source | n/a | Plaintext | Install | Actually a mind-mapper, not an outliner at all, but outliners are just multi-dimensional outliners... |
| InfoHesive | Windows | Shareware | 2 pane | Richtext | Install | Seems to be a rather fully featured outliner/PIM |
| InfoQube | Windows | Shareware/ Freeware | 1 or 2 Pane | Richtext | Optional Install | Appears to be a flexible and richly-featured outliner/PIM/Project Management tool with |
| HNB Outliner | Linux, Windows | Open Source | 1 Pane | Plaintext | A command line outiner that seems useful for edting HTML/XML documents. | |
| Jreepad | Linux, OSX, Windows (Java) | Open Source (GNU) | 2 pane | Plaintext | No Install | Open source, cross platform outliner that's compatible with Treepad Free. |
| KeepNote | Linux, OSX, Windows | Open Source (GPL) | 3 Pane | Richtext | Install | 3-Pane ("Outlook style) outliner, can include images in articles. |
| Keynote NF | Windows | Open Source (Mozilla) | 2 Pane | Rich Text | Someone picked up Keynote development and created the NF (New Features) version. | |
| KnowIt | Linux | Richtext | HTML Export | |||
| Software | OS | License | Panes | Text Format |
Install? | Notes |
| Leo | Linux, OSX, Windows | Open Source (MIT) | 2 Pane | Plaintext | Install | Quirky outliner that supports "literate programming" (whatever that is) and stores files in an XML format. |
| Maple | Windows | Shareware | 2 Pane | Richtext | Optional Install | Wide variety of import/export formats. |
| MemPad | Windows | Freeware | 2 Pane | Plaintext | Portable | Very simple & lightweight outliner that stores files in a text format, with a few nifty features like auto-save and encryption. |
| Microsoft Word | OSX, Windows | Shareware | 1 or 2 Pane | Richtext | Install | MS Word has outlining features (which are oddly missing from Open Office Writer). |
| My Yellow Notepad | Windows | Shareware | 2 Pane | Richtext | Can export to a standalone (executable) reader format. | |
| MyInfo | Windows | Shareware | 2 Pane | Richtext | Optional Install | Appears to have tight windows/browser integration. |
| NeoMem | Windows | Open Source (MIT) | 2 Pane | Richtext/ Database | Optional Install | Very interesting outliner that also adds some database functionality. |
| NoteCase | Linux, OSX, Windows, Nokia | Open Source (BSD) | 2 Pane | Richtext | Features encryption & compression, "Pro" version available. | |
| OmniOutliner | OSX | Shareware | 2 Pane | Richtext | Can add spreadsheet-like tables with checkboxes, etc., lots of export options, supports Applescript. | |
| Software | OS | License | Panes | Text Format |
Install? | Notes |
| Personal Project Planner | Windows | Freeware | 1 Pane | Richtext | Install | Interesting one-pane outliner that actually uses our file structure to store the outline (each node is a separate folder or file). |
| SEONOTE | Windows | Freeware | 2 pane | Richtext | Install | Lots of icon options for nodes, appears to have a "checkbox" option too. |
| Springnote | Browser Based | Freeware | 2 Pane | Richtext | n/a | Online, collaborative outliner. |
| The Guide | Windows | 2 pane | Richtext | Rich text editing, export to RTF | ||
| TkOutline | Linux, Windows | Open Source (GPL) | 1 Pane | Semi- Richtext | No Install | Very simple 1-pane outliner. Export to HTML |
| TOMBO | Windows, Windows CE | Open Source (GPL) | 2 Pane | Plaintext | Developed in Japan, it's an outliner that runs on Windows and Windows and CE | |
| Tuxcards | Linux | 2 Pane | Plaintext/ Richtext | MD5 and Blowfish Encryption. | ||
| Userland Frontier | OSX, Windows | Shareware | 1 Pane | Also rather old, Userland/Manilla was one of the first blogging platforms. I never really could wrap my head around the complexities. | ||
| UV Outliner | Windows | Shareware | 1 Pane | Plaintext/ Richtext | A one pane outliner that supports rich text, automatic styling of nodes, checkboxes, "hoisting" (which allows you to work with a subset of nodes only), and strong keyboard navigation. | |
| Whizfolders | Windows | Shareware | 2 Pane | Richtext | Install | Seems to have very tight Windows integration (shortcuts to the web, files, OLE, etc.). Nodes can have checkboxes, Deluxe version has single-pane editing. |
| WikiPad | Linux, OSX, Windows | Open Source | 2 Pane | Wikitext | Install | An outliner that lets you cross-link documents Wiki style. |
Page created March 20, 2009
Page updated February 29, 2010
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