image
image

|


Go Back   macosx.com > Mac Help Forums > Mac OS X System & Mac Software

Reply
 
Thread Tools
  #1  
Old August 2nd, 2005, 08:14 PM
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 52
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Sparrowhawk is on a distinguished road
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.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old August 3rd, 2005, 05:09 PM
perfessor101's Avatar
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 748
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
perfessor101 is on a distinguished road
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
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old August 4th, 2005, 02:07 AM
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 52
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Sparrowhawk is on a distinguished road
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.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old August 4th, 2005, 09:21 AM
perfessor101's Avatar
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 748
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
perfessor101 is on a distinguished road
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
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old August 4th, 2005, 01:41 PM
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 371
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
elander will become famous soon enough
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.
__________________
/elander
website: http://www.scribus.se/
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old August 5th, 2005, 03:02 AM
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 31
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
scng is on a distinguished road
notemaster.sourceforge.net
jreepad.sourceforge.net

they are extremely simple
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old August 5th, 2005, 05:41 PM
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 52
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Sparrowhawk is on a distinguished road
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?
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old August 6th, 2005, 01:34 AM
pds's Avatar
pds pds is offline
conf User
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: On the edge.
Posts: 2,144
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
pds is on a distinguished road
Not only doesn't the notemaster link work, 10 minutes of searching for simple outline, outline generator, and a few others produced nothing.

Notemaster did google well, but windows only....
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off
Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:06 AM.


Mac Support® Version 3.7.2
Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.1.0
Copyright 2000-2008 DigitalCrowd, Inc.