Need a tree diagrammer that's not OmniGraffle

michaelsanford

michaelsanford

Translator, Web Developer
I need to make tree diagrams for historical linguistics and OmniGraffle 3 is far too expensive and far too featureful for my very basic needs.

Anyone have another suggestion ?
 
Why not just use omnigraffle without registering? I haven't used it much but I don't think it does anything beyond poping up a window now and then if you don't register.
 
jjeff said:
I don't think it does anything beyond poping up a window now and then if you don't register.
Click to expand...
Actually, It has a limited number of objects that you can put on the screen w/o registering. But you can always go to the Omnigroup web page and get a trial license that enables full function for 1 day...and you can always get a new one tomorrow.
 
It is too bad that OG is not an option because I believe there is a linguistics graffle that is free and available at the website. Do you know there is an educational discount?
 
OmniGraffle would be great if it weren't so expensive and had 10 000 things I don't need.

Thanks for the suggestions, I ended up using a word processor.

PS There's a 20 object limit for non-registered users, which is not enough.
 
Did you CHECK for the academic pricing they mention somewhere? ... I haven't, just checked for the normal pricing...
 
Good point fryke ! It's $41.95 US (so about 63 $ for me) which is still too much for graphic outlining, which I don't do often enough to warrant an expenditure like that.

Thanks for the idea though.
 
What about dia? You can install it via fink or compile it yourself and it is pretty much the diagramming standard on Gnome.
 
Hey hey two things I like to hear : Fink and diagramming standrad !

I'll take a look. For some reason, Mr xaddicted didn't even think to look for any X application to do this !

I don't see it in Fink so I ust downloaded the source from gnome.com. I suppose this means I'll have to install gnome too...

Thanks ! I'll post my results.
 
Another great option is graphviz which was done by At&T it is now free and has an Aqua front end. It is a little like programming but the results are beautiful.
 
Perhaps freemind, the price is right, though I'm not sure if it will accomplish exactly what you need. Altough I will say is fits the bill for writing down ideas for just about any project. :)
 
This won't fit your free or cheap bill, but Inspiration is the only tool I found that lets you enter an outline as text, then creates the tree diagram, though it does some quirky things. I mean, this is not rocket science, but nobody has really made a tool that makes this as simple as it should be. I once saw a description of how you can do this with excel and visio (export a very specifically organized excel file in a certain format and then import into visio for "instant" text to diagram) - it was so complex and convoluted, I could take art lessons and draw the Sisteen Chapel in less time! :)
 
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