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Outliners allow you to organize text or place random pieces of information into tree-type notes or a well organized database. They occupy a unique niche among computer users. Many people see no benefit from them while others consider them an essential piece of software. If you are among the group that loves them, then you should check out some freeware reviewed here. |
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What do you do with KeyNote? Well to quote the web site “KeyNote is used by screenwriters to draft screenplays, by medical doctors to keep patient databases, by developers to store source code snippets - and to everyone it serves as a place to put all the random pieces of information that have no particular structure or relationship to other data, and do not fit easily in task-specific applications such as word-processors, databases or spreadsheets.” Unfortunately the program is no longer being developed but remains popular in its current release. |
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1.6.5 
Unrestricted Freeware 
Windows 98/Me/2000/NT/XP
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T This software category is in need of an editor. If you are interested in taking it over, please email Elizabeth, our editorial co-ordinator with a little bit about your background and in particular, whether you have any commercial affiliation with products in this category. If you are currently logged in, you can contact Elizabeth directly by clicking here, if not then click here. |
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outliner, free outliner, note outliner, note taker, note organizer, note organiser, freeware, free note taking program |
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Take a look at AllMyNotes Organizer, it's still in Beta, but it's very bright, with skins, and easy to use.
It's still in beta, but The Outliner of Giants is starting to look like a viable online outliner: http://www.theoutlinerofgiants.com/. I've been trying out on a few college papers and even works on my iPhone!
FreeMind let export in html expandible text (like help files), but it's not the ideal solution for writing long texts.
Which other software has the same export feature?
NeoMem is aewsome. There are several things I would like to do but it is not in development.
1) Multi-view support. Meaning have the side-by-side view option like in Notepad++
2) Minimize to System Tray. There are tools for this but it needs to be built in as the functionality of the tools aren't as good as built-in support.
3) Programming Language support. Like Notepad++ has this for multiple programming languages. I would like to be able to have code repositories in NeoMem for reference. I use Notepad++ currently but you have multiple source/text files doing this instead of all in one file.
I have mixed emotions of Neomem and TheGuide. I like them both, just installed them. I will keep testing them. This is something I have wanted Notepad++ to be able to do for a long time but it doesn't look like it will go there.
Thanks all
I completely agree, see my recent posting in regards to NeoMem and Notepad++. TheGuide is way too basic, but also NeoMem has gone overboard with options.
LyX is "a document processor that encourages an approach to writing based on the structure of your documents". As such you can use it out of the box as a self-contained outliner for structured notes and documents. It has an Outline pane to navigate the tree; tools to move the branches up and down or in and out; automatic formatting; and much more besides. Might be just what you looking for if you need to turn your outlines into documents such as a reports or reference manual. http://www.lyx.org
I find Evernote a much better solution overall.
I practically moved every type of data I had around into it,
and now it's even synced between my Home PC, Laptop, and Work PC.
you can tag anything, instant search, it's my new best friend.
I highly recommend it.
www.evernote.com
Yanay.
I loved using Ecco Pro when it was still alive but it is increasingly isolated - exporting and reformatting data for sharing or printing is ridiculous.
I tried NoteMap from Casesoft (not free) but found it disappointing and it hasn't been updated in years.
There seem to be lots of commercial options for single pane outliners on the Mac, but very little that's free and PC or Linux based. Any suggestions?
In the meantime, I am using and loving Freemind, but this doesn't work well for writing large documents (which I know is not its purpose anyway).
So the quest continues...
ToDoList from abstract spoon is an awesome freeware outliner and database with lots of features.
Only prob is it gets slower with lots of data. But keynote suffers from that alot more (also great).
[replying to myself...]
I should say, the OLD keynote was a bit slow (and huge databases if u saved pix)....i just saw the post here about the new keynote. shall try!
Keynote
is being developed again! If you were a fan, check it out at the google code site
http://code.google.com/p/keynote-nf/
I just tried that new version from the google code site. It's Keynote NF 1.7.5 - and it is even better than the old one...it's a keeper! It's the only such program I've seen yet that is actually better than Keynote 1.6.5.
Keynote NF 1.7.5 even runs noticably faster than the old Keynote...and using the same Keynote notes file it appears to use fewer resources on the computer.
I'd like to move my notes from TreeDNnotes to Keynote NF. The trouble is, one cannot export directly from the former to the latter. Transferring the data by copy and paste would be a real chore. If any of you know of any other tree-structure note management software that allows a lot of export/import formats, which could perhaps be used as a transitional software between the above 2; or of any other way of doing the exporting/importing, I'd appreciate hearing from you. Thanks!
If TreeDB will export to Treepad format (.hjt), that can be imported into Keynote.
I have tried many of these, but so far I prefer Personal Brain. http://www.thebrain.com/ . It's easy on the eyes, easy to use and feature rich.
I even loaded it for my kids and they use it for setting up book reports. It has made a huge difference for them.
"It's easy on the eyes, easy to use and feature rich." and expensive!
and I can add that personal brain is not even an Outliner!
Freemind is just incredible... started using it yesterday and it's already one of my favorite apps. I was strugling with a very complex outline, with the help of freemind I could reorganize it in a breeze, the result is much more simple and easy to communicate, very professional ! I'm addicted already, version 0.90 looks even better, can't wait to get a stable release. Cons: to bad it's Java based, speed however is very reasonable.
Brain and Freemind are MIND-MAPPING software! We are talking about Outliners here!!!
No one seems to know about it, but I own no fewer than six outliners (sometimes referred to as PIMs) including Treepad X Enterprise and I have tried almost everything on the market and, in my less than humble opinion, the BEST, most comprehensive, free outliner is TreeDBNotes. It is so good and so packed with options that I feel guilty not paying for it. Check it out here: http://www.mytreedb.com/treedbnotes_free.html
I still haven't found my ultimate outliner - it should have the wiki orientation of wikidpad with strong emphasis on linking, tabs, etc but a full featured editor like the other outliners.
Ultimate outliners! Here you go (both shareware) 'PageFour' or 'MyInfo' ... Only prob with MyInfo is that it does not have word-count... All other features kick A----!!!
I'm using The Guide for a while now -- http://theguide.sourceforge.net/ -- and it's been quite a neat experience so far. It's fast and lean, and works off the USB stick. Open source.
I used Keynote for a number of years. Due to certain limitations, I searched around and decided to use NeoMem. It was good but after using it for at least a year, I did not find it satisfactory. More searching and trying various alternatives. I finally decided to use The Guide. I have been happily using for > 1 yr and version 2 beta1 is very fine. I keep thoughts, ideas, info, notes .... in there. It is a simple, flexible and great software.
One great outliner is The Guide
https://sourceforge.net/projects/theguide/?abmode=1
Total Text is a similar program to Neomem (freeform database, opensource, portable), more info here.
I'm a big believer in MaxThink (http://www.maxthink.org/indexhtm.htm) although not everyone likes the way it works. I'm also fond of NeoMem, which is free and works quite well.
Here are two links that will point you towards pretty much everything that's out there.
Good all-around article with numerous external links to applications can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliner
And the wonderfully titled "Outliners and Mind Map Software: A Really Thorough, Annotated List" with links can be found at:
http://psychinnovations.com/psych/node/37
Hi Harold,
Would you prefer zulupad over wikidpad? If so, please tell us why. I have tried wikidpad and liked it much. But, I have not try zulupad.
TIA
I do prefer zulupad pro over the wikipad. This is a personal preference and a lot of people do prefer Wikipad. The only reason for the preference for me is because Zulupad creates the links automatically. Whatever you name your WikiPage is automatically linked to every other occurrence of that word(s) in all other pages. In all the others you have to type in some sort of syntax to get it to link.
This has it's advantages and disadvantages. You have to think ahead about what you want to name each page. I became sold based on that because I often use it in a quick-and-dirty note taking situation. On the other hand I needed the ability to add graphics, webpages, etc. As a result I had to upgrade to the Pro version.
What I would really like, but none provide is the ability to have this automatic linking combined with the ability to hand code a link if I wanted. Sometimes I want to include a spelling variation or similar and this flexibility means Wikipad or similar.
I guess the bottom line is that I am lazy and find that this automatic linking makes sure that no matter how many pages I have all the links are done without my having to find each one and them add the code for the link. With each complete subject in its own file this works for me.
On the other hand if you want to organize several subjects or need a more complex organization with multiple folders, categories, etc. then zulupad is the worst choice for you and wikipad is the one you want.
Zulupad is too damn basic. Neomem gives you the ability to import and export one article at a time, but only in *.txt and *.csv format. Treepad lite has the same problem, altough you can import/export the hole tree or selected nodes or articles; it as very limited support for *.html. Wikipad as complete support for *.hmtl, but you cannot choose fonts, or even format your text. Nice program though, but still under development. Both Keynote and Treedbnotes overcome these features, they both allow you to import and export multiple files at a time, and you can choose between several formats. Treedbnotes has even more features than Keynote, but personally I find it's GUI awfull no matter the theme you choose, it could be less cluttered and much better organized; it is also the program I tested with the largest installer and the one which consumes more resources (30 MB with an empty DB). I also think this is not true freeware, but nagware since you have to scroll through shareware functions to find the freeware functions: this is annoying. It as an excellent output though. With that said, I choose Keynote, that even though it's no longer being developed, doesn't represent any security risk, acording to the Secunia DB.
From Lisbon-Portugal,
Francisco
I like KeyNote, but it freezes at times, especially when I try to copy and paste a rather long notes. I tried Neomem, but its toolbar lacks some of the features I find in Keynote.
Fortunately, after months of searching, I found Treedbnotes free version. It functions just like KeyNote, but with a much nicer skin. And it can import KeyNote file that I have built up with ease.
http://www.mytreedb.com/treedbnotes_free.html
KeyNote (which I have used for many years) is a superb tool, but not without problems. I have found that with a large database the search facility breaks, and so I have moved to the commercial version of TreePad. Unfortunately it does not support tabs though.
TreePad Lite is an excellent freeware tool for simple text notes.
Also remember that the PIM EssentialPIM includes a tree outliner with good import facilities in the free version, although the search is simple and slow.
Wikidpad compares to TreePad in my opinion. And it's free, while the equivalent free version of TreePad doesn't compare feature-wise to Wikidpad.
None of these programs can be compared with TreePad.
+1 for WikidPad (from an old KeyNote user :-) )
I think this page is missing a great utility called Wikidpad. I used to use Zulupad, and anyone who likes Zulupad will LOVE Wikidpad. This is a full wiki in personal form. It's still being developed, and has several add-ins. I was thinking of using a a regular wiki to organize my notes, but Wikidpad is not internet dependent and is therefore faster. The new version also can have multiple tabs open at the same time. There's also an ability to export into html. In my opinion, this is the best note-taking/outlining utility around.
Only recently I started using Wikidpad, but I already like it. So, like you I wonder why Harold has not include it in his selection. Harold, can you please respond to our remarks? Thank you in advance.
I used wikidPad for more than a year and recommend it to all, but I think it is not for beginners.
http://wikidpad.sourceforge.net/
I highly recommend KeyNote. I love how with a quick hot key (CTRL + Shift + F12) I can jot down notes in a "three dimensional" outline. I have installed it on every computer I use. Even though the author doesn't update the software, it is very feature rich. Maybe someone could convince the author to make the project open source.
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