How are you using the outline feature?

[Fred]

DT 1.7 introduced an intriguing outline feature, different in many aspects from other software outliners.

How are you using it?

[scardais]

Fred:

I posed a similar question a few minutes ago. Have you had any interesting replies worth sharing?

Scott

[alkan]

I’ve used OmniOutliner to create outlines previously, and didn’t see much use for a checkbox feature in DT. But OO isn’t a database, and with this feature I can now quickly mark items in DT as important or pending. For example, using DT as a simple image catalogue, I can convert a folder of photos into an outline with check boxes and check the photos I want to get printed (or deleted, or edited, etc.), then sort accordingly. (This was how I found a peculiar zooming quirk in split views.) Similar uses could be found in relation to other types of files.

DT has great potential for image management, and even now I prefer it to alternatives for its smoothness and ease of use. Of course, it still needs quite a few more features in this area before it can be considered a serious option by those who have more intensive cataloguing needs than I do; but nevertheless, it is a surprisingly stable and fast foundation for this kind of use.

[howarth]

I’m writing a book with DT as my textbase and OO as my outliner. Right now, the Outline feature in DT is not all that useful. I use it sometimes to create quick views of folder contents, then drag and drop items into appropriate folders. The check-box feature will be useful for marking items that I’ve used or cited in the text. I hope very much that a near-future version of DT will feature TRUE outlining, because the auto-alphabetic sort drives me nuts! I have to use numbers or letters to make items line up, and that’s very awkward and time-consuming.

[cgrunenberg]

I’m writing a book with DT as my textbase and OO as my outliner. Right now, the Outline feature in DT is not all that useful. I use it sometimes to create quick views of folder contents, then drag and drop items into appropriate folders. The check-box feature will be useful for marking items that I’ve used or cited in the text. I hope very much that a near-future version of DT will feature TRUE outlining, because the auto-alphabetic sort drives me nuts! I have to use numbers or letters to make items line up, and that’s very awkward and time-consuming.

Manual sorting, OPML im/export, priorities and due dates will come in v1.8. But don’t expect DT to provide all features of OO for example - we can’t add all requested features because almost all users have different needs for their usage of DT and adding everything would create an awkward and bloated application.

[milhouse]

… and adding everything would create an awkward and bloated application.

That’s an excellent point and, IMHO, why many applications, such as those from Microsoft, often provide a poor user experience. Too much bloat.