I am looking for software to help me organize my thoughts; to move lines around but not by cutting and pasting. I think Omni something has a product like this.
I am looking for an software that will help me organize my thoughts almost like a project manager but on a simpler level.
I currently use the Todoist, Evernote, iMindmap10 and DevonThinkPro Offic and I own but don’t really use iTaskX3.
The software I am looking for is to bring all the information together so I can organize it without having to cut and paste and where the information all integrates together.
I think the flow falls under an outliner type of software.
I would loved to be clearer if you have any questions.
Does DevonthinkTechnologies?
Can you recommend a product in this light I can investigate?
Mindnode is what I use. Thinking about it, it is mainly the ability to fold sublists and drag elements around that distinguishes an outliner from any texteditor with bullet point lists. Feels strange to use a separate tool for just that
I used OmniOutliner since its first incarnation; it was an eye-opener. But after a while, it became so cluttered that I ditched it. Additional columns of specified data types (like duration) are a great feature, making it a good planner.
For many years now, I have been doing my outlining in Markdown; indented lines serve like additional columns in OmniOutliner.
You may use any editor for outlining with Markdown.
I try to keep my work limited to a small number of apps, so I try to use Devonthink wherever possible – this is where my planning happens – or RStudio/VSCode, where I write my papers and lectures.
The best outlining app for Markdown, in my experience, is Obsidian with the Outliner plugin; it does everything you need. I loved working with it and am always tempted to implement Obsidian again because it is such a great editor – shortcuts, beauty. VSCode comes close with its plugins.
Sometimes, mostly after brainstorming and first sorting, one can mock a well-written OmniOutliner outline with a spreadsheet. This gives a helpful overview, calculation of duration, or money, or whatever, spent e.g… So outlining gets closer to a detailed plan.
+1 for MindNode, @Wolkenhauer. It’s subscription, but comes with great iPhone/ipad versions too. It previews neatly in DT and DTTG, and I like to organise roadmaps of my DT database in it by linking to groups using DT URLs. Opening files on it from DT sometimes fails for me on iPadOS, which it shouldn’t do, but it’s my only complaint.
Since the original run of this thread, Bike has become the hot new player. But I’ve become completely addicted to Cloud Outliner for its amazing per-item syncing, which makes it my go-to everywhere app for thinking and drafting with instant handoff between devices. It’s also ridiculously cheap.
I love LogSeq and use it every day but anyone heading in that direction should know two things:
the current version is beta (0.10.x)
the developers are in the middle of refactoring the whole code base to what’s called “The Database Version”. They’ve mostly stopped working on the available beta version and the Database version has gone into private Alpha testing.
there is a very useful forum similar to this one in tone and helpful support although the actual coders aren’t on there like they are here.
I took to LogSeq’s working model quite quickly and it was pretty fast for me to generate a growing database of tasks and links to reference materials. Very good at outlining notes on the go in meetings and presentations. I store everything else (PDFs, photos, excel, word, emails etc) in Devonthink and link to them from LogSeq. The linking works well in iOS and MacOS.
My LogSeq graphs don’t get really huge as I make a new one for each gig. The files on the desktop for LogSeq are all Markdown so if you’re already using that it’s a snap. There is an “org mode” option instead of markdown but I haven’t investigated that. YMMV
The base requirement for a “good” outliner is the ability to link to individual rows. This is not possible in DT. (x-devonthink-item:// links support the line number parameter, however it is not permanent.)
With the latest version, one can fold/collapse sections/headings in Apple Notes, which is a key feature of outlining. You may consider this as well then.
