Comments on: Outline Edit Edit Done — From Start to Finish with KeyNote Outlining Software

By: moi meme

moi meme — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:55:43 +0000

You’re so right about MS Word outlining. It’s the worst. I am planning to dust off a copy of Amipro from 1994, which had a better outlining feature than Word. I will also try Keynote for heavier-duty projects.

By: Benneh

Benneh — Sat, 09 May 2009 00:05:46 +0000

Since 13.11.2007 the development has been resumed in Delphi 2006 by Daniel Prado with the Open Source project KeyNote — New Features, initially in SourceForge, and actually in Google Code. Current version of KeyNote NF is 1.7.5.1 (2009-feb-01). For more news see keynote-nf project in Google Code and Daniel Prado’s blog (Spanish).

KeyNote NF version 1.17.6.1
http://code.google.com/p/keynote-nf/

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:54:49 +0000

Thanks for the blog post on this. I’ve been looking for some good outlining software, but like you, I’m on a PC and just can’t afford the Mac prices (the problem with writing stage plays and novels). I’m definitely going to give Keynote a try–it’s nice to know people are still using it, even though it’s been out for so long.

By: Dustin

Dustin — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:56:10 +0000

Tom: I’ve had the same thought about Mac and Scrivener — if Mac’s weren’t so much more than PCs (even with my $100 educator’s discount through my university) I’d be writing this on one right now! I’ve even thought about buying a used PowerPC MacBook just to join the club (although in a year or two maybe there’ll be some good deals on used Intel Macs).

By: Tom Colvin

Tom Colvin — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:17:47 +0000

Dustin, I couldn’t agree with you more about KeyNote. Aside from regular word processor, it’s the writing tool I use the most. Absolutely love it! I have a couple of posts about it on my blog. [For KeyNote on steriods, look at WhizFolders — I use it too, but more for organizing a mass or research notes — it’s main strength is linking capability internally and to external files and websites.]

Also agree re Word’s outline/document-map feature. I tried that in early days of writing a book — and vowed never to try it again. HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE when used on long works.

SuperNoteCard is available for Windows as well.

Following your advice, I’ve pre-posted 5 weeks of material on my blog, as I depart this afternoon on major research trip to Europe. Among those items is the best annotated list of outliners I’ve come across any where. Just follow upcoming posts on http://www.becoming-a-writer-seriously.com

Re Scrivener: I’ve heard so much about it, that I’m actually coinsidering making my computer a Mac.

By: Lisa Hendrix

Lisa Hendrix — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:27:28 +0000

Here’s another terrific one for Mac I forgot to mention: OmniOutliner, which is half-database, half outliner, half word-processor. Available in Standard ($39.95) and Professional ($69.95). You can get a trial license to see if it’s for you. There are good tutorials on the site, plus a full downloadable manual.

http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnioutliner/

By: Dustin

Dustin — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:25:39 +0000

Oh, and WOrd’s outlining, while it looks great in theory, I find horribly ugly, clumsy, and unelegant in practice. Others may have a different opinion, of course. (They’d be wrong, but who am I to judge

By: Dustin

Dustin — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:24:12 +0000

Sorry! The link was right, I just missed the closing tag on the Buzzword link earlier in the paragraph so WOrdpress treated the Keynote link as part of the Buzznote link -- and that's no good for everyone. There are a ton of outlining applications out there for PC, but I keep coming back to KeyNote. Scrivener seems to be the Holy Grail of writing apps, if you're on a Mac and can afford it; Liquid Story Binder is about the closest thing on a PC. But LSB is often too much for me -- I like the simplicity of KeyNote and the workflow I've worked out with it. I suppose as I get more used to LSB's quirks and features, I'll work out a similarly natural-feeling workflow -- but maybe not. And then, back to KeyNote.

By: Lisa Hendrix

Lisa Hendrix — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:13:02 +0000

First, your link is wrong. Try:

http://www.tranglos.com/free/keynote.html

Second, there are similar programs out there for Mac users, most notably Scrivener, from Literature and Latte, which actually has more features, including a 3x5 card view that you can move around (it translates directly into the tree outline).

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html

Another program a lot of Mac users like is SuperNotecard

http://www.mindola.com/

Windows folks should at Writers Cafe (also available for Mac)
http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/

and yWriter4
http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter4.html

Or if you really *love* Microsoft, you could try OneNote (pricey!)

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/default.aspx

Or you can give MS Word some very basic but clumsy heirarchal functionality by combining the outline and Document Mapping functions. Here are some helpful links:

http://www.csudh.edu/titlev/mswordoutline.htm

http://ec.hku.hk/writing_turbocharger/drafting/document_map.htm

By: Fritz

Fritz — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:42:21 +0000

Hey, the KeyNote link is no good.