# In Search of POWER OUTLINING

- Author: Joichi Ito
- Date: 2003-01-04T11:01:01Z


After reading Phil Wolff's blog entry about CV's, I decided to immediate convert my CV to OPML and start immersing myself in the microcontent of it all before I even started thinking about how to make it more intelligent. I started using Radio Userland's outliner, but found out that after a bunch of new entries, the top of the list "scrolled" off the top and couldn't be accessed in the window. I saved it and opened it with OmniOutliner. OmniOutliner at least dealt with the content, but I had difficulty editing the text. (Maybe I'm just not skilled yet. I've found both Radio's outliner and OmniOutliner to act funny why are you doing copy/paste) Since OmniOutliner is not native OPML, but exports, it's a bit of a pain. Also, to create links that Radio understands, you have to create extra columns and enter "link" in the "type" column and the URL in the "URL" column. This format can be imported from a Radio created OPML outline. Then, finally, I had to open the file again and set which sections to have expanded and collapsed since OmniOutliner's state didn't seem to save into OPML in a way that ActiveRenderer  could understand.

So... I'm totally getting into outlining, but I can't find a perfect tool. OmniOutliner is nice, but still a little clunky, and editing acts a bit weird. I've tried NoteTaker from AquaMinds which LOOKS very cool and lets you mess with a lot of media types, but doesn't talk OPML so no go. I've also been messing with StickyBrain by Chronos. It is a fancy "sticky note" program that lets you index, categorize and search sticky notes which become your little pieces of microcontent. It's too disorganized for me and doesn't talk OPML. So, what happened to cool programs like MORE? (MORE was an EXCELLENT outliner that Dave Winer made in 1991.) Are we moving backwards?

Here is what I want:

Easy to use outliner that reads and writes OPML like a pro
The ability to import and deal with many media types
The ability for leaves to have multiple parents (MORE let you do this...)
Smart search/index
Easy linking between outlines

That would be enough for now, thanks.

Has anyone found the ultimate solution for managing and publishing your microcontent? Or, is that what we're all working on now?





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