Outliners and Mind Map Software: A Really Thorough, Annotated List

I'm a big fan of outliners and mind mappers

I use List Pro for lists that benefit from advanced sorting, such as contacts, and because it synchronizes with PDA's, as well as Action Outline, which has no note size limit, and is hailed for it's ergonomics. But it is way behind the times, so I can't recommend it. I am increasingly relying on Word for outlining because of the psychological writing that I do (articles, continuing education courses, books). Word actually has a very rich outline feature (accessed from the View menu).

This list was started in Wikipedia, but was removed (2/07) because it included programs that are for sale. I haven't seen such a complete list anywhere so I'm posting it here, with modifications and updates. I don't know all these programs, but it looks like pretty much all those listed are among the higher-quality programs.

YOU can help out by posting your thoughts and additional programs and resources.

The last section of the list has "multiple platform" programs, meaning that some of them operate in Windows in addition to other systems. Don't forget to look there.

Did You Know?

Word has an outline function that allows a side-panel outline view (Document Map) and automatic level-sensitive formatting via the style commands (another aspect of Word that a lot of people don't know about). Click Outline from the View menu.

The PsycIN Directory of Mental Health Resources

Interested in outlines AND mental health? I have an outline of mental health resources that lives at here: www.PsychInnovations.com/dir/, and that is being imported into a more advanced set up (with searching and a better outlining function) here: www.PsychInnovations.com/psych.

It's special focus is on free reading, research and news sources.

Windows Programs

• 3D Topicscape supports outlining and information mapping in 3D with flying and zooming.
• ActionOutline simple outliner considered highly ergonomic, has RTF.
• Aibase is a free-form outliner (main pane can contain trees and other object types).
• AlfaPad - simple outliner
• Bonsai by Natara is a powerful Windows desktop outliner in its own right--that syncs well with its Palm OS partner. See below.
• BrainStorm for Windows - still selling, launched November 1983
• CUEcards - free German outliner for Windows
• Dynamic List - free web outliner for IE/Windows
• Ecco Pro - full-featured day planner with built-in outliner
• Fresh Outline - visually good tree but notes are plain-text only (although you can add defined fields to notes).
• The Guide - open source, two-pane outliner with rich-text.
• Idea Cruncher - Minimalist outliner for writing and to-do list management.
• InfoSelect - freeform database, feature-rich and with a fast incremental search functionality
• Karteset
• Keynote - free outliner for Windows (no longer developed)
• kmAnywhere - Integrated outliner with built-in RTF, HTML, worksheet editors.
• ListPro - user can create columns in functional formats, sort on multiple columns, outline can be flattened, can synch with PDA, no RTF at this time.
• Literary Machine - offers a basic freeware version, as well as a more robust professional version.
• Maple - Sturdy, affordable two-pane outliner for Windows.
• MyInfo - two-pane outliner for Windows.
• MyLife Organized - Smart outliner with roots in GTD movement. Provides true sychronization with PocketPC devices.
• Maxthink - Outliner/Idea processor for focused high-level thinking. Editor's Choice PC Magazine. 20,000 plus users. Expands ideas into information, knowledge, and wisdom.
• ndxCards - Outlining software for organizing ideas, taking notes and writing.
• MyNotesKeeper - two-pane outliner with tab support for Windows.
• Neat Notes - two pane outliner, with up to ten additional tabs within each note and a unique "pockets" tool to temporarily store clippings
• Nelements KOS a 3d outliner tool.
• NormFall Outliner with strong document linking and other features. Ranges from basic to enterprise versions. But is there an English language interface available?
• NoteMap 2.0 Feature-rich, very powerful outliner marketed primarily to attorneys. Useful to anyone as a stand-alone--or as part of the other attorney's tools made by CaseSoft. A little pricey.
• NoteTab An advanced note-taker & outliner. Basic version freeware.
• NeoMem is a free outliner
• Outliner for Windows
• PocketThinker
• Scribble Papers - free German Outliner for Windows
• ToDoList - free, powerful outliner with a ton of features; many niceties for developers; color-coded priorities, rich-text notes section, many sorting options, etc.
• TreePad™ feature-rich personal information manager, organizer, database, and word processor--comes in several different versions.
• Ultra Recall - Outliner with multiple parent items links, configurable item attributes and internal brower
• WhizFolders Organizer - This outliner has many helpful features, even boolean searches, tags, internal hyperlinks, and ebook output.
• Microsoft Word - Excellent outliner. Select Outline from the View menu. While in Outline view, also select View | Document Map. Word's help documentation for outlining is very good. Use the Styles in the Formatting menu to control how each level and the text in the outline are formatted automatically.
• Zoot - a very versatile text manager. Included here because its list of items can be nested.

Macintosh-only Software

• activeRenderer outline publishing for Radio UserLand Software
• AquaMindsNotetaker
• CircusPoniesNotebook
• Curio
• Deep Notes
• Dossier
• EmacsWiki: OutlineMode - (X)Emacs outline mode
• iKnow & Manage
• MacJournal
• Mori - Outliner / notebook hybrid with full text search, smart folders, and AppleScript support. Free for download.
• MyMind - Outliner / mindmapping combination.
• OmniOutliner
• Opal the successor to the classic Acta
• TAO from Beach Systems
• TextMate - Text editor with folders, folding, and simple outlining.
• Tinderbox from Eastgate Systems - Create, organize, and analyze notes in multiple views (outlines, maps, charts, etc.). Agents automate tasks. Documents are stored as XML and can be exported to many forms (e.g., text, HTML) through templates.
• VoodooPad

POSIX (Linux, BSD, *nix)

• hnb - Hierarchical notebook (ncurses-interface)
• TuxCards Open source outliner for Linux
• Riot - ncurses-outliner, using mbox as file-format
• KJots [1] - Free and simple to use outliner for KDE on Linux. Tree structured, it refers to nodes as 'books' and notes as 'pages'. Book view shows a TOC and view mode for all entries. No word wrap.
• KnowIt Open source outliner, KDE-based
• Gjots2 - Python/GTK/GNOME nice outline editor. Data compatible with KJots.
• Zim - A desktop wiki and outliner

Software for UIQ SmartPhones

• Mandala Notebook - outliner with Word import/export

Cross-platform Software, Multiple Version Software

• Bloxware's Lessons Learned Server a multi-user server based outliner that utilizes Apache,MySQL & PHP
• Buzz a Python-based outliner
• Code Browser a folding and outlining editor for Linux and Windows
• FlyDoc CRM full-function CRM and electronic document management system written on J2SE has document/notes tree
• Inspiration - Visual Outliner for Mac and Windows - Versatile visual outliner now being marketed for business use; also available for Palm OS
• Java outline editor (free software/open source software: BSD License)
• Leo - free multiplatform outliner
• ListPro shareware software for Desktop PC with MS Windows / PocketPC / Palm
• Microsoft Word in outline mode is probably the most popular outliner (Windows/Mac/Linux under WINE or CodeWeavers)
• Natara Bonsai - Works/Syncs on Palm and Microsoft Windows. Software can be purchased bundled together or separately.
• outliner.js Open source CSS+Javascript based basic XOXO outline editor
• OPML Editor
• ShadowPlan - Outliner for Palm with Desktop for Windows, Macintosh and Linux.
• Tcl/Tk outline editor
• TiddlyWiki - self-contained wiki has outliner functions (as wiki engine)
• TreeLine - free database outliner in Python
• TreePad Windows, Mac and Linux versions. Basic version free.
• TVO: The Vim Outliner - A better Vim outliner
• VimOutliner - Free software (GPL v2) outliner built for keyboarding speed. Uses the Vim text editor as its engine. Features promote/demote, expand/collapse, body text, interoutline linking, checkboxes, color schemes, and executable lines to run external programs. Downloadable from VimOutliner.org, or as Debian or Gentoo packages.
• WikidPad Open source Python based powerful outliner based on the Wiki approach
• xoxo.py Open source Python library for XOXO outlines