OmniOutliner 3 May Be the Best Outliner Ever

· by · Reviews

Iive been a huge fan of outline processors since time immemorial. Iive been using outlines to plan projects since before some of you were born. Iive used ThinkTank, MORE, Acta, Inspiration, and even Microsoft Wordis sorry excuse for an outliner over the years. But it wasnit until recently that I found a Mac OS X outline processor that felt just right to me.

But I finally found one and it is called OmniOutliner 3. Itis easy to use yet it offers dozens of best-of-class features. Better still, you can perform almost every task at least two and often three different ways, so itis easy to make OmniOutliner 3 work just the way you like it to work.

Among my favorite features are the five Inspectors (shown on the right side of Figure 1). The inspectors make it a breeze to format any word, line, paragraph, or column and view the results instantly. I also like the way you can display or hide multi-paragraph inline notes several ways. Another cool touch is the ability to not only add multiple columns, but to add columns with different attributes for checkboxes, pop-up lists, dates, numerical values (which it can also calculate dynamically), or just plain text.


OmniOutliner 3.

OmniOutliner 3 comes in two versions?Standard and Pro, priced at $39.95 and $69.95 respectively. Both versions offer styles, multiple column types, attachments, lots of export options, AppleScript support, batch find, and inline notes. The Pro version adds folded editing, sections, named styles, clipping service, audio recording, and saved templates.

You can download a trial version of either version at: http://www.omnigroup.com.

The Bottom Line
If you need to make an outline, nothing does it better than either version of OmniOutliner.

Product: OmniOutliner 3

Company: The Omni Group

List Price: $39.95 / $69.95

Pros: Extensive feature set and functionality; beautiful and functional interface.
Cons: None that I have encountered so far.

Bob LeVitus

Bob LeVitus, often referred to as ?Dr. Mac,? is considered one of the world?s leading authorities on the Macintosh and Mac OS X and has been one of the Mac community?s most trusted gurus for almost twenty years. He?s known for his trademark humorous style and unerring ability to translate ?techie? jargon into usable and fun advice for regular folks. A prolific author, LeVitus has written or co-written over 60 popular computer books and has sold more than two million copies worldwide in at least a dozen languages. His recent titles include: iPhone For Dummies 2nd Edition, Mac OS X Leopard For Dummies, and Microsoft Office 2008 For Mac For Dummies, all for Wiley Publishing. LeVitus is currently a columnist for the Mac Observer and the reviews editor for the iPod Observer. He's also a columnist for the Houston Chronicle and has been since 1996, penning the popular Dr. Mac column every Tuesday. While LeVitus has seen his work published in more than a dozen computer magazines over the past eighteen years, including: a three- year stint as Editor-in-Chief of the irreverent and unpredictable MACazine; four different columns in MacUser magazine?Beating the System, Personal Best, Game Room, and the Help Folder (with Andy Ihnatko, and later, Chris Breen). Though best known for his writing, he?s also dabbled in broadcasting with a radio show (Inside Mac Radio, CNET Radio, 2001-2002) and a television series (Mac Today, Syndicated, 1992?1993). In addition to his writing, LeVitus runs a consulting business that provides expert technical help and training to Mac users anywhere in the world, in real time and at reasonable prices, via telephone, e-mail, and/or its own unique Internet-enabled remote control software. If you?re having a problem with your Mac or want to learn how to do almost anything with it, point your browser at: http://www.boblevitus.com. Always a popular speaker at Mac user groups and trade shows, LeVitus has presented more than 200 seminars, workshops, conference, and training sessions in the U.S. and abroad, including keynote addresses in three countries. (He also won the Macworld Expo MacJeopardy World Championship three times before retiring.) His most recent foray is a blog for the nice folks at Wiley Publishing/Dummies Press. You'll find it here: http://blogs.dummies.com/drmac/. Prior to giving his life over to computers, Bob worked in advertising producing television commercials, radio spots, and print ads at Kresser & Robbins and SelecTV. He holds a B.S. in Marketing from California State University and currently lives in central Texas with his wife, kids, and a plethora of pets.

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