Why the outliner program is an essential tool for everybody

[JohnnyBoy]

[Cypher]

[trustory]

It sounds like a really cool solution. I don't think the audio recording will be of much use to me Cypher, the mic. in the MacBook is pretty rubbish and my lectures tend not to be that quiet.
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MacBook 1.83Ghz C2D, 2GB Ram, 160GB 7200rpm HDD, OS X 10.6.4
Harman Kardon Soundsticks II
Elgato EyeTV
iPhone 4 Black 16GB

[trustory]

I used it today in my Materials lecture and it was ideal! One thing that is annoying (it's not just OO) is that there is no equation editor, this is also missing from pages. I was wondering if any one can recommend a good equation editor that doesn't require me to know how to use Latex?
Any help is appreciated and thanks again Cypher and JohnnyBoy for highlighting the usefulness of Outliners!
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MacBook 1.83Ghz C2D, 2GB Ram, 160GB 7200rpm HDD, OS X 10.6.4
Harman Kardon Soundsticks II
Elgato EyeTV
iPhone 4 Black 16GB

[JohnnyBoy]

[Cypher]

Which version of OmniOutliner do you have trustory ?

I use the Pro version to get the audio features, however one feature I miss which MS Onenote had, is that your notes are automatically linked to the audio track. Each line of your outline creates and index point in the audio stream. So when something interesting is said I just type something really briefly to link it to the audio. OmniOutliner doesn't do that but what it does do is save the time the recording starts, so when something interesting is said I prefix the line with the current time. So I know to skim through 15 minutes etc to the interesting bit.
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iMac 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo - 4GB Ram - 250GB
Macbook Pro 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo - 2GB Ram - 200GB 7200rpm
32GB 3G iPad - 16GB iPod Touch

[trustory]

I just have the standard version at moment, it does everything I currently need.
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MacBook 1.83Ghz C2D, 2GB Ram, 160GB 7200rpm HDD, OS X 10.6.4
Harman Kardon Soundsticks II
Elgato EyeTV
iPhone 4 Black 16GB

[Cypher]

I find the audio is a life saver and its really been worth the extra money for the pro version (student discounted of course)

I frequently miss stuff in the lecturers, not quite catching what was said. I just note the time and type a reminder in the outline to re listen to the audio

Its amazing what gets picked up that you would otherwise miss. I was listening back to a lecture in January the morning of my Exam and the lecturer had mentioned make sure you learn Date's Rules. I didn't even remember covering them and hadn't made any notes on them. I checked that weeks notes and sure enough hidden in the middle of the handouts (which I hadn't read) was a section on Date's 12 Rules. I spent the rest of the day learning them and answered the question on the Exam later the day worth 20% of the marks. Without the audio I would definitely have missed it
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My current Apple Toys
Mac Mini 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo - 4GB Ram - 320GB
iMac 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo - 4GB Ram - 250GB
Macbook Pro 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo - 2GB Ram - 200GB 7200rpm
32GB 3G iPad - 16GB iPod Touch

[JohnnyBoy]

[trustory]

I don't have any sort of microphone to record my lectures so don't really have a use for the recording feature besides a lot of my lectures probably wouldn't be well suited to recording. I'm just really enjoying the logical format in which I can layout my notes and ideas.
_________________
MacBook 1.83Ghz C2D, 2GB Ram, 160GB 7200rpm HDD, OS X 10.6.4
Harman Kardon Soundsticks II
Elgato EyeTV
iPhone 4 Black 16GB

[JohnnyBoy]

[JohnnyBoy]

[trustory]

That looks pretty cool! I got MS Office over the weekend pretty much just for the equation editor.
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MacBook 1.83Ghz C2D, 2GB Ram, 160GB 7200rpm HDD, OS X 10.6.4
Harman Kardon Soundsticks II
Elgato EyeTV
iPhone 4 Black 16GB

[JohnnyBoy]

I've just found something that's pretty wonderful. Well, I think it is anyway...

For ages, I've dreamed of having some portable technology to create and edit outlines wherever I am. I entertained the idea of buying an Eee PC and installing some flavour of Linux... but there's a sad lack of usable outliners for that OS. So I bought a MacBook. Unfortunately, it weighs 5 pounds and although it's theoretically 'portable', you can't just whip it out in the middle of a supermarket and tap in that inspired idea that's just struck you.

A PDA would be the best hardware solution here. There are one or two decent outliner programs for the Palm (e.g. ShadowPlan).


However, there's incompatibility between the file formats used by ShadowPlan and OmniOutliner. Or there was...

Some Californian dude called James Sorenson has written an AppleScript called "OmniShadow" that allows OmniOutliner to create, save and edit ShadowPlan outlines. The script is free to download, but to make it work, you have to have a paid-for copy of ShadowPlan for OS X installed on your Mac to help with the conversion. It also seems to be choosy about which version of OS X it runs on. The full story's here: http://homepage.mac.com/james_sorenson/omnishadow.html

If you're wondering why I don't just use ShadowPlan on the Mac instead of OmniOutliner and forego any conversion hassles, SP is pretty basic and seems to be more of a to-do-list maker than a general outliner...



The irony of this story is that there's an open-standard file format for outlines called OPML which would totally eliminate the problem of file incompatibility if every outliner app used it.

[Edit: I've just tried ShadowPlan for OS X, and it was a painful experience... ]
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Intel Mini 2.0GHz C2D (4GB/120GB/SuperDrive/10.5.8 ), 120GB WD Passport, Logitech ergo k/b
iPod Touch (32GB, 3rd gen), iPod Shuffle (512MB, 1st gen)

[trustory]

Ok in my excited stupor waiting for the iPhone I decided to email the Omni Group to find out if the have plans for the iPhone: