4 ms·

I'm still using an outliner called PC Outline 3.34. My manager gave me a copy in 1986, saying "Here, you're organised. You'll like this" and he was right. I

by mrlyc 9y ago

I'm still using an outliner called PC Outline 3.34. My manager gave me a copy in 1986, saying "Here, you're organised. You'll like this" and he was right. I bought a copy and have been using it every day since then for todo lists, shopping lists and functional decomposition. As it's an old DOS program, I have to run it in DOSBox on Linux or vDos on Windows 7. I'm sticking with 3.34 as the 3.37 version has some bugs and the 1.00 version for Windows has a lot of them.

tcbawo 9y ago
It looks like one of those blue 1980s text menu applications. Does it have nice keyboard bindings, or is it menu driven?
cagey 9y ago
I'm a longtime outliner software user from the DOS days. One of the last outliner software packages I used was Grandview 2.0 by Symantec [1]. Amazingly, just a few months ago I discovered that it has been resurrected to run in Windows using vDOS; there is a package that automates the entire deployment process[2]. I've started using Grandview 2.0 again on Win 7 using this package (which BTW includes a OCR'd scan of the very extensive User manual). It works flawlessly. Unfortunately, data exchange into "modern" formats is challenging (and you're left with a screen no larger than 80x50), so I've not been able to use it as much as I would like. I wish there were a modern incarnation of this or similar software, but it seems DOS software is largely viewed as a dead-end not worth emulating in this era of GUI's. P.S. I've tried MS Word's outline mode and find it wholly unsatisfactory. P.P.S. my favorite outliner software was Borland's Sidekick Plus (for DOS). [1] https://welcometosherwood.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/grandview/ https://welcometosherwood.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/grandview... [2] http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/6291 http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/6291
jones1618 9y ago
There aren't too many outliner options as streamlined as PC Outline. There are a few modern alternatives, however: [How to Outline Your Ideas with 20 Powerful Tools](https://zapier.com/blog/best-outline-software/ https://zapier.com/blog/best-outline-software/)

by mrlyc 9y ago

tcbawo 9y ago

It looks like one of those blue 1980s text menu applications. Does it have nice keyboard bindings, or is it menu driven?

cagey 9y ago

I'm a longtime outliner software user from the DOS days. One of the last outliner software packages I used was Grandview 2.0 by Symantec [1]. Amazingly, just a few months ago I discovered that it has been resurrected to run in Windows using vDOS; there is a package that automates the entire deployment process[2]. I've started using Grandview 2.0 again on Win 7 using this package (which BTW includes a OCR'd scan of the very extensive User manual). It works flawlessly. Unfortunately, data exchange into "modern" formats is challenging (and you're left with a screen no larger than 80x50), so I've not been able to use it as much as I would like. I wish there were a modern incarnation of this or similar software, but it seems DOS software is largely viewed as a dead-end not worth emulating in this era of GUI's. P.S. I've tried MS Word's outline mode and find it wholly unsatisfactory. P.P.S. my favorite outliner software was Borland's Sidekick Plus (for DOS). [1] https://welcometosherwood.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/grandview/ https://welcometosherwood.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/grandview... [2] http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/6291 http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/6291

jones1618 9y ago

There aren't too many outliner options as streamlined as PC Outline. There are a few modern alternatives, however: [How to Outline Your Ideas with 20 Powerful Tools](https://zapier.com/blog/best-outline-software/ https://zapier.com/blog/best-outline-software/)