As a nonfiction writer, I have always wanted to use computers to help make the writing process easier, and so far, the only tool for doing that has been compute

As a nonfiction writer, I have always wanted to use computers to help make the writing process easier, and so far, the only tool for doing that has been computer-based outlining programs, which only go so far. There are many kinds of number-related processors--spreadsheets, accounting programs, income-tax programs, etc--but so far only two kinds of word-related programs--word processors and outliners. What would be the next step past these two programs? What would an "idea processor" look like?