Is there a way to temporarily hide all the other sections? That could mean "folding" the other sections like an accordion or looking at an individual section in a new window. Tagging: Along similar lines, being able to tag your points with keywords makes it easier to find them again.Įxpand and Collapse Options: Let’s say you want to focus on just one section. And if you can search through all of your outlines at once, it's easier to find everything you've written down. Search: The longer and more detailed an outline is, the handier a search and filter function will be. Look for apps that let you add pop-up or side-bar comments to specific points. Notes: Attaching "hidden" text to an individual bullet point or line keeps your outline from getting cluttered. Plus, there are a few bonus features that we kept an eye out for: These apps make it easy to drop text into a new place, whether it's via keyboard shortcuts or a drag-and-drop interface. indenting it, outdenting it, moving it to a new place) applies the same change to its children.Īutomatic styling: Having your ideas appear by default with bullets, Roman numerals, numbers, indentation levels, and so forth means you don’t need to waste an extra second inserting the format you need.Įasy rearrangement: Sure, you could rely on the cut-and-paste method to move your sections around, but that would be inefficient and frankly, annoying.
Nesting: Along similar lines, these apps let you create "parent" items, each of which can have an unlimited number of "children" items. These apps-each in their own way-make it easy to visually distinguish outline sections. Visual hierarchy: If you can’t tell the difference between a big idea and a supporting one, an outline loses a lot of its value. These are the features we looked for when choosing apps for this roundup: And you don't need anything fancy to build one-a word processor or plain text writing app could do the job.īut first-rate outlining apps handle the organization of your plan, so you can concentrate on the ideas. They're lists of ideas and things you want to work on. Outlines are just bullet points with some extra structure. Here are 20 of the best outlining tools to help you scope out your next post, project, or speech. The best outlining tools make it easy to log your ideas, arrange your arguments, and pull everything together into a polished framework. You map them out hierarchically, so there’s a visual difference between your main points and subsidiary ones.Īnd although you can certainly compose them with good ol’ pen and paper, a specialized app will give you more flexibility to change and reorganize points on the fly. They're the blueprint for what you want to write, say, present, or create. To turn those scattered concepts into a finished product, you're going to need a coherent plan. It doesn't matter how many ideas you have if you can't connect them.
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