Outlines are useful for more than just recalling painful memories of high-school research papers. This week we're taking a look at the five favorite outlining tools of Lifehacker readers.
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Most of us received our earliest introduction to outlining by a teacher who insisted we needed to outline before writing papers and reports. While outlining is a solid tool for writing a research paper, it's also invaluable for writing other things—speeches, presentations, books, etc.—and for organizing your thoughts into patterns that can be easily tweaked and edited before your reach the end product, be it book or business plan, is committed to its final form.
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Adapt your writing software to meet the needs of your writing project. There isn’t always one perfect option—you may find that integrating multiple writing programs works best for the writing, compiling, and editing stages. Maybe all you really need is a distraction-free writing space to get the job done.
Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite outlining tool, and now we're back to share the most popular outlining tools used by Lifehacker readers.
Best Outlining Tool?
Right up there in the echelons of organization and information management with the venerated list…
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Note: The pricing for Microsoft Word and Microsoft OneNote is given for the standalone purchase price of the individual products. Both are available as part of the various Microsoft Office Suite configurations and are significantly cheaper when purchased as part of a suite.
Microsoft OneNote (Windows, Standalone: $75)
Software For Writing A Book
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OneNote is a note-taking and organization tool that many Lifehacker readers have called Microsoft's best product. It's versatile—it's made appearances here, in the best note-taking tools and journaling Hive Fives—and the outlining functionality is well integrated and easy to use. One of the strong points of outlining in OneNote is the way outlines support the same drag and drop rearranging found throughout OneNote. Almost every single element in a OneNote page can be dragged, dropped, or easily manipulated with a context menu—the screenshot above shows an element in the outline right before being dragged into a new slot. Note: If you're curious about the GTD context in the screenshot, read our guide to getting things done with Microsoft OneNote.
Five Best Note-Taking Tools
Click to view Despite the wealth of information a Google search box puts at our fingertips, good…
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OmniOutliner (Mac, Standard: $39.95, Professional $69.95)
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OmniOutliner is a comprehensive outlining tool for OS X with a host of features that make outlining more exciting and effective than simply scrawling roman numerals on a legal pad. With OmniOutliner, you can not only create outlines, but create additional columns of for input and data. Want your outline to have a column where you can check things off like a checklist or assign due dates? You can add it in. OmniOutliner has full AppleScript support so you script in tasks like having OmniOutliner put things on your calendar. Even if you're not looking for the more advanced bells and whistles like script support or multiple columns, the basic outline is still well designed. Inline notes allow you to add information directly to an entry in the outline for later reference but hide it when you want to look at just the outline. The professional version adds in new features like being able to navigate your outline by section, text clipping to pull in information from other apps on your computer, and audio capture to take voice notes.
Microsoft Word (Windows/Mac, Standalone: $130)
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You certainly can't round up popular applications for outlining without Microsoft Word making an appearance. It wasn't conceived as an outlining tool, but thanks to its presence on millions of personal and corporate computers, the outlining tools built into it have seen an enormous amount of use. Outlining directly in document is a bit kludgy, but thankfully Word has an 'Outlining View'—seen in the screenshot above—which makes outline creation and editing much easier. If you've never used Word to outline before, check out this tutorial to get started.
Org-Mode (Windows/Mac/Linux, Free)
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Org-Mode is a portable and open-source tool that runs off of the also free and open-source Emacs platform—Emacs is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and more here. You work on Org-Mode in a command prompt-like window and do all your editing and changes via the command line and keyboard shortcuts. It's definitely not the kind of application you toss at your computer-illiterate relatives, but it is a powerful and flexible tool for organizing outlines and more. The authors of Org-Mode maintain a large list of tutorials and screencasts for showing what can be done with Org-Mode, this one about using Org-Mode for outlining is of particular interest to today's Hive Five.
FreeMind (Windows/Mac/Linux, Free)
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Traditionally one thinks of outlines as a linear progression down the page. Many Lifehacker readers, however, opted to outline their projects and ideas in mind-mapping applications like the popular and open-source FreeMind. You still get a hierarchical structure, headers, sub-headers, and so on, but the information is presented in a mind-map format instead of a simple list. FreeMind is very keyboard friendly—it's possible to create your entire outline without your hands leaving the keyboard. You use customize item flagging, color coding, and more. FreeMind also made an appearance in and won the Hive Five for best mind-mapping tools.
Hive Five: Five Best Mind Mapping Applications
Mind mapping is a great way to add structure to brainstorming sessions and visualize your ideas.…
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Now that you've had a chance to look over the top five contenders, it's time to cast your vote for what you'd consider the best outlining tool:
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Best Outlining Tool?(polls)
Honorary mentions this week go to pen and paper—the timeless classic—and Mindjet MindManager, another mind-mapping tool repurposed as an outliner. Have an outlining tip, trick, or favorite application? Let's hear about it in the comments.
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Writers tend to make a very big deal of their tools, whether those tools are delicate pens or ancient typewriters. Increasingly, though, they'll talk about their software. Even the most genteel literary event can soon devolve into a fist-fight between fans of Scrivener and Ulysses (both of which cost around £27, US$40, AU$50).
Microsoft Word is the default tool for many writers, but a subscription to Office 365 costs £59.99/US$69.99/AU$89 per year for one user – pretty steep if you only need the word processing element.
There's often a better option for those of us starving in garrets: free software. Come with us as we discover the best free apps to turn your writing talent into something tangible.
1. FocusWriter
Keep your mind on your work with the best free app for writers
Blocks all distractions
Auto-save function
Available for Linux, Windows and macOS, FocusWriter is designed to eliminate distractions so you can actually get on with the job of writing. To that effect it enables you to hide other apps, customize the way your text appears on screen and keep track of your progress. If you're feeling particularly old-school you can even add typewriter sound effects.
FocusWriter isn't for everyone – it's not the right tool for going back through and editing your work – but it's a lovely little app with a very modest footprint that stops you keeping an eye on Twitter all day.
2. WriteMonkey
![Best Book Writing Tool For Mac Best Book Writing Tool For Mac](https://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2016/04/Highlight-with-Apple-Pencil-highlighting-herojpg.jpg?itok=VveLpqFl)
A text editor that cuts down on distractions, not features
Distraction-free interface
Handy keyboard shortcuts
We're big fans of Markdown, the text-editing language that enables you to format, annotate, classify and link as you type with the minimum of fuss, and the superb WriteMonkey makes good use of it.
This free program delivers an incredibly stripped-down user interface that's considerably more powerful than it looks. There's an excellent outliner, automatic syntax highlighting and file organisation, and although markdown takes a bit of getting used to, you'll be very glad you made the effort.
Once you've mastered WriteMonkey, you can use it to create blog posts, print publications and anything else that needs words in it.
3. LibreOffice Writer
A fully-featured free alternative to Microsoft Word
Document template galleries
LibreOffice is a free, open source alternative to Microsoft Office, and that means its word processing app, Writer, has many of the power features of Word without the accompanying price tag.
One of its most useful features is the LibreOffice Template Center, where you'll find templates for all kinds of content.
If you're interested in more full office suites, see our guide to the best free office software.
4. Scribus
Create great-looking magazines and books without InDesign
Professional-level print design tools
Cross-platform
If your words' appearance is as important as their meaning, give Scribus a go: it's a free, highly-rated desktop publishing application for Linux, OS X and Windows that's suitable for producing entire magazines.
It's been kicking around – and regularly updated – since 2001, and while it's a little tricky to use at first, it offers professional-grade publishing with layered, multi-page documents and good colour management support. If you've ever used Adobe InDesign, you'll find the similarity striking. If you can use one, you'll pick up the other in seconds.
We wouldn't want to lay out a 400-page book in it (though that's quite possible), but for shorter works it's ideal.
5. Freemind
Organize your ideas and defeat writer's block before it can strike
Very flexible
Looks a little old-fashioned
Here's another app for writers that isn't strictly for putting your words on the screen: Freemind is all about mind mapping, and it enables you to record all the leaps and bounds your imagination makes whether you're plotting a potboiler or trying to organize complex threads of an investigation.
Novel Writing Software Mac
Freemind isn't something we'd necessarily recommend for mind mapping beginners – it looks a bit like a desktop publishing app having some kind of breakdown – but if you're an experienced intellectual explorer it's a lot tidier than a wall full of index cards and sticky notes.
Writing Tool For Mac
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