Use of OmniOutliner for Non-hierarchical Information

[A Borg]

> I wanted to ask people how they use OmniOutliner to represent, 
> process, and think through non-hierarchical information.  What I mean 
> by non-hierarchical information are things that usually are 
> represented as links to other things that lead to reading in a 
> non-linear fashion.
>
Sorry, since this is one pet peeve for me, a essay-like looong text 
(some would say "rant" :-) follows .

I think with any complex tool as OO and others, it vastly depends on 
the personal style (and discipline)
of organizing things. As I read it from C. Clifton's mail, he must be 
very disciplined, and thus he could
use any hierarchical tool to order and work with such non-hierarchical 
information. OTOH I see myself
on the other side of this continuum, being in the same process of phd 
writing :-) I have tried OO2 to
collect and sort out things, but found myself too constrained by its 
hierarchical structure, and the
lack of "clones", effectively two or more "links" to one content block.

Straining off topic a bit, Mark Smith mentioned two other candidates, 
Tinderbox and VoodooPad. I have
tried both in their non-paid versions, and found them nice programs, 
the former though with too steep
a learning curve and too limited in demo version to really appreciate 
its (in many places) claimed
strengths. VoodooPad is a nice little tool, but here I found the UI too 
constrained for me (a 99%
keyboard/1% mouse user, if possible).

I ended up with a mix, and strategically using a change of tools in the 
process of (still :-) writing
my phd:

- First a collection of all kinds of programs and formats: plain text 
(BBEdit lite), ms word,
   SimpleText/TextEdit (yeah, it's been a while since I began), 
Clippings etc.
- My first drafts were written with word, meaning that my 
non-hierarchical information was scattered
   through many many files, and arkward search procedures.

- I bought NoteTaker which follows a notebook metaphor with outline 
capabilities. While having the
   ability to collect stuff (just put them in different notebooks, under 
different sections, into
   different pages), and some search capabilities, I found that I am 
using is less and less often
   because of a couple of user interface quirks, and a general feeling 
of 'unpolishedness', so
   totally different from the wonderful Omni experience :-)

- Recently, I did use wikis (zwiki under zope and plone, also tried 
mediawiki, the software behind
   wikipedia) which on one hand gave me what I think you mean by 
'non-hierarchical information with
   links'. But I admit that as not only computer scientist but also with 
some programming background,
   I am proficient enough to change software to cater to my need (if 
time permits).

Now, with my drafts are getting more and more structured, I have 
choosen the parallel approach to
conceptualize my thoughts in OO3, and creating draft versions with LyX 
(Latex-based WYSIWYMean editor),
thereby somehow coordinating and centralizing my dispersed 
non-hierarchical information.

Another contender to non-hierarchical info would be DEVONthink.

(yes, I may need a structuring advisor after all :-)

As last point, there is a now famous because very good article series 
on outliners which also has
considered snippet keepers, mindmap programs and the like: ATPMs ATPO 
series:
<http://www.atpm.com/Back/atpo.html>

I tried most of the mentioned programs there, on the eternal search for 
the perfect program. I think
OmniOutline 3 Pro, paired with an inter-document wiki-like linking 
facility and document storage
facility like Devonthink Pro allowing manual meta data management would 
be my dream (oh yes, and
please some web pages archiving facility as well :-)

Sorry for the length, as phd candidate one gets into the habit of 
writing too much...

Cheers, Kei.