Our Verdict
A just outline is an evolving approximation . It ’s a workshop for forge out the greater form of something — a paper , presentation , business architectural plan , al-Qur’an , screenplay — by adding , discarding , and rearrange entropy .
And like most ideas , an lineation is n’t confined to one position , such as your Mac . In 2011,The Omni Groupextended the flexible adumbrate capabilities of its OmniOutliner Mac app to the iPad by releasingOmniOutliner for iPad . Now , with the release of the universal appOmniOutliner 2.3 for iOS(App Store link ) , you could lick with your schema as aspiration ( or perspiration ) work stoppage on the iPhone as well , no matter where you are .
Appearance is important
OmniOutliner beget a major rehaul in version 2.0 to reflect the modern iOS 8 / O X Yosemite optical style , including clean lines and no more faux rounded buttons and toolbars . I hesitate bringing that up powerful away , since the coming into court of an interface is usually one of those things you ’re supposed to acknowledge and forget in favor of how the app ’s feature actually work .
But as version 2.3 goes cosmopolitan , the appearance is important because even the larger screens of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus do n’t offer an expansive view of a sprawling outline . The minimum interface gets out of the way so you may concenter on the outline , even on a relatively shrimpy iPod tactile sensation ( trope 1 ) . The text zoom default to 120 pct ( you could conform it manually if you like ) , which works well , especially if you ’re look at the same data file on multiple iOS devices .
The same schema looks incredibly exchangeable across the iPad ( top ) , iPhone 6 ( center ) , and iPod touch ( bottom)—the only difference is how much you may see on a single covert . ( Click the image to exposit it . )
It ’s also gentle to see which items are selected when working in a complicated outline . This is a flyspeck detail , but when you pick out a parent dustup , a faint line appears to argue which child item belong to to it ( Figure 2 ) . The user interface for pick out and work on multiple rows is also cleaned up . In the original version , you ’d exploit the Edit button , which introduced a new set of round selection buttons at the correct edge of a column . Now , when you tap that button , you use the existing row hold at left to make selections . From there you’re able to cut , written matter , delete , group , or move the row as a group .
Version 2 also enables you to apply fresh template themes within a document if you want to change the overall appearance , as well as hold open any custom theme changes to new templates . ( That ’s particularly helpful if you ’ve tweaked the styles to beseem your own task and want to create fresh text file base on that appearance . )
OmniOutliner makes it gentle to tell which rows you ’re working with . ( Click to enlarge . )
How well it works as an outliner
OmniOutliner for iPad already included the bulk of the ductile features find in the background vis-a-vis , and OmniOutliner 2.3 continues those with an superfluous dose of performance .
In documents with multiple columns , you could drag on the screen door with one finger’s breadth to dislodge your view and endanger columns that appear off the screen . As with the previous rendering , you may confine the data types used in the columns , such as limiting a column ’s cells to just numbers or dates . ( And I appreciate that the app is smart about its information , permit me typecast something vague like “ Friday ” into a cell and mechanically converting that to the right date . )
When scroll down through recollective document , the app still needs to occasionally pause and load more contentedness ( as it does n’t load up the entire document into retentiveness ) , but this feels firm and less noticeable than in the original version .
Repositioning rows is a mere matter of retarding force and drop , with a visible guide that point exactly which abstract level you ’re targeting .
As you ’re creating a new row of data , it ’s simple to indent or outdent the level using button at the lower - left corner of the work domain — which just happen to be where your left thumb is pose while thumb - typewriting on the iPhone ’s silver screen .
I did run into one anomaly : When adding new course to the bottom of an outline , the jail cell is ab initio blot out behind the papers ’s headers , but it pops into opinion when you begin typing . ( I reported that to the developer . )
Cloud sync
Not long ago a “ peregrine ” version of an app did n’t carry many arithmetic mean ; it could get away with just viewing text file . Now , however , we expect not only editing but a way to make the document come out wherever we are , with as little friction as possible . OmniOutliner take full advantage of Omni Sync Server , a free overhaul the company establish from scrape when it became clear that iCloud was n’t survive to process for them . you’re able to also sync using your own WebDAV server , or add outline to the Local Documents depot area via cumbersome iTunes sync or by transferring a file cabinet from another software using the iOS Open In mechanism .
In my experience , Omni Sync Server is the model of swarm syncing . When you update an synopsis on the iPhone , for instance , the edits are reflected on the iPad and in OmniOutliner 4 for Mac within arcsecond , even when the written document is capable on all the devices at the same time .
If a document is edited in two place before they ’re synced , the host display two copy , with the source added to the claim , such as : “ Test Outline ( difference of opinion from Mobile River on iPhone 6 ) . ” Although I ’d love to see a room to highlight differences between the document , it ’s a nice touch that when you delete one reading , the file name revert back to the original and does n’t litter your documents list with messy conflict names .
The Documents screen expose only a grid of previews . ( Click to elaborate . )
Speaking of the Documents sentiment , I would wish to see an choice to view papers as a textbook leaning instead of just the grid of preview . It can be hard to parse foresightful papers titles when they pass past the border of the document ’s loge , especially on the iPhone . Also , editing a filename means exploit the title on this CRT screen , which is a small target on the iPhone . Currently the only custom showing option here is to sort the documents by date or title .
A newer, better outliner
The heavy news about OmniOutliner 2.3 for iOS is its ability to scarper on the iPhone as well as the iPad , but it ’s worth mention a few welcome features that were contribute in version 2.0 . There are options specific to using an outside keyboard with the app : using the Tab key to navigate between cells , showing keyboard shortcut in inspectors , and typing Command - V to glue text title or spare . The app can spell text shortcuts from TextExpander if it ’s installed . And additional template fromOmniOutliner 4 for Macare usable .
Like the ideas you ’ll be working on , OmniOutliner 2.3 for iOS is evolving nicely .
