A Better Outlining Tool

On April 5, I gave a presentation at the STC Connecticut chapter’s Professional Day on a help authoring topic. During my presentation, I mentioned that I used an outlining tool other than the one available in Microsoft Word…one that I’ve used for years.

Almost instantly, every head in the room went down and I could hear pens all around me as they scribbled across paper to record the software name and URL.

I’m apparently not the only person who dislikes Word’s outliner. If only Microsoft would notice.

The tool is called Action Outline, and it’s developed by Green Parrots Software. There’s a 15-day trial with limited functionality, and the downloadable full version can be purchased for $39.95. If you rely on outlines for planning long documents, online help systems, or most anything else, AO is worth every penny.

Just a few reasons why:

• You can concentrate on the structure and text of your outline, instead of getting hung up on formatting. While you’re working on the outline in AO, everything is simply items and sub-items; you don’t get caught up in trying to make Roman numerals, letters, or decimal points fall in line as you work.
• You can concentrate on overall structure before diving too deep into the supporting text. The left pane of the window lets you focus on your outline tree, and the right pane lets you add supporting information, notes, or quotes when you’re ready.
• It formats your outline in printed output or file format (e.g., RTF) the way you ask it to — and then honors that format until you tell it to do something else.
• You can move individual outline items, or entire branches of the outline tree, with drag-and-drop operations.

Then again, maybe we shouldn’t want Microsoft to notice. They might decide to buy Action Outline and then ruin a really good thing with their own “improvements.”