Answers to Brian's questions

[Ciaran P. A. Connelly]

On Monday, February 24, 2003, at 09:44  PM, Brian C. wrote:

> So; here's the ten gazillion dollar questions. I'm assuming everyone 
> on this list is a moderately hard-core outliner user. Answer me these 
> questions three:
>
> 1) Who else is out there that we need to pay attention to, and what 
> are the compelling features of their apps?

Not that anyone has tried it yet, but I would be wary of the 
rumored/announced Microsoft OneNote (or whatever it was called).  Not 
sure it will be really compelling or anything, but it may well be 
bundled with Office and so might get widespread use.

Features that other apps seem to have: hot clickable file and web URLs, 
ability to display images etc. inline.  Giving OO some of these more 
scrapbook-like capabilities would be a huge step forward.



> 2) What are the most frustrating features for you about the app in 
> it's current state?

Actually it's pretty damn good.  Most frustrating thing now is 
Applescript problems applying text styles and whatnot.  Most needed 
minor feature?  Ability to make file paths/urls clickable.  Also for 
some reason the custom icon I assign to my toolbar applescript doesn't 
stick - I continually have to re-apply it.

Also, I've requested it before, and a "view only" mode for an outline 
(with faster keyboard navigation than when editing and no risk of 
deletion/modification) would be a major bonus for those of us using 
outlines as references etc.


> 3) What pie in the sky stuff would you love to see?

Oh man - I don't really have a lot of these dreams although some of the 
suggestions I've seen (pivoting, spreadsheet capabilities etc.) would 
be nice.

Maybe the ability to open vCards from address book in order to manage 
guest lists and the like would be a bonus...

> and, for bonus points:
>
> Rank the importance of the answers to the three questions above. For 
> while we're getting more resources on the product, they are still 
> finite, and we'll have to service some tasks before others. Fact of 
> life.

Well probably for me the ranking would go 2/1/3.

Bottom line?  I (and others like me) use OO for taking notes, outlining 
arguments, keeping track of tasks, etc.  It's not the heavy lifting so 
on this list seem to do with OO, but I think its a significant portion 
of your business.  For us, the most important thing is to keep the 
interface clean, and to make OO do what it does excellently.

The future of OO shouldn't be in huge new capabilities (like 
spreadsheets, etc.) but rather in adding a more complete feature set.  
In brief the "ideal" version of OO would include (over what's there 
now):

(1) better file/URL linking (hot-clickable links to 
files/websites/emails/etc.

(2) more scrapbook capabilities (inline images, sounds, movies, etc.)

(3) improved Applescript support (for better styling of automated 
documents), with more examples and whatnot, and ability to set level 
styles.