OmniOutliner

OmniOutliner features

Standard

Pro

Multiple column types

Yes

Yes

Here's where OmniOutliner really stands apart from other outliners, word processors, or even spreadsheet applications. You can create documents with multiple columns that contain different types of information - like pop-up lists, checkboxes, numerical values, dates, durations, or just plain text. Columns can even dynamically calculate sums for you, or produce averages.

Styles

Yes

Yes

Styles are the visual elements that define the look of your documents: your type face choices, row colors, column background images, and so on. OmniOutliner helps you format on the fly with a super-powerful Styles system designed to give you everything you need to apply style changes - from one word at a time to document wide.

Batch find

Yes

Yes

Here's a handy feature for when you need to find a specific word or phrase in your outline: type in your search word, and OmniOutliner searches your whole outline at once. All of the matching results will show up in the Utility drawer and update with each letter you type, so you get results immediately.

Attachments

Yes

Yes

Whether you're creating a grocery list, marketing budget, or an exhaustive analysis of the mating habits of kangaroo mice, sometimes text just isn't enough. Your OmniOutliner documents can include images, sound files (you can even record audio directly into your document with OmniOutliner Professional), movies, web links, and links to files or applications on your computer.

Export options

Yes

Yes

Your OmniOutliner documents can be exported as plain text, rich text, OPML, HTML, or you can write your own custom export plugins. OmniOutliner Professional's HTML-exported web pages allow you to expand and collapse items in a browser, and include all of your document's styles. Snazzy! Your outlines can also be turned into presentations by exporting to Apple's Keynote format.

AppleScript support

Yes

Yes

Create AppleScript shortcuts for complicated tasks, or automate the things you do over and over; you'll get more done, and with fewer mistakes. OmniOutliner can also interact with any other AppleScriptable program, so you could, say, create an AppleScript to take a list of actions and dates from OmniOutliner and draw a calendar of them in OmniGraffle (you have heard of that tasty diagramming program OmniGraffle, right?).

Inline notes

Yes

Yes

Notes can be displayed right beneath the items they're associated with, so you can see all of your notes without having to select each item in turn. If you prefer the old way, you can still choose to view notes in a pane at the bottom of the window. It's up to you!

Folded editing

No

Yes

Folded editing works with you to actively hide and display the information in your outlines, so you can save time and be more productive by focusing on exactly what you want to see.

Sections

No

Yes

The Sections drawer in OmniOutliner Professional reveals your entire document framework at a glance, and allows you to jump from one top-level place to another.

Named styles

No

Yes

Named styles are sets of style attributes that you can save and apply to any part of your outline. Once you've set up a style to your specifications, drag it into your named styles list, then it can be used over and over. Named styles make quick work of your editing - you can apply style changes throughout your document just by dragging styles directly onto the items you want to change.

Clipping service

No

Yes

OmniOutliner Professional's clipping service allows you to select text from other applications and seamlessly store that information in OmniOutliner without actually copying and pasting. It's fast and easy to archive snippets from email, content from web pages, paragraphs from TextEdit, and so on - and OmniOutliner stays out of your way while you're doing so.

Audio recording

No

Yes

Can you talk faster than you can type? Capture those great ideas instantly with OmniOutliner Professional's new audio recording features. OmniOutliner allows you to capture audio directly into your documents so you can add voice memos, or whatever audio you like. The audio file is embedded in your document along with a notation of the date and time.

Saved templates

No

Yes

Your documents can be saved as templates, which can then be used as starting points for new documents. Templates preserve everything about an outline, including its content, its styles, and its document preferences. Once you've saved a template in your Library folder, you can create new documents using OmniOutliner Professional's File > New From Template command.