Outlinely 2.0 – a quick review

Outlinely 2.0 sports a new user interface, which includes a pretty typical library panel.

Updated April 28:

Outlinely is a simple, but elegant outlining application for Mac OS. I have written about the app before, here. Version 2.0 was just released. The big feature addition is the library, which looks like a fairly standard organization panel where you can tuck your outlines into folders. This isn’t the most sophisticated “library” panel you will find, but it looks as if it will be handy.

It is not immediately apparent how to add folders to the library, but if you hover the cursor over the location (iCloud or On My Mac), a plus sign appears. Clicking this creates a new folder. You can’t nest folders, however.

One thing I found a little disconcerting is that the current document remains open in the editor window when you select another folder — it won’t change until you select another document. Consequently, you can be at a loss for which folder the document is actually in. See the screenshot below for an example:

In which folder is this document categorized? Can’t tell from the user interface because I navigated off the Website folder.

This document is in my Website folder, but there is no way to tell that from the data on screen. This could be a big deal if you have a lot of folders and a lot of outline documents. A breadcrumb trail at the top of the document editor would solve this.

But all in all, Outlinely is a nice application. It feels like a standard text editor, but with a fairly powerful outline engine under the hood. At $14.95 (U.S.) some folks might find it a little pricey. But I was weaned on applications that cost hundreds of dollars, so it seems like a good deal to me. Update: The developer is offering a version without the library feature for free. Check it out at the App Store. It’s called Outlinely Express.