Arranger: simple is good
Arranger is the simplest and least full-featured of the outlining programs being compared here. Yet, it may still find a place on the PalmPilots of some readers. Arranger produces an outline much like the one your teacher instructed you in. Items can be numbered 1, 2, 3, or 1, 1.1 1.111, 2, 2.1, 2.11 and so on or not show a number at all. When you start up Arranger, you begin a new outline. Each outline consists of a series of notes, only the first line of which is visible while in outline mode. You have the ability to use large or small fonts. Following the Windows '95 Explorer metaphor, the box to the left of each item shows a plus if the item can be expanded, a minus if the item can be collapsed or an empty box if there are no sub-notes. If desired a ToDo check box can which sections of a document are already complete.

At present Arranger is the only program of those being reviewed which exports to the Memo Pad in HTML if desired. (NOTE: BrainForest Professional, due out shortly, will also have this ability). One thing I liked was the ease with which I could promote and demote items in Arranger. By dragging the box to the left of each note, I was able to make it a sub-note of a preceding item or to promote it to a higher level. There appeared to be no limit to the number of sub-levels I was able to arrange in Arranger. I stopped when I got eleven levels deep.

Despite its seeming simplicity, a real strength of Arranger is its ability to directly link items from built-in PalmPilot applications. Arranger 1.11 allows linking to ToDo, Memo, Address, Date Book, and Expense You can quickly build an outline by selecting Memos, ToDos and as well as creating your own new text items. Figure A shows an Arranger outline built of links to different PalmPilot Applications. Because these items are actual links to PalmPilot applications, SwitchHack is almost a necessity for anyone planning to seriously use Arranger.

FIGURE A

In this Arranger outline, the icons on the right are indicating items from the Address Book, Expense and ToDo applications.

Hi-Note: text and pictures
Hi-Note is the only outliner available which allows the user to nest both text and pictures in an outline. Included in the Hi-Note product is a full-featured drawing program. This allows you to create pictures up to 800 x 500 pixels in size. Unfortunately, Hi-Note drawings cannot be exported to other PalmPilot graphic formats, nor can Hi-Note import other formats.

Drag and Drop capability is provided in Hi-Note. Notes and pictures can be rearranged by dragging them above or below other items at the same level. To promote or demote a note you move it to an item at a higher or lower level. To make a note or a picture a subnote of another item

In Hi-Note if you want to import a memo into your outline, you must import an entire category from Memo Pad. Once I discovered this, I quickly created a Memo Pad category called "Import", into which I placed Memos I wanted to use in Hi-Note. If you want to export from Hi-Note, it will export top-level outlines with all the sub categories. Each top-level outline is exported as an individual Memo Pad document. With larger documents, I found this confusing.