Although I probably would not use Hi-Note for creating an article or document, I would use it the way Figure B shows. H-Note works well as an organized place to keep the various lists we all maintain such as a shopping list, book and music list, list of directions with associated maps, and a list of passwords. Each outline can be marked private, public, read-only.

FIGURE B

In this Hi-Note list of lists, I can even include a map drawing along with my directions.

ThoughtMill: full-featured and visually oriented
ThoughtMill from Hands High Software provides serious outlining power and a couple of very engaging features. ThoughtMill features an icon bar at the bottom of the screen which enables you to perform common tasks like adding or deleting an item, turning on or off completion boxes and leaving the outline. A triangle to the right of an item, indicates an item which can be expanded; a dot indicates an item which has no daughter items. Numbered outlines are not generated by ThoughtMill. When an outline is begun, you must add new items by using the plus sign icon

Like Hi-Note, ThoughtMill will import an entire category of memos from the built-in Memo Pad application. ThoughtMill, however, will try to present you with a workable outline by treating spacing and tabs in the original memo in such a way that it produces a workable outline once imported.

Two features that will endear ThoughtMill to many users are the Can and the Folder visible at the bottom of Figure C. Let's say that while working you decide that a certain section will be used later on, but you are not sure where. Drag it to the Folder, represented by a folder icon at the bottom of the screen. When you have decided where that particular gem should go, drag it out of the folder again and place it wherever in the outline you would like it. So far this sounds fairly sensible, but here's the neat twist. The Folder holds up to ten items. The trash feature works much like the Macintosh trash. You can drag up to ten items there which will be available until to you empty the trash by selecting Empty Trash from the Options menu. Equally valuable is the fact that ThoughtMill features undo, available from the menu by using a Command + U keystroke combination.

FIGURE C

The ThoughtMill Folder and Trash will each hold up to ten items that can be placed anywhere in my document.

BrainForest: innovative and intuitive
Brainforest is by far the most ambitious and full-featured of the products reviewed here. Alone among all the outliners available for the PalmPilot, it will soon feature a companion desktop application. This will allow you to create your outline in the PC or Mac version of BrainForest, HotSync it to the PalmPilot without putting it into Memo Pad and continue working. This is really what I have been looking for. Many PalmPilot users are reluctant to edit really large documents entirely in Graffiti. The PiloKey adapter from LandWare, which enables a PalmPilot to use a Newton keyboard for input might be worth investigating for those who plan to make serious use of the other outliners mentioned in this article. The PiloKey solution is now Palm III compatible.