Visual Outliner Rapid Idea Organization Software

[visualoutliner]

Hello DonationCoder Folks,

We would like to announce our brand new software, The Visual Outliner:

* It's a fast, easy and fun hierarchical multi-level outliner for Windows.
* If you like the Omni Outliner for Mac, Visual Outliner is a great alternative for Windows.
* It feels like you are writing on Notepad, but with automatic outlining functionally.
* You can easily drag-and-drop outline entries all around the document. Try to do that with MS Word.
* If you don't like the mouse, there are plenty of keyboard shortcuts.
* You can quickly build your own theme with the theme composer. 
* It uses OPML as the native file format. It can export to plain text, html and markdown.
* It supports Tags, Notes, Hyperlinks, Task Tracking.
* The special feature, The Bucket of Ideas, can help you organize your brainstorming.

We strongly believe that our tool can help you with brainstorming and idea organization. It's the in-house tool that we ourselves use on a daily basis to develop our own algorithms and documentation.

Check it out at:

https://www.visualoutliner.com/

Charities are welcome! We are the developers of GoalEnforcer (mentioned in this forum a few times) and we've been helping lots of charities getting organized over the years.
 
Visual Outliner Rapid Idea Organization Software
Visual Outliner Rapid Idea Organization Software   

[wraith808]

At one place, your site says download the free version- in the other case, it's the free demo.  Is it meant to be a demo?  Or a free version?  And what are the differences?

[visualoutliner]

Thank you for your feedback Wraith

Free DEMO => You can check all features, there is no limitation, there is no time limit, however you cannot save.

Free Trial => You usually have all features, you can save your projects, but it works for a limited time.

Free Version => It has reduced functionality, but you can save your projects and it works forever.

We've just released Visual Outliner, and we are now offering a "Free DEMO." We'll soon release a "Free Version" (next month), and maybe a  "Free Trial" in the future.

Just reminding you that we offer 60 day money back money back guarantee, so if it doesn't fit your needs you can ask for your refund.

Also announcing that we are currently offering a Black Friday Special (50% discount). Just visit this page:

https://visualoutlin...idayspecial2018.html

and enter code BFD18 during checkout. (valid until 11/26/2018)

I'll make sure the website demo version wording gets fixed. Thank you!

[wraith808]

What is the 'reduced functionality' of the free version?  That's not spelled out anywhere on the site.

[visualoutliner]

We don't have a free version yet, that's coming in December.
We have a DEMO version right now, which includes all the functionality except "save."
I will announce the 'reduced functionality' of the free version by the time it's released.

[wraith808]

I'd suggest that you might want to switch this verbiage until then.  It's the part that confused me.

[visualoutliner]

Switched! Thank you for your feedback.
 

[IainB]

@visualoutliner: Nice features!   
I for one shall watch the development of Visual Outliner with interest.  Good luck!   

Meanwhile, just to give a quick nod to the importance of user requirements:

By the way, because PIM (Personal Information Management) is a very important matter for me in my personal and work life, I have defined and documented my requirements - e.g., in evaluating CHS (Clipboard Help and Spell) I applied the above method:

@mouser - by the way, there is still this: User Requirements for CHS

It could be used to save repetition by different/new CHS users. I put quite a bit of effort into that. Have not updated it in ages as no-one seemed interested. I think I left it as public and editable.

-IainB (November 16, 2015, 10:05 AM)

- which has apparently caused some readers to experience such traumatic mind-expansion and neural damage that it induces a temporary state of profound sleep from which the reader awakens with a complete loss of memory of ever having seen it in the first place. (This is the way Nature helps us to recover from traumatic experiences.)

-IainB (October 23, 2018, 07:57 PM)

Amnesia rules.

[visualoutliner]

Nicely organized, thank you for your sharing it. 
Are you the developer of CHS?
If so, how did you collect all those "user requirements?" I'm curious. Survey?
The problem I had with surveys is that the "highly technical users" are the ones most likely to answer surveys.
They have a high demand for fancy features, which are not really useful to the regular users and might even scare them away. 

[wraith808]

Are you the developer of CHS?

-visualoutliner (November 26, 2018, 05:44 PM)

Mouser (that he refers to in the quote) developed CHS.

[IainB]

@visualoutliner:

Are you the developer of CHS?
If so, how did you collect all those "user requirements?" I'm curious. Survey?

-visualoutliner (November 26, 2018, 05:44 PM)

• (a) No, I am not the author/developer of CHS - @mouser is.
  I am however a keen fan and user of CHS and sometimes suggest changes/improvements for CHS. ...   
  
  
• (b) As an interesting exercise, I built the draft of requirements from my analysis of a collection comprised of my own and others' stated user requirements and the interpolated/deduced/postulated requirements that will have been met by the existing AS-IS status of CHS, with the idea that the whole might be useful as a CHS user community tool to help define and distinguish the differences between "business/user requirements/needs" and "feature wants".
  Whilst it might not be entirely correct as it currently stands (e.g., may need updating), as far as I am aware it is the only attempted documented analysis and definition of requirements for CHS that exists publicly.
  It could seem a bit confusing though, as it also attempts to demonstrate the overlap between requirements in two domains - PIM users and CHS/Clipboard users, so there's quite a lot going on in that table - including, for example, "Priority".

The reason I pointed out the CHS requirements was to suggest that you could do a lot worse than document the VisualOutliner business/user requirements and priorities. From experience of small and large systems development as a programmer, systems analyst and as a project manager, application development success/failure is often dependent on the timely collection and ranking of business/user requirements and priorities.
Again, from experience, simply dumping an embryonic product development onto the table and saying "tell me what you think about it" (OWTTE) isn't necessarily going to be conducive to, or guarantee success. Ideally, I would suggest that you use formal ß-testers, at least.