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Carbonfin outline
I'm in the process of reading GTD and needed a place to put the thoughts I needed to get out of my head. I tried RTM, but it was too complicated for this GTD beginner. Carbonfin's Outline app is almost perfect for my needs. A clean outlining program that allows me to quickly enter information, easily copy or move information around inside an outline and check off completed items. Carbonfin tells me they are considering the things I'd REALLY like to see added. When they add the ability to move items from one outline to another, add tags and have a search option for the tags, I will give it 5 stars.
For the price and my relief in finding such a simple and effective outline app, I was tempted to give it a 5, but I really would like to see the other improvements.Show lessTrickedoutpony
Well executed todo lists
Outliner is well executed and very simple and effective to use. Sure, it doesn't sync with a desktop application, but for a standalone task manger it is a pleasure to use. I've downloaded many of the free todo applications and as with many of the other free (and some purchased) applications often times there are subtle things that make their use an imperfect experience. This isn't the case with Outliner - it does what it says and it does it well. You can have lots of main tasks which can then br broken down into hierarchical sub tasks which can have notes, be either a task or not and tracking for completion and when the task was created. Subtasks will fill in part of their parent tasks indicator giving an idea of how complete a task is which is a nice feature. It would be nice in the future to have a date by which tasks should be completed, but for a first version this is a fine example of what an iPhone app should be.Show lessNewtonHeath
Ok, but no real sync
Good stand alone outliner, easy to use, doesn't have a bunch of needless features. As others have noted, could be improved by including due dates, priority, etc. I converted from Palm when the 3G came out and this is the best replacement I could find for Bonsai, which was great on the Palm. This app claims to sync, but there is no synchronization involved. If you change on the iPhone, changes appear on the web site, but these are read only. I can export from Bonsai on my PC (OmniOutliner on Mac) but this just copies another version onto 'Outliner Online'. Then I can transfer to the iPhone, but I have two copies! I need to either edit in only one place or resolve edits by hand. I realize that two-way sync is non-trivial, but a bunch of Palm apps did this and did it well. I haven't found this to be case on the iPhone.Show lessMike1307
Okay, but could be a lot better
It is an okay outliner, but they need to streamline the interface further and use more iPhone standard conventions. For example, adding a new item should just be done inline. Also, you can't drag and drop items to reorganize them, you have to use another interface of selecting items and then hitting buttons. Same for trashing items, which doesn't use the standard red button and inline delete (and for a small detail- the delete button that does pop up should be red in color). The online syncing is unimpressive, to say the least. Basically you can go online and have it download a text file or OPML file. Or you can import an OPML file there. This could have been done by emailing from within the app and having a forwarding address to email OPMLs to and from. I ended up going with a text list in Evernote to keep track of my To-Dos, but I'd love to see this improve.Show lesstknx
Exactly what I was looking for
Well, I tried as hard as I could to use a free task management program. But the power of this program is what I really needed. I like a structured list and everything I tried couldnt do nested subtopics. That drove me crazy. That, however, wasnt what broke the camels back. When I tried to do some fancyness on my iphone I accidentally erased all my information on the free program I was using. What is great about this app is that if you want it can sync to an online free server to save your data anywhere OR if you want you can email it to yourself/anyone in an outliner format. The $10 is actually a great price for something I am using several times a day. In fact the two most used programs on my iphone are this and the iPod program that came with it. I am finally organized! I love it when people ask me about the work I am doing and I can effortlessly bring up exactly where I am in my current project, even though it has many different parts and subsections. Kudos!Show lesselectronlover
As a Windows user...
The main problem I have with this app is that there isn't an outliner readily available on the Windows platform that I can use to edit the outlines with on my PC. Most of the ones I looked at seem to have been abandoned by their makers, do not support the notes feature, or are over $50 and complicated. Very simple outlines can be edited on several free web-based sites, but they all seem to have significant limitations that make them somewhat uninviting. I'm switching over to the iPhone from Palm and have used Thought Manager there. I can't find a simple way to transfer my outlines, much less edit them on my PC. Also, the outlines are not easy to read in the main window. EACH line or item has to be opened as a screen by itself to be read if it is more than a few words. Also, only one line is visible when editing items. This app has potential, but it has a ways to go to be useful for a PC user as more than a stand-alone outliner that can only be edited on the iPhone itself. A web based editor, rather than just viewer (which is what this developer offers) would make a lot of difference. Notebook has that, and it is delightful. This app could use something similar.Show lessDave in DC
Nothing Like having Nested Lists to Organize Projects!
This App is Great and as I stated in the Title above ... there's nothing like having Nested Lists to Organize Projects! In my opinion, choosing a ToDo/List/GTD App is highly subjective and everyone is going to have different needs/wants in an App such as this. I have purchased and/or evaluated first hand over 25 of the ToDo/List/GTD Apps on the App Store, including MoleSkinery, SpeedList [Great App but NO Nested Lists], MyLists and ALL of the FREE Apps! However, OutLiner is by far the best one for me! Right now I'm giving OutLiner 4 Stars because the only thing missing for me would be to have a way to sort the Outlines [aka: Projects] on the Home Page in the way I prefer. Would like to set my Outline Priority levels myself rather than having the last Outline edited at the top as it is currently defaulted to. I believe some other reviewers have mentioned the same preference. Thanks to Jeremy at CarbonFin for making a GREAT Organizational Tool! Much appreciated!Show lessIanNas
very useful app!
Easily my most used app. I use it pretty much every day... usually just as a way to remember simple things (since memory is not my strong point :)). Say I am driving down the road, listening to a podcast, and hear a good book review. I just jam that baby into CarbonFin Outliner so I don't forget. As this happens more frequently, I started organizing into simple hierarchies, eg : "Random Crap" | "Book Reviews" | "From Good to Great" (and in the notes section, I add that i heard about it on TWiT). I also store "todo lists" in there, and use the hierarchy to separate low/med/high priority stuff. The app has been stable and intuitive for me. Easily worth the 10 bucks I payed for it... I wouldn't have minded if it costs a bit more... especially if there was a way to edit my lists online. Thanks CarbonFin! You improved my memory! ;-)Show lessTiny Lizard
Productivity booster
I've always been an avid outliner; from MORE, WebArranger, InControl, Frontier, and finally, OmniOutliner on the Mac. I've always had the desire for a handheld outliner, and this product sure fits the bill better than many others on the iPhone. I don't use it as a task list, but for a brainstorming/note taking/organizing application. I only regret that I waited a few weeks before buying. I am now able to take notes at a meeting and then email them to myself in plain text AND OPML. No more transcribing from my messy handwritten notes to my computer after a meeting. Big productivity booster and time saver. I also like that I don't have to go through a 3rd party service to share confidential or sensitive notes. I'm not much of a cloud computing guy. Importing is the next big step. Looking forward to it. This is already one of my most-used apps. Great job!Show lessbobbys11
Not reliable
I bought this and added a fairly extensive list to use before traveling. However, when I tried to check the items off while I was packing, I ran into several problems. Whenever I checked off more than three items, it crashed. Whenever I scrolled to the top of my list, it crashed. Every single time. Rebooting the phone did not work. So I deleted the app to reinstall, and lost all my work, including the many hours I put in creating that list. I will never again buy an app that has no way to sync or export its data. This is a great looking app, a nice idea, but I just can't trust it anymore. Even if they fix the crashing problem, I can't be certain something else wouldn't happen where I lose my data. I'm going to move all my lists to Zenbe lists for now. They're working on sublists, and I can sync my data to the web, and even share lists with my wife. And it's free! Maybe when ListPro comes out, I'll consider another app for my packing list and other outliner needs. But I will not trust my data to Outliner again.Show lesspnjwood
