# Outliner for iPad — user reviews > 130 indexed App Store user reviews of Outliner for iPad by CarbonFin, rated 4.80/5 from 13 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/outliner-for-ipad/id360659928/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/outliner-for-ipad/id360659928.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 12 · 4★ 0 · 3★ 0 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 0 ## What do users think of Outliner for iPad? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 👍 Simple, intuitive interface - 🚀 Fast and responsive performance - 🔄 Seamless syncing across devices - 💾 Free cloud backup and sync service - 📱 Works on iPhone, iPad, and web - 📋 Excellent for organizing hierarchical lists - ✅ Checkboxes and task completion tracking - 🏷️ Tag-based organization system - 📤 OPML export format for portability - 🎯 Minimal, distraction-free design - 📝 Ability to add notes to items - 🔗 Dropbox integration available - 💪 Reliable and stable with no crashes - 🎨 Clean, professional appearance **Cons** - 🔤 Font size options too limited - 👁️ Text too small for accessibility needs - 🎨 No color or formatting options - 📱 Separate paid apps for iPhone and iPad - ⌨️ Poor keyboard support and shortcuts - 🔐 No password protection feature - 📊 Lacks advanced task management features - 🗂️ No folder organization system - 🔗 OneDrive support missing - ⏰ No due dates or reminders - 🖨️ No direct PDF export from app - 🌐 Requires web interface for some imports - 📞 Unresponsive developer support - ⚠️ Infrequent updates and maintenance - 🎯 Limited metadata capabilities **Commonly reported bugs** - Font size settings don't include larger options - Copy and paste functionality lost in recent updates - OPML export doesn't preserve outline hierarchy in Word - Text selection and cursor placement issues - Sync authentication failures causing data loss - App crashes when creating new outlines - Formatting lost when cutting and pasting - Dropbox sync not automatic, requires manual setup per file - Dialog changes don't update until closed - Slow startup time on iPad - Small touch targets for expand/collapse buttons - Multi-line note preview not available **Most requested features** - Larger font size options and accessibility settings - Color coding and text formatting (bold, italics) - Folder-based organization for outlines - Due dates and reminders for tasks - Password protection and encryption - PDF export functionality - Keyboard shortcuts for navigation and hierarchy changes - Multi-select and batch operations - Columns for additional metadata - Dark mode or customizable color themes - Gantt chart or timeline view - Desktop application for Windows/Mac - Universal app (single purchase for iPhone and iPad) - Automatic syncing without manual trigger - Ability to move outlines between lists - Rich text formatting in notes - Web link detection and built-in browser - Image and attachment support - Numbered list export - Integration with Google Tasks or iOS Reminders ## Newest reviews (17 of 130) ### 4/5 — Very good *2016-01-01, version 3.6.1* Simple and well implemented outliner with good feature set. No fuss, no problems. Would like to see folders to manage outlines. Just having one list on the left makes me reluctant to keep adding outlines, I tend to use this for set lists that I need occasional access too. Would like to see full width of iPad used in landscape mode, rather than outline list being fixed on the left, this is redundant. Their free web based outliner, back up and sync facility is genuinely useful. ### 3/5 — app great, support stinks *2015-09-17, version 3.6.1* I like the app very much. I use it for my things to do list, with a different outline for different categories. I switched from Toodledo for my to do lists because with Outliner I'm able to manually sort the items. I'm only giving three stars because the support for the product stinks. I've contacted them many times with product enhancement ideas and never even receive an acknowledgement let alone a meaningful reply. This has happened many times. I haven't seen an upgrade come through for a very long time, also. Is the product still being supported? UPDATE Recently the developer has stated that he hasn't thought about this app for a long time but he may get back to it sometime. This is becoming an issue. Apple apps are becoming orphan children as quickly as new apps get designed. It makes you think twice about putting a lot of meaningful data into an app that may not be supported in a little while. When an app is abandoned by its designer, it doesn't even load up on your iPad after an iOS upgrade. I've had apps disappear never to be seen again because they are no longer listed in the App Store. ### 4/5 — Simple, elegant, fast, but needs COLOUR! *2015-02-26, version 3.6.0* Continues to be one of my most-used apps. Robust sync and elegant to use. As my lists get longer/more sophisticated, I am really missing colour and font size options tho ### 5/5 — Effective simplicity *2015-02-05, version 3.6.0* Excellent outliner. It has an elegant and practical user interface. DropBox syncing works well. I like it that its native format is OPML so that I can easily pick up files from DropBox on my Mac. ### 5/5 — This App gets better and better. Close to perfect ! *2014-09-20, version 3.6.0* This is a truly wonderful and very useful and usable app. Compared to it, many other apps for note-taking seem gimmicky. Some are cool, I'll admit, but Outliner is pure Classic in its focus on creating no-fuss outlines to give both great flexibility AND maximum control. The latest version is even more constructively powerful by its ability to focus in on any suboutline you may be working with, removing the surrounding clutter until you're ready to rejoin it. Great search ! And by the way, Outliner is also considerably enhanced by the new Icons feature of IOS8. The icons add flair to your outline, and even better, you can search on the icon. For example, whenever I create an item that has to do with music, I now insert a musical note 🎵. Then later, I can quickly search all the iitems that have musical notes. This is quicker and more intuitive than formal tagging svhemes. Terrific App, all around! ### 5/5 — My favorite outliner! *2014-08-06, version 3.5.2* CarbonFin's Outliner is still my favorite outliner on the iPad. It is by far the easiest to use and works just like the outliners on my Macs twenty or thirty years ago. Except that it is MUCH more fun to use with the iPad's touchscreen. I can outline articles or newsletters or simply jot down ideas much more quickly here in Outliner than in just about any other app on my iPad. Being in outline format, where you can simply tap the triangles to hide or show child items or whole sections, you can quickly find related items and put your new idea in context. Or not. I've always loved outliners since my first Mac, using "ThinkTank" and "Acta" and "More." Pencil and paper could never match a computer: too much scribbling, erasing and filling in margins. I never got into the habit of cutting the paper into thin strips or using index cards, which were too expensive anyway and better used as flash cards. Once affordable home computers appeared, outlining on pieces of paper was instantly obsolete. Thanks, Steve and Steve! And thanks to Dave Winer for his early easy-to-use outliners! You can write almost anything with Outliner. I've written articles where I outlined each paragraph. Each sentence was a different item and sometimes even each phrase, so that I could rearrange them until I achieved the impact I wanted. I'm sure that people have written books with it. I've tried, but I never had the endurance, nor the typing speed. For people like me Outliner is better suited to writing poetry or lyrics or short stories. And it should be great for constructing jokes. I use the iPhone version for grocery lists and to jot down or even dictate ideas. Maybe I should try dictating a novel in Outliner on my iPad! That would be doable -- Apple has a great dictation feature using Siri. Might even be fun! When does NaNoWriMo start? Why wait? ### 5/5 — Elegant and powerful syncing and sharing *2014-07-25, version 3.5.2* I've tried several of the "bigger" outline apps out there and this one remains my favorite. My favorite features: - instant syncing - iPhone/iPad apps - a full featured web app for times when I need web access - outline sharing - hiding archived lists My wife and I mainly use it for sharing lists of todos when we have trips or events we need to plan together. The thing has never crashed and the syncing has been flawless. ### 5/5 — Thought navigator / refiner *2014-07-04, version 3.5.1* Facilitates navigating from the high level concepts to the gritty details and back. I've used this tool for years to compose speeches, develop programs, plan meetings, prepare debates, design experiments, outline book manuscripts and more. This is easily one of my top five, must-have tools. ### 5/5 — my most used app *2014-06-04, version 3.5.1* I use both the iPad and iPhone Carbonfin apps. The new auto-sync feature is excellent. Syncing between the iPad and iPhone via Dropbox makes having my outlines with me all the time easy, and backing up the outlines on my Mac is simple via Dropbox. The app continues to get many useful enhancements. It is a basic outliner, uncluttered with bloated and distracting features. Highly recommended. ### 5/5 — This is the best most under rated app in the store *2014-05-24, version 3.5.0* I've been using carbon fin for a few years. It's is the most versatile and flexible apps I've ever used. So many apps are all bells and whistles and some are way too complicated. I've used them all. Pone of the best!!!! ### 4/5 — Wonderful App *2014-05-23, version 3.5.0* This is a wonderful app, easy to use and great to use. Tags are very helpful, but I really do like folders as well as tags. This would all areas if Focus and I can then add the 5th Star ### 5/5 — Very Nice *2014-04-07, version 3.4.4* This I precisely the outliner that I was looking for. It allows me to create a hierarchical list of items where I can indent them into sub lists. Reorganizing the list is as easy as dragging an item. It also has check boxes which is great to show if I have completed an item. This is simple, elegant and priced right. ### 5/5 — JE *2013-10-27, version 3.4.0* A useful app. One of the few worthwhile apps for writers. Most of them are rubbish ### 5/5 — Excellent *2013-10-20, version 3.4.0* I have used outliner for 4 years daily. It is the best way to plan, organize, and execute ideas, to-do lists, projects. Very intuitive working style. PC version is not as easy to use as ios but I don't use it much. Nice to have. Wish list: Automatic sync, without having to do it manually. Print an outline, section or item directly without having to copy and past to notes. ### 4/5 — A model program *2013-07-29, version 3.3.1* What distinguishes this sweet little program is that it works flawlessly across platforms - web, iPhone and iPad - and at no extra charge. In this aspect it represents what every mobile piece of software should be but what only a handful are. This is the real deal and a bargain at the price. Update: this program has sadly fallen very much behind the best in class in the past year. It takes too many steps to organize, etc. Competitors such as taskpaper, in which you can rearrange outlines w/drag and drop and syncs directly via Dropbox on iOS, have left this once gem of a program in the dust. ### 5/5 — Quick and easy *2013-07-14, version 3.3.0* I needed something to transfer my ithoughtshd mindmaps into a linear form for presentations. Import/ export is perfect. Simple and easy. Not weighted down with needless features. ### 2/5 — Font too small *2013-06-19, version 3.2.0* Full featured and fairly easy to use—although it relies on the menu bar a lot. Unfortunately, the font is too small for the iPad Mini. There's a switch for an even smaller font (which is nuts), but it really needs a full selection of fonts and sizes. Even simple plus and minus buttons for text size would work. Also, changes selected in dialogs don't update until you close the dialog. It does everything you could want, but it desperately needs a user experience (UX) overhaul. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Latest updated destroyed what used to be a great product *2017-06-25, version 3.8.1* I have been using CarbonFin Outliner since my iPad 1 and it has always been a great product. Sadly in the latest version they have removed the simple copy and paste feature which enabled used to copy an entire outline into another another file format for editing. Now it converts into am OMPL format but that won't work with any version of Word I have found or Word 365 I used to be able to make this the core app I used to write technology reviews now not only is the current version useless but it has made it impossible for me to do anything with years of notes. An act of total vandalism by the developers who shold be ashamed of themselves. Do not waste your time or money on this. ### 1/5 — Primitive & buggy *2012-10-07, version 3.1.0* Just barely functional. Text select, cut, paste and insert easily confuse editor resulting in wrong cursor location. Most operations occur via icons so natural gestures (ANY gestures) don't work. This means your hand is flying around the screen which is slow, and often covers your outline. It is hard to rearrange items as you have to cut and paste (see above re bugs). Many other outliners with more functionality for less $$$. ### 1/5 — Trop cher pour ce que c'est *2012-09-14, version 3.0.1* 4,99, c'est du vol! On peut uniquement faire des listes et les regrouper. Aucune échéance possible, on peut seulement faire une liste. Un simple carnet avec la possibilité de cocher ce qui est fait. SI vous recherchez un gestionnaire de tâche, sauvez-vous! Je viens de l'acheter (il y a 15 minutes) et si je pouvais me faire rembourser, je le ferais. ProjectBook est beaucoup mieux pour un prix similaire (un peu plus compliqué d'utilisation au premier abord, mais on n'a rien pur rien...). Si vous êtes prêts à payer le prix, Omnifocus est beaucoup mieux. ### 1/5 — Not fully baked *2012-07-19, version 3.0.1* Odd formatting issues with cutting and pasting - would randomly lose the formatting. These issues, and other issues just make it too time consuming to use this as a productivity app. ### 1/5 — Lost everything! *2012-06-10, version 3.0.1* I worked for an hour and I attempted to sync - I received a message that authentication failed. Then… instead of taking me to the screen to try my password - the entire outline disappeared from my iPad - it's gone. Grief! ### 1/5 — Simply doesn't work! *2011-08-28, version 2.7.0* This app just doesn't work. I have re-installed it but i keep getting error 500. I have e-mailed the developer and two weeks later, no response as yet. What a waste! ### 1/5 — Just be careful *2010-07-13, version 0* This one crashed unexpectantly and lost all the data in that document - not good! ### 1/5 — frustrating keyboard support *2010-04-08, version 0* I was quite excited to read the reviews of this CarbonFin outliner for the iPad. So, I purchased CF Outliner and grabbed my Bluetooth keyboard, expecting outlining Nirvana. And so far, I'm just frustrated and sorry for wasting the money. I can't seem to figure out how to move items, delete them, change types or navigate outlines with a keyboard. Sorry, but ThinkTank on some old DOS ultra-portable would be far faster and more efficient than CF Outliner. It is hard to describe how quickly my excitement went to disappointment. If you are looking for truly efficient and effective outlining on the iPad with the ability to use a keyboard, let me save you the money and the letdown. It coulda been a contender... ### 2/5 — Great outliner, if you have perfect vision *2023-08-10, version 3.15.0* NEW CAVEAT: There is a setting to make font smaller, but not one to make it larger or even largest. Nowadays my vision won't let me work without a bigger font. Developers need to give more thought to accessibility. -- ORIGINAL REVIEW (5 STARS): OmniOutliner is prettier and offers columns, this outliner lets me get real work done fast. It's easy to make and rearrange an outline, and it works with both email and the developer's free online syncing service. Easy to get data in and out with OPML. I actually use OmniOutliner, too, but for specific purposes involving highly formatted documents I create on my Mac. For serious thinking and outlining on the go, whether on my iPad or iPod, this is what I prefer to use, because it gets out of my way and lets me work. Also let's me organize my outlines with tags, which I can treat like folders. Wishes? Dropbox support would be nice. UPDATE: The addition of Dropbox support has been very helpful. Unfortunately, one must opt for Dropbox support on a file-by-file basis, and the syncing is not automatic. Still, it's pretty easy. ### 2/5 — Once excellent product *2020-04-10, version 3.12.0* I have used this product for a long time now and found it invaluable for managing small or complex projects. Just enough functionality without being overburdened with complexity. Sadly, I need to connect to OneDrive and that doesn’t work. The developer has stopped responding to support requests and updates are few and far between (been waiting a while to another bug). My feeling is that the product is effectively dead. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Just the job *2026-01-15, version 3.19.2* I’ve been using the CarbonFin Outliner on iPad and iPhone for over 10 years and cannot fault it. Use it mainly for trips or holiday packing and wouldn’t want to live without it. Can’t think of any negatives so 5/5 from me. ### 5/5 — Absolutely one of the essential apps! *2024-03-19, version 3.16.0* I have used this app for many years. I love it! I use it for packing lists, grocery lists, errands, brainstorming notes. I can export a list to my mind mapping app easily. It has easily moved to various new iPads over the years, with all data intact. Thank you so much for this app. ### 5/5 — Wonderfully useful app highly recommended *2021-06-10, version 3.13.0* My favorite feature is that it keeps copies in synch, so the shared checklists are always up to date on whatever devices they live on. A nice to have feature would be to mark a task as in progress but not yet complete. The workaround is just to leave the task open and use notes for progress. One can also micromanage by splitting the task down into two or more sub tasks. Another nice to have would be counts of how many tasks are in the outline, just informationally. ### 5/5 — My favorite app *2021-05-02, version 3.13.0* I have been using this outliner app for 7 years or even more, and this is my everyday tool for all the notes I take. All my notes are hierarchical, with a deep and detailed hierarchy, and I can’t imagine how other people work with “flat” note-taking apps. ### 5/5 — Been using it forever, it’s still the best *2020-09-18, version 3.12.2* This is the longest running app I’ve had. It’s so simple and it’s become a part of the way I think. I have other outliner apps and they simply get in the way. Yes they have lots of other bells and whistles but nothing comes close to the simplicity and straightforward way this app works. Completely recommend this to anyone, and the web interface is icing on the cake. Great stuff. ### 5/5 — Still the best *2020-03-20, version 3.12.0* Been using and relying on this app for years. The web based Outliner Online is super helpful and a nice bonus. ### 5/5 — This is the best outliner in the world! *2018-10-29, version 3.10.1* Carbonfin outliner is head and shoulders the best outliner is the world. It is extremely flexible, a new list or adding an entry to an-9#ting liebteyto a couple of intuitive clicks. The layout on the iPad is especially handy. The powerful season function will jet you manage even long,complex lists easily. This is really a gem!! ### 5/5 — I like Outliner so far *2018-06-13, version 3.9.1* I have only had outliner for a few days but am already impressed. I have the app on my iPad, iPhone and am also using the free carbonfin.com web interface. So this means I can be on both desktop and devices updating my outlines. And I can easily sync my outlines. As a backup I can save my outline to Dropbox — the Dropbox feature is built into the app — a folder is automatically set up in Dropbox for this purpose. And I can also save an outline in plain text if I want to. Importantly, the outline elements are dragable on my devices and can be moved up and down on the web interface . And all of this is very simple to do. Very intuitive. Easy to learn. The developers clearly know what they are doing and must be fans of outline programs — because they have created a superb app. ....Rowby. ### 5/5 — The best *2017-04-07, version 3.8.1* Apl 2018 The app now has full screen view in landscape, making it officially the best outliner in the App Store. There are apps that make fancier outlines, but frankly on the iPad fussing with formatting is just annoying. Plus they use proprietary formats. This app uses OPML, which with Dropbox sync makes it easy to transfer usable data between all platforms. This plus the ability to fold text (hiding points you're not working on) makes it a great way to get serious writing done on the iPad. Feb 2016 I've had Outliner since iPad 1, and it's still the best OPML app in the store. And still desperately needs (1) full screen landscape mode and (2) ability to select Dropbox folder for sync. Neither of these are hard. Older: This is a really good app. It does outlining, just outlining, really well. Which is why it is so frustrating that after 5 years, the developers still haven't released a version adapted to the IPAD. What you get is two iPhone screens sitting next to each other, crowding the space and making it harder to actually write. Carbonfin, put in full screen landscape mode in the next version. Please! Old review: Function-wise, this is the best outliner in the store. Although it doesn't have the fancy formatting of omnioutliner, it also doesn't require their proprietary format. And Dropbox sync means I can avoid Carbonfin's sync services, too--that's good. Problem: as it's been since the beginning, this app in landscape remains two iPhone screens glued together. Full screen mode in landscape would be easier to use with large outlines, better looking, and would prevent me from unwanted touches on the list of outlines. Please, please give us full screen mode in landscape!--as I've been asking for three years now. All other apps do it, so I know you can too! ### 5/5 — Been Using it for Years *2015-03-23, version 3.6.0* I've tried dozens of outlining and mind mapping apps, but always return to Outliner. It just works! Keep up the good work, guys! This is one of the single most useful apps in my toolkit. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-07-24.*