Hearing Adam Curry raving about OmniOutliner Pro lately reminds me that my business is almost entirely run using that app. Every feature of each release of my applications, past, present and future can be found in an outline, along with time estimates, notes, link to specifications, etc.

OmniOutliner is perfect for this, not only because you can check each feature off once it’s done and drag them around as necessary, but also because it can show calculated summaries of project-plan style durations (such as 1d, 2h) without having to fiddle with dependancies, dates, etc.

I’ve also used the dynamic HTML export feature to put Feeder’s release notes online when there are so many changes that a collapsable outline makes sense. I also use it to hammer out testing errors, make lists of things that need doing, and sometimes just to organize the scattered thoughts in my brain. I don’t tend to use the new fancy features all that much but it’s good to know they’re there.

The only things I don’t like about OmniOutliner 3 are the application and document icons, but those are easily fixed. I’ve yet to decide whether I like, or can even understand, the latest version of another one of my favourite applications, OmniGraffle, not that I use it much these days.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 3rd, 2005 at 8:25 pm by Steve Harris and is filed under Mac Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.