I rarely use superlatives in reviewing a particular software application or developer, because if everything is the “best,” then nothing can be better. But I have to admit that, as a writer, and as an inveterate list-maker, and as planner and a thinker, I really on OmniOutliner Pro to organize just about every aspect of my life.
With the recent arrival of version 4, the OmniGroup, which I consider one of premier software developers in the entire Mac software world based on the overall high quality of all of its products, OmniOutliner finally gives us the zoom / magnification feature that was missing in its otherwise excellent renditions. It was often tiresome trying to read the tiny font sizes—especially as you get older and your eyes can no longer see the threads of the baseball coming at you, like they once did. It required a little extra work, all that having to create documents with very large font sizes to compensate for that design flaw. After all, I used to complain, if a browser can blow up the text on a web page, why can’t OmniOutliner be just as flexible?
Finally, that lack of magnification problem is fixed!
Version 4 also includes a much better written, better illustrated tutorial on how to create and use styles, which is one of the program’s most powerful features (among many!), but can be tricky to set up and execute until you get the hang of it.
This program is always open on my desktop, no matter what else I am doing. I can pop into it to make a quick note, do some brainstorming, think through a project with all its sub-sets and details, draft a letter, write a chapter of a book, draft an email, or even sketch out my MacUpdate reviews, which I what I am doing right now in it. Or, I can copy a URL to a website that I want to check out later, or record a voice note, or insert an image, or just outline a variety of things can be organized by a parent topic, and sub-divided into children sub-topics.
Some people (myself included) have rightly complained that the OmniGroup took their sweet time upgrading to version 4 and implementing the nice, new zoom in feature. It’s hard to judge a company if we don’t know their staff situation and their company’s priorities. But I can personally testify that this new version must have their attention right now. It must be important to them to fix any bugs in this new release and to make sure customers are happy.
For example, over the past couple of days, I reported through their built-in Crash Reporter, that the program crashed when I tried to revert to a previous version of the document I was working on. Today, I got a personal response back telling me that the problem was fixed and a new version was ready to be downloaded, which, as you see from the description, was one of the reasons incorporate into the minor upgrade to version 4.0.2. So, as I see it, now is the right time to buy, because the more people who start using the program while the iron is hot among their programming staff, the sooner any minor bugs can be squashed and the application made as perfect as it can be.
I suppose that there are other fine outlining programs available, but I have been so content with OmniOutliner Pro that I am not even tempted to try them out, even though I’ve obtained licensed copies of competing products included in some of the bundles I bought.
In short, I have no hesitation in recommending OmniOutliner Pro as a superlative product worthy of your consideration, and I would recommend that you give the demo a trial run to see for yourself. Once you compare its wide feature set with the other outlining products available, you’ll then have to decide if you want to buy the premier application in its category, or settle for a less powerful—and undoubtedly cheaper—product. The “best” product always deserves to demand a higher price. In the case of OmniOutliner, I find their price worth it.