![]() ![]() A few sources claim an origin in Leonardo DaVinci! As it happens, I’ve been personally involved in some of the more recent history of visual brainstorming, moreso than in the outlining branch that is the focus of ATPO. Techniques for visual brainstorming have a long and complex history, largely independent of outlining. For many users, switching between the two is a pretty powerful combination. Where outliners are graphic features added to text layout to manage concepts, mindmappers are the opposite: text features added to graphic layout. That’s where these chart views come into play. But what if I also wanted an outline of all the features of the fictional land: place names, rules history, geographic features, and such? There’s no natural linear order for something like this: in fact, it might even make sense to lay it out rather like a two-dimensional map. That makes sense if I am writing Lord of the Rings. Lists that depend on an indexing order, like the alphabet, also do well with outlining. The linear nature of outliners is also great for setting up and navigating ordered lists, including to-do lists which might be ordered by date or priority. That makes outlines a natural for authoring something that will end up being read linearly, like this column or a book. The whole thing refers to a linear flow: no matter what information you are capturing, the outline has a beginning and an end, a flow. That graphic layout is a matter of indentation, disclosure triangles, and often styles and interface icons. The kind of outliners we’ve been covering so far are essentially editors-at root, text editors-that add graphic layout.
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