Customer Reviews

Outline 4D

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The back of the software box describes the program as "the most powerful way to outline, plan, and present your ideas....lets you brainstorm, create structure, and organize your ideas....timeline format that is vastly superior to index cards...." They had me at "index cards." Having previously organized my tasks for an art retrospective spanning several decades on (mostly) color-coded index cards, it was not an experience I wanted to repeat so an organizational structure software with the extra added bonuses of timeline and color-coding features was exactly what I thought I wanted.

Facing a similar project again and starting almost from scratch, I wanted some sort of outline structure in which I could organize my thoughts and prioritize my tasks over the two-year planning period. Having tried to do this before using Excel, Access, Word, and index cards, I wanted a more coordinated approach.

I could tell from the screenshots that screenplays were one possible application. What I didn't realize was that, this software apparently assumes that writers are the only people who need to structure and organize ideas that flow sequentially and in a timeline. Anyone involved in planning public events or complex extended projects, also needs this type of framework.

This seems to be a software written for right-brained (creative) people by left-brained (technical) people. (I'm really not sure how that combination will work out.) Being predominantly left-brained myself, I enjoyed playing with the program even after concluding I would probably not be able to bend it to my will. I attempted to use the most general of the many templates provided for jump starting a project ("4-Level Outline" and "Brainstorming".) Even these templates assume you have scenes and characters. Using "User Defined" seems most likely possibility but also an incredibly complex immersion into a program that is sufficiently complex already.

But, in the process, I've noticed the following:

* The learning curve for the program, while not difficult, is cumbersome. It doesn't resemble any program that I'm familiar with, such as those from Microsoft Office or Adobe Creative Suite.

* Using the templates as a starting point, you start with a certain structure you just have to fill and modify. Defining a structure from scratch, however, is a major production.

* There is plenty of help available and a multitude of videos demonstrating specific steps and processes but it seems to me that, until the writer masters the program, he'll have forgotten what he was going to write before he can figure out how to enter it. This seems like an inevitable part of the learning curve.

* You might want to go to you-tube and look up some of these videos to see if they go along with your needs or your way of working. I wish I had.

* Some menu items and keyboard shortcuts are familiar (such as file>save or the keyboard shortcut "control + S" and all the copy, paste, select all functions.) But the "Event", "Tools", and "Window" menus are foreign territories, and learning shortcuts like "Promote = alt+shift+left arrow" will take a lot of initial effort and memorizing.

* The program is really designed to use with keyboard shortcuts (all of which are provided along with the menu items).

* The program is, as the title implies, for outlining and creating structure, scene descriptions, purpose and innuendo, keeping track of the character's actions, etc.--but NOT for actually writing out dialog, production details, set design or setting descriptions, or directorial notes. Presumably, you do all that in another program.

* You can import text from other programs but the only fairly-common file extension for importing is RTF ( Rich Text Format, which is available from Word under the "save as" option.) You can also export, but I'm not sure to where.

* The program is endlessly editable. You start with only the most basic idea outline and eventually flesh it out in the most agonizingly precise detail. You can insert, delete, move anything you want anywhere you want to put it and the timeline is automatically updated to reflect that.

* The timeline function seems to be linked to the heading or upper parts of the hierarchy of events. This is mostly things like act and sequence (or scene or chapter) names and numbers.

* The same color coding that appears in the text section (your text) will appear in the corresponding spot on the timeline.

* The text flows vertically, the timeline flows horizontally.

* It helps to have a big monitor to show all this.

* There are templates provided for plays, screenplays, commercials, novels, etc.

* There are examples provided about how a completed screenplay or book would look to help you pattern your work accordingly. I'm assuming that, since the person studying these examples is familiar with what the finished product was (like the various Star War episodes are laid out in excruciating detail) this in-depth visual reference can be very helpful.

* In addition to the color coding in the text and the timeline, there is a small vertical bar that shows color coded graphical representation of the structure that is being constructed.

* The program assumes that you think in the same hierarchical structure that it thinks, however, there are preferences that can be set by the user to bring the program more in line with his own vision or workflow.

* It doesn't seem applicable for academic publications requiring footnotes. You have to be able to structure your writing into levels such as Chapter/Section or Act/Sequence/Scene. If you can do that, the program can accommodate whatever length or complexity you wish to throw at it.

A last note: The program is supposed to run on Windows 7. I was unable to install it and there is a problem that could not be resolved by reinstalling or checking online. I have a virtual XP mode within W7 Pro, and it installed and ran fine there.

Despite the fact that, for me, it's probably a no-go, I'm still very impressed with the program.

I'm one of those people who actually did what the English teacher said, and wrote my outlines first. Especially for books and book chapters, I find outlining essential to keep a coherent structure.

I used to use tools such as MaxThink and ThinkTank. In fact, MaxThink was the very last DOS-based program that I retired. I've been waiting for a long time for a really good tool for outlining in the Windows world.

I'm afraid this isn't it.

Outline 4D is more aimed at people doing screenplays and commercials. For general writing, its outlining capabilities are roughly the same as those in Microsoft Word. Since most serious writers already have Word, there's no reason for them to get this.

Even for those doing dramatic writing, I can't see that Outline 4D really offers that much beyond what Word's outline view will do. Outline 4D's usability (navigation through an outline, for example) is somewhat better, but not dramatically so. There are some additional features such as a brainstorming template, but I didn't find it nearly as helpful as the brainstorming tools in MaxThink.

The minor improvements are then balanced by drawbacks, the biggest one being lack of any decent export capability. The only non-proprietary format for export is Rich Text Format, and RTF does not preserve the outline levels in any meaningful way. They are just given different font sizes in the exported document. To me, the whole point of doing an outline is to give a document structure that gets preserved throughout the writing process, and Outline 4D doesn't do that.

If you don't have Word, and if you use other products from this company, you might find this useful. $99 seems a bit steep, but I'm a proponent of writers using the best tools for their purposes they can find. However, writers of general works won't find enough here to justify the cost, I think.

Having written two novels and a number of short stories, I'm always interested in making the job easier.

I'm also a big tech addict who is easily bored. Hence, I've written in Word, Pages, StoryMill, Scriviner, and, my current favorite, Storyist. I say all this to let you know I'm not a Luddite - if technology can make my writing easier, I'm all for it! I even like using new software just for the novelty of it. New tools=less boredom=more fun!

That being said, Outline 4D confounded me. I found it ugly, cluttered and unusable without running through all the related videos. Some learning curve is OK, but Outline 4D's demands felt oppressive to me. I like to jump in and get started with software with as little upfront study as possible, learning more features as I need them. With Outline 4D, even setting up a simple outline was unintuitive. At some point, I felt Outline 4D's complexity far exceeded its benefits - I could either figure out this behemoth or actually write.

As a tool for creative writers, Outline 4D is kind of a turn off. It's not fun, pretty or inspiring to use. It reminded me of project management software - lots of drill-down detail you can record, but demanding and inflexible to use. I'm not even sure what problem it solves - for the novelist, how is it more useful than far simpler outlining solutions? Three of the the program I listed above (StoryMill, Scriviner and Storyist) have built in outliners that use the familiar, time-honored index card paradigm. When I have timeline issues I can't solve with them, I use an actual calendar to keep track of my stories' events. It works brilliantly and doesn't require me to learn a whole new method of recording and understanding how events unfold and overlap.

Still, I'm giving the product three stars, as I'm willing to concede that I just might have been smart enough to get it. Also, I know Write Brothers makes other well-regarded writing software, and I hope they continue to innovate in this market. If they do, I hope they bring down the cost or incorporate Outline $D tools into their other offerings - close to a Benjamin for a stand-alone outliner seems excessive.

I am not an author or screenwriter, but I thought I'd give this product a try because I work with a lot of unstructured information that I like to organize in outlines or other ad-hoc forms, much like what one would do with a pencil and paper notebook, but am trying to improve upon that. I have tried some other applications for this purpose, and thought that Outline 4D might have some promise.

Microsoft Word and other text editors are far too rigid, slow and cumbersome, so no good. For example, they generally don't let you type or draw at random points on a page, as you could do in a real notebook.

The best application I have found for this so far is Microsoft OneNote 2007, which truly does allow you to type or draw at any point on any page, so I have been using it for that purpose with good results.

Still seeking a better alternative for what is obviously not yet a standard application, I gave Outline 4D a try, but it didn't work for my purpose for a variety of reasons, mainly because of the specific and structured way that it requires you to enter information so that it can be organized on a time line, and that inhibits the more free-form method I was seeking.

What I quickly learned is that this product is meant for a very specific purpose, which is collecting and structuring information whose key organizing factor is the time-line. If you are collecting and assembling information that is intended to fit into a sequence such as a book, play or screenplay, Outline 4D provides interesting capabilities. Not having tried any competing products, if there are any, I can't say how it compares, but I will make the following observations:

* If you have any grasp of the concept, i.e. organizing information along a time line, the product is fairly intuitive and easy to get started with. Without reading any instructions, I was able to lay out information and organize it in sequences.
* One really nice feature is a slider that allows you to expand or contract the displayed time line very easily.
* The user interface has a rather old-fashioned look to it. While this does not detract from the functionality of the product, it does make you aware that not much thought or investment has gone into maintaining a modern appearance. This is increasingly acute as we become more accustomed to the quality of graphics and user interfaces that we see in iPhones, etc.

Bottom line: If you are organizing information mainly on the basis of a time line, this software might work for you, but it really doesn't work for other types of ad-hoc organization. Maybe everyone else knew this, but if you didn't, now you do.

This is an updated product I know very well as StoryView, and I have used it for way longer than 7-8 years. It's addition to my writing productivity make it invaluable.

I can still remember that original decision to buy it. Boy, was money tight back in those early days. With the hundreds of details I wanted to track about creating my new story, it made having such a product a wise choice.

Out of the box, I looked over the variety of templates it offered and tinkered with each one for a bit. While they were well-focused on managing one's story, none of them were even close to what I wanted my story to look like in its development stages. I also use another product from Write Brothers called Dramatica Pro, and I sought to fully implement that literary view of story in this new software.

Of course, the learning curve is not the easiest because it's an interface like I had never seen before, and yet four days later, I had the first iteration of an outline that pleased me. The great part is that it's a text outline and a visual one as well. For me, that visual outline was worth the price of the package alone, and it's priced ever lower than what I paid with this new release.

As a novelist, I'm very pleased with the overall performance of this software, and it has served me well over the years. While I'm able to create "outline buckets" (my term not theirs) to hold a vast amount of bits and pieces about my evolving story, I'm also thinking its versatility is quite high for doing that in a variety of other areas.

I have used mind mapping software in the past to expand my thinking about specific aspects or subject areas of my story creation. With this software, I was also able to implement that kind of free-flowing thinking and have that functionality available in one piece of software instead of two.

So I'm thinking it's usefulness is far greater than just for story development. If you can imagine a necessity for outlining or exploring any idea or project in your life, then perhaps this is a tool you may want to seriously consider for that task.

[...]

I've used the earlier version of this (StoryView) since 2004. WriteBros really missed the mark when they rebranded it as an outliner. All of the reviews that say there are better and cheaper outliners are absolutely right!

Where this program really shines is the ability to assign colored "tracks" to anything you want (characters, locations, times, etc) and then see multiple tracks side-by-side on the timeline. I can easily answer questions like: When did Alice first meet Bob? Why is my middle lagging (too many scenes with Bob at the office)? If Joe is supposed to be my Main Character, why am I giving all the scenes to Steve?

When you're writing a long project like a novel or a screenplay, it's easy to lose sight of all the details. StoryView (er, Outline4D) provides a visual overview in color that helps engage your creative side.

This is a very powerful outlining program, with a lot of customization options. It includes extensive tutorials, both text and video, so if you take an hour or two to run through them, you can get a handle on all of its features. For the most part, however, one of the included templates should work for most writing projects with only minor tweaking. If you have an unusual personal system for outlining, you'll likely be able to set up Outline 4D to work that way without too much effort. Note that it's mainly geared toward creative writing projects like screenplays and novels -- if that's not your area, you may have your work cut out for you to set up an outlining system for your project. That said, with this program's features, it's probably not impossible.

The tutorials are included in the online help system, as well as in a 300+ page PDF that simply contains all the text from the help system. Bizarrely, none of this is mentioned anywhere -- you have to dig it up on your own. If you just fire up the program and try to start using it, you won't have an easy time.

You can view your projects in two ways: a standard outline view, and a "Timeline" view that displays each element in a width relative to its running time (user-entered or automatically calculated). The Timeline view is clearly aimed at projects like screenplays or A/V scripts, for which timing is important. Both views can be customized and tweaked in various ways.

I like the licensing system -- you can have the program installed on up to 3 different machines simultaneously, and to move it to a different machine, you simply re-register the new installation over the old one on the publisher's website. On the down side, you have to be online to do this. But it's easy and reasonable and won't mess with your system.

In the end, is this better than a cork board and a pack of index cards? Perhaps. Some people are more comfortable working on the computer, and some aren't. If you're not sure, try messing around with outlines in a word processor before deciding whether to drop a Benjamin on this program.

This product is designed for writers who want to build an outline of a story and the flesh it out in the program. The interface is rather interesting- and not a typical outline.

The product installed on my Windows Vista laptop with absolutely no problem. The documentation was all electronic- something I don't care for.

I found the program difficult to address at first- the menus were not as intuitive as I might have liked. That said, I haven't ever used a program like this one, so it may be more intuitive than I realized.

I liked the screen layouts and found creating and modifying documents easy to do.

So, if you are a structured outline first, then write kind of person- this is for you. If you write the outline after you finish the work, so that you can say you have one- probably not.

The examples with the program, by the way were numerous and instructive. All in all, a good program.

Outlining is serious business. And this package delivers all the tools one would need to put together an outline for anything that can be viewed as a story. Take software development for instance. In many ways software design can be viewed as an outline. Software is a system of entities with roles to interact with one another on a platform, or setting. Events occur with critical timings. All the while an existing problem is attempted to be solved. The details, such as complete dialogues or dialog boxes, can be sorted out later, at the heart of problem solving or story telling is design, or outline.

I will admit, that the reason I wanted to try this software is for Project Management purposes. In the past I have been using MS Project and PPM. When this software became available I was curious to discover how different it is compared to the ones I was already familair with. The advantage of this software is that it is less expensive than MS Project and it can still capure and track various action items. But the real beauty of the software is that it can be used also as a tool for writers. Once can use it for writing user guides, screenplays of even books. This software will help you organize, plan and present in professional manner.