Noteliner

[albertde]

Noteliner is a 1-pane (with an optional right-hand(!) navigation pane to make it 2-pane) outliner/organizer allowing rtf formatting and bullets. You can tag items as well as give them statuses and due dates. What distinguishes this application in my mind is the ability to view a series of sub-items under an item as a flat table with each cell containing one of the sub-items. The developer has gradually enhanced it over the years and has only released it recently.

It is portable and comes in a zip file, which just needs to be copied into a folder and extracted.

Since I am mostly using Linux nowadays, I can attest that the application works well under wine in Linux (except for some of the mouse gestures).

You can download it from http://www.noteliner.org/. (You had better warn the developer if you list it as he may have bandwidth restrictions.)

Albertde

[chadross]

Nice program, but writes it's settings to the registry and registers file extension .nte to the program upon launch.

Not Portable

[I am Baas]

Noteliner helps you structure and track your work; it provides a place to record meeting and conversation notes, manage todos, and store key project information that might otherwise be scattered about. It is a simple tool that gives you a means to stay on top of everything you need to do and remember.

http://web.me.com/hawksworth/i/Main.html



Download @ http://web.me.com/hawksworth/i/Main_fil ... uild2b.zip

[webfork]

Mentioned before, but think its portable now.

I wanted to love this program, but some of the fonts are hard to read / ugly. Its not intuitive at all and I couldn't figure out how to create the fold-up interface that the really cool looking screenshots have without using the included navigation pane. There is no intro to the manual and I couldn't find some kind of video introduction to get me over the first few hurdles.

[I am Baas]

Thank you, webfork. Please merge the threads.

[webfork]

Thank you, webfork. Please merge the threads.

All set.

Also, didn't mean to dismiss your suggestion. Are you using this program regularly?

[Sam Hawksworth]

Hi,

I'm the developer of Noteliner. I saw the post saying that Noteliner was was not intuitive and wanted to understand more about that. Not much I can do about ugly fonts of course.

As in MS Word you press tab to indent a note and create the sub-bullets of an outline. That automatically creates triangles that allows you to fold up the indented lists. The only other thing you need to know to create the screen shot is f9 (or the Table menu) which will turn a list into a table.

Is it that pressing tab is not intuitive because other outliners require you to click on an indent or create button or something like that?

Sam

[webfork]

I'm the developer of Noteliner. I saw the post saying that Noteliner was was not intuitive and wanted to understand more about that.

Many programs are unintuitive -- that's not necessarily a negative. Vim for example is not a program you can just sit down and start using, but for many operations, it has no equal. However, I recommend a quick-start guide or introduction at the program's first start.

As in MS Word you press tab to indent a note and create the sub-bullets of an outline. That automatically creates triangles that allows you to fold up the indented lists.

Yes the "Tab" thing is what I was really missing. Also, a note about Shift+Tab to go back down in the hierarchy would also be helpful.

Is it that pressing tab is not intuitive because other outliners require you to click on an indent or create button or something like that?

My expectations for this program weren't that it would be like other outlining programs (as I haven't used one of those in a long time). I guess I was approaching this as a Word Processor with some outlining extras.

Other ways to get more intuitive could just be doing a little usability testing: find someone that hasn't used your program before and watch them try to get around it. Anywhere they get stuck may be something you might try to either try to change or provide an intro for.

Two other issues not really related to the intuitive bit:

1. When you click multiple times on the "!" icon, there is no way to see the multiple different action menus you create (they're not in the drop down menu). That may be intentional, but when you press the "back" buttons at the top, they're clearly present as you have to click multiple times to get back to the front page.
2. I can't use the Function keys (F9) due to my weird system setup. That's just me and you really shouldn't modify your program for just one user, but (assuming my response has been useful so far) if you'd like me to keep testing and providing feedback, I need an alternative.

Also I hope my response wasn't too negative; I appreciate freeware developers and I'm not expecting perfection and just describing my frustration.

[I am Baas]

Are you using this program regularly?

No, not at all. I just came across Noteliner recently. I like the concept alot but, unfortunately, it does not work on a 64-bit pc. I posted about it here because others may find it useful too.

I was also testing TreeSheets but it's not portable.

@Sam Hawksworth

Welcome to TPFC. How about a 64-bit support?

[I am Baas]

Noteliner V3.3 build 3 released Nov 23rd, 2011.

No 64-bit support yet.

[Iggy64]

The OP mentioned he is successfully running Noteliner in Linux. I am using it under Windows XP, and have found it an excellent replacement for ECCO Pro, which I have used for decades.

In the past couple of weeks, I have started learning Linux, and want to migrate most of my work there. But I am a total newb at this point. Can the OP (or anyone else) explain how to get Noteliner running in Linux. I am dabbling in Ubuntu 11.10 as well as Xubuntu 11.10.

It looks like Noteliner requires the .NET framework as well as the Visual C++ libraries (Visual Studio). How do I implement these in Wine? Any advice is welcome. A step-by-step how to install would be even better.

Thanks, in advance, for any help you can offer. It would be great to use Noteliner in Linux.

[I am Baas]

@Iggy64
Welcome to TPFC forums.

You are correct. The latest Noteliner 3.4 Build 2a requires MFC80.DLL, MSVCR80.dll, and msvcm80.dll (Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1) and mscoree.dll (.net framework). That was not needed in previous versions. The developer should include them in the zipped package.

I can't test Noteliner as it does not run on a 64-bit systems (even with compatibility mode enabled).

[Iggy64]

Thanks for the welcome and for the informative reply. Knowing those dependencies should be very helpful. I have copied those dll's from one on my Windows machines. Now, as a total newb on Linux, I will need to learn how to feed those into Wine. Then, we'll see if Noteliner will install and run in Ubuntu/Xubuntu. I'll let you know.

Thanks!

[webfork]

It looks like Noteliner requires the .NET framework as well as the Visual C++ libraries (Visual Studio). How do I implement these in Wine? Any advice is welcome. A step-by-step how to install would be even better.

I can't do a step-by-step, but evidently you can just download and install them, so long as you only need dotNET 2.0. According to winehq, its possible to install dotNET 2.0 without issue, but 3.0 and above have issues. The same is available for Visual C++ libraries: you should be able to install as normal.

You might also try Crossover, the commercial variant of WINE, which might have a little more support for this sort of thing.

[Iggy64]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have put fresh copies of the Visual C++ dlls into the System32 folder in Wine, and I have reduced the number of error messages down to two.

The first error involves msvcm80.dll. There is definitely a copy of that dll in the System32 folder, and it is the same dll that I have on my WinXP machine, where Noteliner runs fine.

The second error has something to do with "LdrInitializeThunk Main exe", and I have no clue what that is or what it means. (As noted earlier, I just started playing with Linux a week or so ago.) The text below is the actual message I get when I try to install Noteliner from my thumb drive under Wine on Xubuntu 11.10.

john@Laptop-61SXY91:/media/KINGSTON/Software/Noteliner2$ wine Noteliner.exe
err:module:attach_process_dlls "msvcm80.dll" failed to initialize, aborting
err:module:LdrInitializeThunk Main exe initialization for L"Z:\\media\\KINGSTON\\Software\\Noteliner2\\Noteliner.exe" failed, status c0000142

I really like Noteliner and use it daily on Win XP. I hope I get it to work eventually on Linux.
Thanks again for all the suggestions.