[dloranz]

Originally Posted by FredH

Cloning is, like, so 2006. We need smart folders.

I agree with wanting smart folders. Most (all??) of what I would accomplish with clones/aliases would work better for me as a smart folder.

[rand]

Here are my basic requirements for cloning:

• (I use the term 'node' to refer to a row)
• A cloned node is a copy of a node whose content stays in sync with changes to the original node
• Any node can be cloned
• Once a node is cloned, the two nodes should be essentially indistinguishable except for location relative to other nodes in the outline (i.e., the original should not retain any special notion of 'original node')
• The cloning of a node should include copies of the node's children; changes to the children should also be reflected in those of all its clones
• Nodes that are clones should have some clear visual clue to this
• When all but one of a set of clones has been deleted, the remaining clone should return to a normal node
• Some properties of nodes should not be mirrored to its clones, in order to increase the power of multiple perspectives on the same data that clones provide; but these may need to be configurable to personal preference. E.g. appearance and style properties of the node's text.

Can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to having this feature.

Thanks,
Rand

My primary use of OO is in creating feature lists, object/entity lists, punch lists, etc. Often times these lists can be ordered in more than one way and the hierarchies can be built differently. A particular feature, for example, may belong to more than a single category or may have dependencies on other features.

My general need is the ability to create dependency or relationship links between items. Cloning/aliasing may help in this regard to the extent that an item might be included directly in the hierarchy of more than one parent. This could translate directly to my OG graphs which better represent the inter-dependencies but do not contain the descriptiveness of my OO lists.

[uc_student]

Any chance you could give us an idea when we could expect OO4?
thanks!

Any and all of the cloning flavors described here would be helpful. I would also like to hyperlink within long outlines. It would be great if clicking the hyperlink either popped up the linked item or took you to the linked item. The difference could be controlled by left or right clicking. Navigation would also be helpful – i.e., I'd like to move back to where I was in my outline a few thoughts ago (before I followed these hyperlinks). Thanks.

[steve]

From a 1990 release of MORE software:

Sometimes you need the same information in several places in the same outline. For instance, a consultant’s name and phone number might be recorded in a phone listing, associated with a specific project team, and included on a to-do list. With MORE, you can make dynamic copies, or clones, of a headline and place them anywhere within the outline. Any changes made to the original headline or its clones is exactly duplicated in the associated headlines. So, for example, if the information for the consultant was cloned, changes to the phone number in any of the three headlines automatically updates the phone number in the rest of them.

This sounds fabulous and modern! Bring it on!

Steve

I would very much like to see cloning. I am thinking of using OO in my research, and there I find that I often have a lot of inter-related topics. Currently I gather this information on a Wiki, but I find that I generally work hierarchically anyway, so I would like to switch.

One additional note that is related:

It would be excellent if, when a link to a local file was embedded into an omnioutliner document, the contents were displayed using Quick View. Right now, you only see the full text of the link "file://localhost/Users/...", which is fairly uninteresting.

The reason that I post this here is that I often have shared data which takes the form of an OmniGraffle diagram, or some other, external file. Using links I can easily embed this in multiple places, but then I lose the ability to view it inline, which seems unnecessary.

[Fritz Feger]

Hi,

I'd also be interested in a cloning/aliasing feature. In addition to this, and possibly much easier to implement and handle, would be hyperlinks to other locations inside the same document, just like it is possible in HTML.

This would not display the distant information but would make it just one click away - and a "back" button would get you back where you linked from.

Plus it would add a totally different way of navigating through a document. Not the hierachical outline-ish way, but the nonlinear internet way. Without conflicting with the hierarchical order of course.

That's my 5 cent,
Fritz

[Legalnonresident]

I would love to see a cloning/alias feature in OO4. I also like the idea of having a smart folder or smart search functionality.

I am a grad student and use OO3 to outline papers, assignments and entire courses. Both would be very useful for my purposes.

[roframor]

I like a lot OO, but I need desperately a cloning feature. For example, when a read a book I take notes that can later be used in a course or article. This kind of cross reference happens a lot in my work.

One problem that will appear with cloning is the size of the documents. I think the documents will grow, because we will try to relate many things. To face this problem we will need the ability to have different windows of the same document.

Smart folders would be nice but what I really would like to have is conditional formatting. A place where I can order a command like that: If the paragraph has the text "Alfredo" the background turns red. A search and replace WITH formatting attributes can solve this problem, but conditional formatting is more elegant.

I have tried many different programs for writing and OO is the best because... it just flows. With this kind of feature it will become a writer's dream.


Best,

Roberto