Upcoming: Global replace in a writing project

Posted in: Outliner Software by Edwin on June 8, 2011

A quick update about the development and new release of Writing Outliner – first version of the Writing Outliner user manual has been completed and I’m now working on the new ‘project-wide global replace’ function. After that the new version of Writing Outliner will be publicly released (in a few days I guess).

I’m writing Writing Outliner user manual with Writing Outliner itself

Posted in: Manual Authoring Software by Edwin on May 22, 2011

Some said that, software developers can only write good software if themselves are the end users of the software being developed, that’s very true.

As per my recent posts I’ve blogged about the new features included in the upcoming new version of Writing Outliner, and I’m now completing the user manual (or help document) for this outliner software for all kinds writers including academic writers.

And as I’m writing the user manual for Writing Outliner software, I am getting more findings and understandings about what’s good and what can be improved of this outliner software for writers. And this is more efficient than just hearing feedbacks from the users (this is also a key to write good software too, I believe).

Once the user manual is written, I might want to add to Writing Outliner software the ability to directly output  html pages , PDF, or CHM help formats.

Upcoming – Copy and paste documents in the project outline

Posted in: Outliner Software, Version History by Edwin on May 1, 2011

In the upcoming new version of Writing Outliner software (for MS Word on Windows),

you’ll be able to duplicate/copy documents in a writing project, by using the new copy and paste commands.

Most of you have requested this feature previously.

screenshot below:

Upcoming: You can now hide the document icons in the outline (enhanced project outline part 2)

Posted in: Outliner Software, Version History by Edwin on April 28, 2011

Sometimes you might want a more clean outline view for your writing projects,

In the upcoming new release of Writing Outliner you’ll be able to hide the document icons including the folder icons, the screenshot below illustrate that new outline view option well, I guess, it’s a checkbox titled ‘Show Document Type Icon’.

A great discussion about writing a useful user manual

Posted in: Help Authoring Software, Software for Writing User Manual by Edwin on April 20, 2011

Today I came across at Stackoverflow (a collaboratively edited question and answer site for programmers) a good discussion about how to write a user manual that’s useful, a lot of useful tips there!

Here are some really great points:

• Think from the end user’s perspective – watching some one else using it (e.g. a  software)
• make your manual all about the user, not the tool, focus on what problems your app is solving for the user in the first place and make sure that you follow through on showing them how to do that.

It’s worth reading! If you write user manuals, such as software manuals.

Upcoming:　Enhanced project outline (the left project manager), part 1

Posted in: Outliner Software, Version History by Edwin on April 18, 2011

The project outline has been enhanced

In the upcoming version of Writing Outliner software, the Project Manager Outliner (on the left) will be enhanced a lot.

Word wrapping outline nodes

For example, a new option called ‘Word Wrapping‘  will be offered, once this option is enabled the document titles will be wrapped at the end of the column, so that you can see the full document titles, without having to hover your mouse over the outline nodes. Check the screenshot shown below.

A wider outline view

You might also have noticed that I’ve removed the ‘floating icon’ that shows at the right-most column in the outline, this makes the outline view wider.

More to come

In the following days I’ll be still posting more screenshots that show the new features in the upcoming new version of Writing Outliner – the outliner software for all kinds writers,  stay tuned!

New document compile option – Generate TOC at the end of the document

Posted in: Outliner Software, Version History by Edwin on April 16, 2011

In the upcoming new version of Writing Outliner for MS Word, you’ll be able to have your TOC (table of content) to be generated at the end of the output Word document, as shown in the following screenshot.

Screenshot of ‘Export all files from a project to folder’

Posted in: Outliner Software, Version History by Edwin on April 2, 2011

Hi Folks,

Sorry for delaying the release of the new version of Writing Outliner software again, here shows a screenshot of the new function in the upcoming release of Writing Outliner Software, so that you know it’s actually processed

This new function allows you with several clicks to export all documents in a Writing Outliner project to a specified folder

And it will also generate an index document of the exported files, note the first column in the ‘Index Document’ shown in the following screenshot, each blue document title is a hyper link and clicking on them will lead you to the exported documents.

All meta data of each documents are also exported, ready for printing. I think it’s a good news to some of you who complained the printing quality of the Multi-column Outliner in the current version.

Upcoming function in Writing Outliner Software: Check For Updates

Posted in: Outliner Software, Version History by Edwin on February 11, 2011

I’ve just added the “check for updates” function to Writing Outliner – the ultimate outliner software for writers who use MS Word.

In the upcoming version of Writing Outliner software you’ll be able to open a web page to check if a new version is available for download, with just one click.

The following is an example of the checking result when you have the latest version installed already. If you don’t, a Download button will be shown in the webpage .

New function is coming: Export all project documents to a folder

Posted in: Outliner Software, Version History by Edwin on January 31, 2011

Export documents to a folder

You might know that Writing Outliner software stores all your documents and the associated document tags, notes, synopsis, etc, in a SQLITE database which is the most reliable desktop database system.

But some of you told me that you will feel more comfortable and safe if you can access all your documents in a folder in your disk.

And I fully understand and respect that – I’m not only saying this, but I am actually doing something to make you feel safer and more comfortable when using this outliner software.

The screenshot

Check the following screenshot, I’ve just added a new function to Writing Outliner software, it allows you with a few clicks to export all documents, or  in a given project to a folder.

I’ll release the new version of the outliner software later

After the upcoming holidays here, I’ll show the exported result, including:

• The exported files and subfolders in the target folder.
• The index file, which is a Word document with a table which lists all document metadata, and especially, with links to exported files, so that you can access the exported documents easier.

And importantly, I’ll release the new version of this outliner and document organizer for MS Word!