FIGURE F

Though not packed with frills, Natara Bonsai is a strong, stable outliner.

Shadow Plan
Shadow Plan (at http://www.codejedi.com) is not only economical, but also full-featured. It allows linking with the To Do List and Date Book, as well as with other Shadow outlines, allowing for very complex trees. The screen view on the Palm device is highly customizable and has the best support for color of any of the reviewed applications. The developer is highly committed to providing good service and responds very quickly to bug reports and help requests. Shadow Plan is priced at $12.99 and is pictured in Figure G.

FIGURE G

Shadow Plan makes good use of color.

ThoughtManager
Hands High Software's ThoughtManager (at http://www.handshigh.com/html/thoughtmanager.html) goes Hi-Note one better by allowing color drawings within its outlines. Hands High also produces ThoughtManager for Teachers (priced at $29.95), which comes with over 75 education-related outlines. Unfortunately, ThoughtManager is incredibly slow and bulky, making it very difficult to recommend. ThoughtManager is priced at $19.95 and is pictured in Figure H.

FIGURE H

ThoughtManager has a product specifically designed for educators.

Tips for using outlining programs
Finally, here are a few general tips about using outlining programs:

• Outline programs are perfect for project management, especially if you choose one with "task completion" bars that show a percentage of work completed;

• Using an outliner, you can easily put together notes for extemporaneous speeches, which beats flipping through a handful of index cards;

• Outlines are also quite useful for preparing checklists of routine tasks or troubleshooting steps;

• On each level of your outline, remember that too much detail is as bad as not enough. For most effective usage, outlines should contain no more than one detail or thought per line.

For information on using your outliner for time management and life planning, check out Jeff Kirvin's article on the subject at http://www.writingonyourpalm.net/column000522.htm.

Steve Niles is Senior Editor for ZATZ Publishing. He is also an independent filmmaker and freelance writer. For more information, visit http://www.sn-films.com.