Further re Outline, I think what's really going on is that the English language is evolving.
Word processing software needed a single word for "hierarchical summary" Hierarchy wasnt a very good word because a hierarchy tends to look like an org chart, which necessarily emphasises the layers. Whereas a word was needed for the same concept rotated by 90 degrees, emphasising points and sub points. So they chose to use the word "outline", which previously really meant something very similar to summary, but covering the major movements of the plot just using words. Due to the word processors, as time goes on more an more people will start to understand that an Outline view is a list of points with sub-points. In my experience, even though they may have seeen the word, a LOT of people have no idea about what the word really means in the WP sense Moreover the problem with using "outline" is that: A) You tend to expect it to be the summary of something more complicated rather than the full gory details. For example if I say "let me tell you the outline of the plot" you do not expect me to go through then entire contents - which is what MLO is doing. B) You can have an outline in the summary sense as a simple list of bullet points i.e. without involving any hierarchical structure at all. Whereas you cannot have a hierarchy of one! So if you say "this software can store tasks as an outline" a lot people will be a bit hazy about what that really means. Whereas if you say "this software can store tasks as a hierarchy" that's pretty clear. But don't believe me - get the primary customer research done! Try this next time you are out to dinner, wait until they've had few of drinks and so not capable of being too clever, and then ask them which of the above is clearer. J On Monday, 2 November 2015 22:48:32 UTC, Nick Clark wrote: > > I think that many people's exposure to Outline will be in word processing > or report preparation, and this is exactly analogous to the use in MLO. See > here > https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Use-Outline-View-to-manage-headings-and-arrange-text-5e4c6831-b495-4aec-a7b8-7899b0ffda04 > > for the finite on in Word. > > I see the headings and indentations as directly relatable to Tasks and sub > tasks. Other task management software such as GTDNext also use Outline to > describe the arrangement of projects and tasks > http://blog.gtdnext.com/task-management-outline-view/. > > So I support the current use of Outline. > > Nick > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/e78bb089-fcdc-48fa-95d5-2717b94a88ab%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
