Words on a page

I talk a lot about creating outlines. They’re a useful tool for any writer. In fact, I don’t think anyone should start a writing project without an outline. One of the best ways that I’ve found to create an outline is to use outlining software. Sure, I could use paper but have you ever seen my handwriting?

Over the years, I’ve used a number of desktop outliners. Some were quite good, others weren’t. When I started using my netbook outside the house (instead of carrying my laptop computer everywhere), I ran into a small problem: keeping my outlines in sync between the two computers. There was no easy way to do this, and to be honest I didn’t relish the thought of copying or emailing outline files between my computers.

So, I turned to the Web. After looking at a couple of Web-based outliners, I settled on LooseStitch.

A note about the versions

There are two versions of LooseStitch: free and Pro. The free version allows you to create one outline at a time. Each outline gets its own URL [add an example]. The Pro version, which costs $25 (USD) per year, enables you to manage all of your outlines from a single location — you can pull in ones that you created with a free account, and keep track of ones that you’ve been invited to collaborate on. You can even attach files to an outline.

One feature of the Pro version that’s a nice touch is that you get your own URL — like http://myoutlines.loosestitch.com.

Using LooseStitch

When you create an outline in LooseStitch, you’re presented with an interface that looks something like a spreadsheet. Assuming, of course, that spreadsheet has one column and one row.

Click on a row, and an editing box appears on the right side of your screen. Just type your outline item in that box. It can be a word, a sentence, or a paragraph or two.

There are other interesting editing features, too. You can colour code each item in an outline. You could do that, for example, to indicate the importance of that section of what you’re working on. If you’re collaborating with one or more other writers, then you can assign each person’s sections a colour. The colours seem to be limited to black, red, blue, and green.

When you’re editing an item in an outline, you can click the Completed checkbox. This, obviously, marks that portion of your work as finished by adding a strikethrough.

Other features

Often, an item in an outline doesn’t stand alone. It may have one or more items below it. You can easily create that hierarchy by clicking the Indent and Outdent buttons. When you do that, you can collapse the parent item by clicking the downward-pointing triangle beside it.

If you’ve done any amount of writing, you know that there are times when you need to move paragraphs or sections around. I often do that at the outlining stage. LooseStitch makes it easy to move items up and down, one row at a time. All you need to do is click a button. More on this in a moment.

LooseStitch also lets you import and export outlines. Import is limited to a format call OPML, which many online and desktop outliners support. To export an outline, click the Share tab. You can save outlines as HTML, plain text, or OPML.

Sharing and collaborating

One of the benefits of using LooseStitch, at least for me, is the ability allow people with whom I’m writing something to view and edit an outline that I’ve started for our projects. This doesn’t happen often, but when it does LooseStitch really comes in handy. You get the input and ideas of your collaborators, but without the need to send around copies of a file. Copies that might be obsolete or not contain the correct changes. On top of that, you can share your outlines with editors for comment and guidance.

All you need to do to collaborate is click the Invite tab. Then, enter the email addresses of your collaborators and a short message. If you use LooseStitch Pro, you’re encouraged to give your outline a password.

What about commenting? Click Comments at the bottom of any outline. That expands a comment box. Whoever’s looking at the outline can type a few words (or more) and save them.

Even if you’re not working with anyone, you can share your outlines with the wider Web. Just click the Share tab. You can publish an outline to your Web site or blog by copying and pasting a script that LooseStitch creates. Or, you can click the Allow others to view this outline button on the Share tab. You can even add a short description of the outline, and one or more tags that describe the outline to search engines.

Drawbacks of LooseStitch

There are a few. I guess that the first one is that LooseStitch is a Web-based application. If you don’t have an Internet connection, or the application’s Web hosting service goes down, then you can’t get to your outlines. The developers have this to say, though:

Create your outline in LooseStitch when you are connected to the Internet, then go attend that meeting and jot down all your notes, ideas, minutes, even if you are offline. When you come online again just click Save. Done.

Haven’t tried it myself. At least, not yet.

As I mentioned earlier, LooseStitch has a limited number of formats in which it can import and export information. This isn’t important to me, but a few writers I know don’t like applications of any kind that can’t export or import Word files.

Something that I found out the hard way is that pressing Shift+Backspace after clicking a row deletes that row. It doesn’t happen often, but it is easy to do accidentally.

I’d also like to be able to drag and drop rows to move them. Right now, you can only move a row either one row up or one row down. I’d like to be able to move them further.

Another feature that would be useful is the ability to group outlines. I use LooseStitch to outline articles, blog posts, presentations, and other projects. Grouping outlines would definitely make it easier to manage the outlines I have and will create.

Finally, while there’s a LooseStitch app available for the iPhone I’d like one for the BlackBerry …

Conclusion

LooseStitch is a simple yet very effective outliner that supports my somewhat mobile work style. It has a few drawbacks, but nothing that I can’t get around. That said, all of LooseStitch’s other features more than compensate for those drawbacks. How much do I like it? I bought a Pro subscription. That should tell you how much I like it.

Related posts:

1. Migrating Your Blog from Blogger to WordPress
2. Fixing broken numbered lists in Word
3. Four useful online tools for collaborating with other writers

This entry was posted on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 7:00 am and is filed under Web, outline, tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.