Office Productivity

Free Leo Outliner / Editor

A few weeks I ran across a free open source application called Leo by Edward K. Ream. At first it seemed like a standard outliner. It was cross platform so I could run it on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Download it here: Leo Homepage

Here are a few things that set Leo apart from any outliner you've used before:

• Headline and Body Text -- Most outliners let you create an outline that appears essentially like a hierarchical file tree. Leo does this very well, but each node/headline can have attached body text. What does this mean? If you're organizing a script, you can create your outline and then write content into each outline node. If you're looking for a new car, you can create an outline of cars and then paste the actual feature list into the body of each car node. You have to use this to truly understand how useful this can be.
  
  
• Cloning of nodes -- Nodes can be cloned, so you can have two nodes that exactly match in two different place in the outline.
  
  
• Programmability -- You know those programs that are really almost just exactly what you want if only they would do that one more thing... ? Leo includes the Python programming language and you can write your own code in the body text of an outline. You can add features, plug-ins, just about anything you want.
  
  
• Tangle / Untangle -- I can't describe this amazing feature very well. Step through the Leo Screenbook and you'll see what I mean.

Just download Leo and give it a try for a few days. I think you'll be pleased.

Also, check out the Leo plug-ins that I've written available for free download.