Treeline is a cool, free, open source desktop Outliner available for Windows, Linux and Mac. It has a long tradition, is very stable and the developer carefully decides which features make sense.
Outliner (PRO only) syncs with Treeline via Dropbox.
That means: Outliner users have a free Desktop Outliner and Treeline users have "Treeline for Android" (at least for a defined subset of Treeline's features).
Treeline
Outliner
Connect Outliner with your Dropbox account (Settings, Synchronization, Dropbox).
Simply set up an Outline within Outliner and choose "Config Outline, Synchronization, Treeline Dropbox", change something and close the Outline. Open the Outline with Treeline on your Desktop in the Dropbox folder "Apps, outliner, treeline".
Detailed information with a how to and with the explanation of the synced fields is found in the Tutorial.
Tip:
Outliner's PRO version has a context menu "Subtree" when you long tap an activity in the list of activities. This lets you cut/copy/paste/sort/share subtrees.
Via "Config Outline, Rich Text (Format Activity Notes)" you enable a simple text editor with formatting features like bold, italic, underline, ... for activity notes of this certain Outline.
After enabling Rich Text there is a button bar with formatting buttons below your text in the activity note. On smaller displays not the whole button bar is visible but you can move it left/right with your finger to reach all the buttons. The rightmost button removes the formatting of the selected text or of the whole note if no text is selected.
After disabling Rich Edit, Outliner removes all the formatting next time you open the Outline. The Outline is plain text afterwards. If your Outline is synced, you must enable Rich Text for this Outline also on your other Android devices.
This feature is only available in Outliner's PRO version.
Tip:
Share an Outline including Rich Text formatting as a HTML file via "Action, Share Outline" in the list of activities. Choose a sharing target like your mail App or a Dropbox folder. The shared HTML-file with your Outline can be easily opened with every browser or even with Word. Via "Settings, Synchronization, HTML Style you can decide if you prefer a bullet list or a heading structure useful for opening the Outline in Word.
In August 2018 Google sent a mail to all developers using the Google Tasks API in their Apps.
Google announced to restrict Tasks to only 2 levels starting in August 2019.
Google already restricted the number of levels in their Android Tasks App and in Gmail. They will add the restriction to the interface to Tasks, which other Apps can use.
This will affect Outliner's Google Tasks synchronization. Local Outlines or Outlines synced via Dropbox can use multiple levels also in future. However, in an upcoming update in spring 2019, Outliner will ask you (only for Google Tasks synced Outlines) if you want to flatten your Google Tasks Outline or if you want to make it a local Outline and keep multiple levels.
If you are fine with only two levels, Outliner's Google Tasks synchronization will also work in future. If you need more levels, you should change to Dropbox synchronization (Config Outline). If you choose Treeline Dropbox sync you can use a free open source desktop Outliner.
http://android-outliner.blogspot.com/p/tutorial.html#661600341
There will be an experimental multilevel option for Google Tasks sync in Outliner to circumvent this restriction. But depending on Google's future plans for it's Tasks interface, this may stop working at any time and your Outlines will be automatically flattened to two levels.
I know, that's bad news - so, is there anything we can do?
There already is an issue posted in Google's Bug Tracking system. If you think that Google should keep multilevel support, you should post a comment where you tell Google why you think that they should keep supporting multilevel tasks also in future.
Go to the issue tracker, log in with your Google account, vote for the topic by clicking the little star left of the topic name and add a comment:
With the recent update to Google Tasks, we limited the number of nested tasks a user could create to one level i.e. a sub-task. Sub-tasks are supported, but any nested tasks beyond these (e.g. sub-sub-tasks and so on) are no longer available in the product.
Starting August 30, 2019, we will introduce the same structure in the Tasks API. This means that, as of that date, tasks that are nested beyond more than one level will no longer be supported. For example, if a user has double nested tasks (sub-sub tasks), the revised method of the Tasks API will convert it to a sub-task and return it as such. Please check and update your applications accordingly if they include multiple levels of subtasks.
Outliner (PRO only) is able to sync with Google Tasks.
Within Google calendar (the browser version) you can also show your tasks in the side panel right of the calendar.
Please keep in mind, that Google's implementation of Tasks only supports 2 levels. A task and a subtask.
You can create several task lists (like "Outlines" in Outliner) with tasks (like "Activities" in Outliner).
Google Tasks
Setting up synchronization
In Outliner's "Settings, Synchronization" check "Sync With Google Tasks". Outliner asks for your Google account and for the permission to access your Google Tasks. After leaving the Settings, you will see your Google Tasks lists in the list of Outlines. The synced Outlines have a small indication icon at the right.
Detailed information how to add new synced Outlines and how to change local Outlines to synced ones is found in the Tutorial.
Recently Google launched it's own Tasks App for Android. It's great, but it restricts the number of levels to 2. Opening an Outline with more than 2 levels flattens the Outline. Every activity in deeper levels goes to level 2. So the structure of a complex Outline is destroyed.
Google warns you before the flattening process. If you are fine with only two levels, you can use Google's App together with Outliner.
You may want to get notified, if the due date of an activity which is not yet finished is reached.
Via "Settings, Notification Policy" you can choose, if you want to get notified about activities due today or also about activities due in the past or if you don't want any notification at all. Notifications only work with Outliner's PRO version.
PRO: Sync Google Tasks (Settings, Synchronization)
New permissions for Google Tasks Sync
PRO: list of Outlines, icon for synced Outlines
PRO: notifications for due activities (Settings)
Fix: stability improvements
Fix: date format respects language on newer devices
Fix: Search, open synced Outlines
Tip:
Use Outliner as your inbox for things you want to remember or things you just found while surfing.
First configure one of your Outlines as inbox in the settings.
Then for instance share a website and choose Outliner as sharing target. The link is added in Outliners inbox as a new activity.
Outliner now opens any of it's supported file formats directly from a file manager (like ES Explorer, EDS) or from Cloud Apps (like Dropbox, BoxCryptor, ownCloud,...).
You may need this in the following situations:
your Outlines are in other cloud folders than the ones Outliner needs (e.g. with fargo.io)
you use a cloud service other then Dropbox (e.g. OwnCloud)
you want to be sure that you Outlines are encrypted in the cloud (e.g. BoxCryptor)
PRO: Open Outlines directly from File-Managers, DropBox, BoxCryptor, OwnCloud
PRO: sync with Fargo (Web Outliner)
Drop Support for Android 1.6
Update to latest Dropbox API
Settings, Number Of Note Lines: more choices
Fix: occasional force close after coming back to unsaved activityEdit
Tip:
Use Outliner as your inbox for things you want to remember or things you just found while surfing.
First configure one of your Outlines as inbox in the settings.
Then for instance share a website and choose Outliner as sharing target. The link is added in Outliners inbox as a new activity.
For easier distinguishing the levels of the list of activities you can now configure the Outline to show Level Colors (PRO only).
In "Config Outline, Color" you enable this feature.
"Level Colors" gives the first four levels of the Outline a certain color.
Outliner suggests sensible default colors depending on your chosen theme (Light/Dark) if you enable Level Colors. However, you can choose your own colors by pressing the small button right to the color-listbox. For each level you can choose a color with a color wheel. The big middle circle is the general color and the half-round slider at the right side is the lightness. The half-round area at the left shows the chosen color.
"Default" switches back to the default colors for this Outline.
If you don't want to use any colors at all, change the configuration to "No Outline Colors".
Changes 1.7.0
PRO: Level Colors (Config Outline, Color)
Remember last position (disable in Settings)
Fix: OK+Next, too many Dropbox sync tries
Fix: OK+Next, occasional lost of last change if Dropbox sync
Tip:
Use Outliner as your inbox for things you want to remember or things you just found while surfing.
First configure one of your Outlines as inbox in the settings.
Then for instance share a website and choose Outliner as sharing target. The link is added in Outliners inbox as a new activity.
Eventually it is possible to move nodes via Drag & Drop. After so many user requests I could not longer resist. Thank you for your feedback!
The small buttons at the right side of the list let you drag an activity or a subtree and move it to another postition within the list.
You can disable the new feature in the Settings "Drag & Drop In All Views". However, in move mode the buttons always stay visible.
Outliner, Drag & Drop
Changes 1.6.0
Drag & Drop (globally disable/enable in Settings)
PRO: automatic backup now completely in background
Fix: occasional force close after editing an activity
Tip:
A long click on the '+' button at the bottom adds a new activity at the beginning of the list instead of the end.
You can configure this behaviour in the Settings.
