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.
First you have to define a favorite outline via "Settings, Set Inbox". If you afterwards share any text (e.g. a web url from within your browser) and you choose Outliner as sharing target, Outliner opens your inbox outline and adds the text as a new activity at the end. You can edit the information before saving it. The back button brings you straight back to your web site within the browser.
Browser, long tap url, share
Outliner now also shares a whole outline
In the list of activities "Action, Share Outline" creates a simple HTML file which you can send to your mail client, to Dropbox or your file manager for saving. This is very similar to exporting to HTML and sending via a file manager, but much quicker.
Menu, Action, Share Outline
Changes 1.5.0
PRO: Outliner as sharing target for text (choose "Settings, Set Inbox" before first use)
PRO: share Outlines (Action, Share Outline)
PRO: sync, use notification instead of toast messages
better icon resolution
Fix: no write permission on external card on Android 4.4.x
Fix: sync opml, typo in title tag
Fix: QuickEdit, <return> sometimes clears other changes on Android 4.4.x
Fix: QuickEdit, keyboard obstructs activities
Fix: search target, no selection after sync -> show popup info
Fix: disable cut subtree if paste subtree is disabled
Tip:
Use a double tap to toggle move mode.
Do not use the tutorial for production data. Updating Outliner overwrites the tutorial.
Android Outliner now syncs with desktop applications which store their Outlines in OPML format.
This works with OmniOutliner for instance, which is THE Outliner for Mac with a really big user base.
If you store your Desktop Outlines in OPML format in your Dropbox, Outliner can sync them to your Android device.
If OmniOutliner uses OPML-format (instead of the native format), all formatting and attachments are lost. You get a simple text-based Outline. But this one you can synchronize with Android Outliner now.
OmniOutliner opens OPML-files which Android Outliner stores in Dropbox.
Screenshot from OmniOutliner's Tutorial
Please check the Tutorial for detailed information about OPML sync.
Changes 1.4.0
PRO: automatically finish branch (Config Outline)
PRO: sync OPML (e.g. OmniOutliner)
Send log file via mail (new permission required) (Settings)
Always ask before deleting an Outline
Finetune swipe gestures for newer devices
Fix: occasional force close on random swiping and tapping in quickEdit mode
Fix: occasional loosing first activity addition after coming back from background
Tip:
User a swipe gesture to move an activity right or left.
There is an automatic backup now. Go to "Settings, Backup / Restore, Backup Schedule" and choose how often Outliners database should be backed up to the SD-card. Don't forget to set the number of backup generations as well. Use the hourly backup with care as it quickly fills up your backup generations.
Pressing the "+" Buttons in the list of activities always added an activity at the bottom of the list. Via "Settings, Add Activity At The Top" you can tell Outliner to use the top of the list. A log tap at the "+" button at the bottom of the list always does it the other way round. So you easily can choose on every insert whether you want your new activity at the bottom or the top of the list. Siblings or children are added by long tapping an activity as before.
Changes 1.3.0
Fix: occasional force close on random swiping and tapping
Fix: delete wrong activity if empty activity is deleted
Setting to addy new activity at the top instead of the bottom (Settings)
Ellipsize long activity notes in list if there is hidden text (three dots at the end of the text)
This (and the last version as well) brings some enhancements and bug fixes for synchronization, backup and newer Android versions.
Some new features are also included, like a configurable confirmation before Outliner deletes an item.
And there is OPML import/export now, which a lot of people demanded.
Thank you for all the feedback!
Changes 1.2.0
Fix: double tap for move mode did not properly work on newer devices
Line wrap title in activity edit
Checkbox respects button padding
Confirm delete (see Settings to toggle)
Import OPML
PRO: export OPML
PRO: import/export/sync Treepad, eastern european character set (see Settings, Synchronization, Treepad Character Set)
PRO: sync Dropbox, show notification for failed sync (e.g. no network)
PRO: Directory on external SD card (see Settings, Synchronization, Use External SD Card)
PRO Fix: restore problems on some devices
Changes 1.1.2
Fix: move mode, moving sometimes does not work with new activities
Fix: show Todo, edit activity does not always save the new data
PRO: import/export/sync Treepad, non western character sets (see Settings, Synchronization) (Cyrillic, Japanese, Chinese)
PRO: Fix: sync Dropbox, force close on first sync if file does not
yet exist in Dropbox (introduced in V1.1.1, thanks to Sergey for
reporting)
Tip:
For Dropbox sync between two phones create an Outline with exactly the same name on the other device and configure it for Dropbox sync.
This version enhances the compatibiliy with other systems. The great news is, that there is (besides Natara Bonsai) another desktop companion for Android Outliner, which also has a free version.
Android Outliner syncs with another desktop application now. Treepad is a well known Outliner, which has a free version (Treepad Lite) and also commercial versions with more features.
Treepad Lite is available for Windows and Linux. With Jreepad there is also a Java implementation from another developer which runs on Mac and Linux.
More information about Treepad here: http://www.treepad.com http://jreepad.sourceforge.net
Tip:
Use a left/right swipe to quickly change the level of an activty.
Use the "move mode" to quickly move activities within an Outline (toggle by double tap or menu).
Long click on an item in the list to get additional actions for this item.
The wait is over. Outliner finally leaves the beta state and the official PRO version is now available at the Google Play Store.
Please consider buying the PRO version to get the additional features or to support future development.
See the version history for everything the PRO version adds to Outliner.
Thanks a lot to all the beta testers who helped to make Outliner as stable as it is and thanks for all suggestions and feature requests. There is a long list of features to be added in future.
I added a privacy statement to the tutorial. It explains in detail what Outliner does and does not with your data and what you can do to keep it private.
In short:
Outliner never sends your data anywhere unless you explicitely tell Outliner to do so (e.g. if you configure a Dropbox sync).
In some cases Outliner writes your data to your SD-card where it may not be secure any more if you loose your phone.
Changes 1.0.0:
public PRO version in Google Play Store
privacy statement added to tutorial
new permission "internet access" for Dropbox sync
buttons in action bar of edit screens
cosmetic user interface changes
outline list: select row with character press on physical keyboard
Fix: occasional crashes after adding activities
Fix: occasional loss of last correction if activity edit not closed by user
PRO: HTML Export
PRO: sync Natara Bonsai (USB and Dropbox)
PRO: new view: Show Due
PRO: uncheck finished activities
PRO: delete finished activities
PRO: search
PRO: backup/restore all Outlines to/from SD-card
PRO: launcher shortcuts for Outlines
PRO: themes
PRO: cut/copy/paste subtree (also between Outlines)
PRO: expand/collapse subtree
PRO: configure default view for activity list
Tip:
Use a left/right swipe to quickly change the level of an activty.
Use the "move mode" to quickly move activities within an Outline (toggle by double tap or menu).
Long click on an item in the list to get additional actions for this item.
This version adds enhancements for newer Android devices and tablets.
On devices with an Android version 3.0 and above there is now an Action Bar at the top of the screen which provides shortcuts to some actions otherwise found in the menu. You can for instance quickly change the view or toggle move mode. On older devices you reach these actions via the menu button as usually.
When importing/exporting an Outline you can now use a file manager to pick the file (the button with the tree dots next to the filename). Outliner shows a list of installed applications which may provide a file picker. "OI File Manager" or "ES File Explorer" for instance will do the job and will be automatically chosen if installed. You find these applications at the Google Play Store.
Changes 0.9.0:
Action Bar for Android 3.x and higher
FilePicker for import/export (any installed file manager on your device is used)
bigger fonts to configure for higher resolutions
respect device date format settings
enhance speed for Outlines with long activity notes
Fix: list sometimes gets no keyboard focus with hardware keyboard
Fix: rotations when using device upside down on newer tablets
further preparation for upcoming professional version of Outliner (Themes, Launcher Shortcuts)
Tip:
Use a left/right swipe to quickly change the level of an activty.
Use the "move mode" to quickly move activities within an Outline (toggle by double tap or menu).
This version mainly helps to add and edit items more quickly.
Changes 0.8.7:
add a child in addition to adding a sibling (long click activity)
quickly add an activity with the new icon at the bottom right corner
quickly add or edit the next activity without leaving the edit screen (OK + Next)
keyboard shortcuts for moving/adding activities (see tutorial)
Fix: issue with former russian DST
Fix: second change of a due date without leaving edit screen did not change the field
Tip:
Use a left/right swipe to quickly change the level of an activty.
Use the "move mode" to quickly move activities within an Outline (toggle by double tap or menu).
Use shortcut keys if you have a device with a keyboard (see tutorial).
This version brings a significant speed up for opening larger Outlines and also shows an animation while loading.
Changes 0.8.6:
friendly loading animation for large Outlines
speed up loading of large Outlines
automatic backup of all Outlines when installing a new version
FIX: occasional force close when coming back to Outliner from another app
further preparation for the upcoming professional version of Outliner (Backup/Restore)
Tip:
Use a left/right swipe to quickly change the level of an activty.
Use the "move mode" to quickly move activities within an Outline (toggle by double tap or menu)
There is a new view menu with all the different views behind (more views to come in future releases).
And we have a search functionality now.
Use the Search button on your phone or the Search menu. Outliner finds all Activities matching the criteria you put into the search field. Outliner searches the Activity names and notes.
If you start the search from the list of Outlines, Outliner searches all Outlines. Starting the search from the list of Activities only finds Activities within the actual Outline.
If you have the PRO version, you can click an Activity in the list of found Activities. Outliner opens the Outline, positions the Activity topmost and marks it.
Changes 0.8.5:
new "View" menu to clean up the options menu
search in all Outlines or within one Outline (menu or search button)
keyboard navigation and manipulation if the device has a hardware keyboard (see tutorial for shortcuts)
FIX: move down allowed illegal moves in some circumstances
FIX: move mode, double tap crashed on some devices
Tip:
In addition to normal search you could use search to establish a tagging system. Put tags (e.g. #shopping, #friends, #holiday, ...) into your Activity notes or names and easily find Activities matching the tag. Intelligent organizing of the tags even gives you more flexibility (#shopping.food, #shopping.clothing, #holiday.thailand, #holiday.us, ...).
It enables quick moving of activities with the help of 4 buttons on the lower end of the screen. Mark an activity with a tap and then use the buttons for up/down/left/right moves. Toggle "Move Mode" by menu or by a double tap somewhere in the list
"Quick Edit" is disabled while "Move Mode" is on.
A short tap just marks a line. Use a long click to get a context menu where you can choose "Edit".
Swipe also works in "Move Mode".
Changes 0.8.4:
move mode to quickly move activities in the list (toggle by menu or by a double tap somewhere in the list)
You can now move activities left/right by swiping (moving your finger). Expect a move mode and drag&drop in the next releases.
The menu of the activity list is cleaned up by a new "Action" menu now. All actions relating to the whole Outline are now under this menu.
If you hide your note via "Config Outline" you can see a small icon in the activity list now indicating that a note exists.
Changes 0.8.3:
temporarily preserve scroll position while switching between views within an Outline
due date Button, more choices to set date
show small icon to indicate hidden activity notes
swipe (move your finger) to move activities left or right
expand parent activity when moving right
new "Action" menu to clean up the options menu
"Expand Levels" and "Import/Export" are now under Action menu
spinning progress icon while saving in background
enable app2sd for Android 2.2 and higher
quick edit: enable multiline in activity name
fast scrolling for large outlines (slider on the right while scrolling)
FIX: some stability issues are resolved
Tip:
If you add a new activity, you can use the context menu (long click) of an existing activity to add the new one as a sibling under the existing one. Use the normal menu to add the activity at the end.
There are some usability enhancements in this release and a big speed kick by moving the datasaving to the background. And there was a nasty bug leading to the lost of the latest changes of an activity in some circumstances. I apologize for that.
Changes 0.8.2:
no more soft keyboard opening on activity edit (hopefully on all devices now)
warning if Outline name is empty
prettify activity edit
configure the font size of activity notes (Settings)
further preparation for syncing to Natara Bonsai (Beta Test)
further improved speed when editing large outlines
hide note line in activity list when note is empty
due date button, add more choices (clear/today/tomorrow/week/month)
Fix: occasional force close with lost changes when turning device (sorry Willem for that)
Fix: changes sometimes not saved if Outliner killed by Android due to low memory
Tip:
You can configure each Outline separately. Use a long click on an Outline in the list of Outlines or use the menu in the activity list to reach the configure dialog. You also see this dialog when you add a new Outline.
