.KEYWORD brainforest
.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE BrainForest companion for the Mac desktop
.OTHER
.SUMMARY Macintosh users are finally getting rewarded for their platform loyalty. BrainForest is a well-respected outliner for the Palm device. Now, there’s a companion application for the Macintosh desktop. In this interesting article, contributing editor Bob Freud shows you how you can write your outline on your Palm device and edit it on your Mac.
.AUTHOR Bob Freud
When the Palm computer first appeared, many users were charmed by the interface and amused by Giraffe. But it was Florent Pillet’s program, Outliner, that convinced many early adopters that the Palm device was going to be something more than an electronic datebook. It might, in fact, help them get some actual work done. An outlining program can be a powerful tool for organizing. Most standard outliners help users organize writing. BrainForest Professional enables you to organize your writing, your projects, and your life!
Aportis took over the development of Outliner and last year released an enhanced version as Brainforest. I was very impressed and said so in "Outliners for the PalmPilot", in the June 1998 PalmPower. What BrainForest lacked, however, was a companion desktop application. With a desktop version of BrainForest, I would be able to continue working on an outline at my computer. Heck, I like to use the PalmPilot as much as the next guy (my friends say a bit more than the next guy), but when I have access to large amounts of screen real estate, I’d just as soon use it.
.H1 The Mac companion application is here first!
A companion desktop application has been in the works since Brainforest was released. In February 1999, beleaguered yet loyal Macintosh Palm users finally had something to crow about: the Macintosh version of Brainforest Professional was released, as shown in Figure A. According to Aportis spokesman Frank Colin, the Windows version, currently in beta, will definitely be out before Windows 2000.
.FIGPAIR A There’s a Macintosh BrainForest application available. Finally, Mac users get their just rewards!
What is Brainforest Pro? Brainforest Mobile Edition (the Palm-only version of the software) and Brainforest Professional (Desktop and Palm software) perform essentially the same tasks: both create full-featured outlines. BrainForest uses the tree as an organizing metaphor. The outlines you create are the trees, the headings are branches, and the subheadings are leaves. Brain. Forest. Get it?
In addition to the standard outlining features you’ve come to expect (numbering/lettering options, promotion and demotion of items), BrainForest has the ability to make each item in the outline a ToDo checkbox, or to add a "percent completed" box next to an item. You can also toggle back and forth between these views. You can promote and demote items with keystrokes and drag and drop.
You can also annotate any branch or leaf by attaching notes. Note icons look like yellow sticky notes in the desktop application. When you export your file, you can choose to export with or without notes.
Project management gurus or anyone doing event planning on any scale will appreciate the program’s ability to schedule items and indicate how close they are to completion.
An intriguing feature of BrainForest is its double sort abilities. You can sort your tree by one or two criteria, including percent done, priority, completion date, etc. The Palm version of the software also lets you sort individual branches, in addition to entire trees. These sorts often reveal patterns you might otherwise miss.
BrainForest Professional features a number of export formats including memopad text, text, CSV, ToDo, and HTML. A feature of BrainForest Professional not available in the Mobile Edition is a Time Line view of a project. This view provides a graphic representation of due dates in a variety of time formats, including week, month, two months, six months, or year.
.H1 Documentation
Aportis gets high marks for its documentation. A useful tutorial takes you through the program basics but urges you to explore the program in greater depth. It is both extensive and useful. Kudos are in order for a really nicely produced Acrobat document. Far too many software manufacturers produce ugly PDF files, but Aportis has taken the time to create a useful help document complete with bookmarks, hyperlinks to point the user to the section, and the judicious use of color.
[We’re not big fans of Acrobat here at PalmPower, so we always like to see HTML versions of manuals. We recommend that Aportis also make available a Web-based, non-PDF version of the BrainForest manual. — DG]
.H1 Limitations
I found a lot to like in this version and very little to complain about. Although I find BrainForest Professional to be a great preliminary organizing tool for writing, the 256-character limit on any individual branch (a limit imposed by the Palm operating system) frustrates me. On a number of occasions I have found myself in the middle of a sentence, with more to say, but unable to enter any text until I figured out I needed to start a new branch or leaf. Also missing for me in the export to HTML plug-in is the ability to export URLs and email addresses as clickable links in an HTML document.
BrainForest is a surprisingly adept tool for the creation of PowerPoint presentations. I can work on a presentation on my Palm unit or on the desktop and then export it as a text file. This then gets imported into PowerPoint. Then all I need to do is add a background and perhaps some transitions and I’m ready to present.
.PAGE
College students and lifelong learners will also appreciate BrainForest’s abilities as a mini flashcard type of testing review program. With the outline expanded, you can enter questions as branches and the answers as leaves. To test yourself, collapse the outline. To check your answer, just expand the branch you’re working with.
Not only can BrainForest Professional work wonders for the organizationally challenged, it can also open up creative ways to manage the relentless flow of information we are all presented with. Get this program and you may finally be able to see the BrainForest for the trees.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
BrainForest is available from Aportis at http://www.aportis.com.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?13@@.ee6ce00
