Second, I’m not a fan of the decision to not offer bulleted and numbered outline options. I wish Bike supported bulleted and numbered lists. Rows can be moved up and down through an outline’s hierarchy individually or as a group when multiple rows are selected, sections can be collapsed and expanded individually and all at once, and you can focus on one section of an outline at a time, hiding the others.
Multiple rows can be selected and a new parent row added above them with a single keystroke. Keyboard navigation and editing are at the core of what makes Bike such a powerful outliner. Indenting and outdenting work when multiple rows are selected too. Indenting and outdenting can also be accomplished with ⌘ + ] and ⌘ + [ or ⌘ + ⌃ + → and ⌘ + ⌃ + ←, which I appreciate because it accommodates a variety of personal preferences. Bike gets this right, letting users indent and outdent using the Tab and Shift+Tab anywhere on a row to change its level, which is something that not all outliners support. One of the most important features to get right for an outlining app is indenting and outdenting content.
That works to a point, but the structured nature of an outline demands an approach tailored to organizing ideas.Įvery major feature of Bike has a keyboard shortcut. A lot of outlining apps are just glorified text editors. There’s an elegance to Bike’s limitations that insist that you focus on organizing your ideas instead of procrastinating by decorating your outline, which I love.īike’s approach serves its feature set well, too. There are no formatting options, fonts to pick, text color, highlighting, or any of the other customization choices offered by other outliners. That’s it – text and a tab-based outline structure. The app features unadorned text organized in a foldable, hierarchical structure. The focus was on speed and simplicity.īike 1.0’s strength lies in its simplicity too. As originally conceived, Drafts was a fast way to input text on the iPhone that was destined for another app. Let me explain what I mean.īike reminds me of Drafts 1.0. Overall, I like the approach Bike has taken a lot, but I think it has gone too far, limiting the app’s utility more than is necessary to maintain its simplicity. Bike is a simple app that won’t meet the needs of users looking for iPhone or iPad support, formatting options, Shortcuts support, or other features. However, that focus comes with a downside. The care and attention that has gone into building a solid outlining foundation are immediately evident. That focus is part of what makes Bike such a good outliner. The app’s feature set is limited by design. The outline creation and editing workflows are polished, and the keyboard-focused navigation makes moving around a large outline effortless.
#Cloud outliner review software#
Bike is a brand new Mac-only outlining app from Hog Bay Software that executes the fundamentals of outlining flawlessly.
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