Moving to non-Word formats [long]

[Peter Flynn]

On 16/06/2020 00:02, Liam Proven wrote:
[...]
> A dual-pane outliner draws a tree, like a directory tree, in the
> left pane. The end of each branch is a document.

This is what LaTeX GUI editors do. It's a useful navigation tool (click 
to jump) but not much use beyond that.

> A single-pane outliner is a totally different beast. It's a mode of
> text-editing which gives a text file (a one-dimensional document:
> beginning to end) a _structure_. It's not 2D like a spreadsheet grid
> but it's sort of 1.5D.

This is what Emacs sgml-fold-element does. Each folded 
element/subelement becomes a stub, like your multi-level bulleted list, 
indented according to markup depth, and you can move them around.

> Now, imagine that this list editor lets you move entries under other
> entries, or promote sub-entries up, and merge and split entries.

Yep, exactly that.

> It's a _far_ more flexible way of editing long documents than any
> flat, 1D editor.

If you have lots of stuff to move around the place it's invaluable.
Less useful if all you have to do is rephrase someone else's text :-(

> Also, bear in mind, everything has styles automatically applied, [...]

If you are using Word without style names, for any non-trivial or 
non-ephemeral document, you probably shouldn't be.

> It's an almost incredibly powerful tool and no other leading 
> wordprocessor has anything like it. WordPerfect doesn't, LibreOffice 
> doesn't, AbiWord or KWord or anything.

There are some specialist editors used by writers like novelists which 
have something like this, along with all kinds of database stuff to keep 
track of plots and timelines and characters.

There are translation editors which do this in two panes (source lang 
and target lang) so that your translation stays synchronised.

> Outline mode is the one thing that keeps Word my go-to writing tool of choice.

The Word styling interface, in particular the Styles Pane, is the sole 
reason I still recommend Word to publishers. LO/OO never implemented 
one, despite urging, so they have deliberately lost the entire 
publishing market, which is a pity, but probably not unexpected given 
their approach to styles.

Peter