The first essays of the school year are coming due, and with the essays comes the need to outline and plan. GNU/Linux users are fortunate to have a number of outlining applications from which to choose. True, some outliners have become obsolete, and you will be lucky to get programs like GNOME-Think or the once-popular KnowIt to run on a modern distribution. But you can still choose among OpenOffice.org, TuxCards, NoteCase, Emacs, and VimOutliner for doing your planning.

OpenOffice.org Writer and Impress

OpenOffice.org offers two tools for outlining. In Writer, you can outline by using the Heading styles. To edit an outline, press the F5 key to open the floating window called the Navigator. Under Headings you will find a tree view of all the headings you've used in your document. You can expand or collapse the tree view as needed, and, using the tools in the icon bar, promote or demote headings. You can also reposition them on the tree, which also repositions subordinate sections -- in other words, when you move a paragraph that uses the Heading 1 style, all Heading 2 or 3 styles until the next Heading 1 style move with it.

Tuxcards

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