How electronic outlining can help you create online materials

Abstract

Ugh. Outlines. The very thought makes many writers shudder. I understand the revulsion. As taught in high school and college, the paper outline often seemed an arbitrary chore, a rigid plan we bad to follow even if we came up with a better idea later, a stupid rigamarole of labels and formats from Latin and math. Why did our teachers assign them so often?Well, because our papers were, structurally, a mess. Our teachers hoped that in the process of outlining we would consider various possible structures, and emerge with the most coherent, effective, and convincing organization possible. Alas, most of us just wrote the paper and then cooked up a fake outline to get by. We neatly avoided getting any benefit out of all those outlines.Ten years ago, with the invention of electronic outlining, the world received a tool that actually made it possible to get that benefit out of outlining. The electronic outliner made it easy to create and revise an intellectual structure, analyzing the hierarchy and sequence more rigorously than ever before, then carrying out more than a dozen structuring activities. But, given the world's prejudice against outlining, a vast silence greeted these new products. True, they were gradually incorporated into word processors and presentation packages, but the outlining modules have not been widely used until recently, when two interrelated challenges arose, which these modules help us solve.Pen&sion to make digit&hnrd copies of all or pnrt ofthis mnterinl for personal or classroom use is gnt~ted without fee provided that the copk are not made or distributed for profit or commercinl advantage. the copyri&t notice, the title ofthe publication and its date appear, ad notice is .&en thnt copyri&t is by permission ofthe ACM, Inc. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists. requires specific permission md/or fee. SIGDOC Snowbird Ufah UX4Many of us face the challenge of integrating vast amounts of information-many documents, bits and pieces of questions and answers, bug reports, notes, email chunks-mto information CD-ROMs and Web sites. We need to put together the tables of content or menu systems, to clarify the structure so users can navigate confidently, and to identify potential links by category not just by guess and by gosh. And, as we develop the structure-and then revise it next week as more information comes pouring in-we must often work with representatives of other departments, subsidiary companies, partner corporations. We find ourselves having to collaborate on the structure. In such circumstances, I recommend you consider using the electronic outlining module in your word processor, possibly for the first time.Outlining sofbvare arrives Several computer programs offer us the ability to create outlines electronically. The original dedicated outliners like More@ have given way to outlining modules within word processors like Microsoft Word@ and Core1 Word Perfect@, within the word-processing module of an integrated package (ClarisWorks@), in presentati...