Any hierarchical, tree-like editor for general use?

Question

I am using a C++ editor to write down general notes, i.e. I use the code blocks { } and the multi-line comments /**/ to organize the text in a hierarchical way. Most editors allow to collapse/uncollapse such blocks, allowing to view just the parts of text I am interested in.

E.g.:

{ /// Title
    { /// Contents
        // 1. Introduction
        // 2. Basic concepts
        // 3. Strategies
        // 4. Key words
    }
    { /// 1. Introduction
        /* Once upon a time...
         */
        /* Another paragraph...
         */
    }
    Other chapters...
}

This approach works quite well. It is immediately readable with any text editor, and offers a tree like structure which I find great.

However it is not so rich in terms of features, compared to a classic word processor.

Do you know of any tool that allows to organize a text file in a hierarchical way, without polluting the text too much, so that it remains readable even when examined directly?

Useful features would be, e.g., links to other parts of the text and other documents; links to the web; ...

Thank you!

Well, I found questions on similar subjects here on Stack Overflow... (e.g. [link](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/659249/treelike-structure-plugin-for-vim) and [link](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4622403/any-wysiwyg-rich-text-editor-that-doesnt-use-html-contenteditable-or-designmod) ) — Pietro M, Jan 26 '12 at 11:12

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 16 '12 at 20:29

1

For Linux, there's also the Vim Outliner (VO) and the Hierarchical NoteBook (hnb).

MaxThink for DOS was king back in the day :-)

answered Apr 16 '12 at 20:29

Rick

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1

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 26 '12 at 11:11

You may find org-mode or outline-mode of emacs helpful. Unfortunately, the learning curve for emacs is fairly steep. I've read somewhere that org-mode is being ported to vim now, but I am not sure how usable it is.

If you are not really hung up on text files, you may find mind-mapping tools (such as FreeMind) useful. There are a number of freely available mind-mapping tools, so you may need to do further research until you find one that suits you.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 29 '13 at 06:07

0

Mindmap editors do this (MindManager is the best that I've seen, although it is not free), although I would also like to find something lightweight and fairly simple, perhaps an XML editor could do this?

answered Aug 29 '13 at 06:07

localhost

1,253
4
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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 04 '14 at 18:43

Sublime Text 3 allows code folding for all programming languages, and this includes text files. So if you indent text and mouse-over the sidebar you get little triangles to fold your hierarchical indented blocks.

It doesn't remember the folded state by default but you can get this feature easily by installing the plugin BufferScroll. It is cross-platform and generally an awesome editor.

Any hierarchical, tree-like editor for general use?

4 Answers4