Outline or mind map? Use both

There are two common ways to put structure on an idea. An outline is an indented list: one line per point, children tucked under parents. A mind map is the same tree drawn out, with the topic in the middle and branches growing from it.

People tend to pick a side. We think that is the wrong question, because the two are good at different moments of the same piece of work.

Outlines are for getting it down

An outline asks almost nothing of you. You type a line, press Enter, type the next. When a thought belongs under the previous one, press Tab. Order is preserved, the text reads top to bottom, and nothing about layout needs a decision. That is why outlines are the fastest way to capture a lecture, a meeting or a first brain dump.

They are weaker at showing shape. In a long outline, a section with twenty children and a section with one look much the same until you scroll. Relationships between distant branches are invisible.

Mind maps are for seeing it

A map trades reading order for overview. Each first-level branch gets its own colour and its own region, so balance is obvious at a glance: here is the branch with everything in it, here is the one you forgot.

Maps are weaker for writing. Placing each node by hand is slow, and long sentences make a cluttered picture. Most people who “hate mind maps” have tried to write in one.

One note, two views

So noodl doesn't make you choose. A note is a single tree of nodes, and the outline and the map are two ways of looking at it. They are not an import and an export: when you edit in one, the other is already up to date, and switching (⌘ ⇧ M, or Ctrl Shift M) keeps your selection and your caret where they were.

The keys are the same in both. That is what makes switching cheap:

• Enter adds the next idea at the same level.
• Tab makes it a child; ⇧ Tab moves it back out.
• Space edits the selected node; the arrow keys move between nodes.

A routine that works

1. Capture in the outline. Don't organise yet. One idea per line, Tab when something obviously belongs under something else.
2. Flip to the map and look. Which branches are heavy? Which are empty? Is there a node that belongs in a different branch? Drag it there; its children come with it.
3. Zoom out by level. ⌥1 shows only the main branches. If those don't tell the story on their own, rename them until they do.
4. Go back to the outline to write. Fill the gaps you found, in order, at typing speed.

Two or three passes like this usually turn a pile of notes into something you could hand to someone else.

When to stay in one view

Not every note needs both. A packing list is happy as a list. A brainstorm with a dozen loose ideas may never leave the map. The point isn't to use both every time, it is that you never have to copy a note from one tool into another to change how you see it.

Start a note and try the routine on whatever is on your mind, or pick a template to begin with a shape.