Incredibly Disappointing

OmniOutliner
1

I just spent 3 hours updating from Ventura to Sequoia JUST so I could get this new version of OmniOutliner, which I was sure would be a great improvement over v5 which I’ve been using for years, and which would surely include the features I’ve been begging Omni Group for for years.

Nope.

  • Image are still not resizable.

  • The outline cannot be zoomed with trackpad gestures, unlike just about EVERY other Mac application.

  • There’s no way to add status checkboxes to only a portion of the outline. My outline contains to-do lists where checkboxes would be useful, but most of it is not.

So far it seems pretty much identical to the previous limited, antiquated version.

A waste of time and $99.

2

Sequoia? That’s pretty much ancient history.

3

Images absolutely are re-sizable.

Put an image in the outline, click on it, and a window opens, offering the option “Resize”.

Screenshot 2026-04-05 at 8.02.54 PM.TIFF (750.2 KB)

Click on “Resize”, and handles will appear allowing you to re-size the image.

1 Like
4

Ah, thanks for that, I was expecting to be able to just drag-resize it. I feel somewhat better now!

5

But this one is true and perplexing why this all or nothing model continues.

1 Like
6

Grandpa, tell me what life was like back in 2024.

1 Like
7

I think I heard there’s a kanban mode coming out at some point. There are so many things OmniOutliner could be.

If they would start with the idea OO should be sort of like a CAD system for designing ideas, that would be a start.

1 Like
8

I hope not. This is the problem imo with so many outliners - they try to include all kinds of non-outlining features based on someone’s particular idea of an “organizer”. I just want a good outliner. I just want Circus Ponies Notebook - it was nearly perfect.

1 Like
9

I can see that, but there are some features that could make it more flexible.

I used to use TaskPaper because it was a file based checklist. A project like a book doesn’t need to-do items mixed in with my grocery list. Right now, I use OmniOutliner with status boxes enabled for that sort of thing.

One of my favorite ways to outline is in Devonthink.

Imagine a box of index cards with facts on them. They have no story or chronological order. That’s my repo of ideas.

The outline is in narrative order and refers to each appropriate idea. It’s a series of Markdown documents, each stage of the story using transclusion to include ideas.

As I’m writing chapter 20, I see that the butler ought to steal a record book. The butler’s notes are transcluded into chapter 20 and I update them there.

Later in rewrite, I’m back in Chapter 1 and see I should foreshadow the butler’s upcoming crime in chapter 20 because the transcluded note from chapter 20 is also in chapter 1. Update one transclusion, see the result everywhere.

A feature like that would be useful.

Currently, I have an automation that does something similar. Native support for a database of ideas would be cool, at least for me.