Download OmniOutliner Free for Mac

OmniOutliner is a powerful mind-mapping program designed to help you create all kinds of documents and outlines. Just choose the template that most closely matches the type of document you want to create and the style you’re after, and then start filling it in.

Pros

Lots of templates: Whether you want to outline a family budget of draft a book, OmniOutliner has templates designed just for the purpose. To begin working on a new document, just pick the template and start writing. And if you’re not sure exactly which template is the most appropriate for your purposes, you can view a sample of each of them with some text filled in to give you an idea about how best to use that particular layout.

Searching documents: Since the program makes it possible to create some long and complicated documents, it’s definitely a plus that you can search quickly through the entire thing and focus in on a particular section of interest. Navigation is quick through the outline on the left-hand side of the screen, and you can get right back to the big picture whenever you’re ready.

Cons

Overwhelming help: The help document that comes with this program is very thorough, but it can be a bit overwhelming and unwieldy when you’re just trying to get a few tips to help you get started quickly. A section that’s useful in that situation does exist, but it’s a little hard to find, and you may not want to spend a whole afternoon reading about all of the program’s ins and outs before you start using it.

Bottom Line

If you’re looking for a powerful mind-mapping program, OmniOutliner is worth checking out. It offers a ton of templates and other features, and you can try it for free for 14 days, which is a good amount of time to let you decide whether you’d like to invest $49.95 to purchase the full version.

Editors’ note: This is a review of the trial version of OmniOutliner for Mac 4.0.6.