Natara Bonsai icon
Natara Bonsai icon

Natara Bonsai

 8 likes

Natara Bonsai is a Palm OS and Windows Mobile outliner application with a Windows desktop client that also works as a full-featured standalone outliner and task manager. The Bonsai 5 Desktop Edition offers multiple views of a hierarchical outline: single-, dual- or triple-pane...

Handheld Outline View

License model

Country of Origin

  • US flagUnited States

Platforms

  • Windows
  • Windows Mobile
  • HP webOS
Discontinued

Official site inaccessible, but app still available on download sites.

4 / 5 Avg rating (1)
8likes
2comments
0news articles

Features

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  1.  Outliner

 Tags

  • organizer
  • getting-things-done

Natara Bonsai News & Activities

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Natara Bonsai information

  • Developed by

    US flagNatara Software
  • Licensing

    Proprietary and Commercial product.
  • Alternatives

    50 alternatives listed
  • Supported Languages

    • English

Our users have written 2 comments and reviews about Natara Bonsai, and it has gotten 8 likes

Natara Bonsai was added to AlternativeTo by Danilo_Venom on Aug 12, 2011 and this page was last updated Jun 27, 2024.

Comments and Reviews

   
 Post comment/review
Top Positive Comment
dr_andus
Jul 31, 2013
0

Natara Bonsai 5 Desktop Edition is the best kept secret of the outliner software world. As it started life as a sync client to the Palm app, it has somehow never been recognised for the superb standalone writing tool that it is. I have used it for years, and it's still my no. 1 outliner (on Windows 7). Even many Palm users have just considered it mostly a to-do list manager or project manager, but it has some very powerful outlining functions.

Key strengths:

  • Highly customisable interface. It can be set up as a 1-, 2-, or 3-pane outliner. Multiple windows can be open and tiled.

  • Fast entry of data, quick to move outline items around with keyboard shortcuts or mouse clicks or drag-and-drop.

  • List can be collapsed per levels 1-4, or all expanded just by a mouse-click.

  • You can zoom in (hoist) at any level and cancel zoom with one click.

  • You can select to have check boxes.

  • You can select to have columns with various to-do list functionality.

  • You can set up a default colour scheme for background and font.

  • Outline text can be coloured in automatically on the basis of hierarchy level or other optional attributes.

  • Various search and filtering options.

  • Tabbed interface of outlines open.

  • Multiple standard import and export file options (.MM, .RTF, .HTM, text, CSV etc.) that can be expanded with custom templates (.OPML).

I use it mainly as a two-pane outliner for developing new writing or for analysing reading notes that I took in and imported from Freeplane. Then I export it into Word as .RTF and edit the text further. I also use a whole range of other outliners that have their particular strengths (Noteliner, Outline 4D, ConnectedText, Scrivener, The Guide, Whizfolders), but Bonsai is my number 1 favourite outliner when it comes to quick outlining and analysis of complex lists. See some further discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of Bonsai here.

[Edited by dr_andus, July 31]

[Edited by dr_andus, July 31]

[Edited by dr_andus, July 31]

[Edited by dr_andus, July 31]

dr_andus
Jul 31, 2013
0

At the moment all the alternatives for Bonsai seem to be to-do list type software. However, Bonsai it's not just a to-do list manager. When the to-do functionality is switched off, it is a full-featured outliner, i.e. a writing application. Therefore it should be also listed as an alternative to other single- or dual-pane outliners such as UV Outliner, Noteliner, The Guide or Inspiration.

cppgohan
Nov 23, 2016

But it is no more active, what a pity.

What is Natara Bonsai?

Natara Bonsai is a Palm OS and Windows Mobile outliner application with a Windows desktop client that also works as a full-featured standalone outliner and task manager. The Bonsai 5 Desktop Edition offers multiple views of a hierarchical outline: single-, dual- or triple-pane visualisations.