When it comes to features this is the first outliner I know of that beats good old More. Outiners can be used for several purposes: organizing files, document planning, project planning, note taking, checklists and so on. I currently use the Finder for organizing my files, NoteTaker for note keeping, OmniOutliner for document production and Brainforest for checklists and notes that I want to synchronize with my Palm. FO seems especially fit for document production (writing). For this purpose one doesn't need columns (a feature that is as far as I know unique to OmniOutliner), but one may profit from many of the features that FO has (and OmniOutliner not) such as the ability to split the editor window, the excellent item splitting features, the 'show Nth level' feature, and the ability to view the modification date of an item (!). The basic outlining and reorganization features are comparable to those of More (and, hence better than those of Omni). For instance, FO has, but Omni lacks, commands and keyboard shortcuts to add a child to an item that has no children, to add a sibling to an item that has children, and to add an aunt to an item. Other nice features are cloning and the configurability of the keyboard short cuts.

Nevertheless, I hesitate to replace OmniOutliner and buy TAO. The reason is in the non-standard user interface. Mac outliners (e.g. the Finder, KeyNote, OmniOutliner, NoteTaker) typically use a (red) triangle pointing to the right to indicate closed items that have children, a (red) triangle pointing downwards to indicate open items that have children and a (red) bullet to indicate childless items. FO uses black triangles (pointing to the right) for child-less items (and white ones for items that have children). This is very confusing, even after four weeks I still find myself trying to open these items. Another problem is the need to double click on an item to open/close it. In the Finder and most Mac outliners you open/close items with one click! Finally, many of the task icons (e.g. those for delete, find, replace, print) are very unusual. Although this is less confusing than the black triangles for childless items, it makes the software less usable than it could be.