When you hear the name LooseStitch, you may think it’s a knitting site but it’s actually an online outlining site – i.e. a way to “stitch” ideas together. LooseStitch differs from traditional text editing programs by allowing users to fluidly add new rows and text and then re-order with ease.

LooseStitch is quite helpful in managing thoughts and ideas, especially while brainstorming. Users can modify the colors of rows to signify importance or mark items as completed, making it an effective plan organizer as well. To encourage outside input, LooseStitch employs collaboration features and user-level password protection. Best of all, LooseStitch does not lock you into a proprietary format but instead offers exporting in several common file formats.

Practical Uses:

• Organize your thoughts and ideas for your history term paper
• Create a central repository for your office project list
• Use LooseStitch to create drafts of new cooking recipes
• Develop a detailed sitemap for a new web development project

Insider Tips:

• Visit the “Get Ideas” section to find innovative ways that people are using the tool
• Consider making your outline public as this can be a way to promote your site or service
• Check out the keyboard shortcuts: a much easier way to put together an outline
• If you have a website or blog you can embed your LooseStitch outline

What we liked:

• It’s free and easy to get started
• Users can important outlines from other outline programs
• Keyboard shortcuts for advanced users

What we didn’t like:

• Some of the example outlines are test outlines with gibberish content
• It’s unclear as to what will be added/removed when the paid version is made available
• We would have preferred to see a few alternate design templates to satisfy varying user needs

Alternatives:

• Checkvist – www.checkvist.com
• iOutliner.com – www.ioutliner.com
• iJot – www.iJot.com
• Todoist – www.todoist.com
• Think Fold – www.thinkfold.com

Company Info:

• Launched: July 2008
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: India
• Founded by: Crossroads Solutions
• Web site: www.loosestitch.com

Costs:

• Free
• Paid version coming soon

Rating:

• 4 out of 5 (great)