I've been thinking about how to make outline view and table view one in the same thing such that users can start out by creating data in an outline (which is an extremely intuitive way to go about structuring data) without regretting it afterwards.

Omni-outliner also conflates an outline view with a table...however it runs into a few problems:

If you try to sort by a column (ie. status = Done), because items are organized in a hierarchical tree, the user can never really see all of their Done items clumped together because Omni-Outliner refuses to break the tree. So the best you can do is sort by the top node, which wouldn't get you very far.

• Dinner party (Now)
  • Albertson's (Now)
    • Fontina (Now)
    • Sparkling apple juice (Later)
    • Scallions (Now)
    • Marjoram (Now)
    • Swordfish (Now)
    • Lime (Now)
    • Wine (Later)
  • Order flowers (Done)
  • Wash napkins (Done)
  • Look up Jamie's allergies (Now)

• Restock spices (Later)
  • Marjoram (Now)
  • Cinnamon (Later)
  • Nutmeg (Later)

2. Omni-outliner also doesn't understand about a single item living in multiple places (ie. Marjoram lives in both Dinner party>>Albertson's AND Restock spices.

Proposal: What if...You could sort for real thereby flattening out the hierarchy. However, from any item in the list, you can open up the thread or hierarchy that the item belongs to.

Step 1: I've sorted the hierarchical tree above by status, therby flattening the tree into a plain list.

• Dinner party (Now)
• Albertson's (Now)
• Fontina (Now)
• Scallions (Now)
• + Marjoram (Now)
• Swordfish (Now)
• Lime (Now)
• Look up Jamie's allergies (Now)
• Sparkling apple juice (Later)
• Wine (Later)
• Restock spices (Later)
• Cinnamon (Later)
• Nutmeg (Later)
• Order flowers (Done)
• Wash napkins (Done)

Step 2: I've opened the item Marjoram so I can see its hierarchical context.

• Dinner party (Now)
• Albertson's (Now)
• Fontina (Now)
• Scallions (Now)

• Dinner party (Now)
  • Albertson's (Now)
    • Fontina (Now)
    • Sparkling apple juice (Later)
    • Scallions (Now)
    • - Marjoram (Now)
    • Swordfish (Now)
    • Lime (Now)
    • Wine (Later)
  • Order flowers (Done)
  • Wash napkins (Done)
  • Look up Jamie's allergies (Now)

• Swordfish (Now)
• Lime (Now)
• Look up Jamie's allergies (Now)
• Sparkling apple juice (Later)
• Wine (Later)
• Restock spices (Later)
• Cinnamon (Later)
• Nutmeg (Later)
• Order flowers (Done)
• Wash napkins (Done)

Step 3: The item Marjoram actually belongs to more than 1 tree. Here, I've chosen to view it in the context of the Dinner party tree.

• Dinner party (Now)
• Albertson's (Now)
• Fontina (Now)
• Scallions (Now)

• Restock spices (Later)
  • - Marjoram (Now)
  • Cinnamon (Later)
  • Nutmeg (Later

• Swordfish (Now)
• Lime (Now)
• Look up Jamie's allergies (Now)
• Sparkling apple juice (Later)
• Wine (Later)
• Restock spices (Later)
• Cinnamon (Later)
• Nutmeg (Later)
• Order flowers (Done)
• Wash napkins (Done)

This is sort of like clusters, the only tweak is that these would be hierarchical clusters.