Zooming interfaces

I firmly believe that zooming interfaces are the way of the future for information organizers.  With the volumes of information we have to handle, we need to be able to take in the big picture and zoom in rapidly on any area for the detail.   I just found this at the OutlinerSoftware forum:  TreeSheets 

TreeSheets is a text-based information organizer with a zooming interface a little like Topicscape (but only the zooming part!)     Organize a grid like this extract:

Notice the grid of cells, and the nested sub-grids.  It has titles and then some references I wanted to go back to when I had time.  The gray lines are very tiny text.  I grouped them under headings, saved each URL list in the cell (a grid inside a grid) and shrunk the grid using the mouse wheel while holding down Ctrl.

Then to see them, you just click the cell you want to examine:

and roll the mouse wheel forward:

The surrounding grid disappears, and the selected cell zooms up so you see just its text and its sub-grid contents, enlarged.  This image is reduced to fit the blog width – the actual result is clearer and larger.  Roll the wheel back and you see the whole sheet again.

This means you can have a lot on the screen at once, but avoid detail until you want it.  It’s a neat little application.

Roy