TreePad
35 likes
A free and lightweight outliner, only 465KB in size. It allows you to store all your notes, emails, texts, hyperlinks, etc. into one or multiple plain-text databases. With the look and feel of the familiar Windows Explorer, editing, storing, browsing, searching, and retrieving...
Cost / License
- Free Personal
- Proprietary
Application typeApplication types
EUAlerts
- Discontinued
Platforms
- Windows
- Linux
- Wine
- Raspberry Pi
Discontinued
The treepad website is no longer available. You can still find the program at https://web.archive.org/web/20190720190155/http://www.treepad.com/treepadfreeware/
Features
TreePad News & Activities
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Recent News
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Official Links
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What is TreePad?
TreePad information
Developed by
Freebyte.com Licensing
Proprietary and Free Personal product.Rating
Average rating of 3.8Alternatives
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Comments and Reviews
[NOTE: The freeware version of TreePad is now called TreePad Lite. This is a review of TreePad Lite.]
If all you need is straight-up plain text notes in an outline with the ability to search through the tree, then hands down nothing beats TreePad Lite. I've been relying on it for over a decade and it has never let me down. The one feature that is most important to me is that there is a global search function that lists the full path of all the nodes that contain the text string you are searching for. You can then double-click on the search result to go directly to that node, and also search within the node scope only.
The thing that really sets TreePad Lite apart is that it comes in a portable package that is just one tiny (588 KB) executable file, and that's all you need -- no installation required. It's super fast to load, consumes a fraction of the memory that other tree outliners use, and has enough features to make it useful. I've tried just about every free "light" tree outliner out there, but found them all lacking in one feature or another (one tiny app didn't even have a search feature!).
It's not a perfect piece of software -- for example, I have long been annoyed by the fact that you have to manually backspace to delete the previous search term when you perform a node-level search, and the author has never replied to my request to fix this -- but compared to what's out there right now, it's the best fit for me. Seriously, TreePad Lite is pound-for-pound the lightest, fastest freeware out there for organizing plain text in a tree structure.
The only free program that could knock TreePad Lite off its top position (at least in my world) is an open source gem called The Guide. It has a lot going for it, like a more modern and intuitive UI, but as of v2 it is missing that one feature that I can't live without in a tree outliner: the search results only show the node title, not the full node path. This may seem trivial at first, but when you actually start using this extra information having the ability to see the entire taxonomy matching your search string this becomes a very powerful and invaluable tool.
RIP TreePad.
Update 8-Oct-2019
NO LONGER AVAILABLE FROM ANY WHERE
It's more then a year since the last comments about Treepad from the website Freebyte.com. The website with all the programs is down, because the owner died. The owner was my brother, and I want to let people know what happend. Maybe I can help if someone wants one of his programs. Just let me know, and maybe I can do something. Maybe no one is reading my message because it's more then a year ago, but it felt like I had to do this.
Elisa
Thank you Elisa for this information, sincere condolences to you and your family.
I am a long time TreePad user and have been wondering a long time what happened to FreeByte software. I still use TreePad daily (have been doing so over a decade) and think it is quite extraordinary how well it still works. I have not been able to find alternative for it, such a great software it is. One obstacle here is of course the export-import issues as I have quite big archives that I do not want to lose.
I would buy an upgrade license to the TreePad Enterprise X 384GB version immediately it it was somehow possible, even though I understand there has not been nor will be any updates.
Thank you Elisa for letting us know. My thoughts are with you and your families. If you are able to arrange anything please let us know in this "Comments" page or there is a link to this website's principals at the foot of this page. bawldiggle 17-Jan-2021
Elisa, I just sent you a private message, because I couldn't figure out how to reply here (until just now).
Thank for letting us know what happened. Many of us were wondering.
Although there are many alternative pims out there, including some extraordinary open source versions, I haven't found anything with the feel & comfort that matches what your brother created.
He left behind quite a legacy.
Regards,
DC
Hi Elisa, It's been a while, but please accept my condolences. I'm one of those people who has been using TreePad for many years - probably even since the 90s. The program is great and your brother's help was quick and to the point. Is it possible to purchase the Enterprise version for one person? My business version has reached its limits and it would be best to switch to a version with more space. All the best. Regards, Maciej
Just so you know,
MyInfo has made available for download all of the various trial versions of TreePad at https://www.myinfoapp.com/blog/download-treepad
AND MyInfo has provided a brief history and explanation of the TreePad versions at https://www.myinfoapp.com/guides/treepad
Henk Hagedoorn didn't actually invent the tree-view control—but as far as I know, TreePad (and its subsequent versions) was one of the very the first popular Windows PIMs to use it. Henk was a great guy, too. I corresponded with him a bit—and, being a technical writer, helped him with his early English documentation. My wife and I ended up visiting him in the Netherlands, and he took us around the town showing us various things. I was very sad to hear he'd passed away. But he had a very positive influence on many computer users, helping them manage an unimaginably massive amount of personal data. A free version of TreePad was always available for anyone who wanted it; he charged only for the versions that added extra features. He was one of the first software developers to have that policy, too. Bedankt, Henk! :?)
Thanks, Ander.
Do you happen to know the date of his passing? I tried in vain to locate an obituary for him, in the UK. He had such a profound influence on my productivity, I'd like to write up a dedication for Henk.
So sorry to hear about your loss, Elisa. How sad. I bought the Enterprise version long ago, but I changed my computer since then, and now I am unable to find the program. You brother's work is so remarkable. I've used it for years. Thank you. If the program is still aviable, I'd like to buy it again. Ciao from Italy.
Rosario,
Do you still have the license info? You can get a trial copy off the web, and copy and paste the registration info.
One place you can get a trial copy, is from Treepad's web archive.
I have been using TreePad Business Edition for more than a decade and, as noted by others, I have not yet found anything that comes close. My sincere condolences, @elisa555, to you and your family, and thanks for the info. I am a software engineer, and am prepared to put some time into maintaining and/or supporting TreePad, if this can be of help. There are a few enhancements that I would like to see, e.g. mergingof Business Edition databases. I guess that bidirectional import/export features would be ideal - be it RTF, XML, HTML, JSON etc. It may even be a consideration for your family to place the TreePad source code into the public domain under, at least, a BSD or an Apache type license - this way the tool will live on and your brother's legacy preserved for many years to come. Just a thought.
Thanks again and kind regards Jonathan
[Edited by jonniegilmore, January 16]
[Edited by jonniegilmore, January 16]
Tangent topic, jonn -
Although it doesn't have import capabilities, there was a tool that the Process Text group used to sell, called Amber Treepad Converter. Unfortunately, they only specialize in Email conversions nowadays.
It had a host of export formats, separate from the formats that Treepad provided. It used the .tpd format as the source.
So for example, you could export to PDF, Word, DBF, Excel, MS Access, opml, and some other legacy formats.
Yes, the source for some of the Treepad versions would be nice. Or at least an option to purchase more licenses, with separate registration keys.
In fact, even if this is the end of any further licenses or development, I'd be honored to donate to Elisa from time to time, in gratitude for the conveniences that Henk developed for all of us.
I am extensively using TreePad Enterprise as a Knowledge Base for our production plant.
The ability to export the database to html web based format was extremely powerful in sharing this information.
It was extremely robust, never locking up and flawlessly performing as intended.
I don’t think it’s ability to export all documents as a dynamic tree navigation is available with any other software.
[Edited by samsonrialou, October 21]