The "Data Explorer" pane shows your "Info Items" in an outline view. The central pane is a tabbed display that shows the actual information in each item. Other panes show child items or the attributes of the current item. There is a great deal of flexibility in how these panes are laid out, and Ultra Recall allows you to save and switch to a variety of layouts, so you can have one arrangement for some tasks and a different arrangement for others.

The hierarchical outline format for the Data Explorer pane is a well-worn standard. Ultra Recall offers a very nice new twist, though, and it is a feature I've been seeking for a while.

You can file the same item under multiple hierarchies, which is extremely helpful, as one of the weaknesses of the outline structure is that many pieces of information logically belong in different areas simultaneously. With Ultra Recall, you can use alt-drag to place a linked copy of an item under a different tree. Because this is a reference link, rather than a cut-and-paste of the information, you still only have one "copy" of the item, but it can be seen, edited, and so on under however many trees it logically belongs with.

An author might have a tree of "Characters," for instance, and also a tree for each chapter in a book. The same character can be found in the chapter tree for each chapter he appears in, and in the character tree, and anywhere else it makes sense to place that data item.

Also , you can give each item in the $100 Ultra Recall Professional (but not the $50 Standard) unique attributes. Attributes are simple data tags that allow Ultra Recall to add some structure to a piece of information. A good example is the built-in "Contact" item, which has attributes for name, phone number, and so forth.