Thanks for the great suggestions!

Since my todo list is already in word, I went the Word Outline route -- very nice It is great to be able to alphabetize the projects (using table->sort) without affecting any of the action items under each. My todo list (action items) is now cleaner and shorter, and identifying 'project categories' for all those action items that are way out in the future gave me insight into where I am spending my time and where there are gaps.

And now I have acquired a new action item -- go through my newly-created projects list, and separate it into 'live projects' and 'someday maybe'.