Menu Commands and Keyboard Shortcuts

This chapter contains an exhaustive list of every single menu item in OmniOutliner 5 Pro, along with their default keyboard shortcuts (where applicable).

If you would like a keyboard shortcut for a menu option that doesn’t have one assigned, you can create custom keyboard shortcut sets by choosing OmniOutliner ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts.

The OmniOutliner menu holds commands related specifically to the administration of the OmniOutliner application itself. Check for updates, view and modify your preferences, and enter new license information here.

About OmniOutliner

This opens the About box so you can learn more about OmniOutliner, including the current version and build number, along with email links to Omni Sales and Support. You’ll also find the Omni Support phone number; we’re here Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time.

Check for Updates (Omni Store Only)

If your Mac is connected to the Internet, selecting this option will connect with our servers to see if an updated version is available for OmniOutliner. If one is available, you’ll be asked first if you want to update, and if so, the new build will download and install on your Mac.

Preferences (Command–,)

This opens the OmniOutliner Preferences window so you can further configure OmniOutliner to suit your needs and your work style.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Opens the Keyboard Shortcuts window to create and manage custom shortcut sets. See The Keyboard Shortcuts Window for details.

Licenses (Omni Store Only)

This opens the Licenses window, in which you can enter or delete an OmniOutliner license.

Buy OmniOutliner/In-App Purchase (Trial Version Only)

This menu item appears if you are using a trial version of OmniOutliner, and directs you to the purchase page for the app. (The menu item appears as Buy OmniOutliner for trial versions downloaded from the Omni Group website, or as In-App Purchase for versions from the Mac App Store.)

Free Trial Mode (Trial Version Only)

If you’re running a trial version of OmniOutliner, these commands switch between the Pro and Essentials editions of the app so you can compare features.

• Try Pro Edition
• Try Essentials Edition

Services

Here you’ll find a list of applications that OmniOutliner can share information with. Select something in a document, and then choose this menu option to see the apps that can receive that data from OmniOutliner.

Hide OmniOutliner (Command–H)

Hides OmniOutliner’s window. To bring OmniOutliner back into view, either click the app icon in the Dock, or use Command–Tab to use macOS’s application switcher to switch back to OmniOutliner.

Hide Others (Option-Command–H)

Banish the windows of other open apps to the land of hidden apps. As with Hide OmniOutliner, to bring a hidden app back into view, either click that app’s icon in the Dock, or use Command–Tab to use macOS’s application switcher to switch back to the app you need.

Show All

Choose this menu option to quickly bring all of the hidden app windows out of hiding.

Quit OmniOutliner (Command–Q)

This does what it says; it quits OmniOutliner. If you haven’t saved the file before, you’ll be prompted to save the file (giving it a name and specifying a location to save the file to).

The File menu contains options for creating, opening, renaming, exporting, and printing documents and templates.

New (Command–N)

Open the Resource Browser, or (if chosen in General Preferences) create a new document using the default template.

Resource Browser (Shift-Command–N)

Open the Resource Browser.

Open (Command–O)

Open an existing file.

Open Recent

OmniOutliner keeps track of recently opened files and includes the filenames in this menu so you can reopen a file and continue your work.

Close (Command–W)

Close the current window; use Option-Command–W to close all open OmniOutliner windows. You will be prompted to name and save new (Untitled) document files before the window is closed.

Save (Command–S)

Save the contents of the current document.

Duplicate (Shift-Command–S)

Create a duplicate copy of the current document. The exact contents of the current window are copied into a new document window, which has the filename in the titlebar highlighted so you can enter a different name for the file. The file will be saved in the same location as the original.

Rename

Choose this option to highlight the filename in the document’s titlebar so you can enter a new name for the file.

Move To

Choose this option to open a sheet and select another location on your Mac’s hard drive to store the file.

Share

With content selected in the outline, choose another app as a destination for the selection (copied out as plain text). See Using the Share Button for details.

Export (Option-Command–E)

Export your OmniOutliner document to one of the following formats mentioned in Exporting from OmniOutliner.

Save As Template

Saves the current file as an OmniOutliner template file. For more on using templates, see Managing and Working with Templates.

Revert To

Opens Time Machine so you can sift through earlier saves of the current document and restore it from an older save.

Encrypt Document

Opens the dialog for setting up document encryption on the current outline. Set passwords and hints, and remove password protection from documents here. This command changes to Encryption Settings if the document is password protected. For additional detail on this feature see Encryption in the Inspectors chapter.

Page Setup (Shift-Command–P)

This opens the Page Setup dialog, where you can choose which printer to format the document for, and select a paper size, orientation, and scale for the document.

Print (Command–P)

Opens the print panel, where you can customize the appearance of your outline for printing or PDF export. OmniOutliner’s printing options are detailed here.

The Edit menu holds commands related to modifying the contents of rows, columns, text, and more. Cut, Copy, Paste, and Undo are all found here.

Undo (Command–Z)

Undoes the previous change you’ve made.

Redo (Shift-Command–Z)

Just like Undo, Redo puts back something that you’ve undone but have decided that you really want to be there.

Cut (Command–X)

Deletes whatever you’ve selected and places that on the Clipboard so you can paste it back later.

Copy (Command–C)

Copies whatever you’ve selected and places it on the Clipboard so you can paste it somewhere else, or in another document, later.

Copy as Link

The Copy As Link menu option allows you to create cross-reference links from one row to another within the same OmniOutliner document. Select some text in one row, choose Edit ▸ Copy As Link and then go to another row in the outline and press Command–V to paste a link to the other row. This is particularly handy when you are working in a long outline where you might need to include references to other parts of the same document. (Links between documents are not supported at this time.)

The link that gets pasted in when you press Command–V references the location in the file of the text you copied, in the form of omnioutliner:///open?row=mLUW8Czar_j.

After pasting the link into another location of the same document, you can select the link and replace it with whatever text you’d like. Another option for changing the link text is to Option–click on the link, and then edit the Display title. You can also opt whether to display the link URL. When you’ve finished editing the link, click Done.

Clicking the link takes you to that location in the document.

Paste (Command–V)

Pastes whatever is on the Clipboard at the current insertion point or selection. Content pasted from external sources matches the surrounding OmniOutliner style by default; to retain any original text styles, choose Paste with Original Style instead.

Paste with Original Style (Option-Shift-Command–V)

Unlike Paste, this option pastes whatever is on the Clipboard and retains any preexisting text styles for that content that it can.

Duplicate Selection (Command–D)

Copy and paste the current selection into the current document automatically.

Delete

Deletes the current selection. Unlike Cut, however, Delete just wipes out whatever you’ve selected without placing it on the Clipboard.

Select All (Command–A)

Selects either every visible row (collapsed rows are not selected), or all text in a cell (when the text cursor is inside a cell).

Deselect All (Shift-Command–A)

Unselect every single thing in your OmniOutliner document. This is sometimes handy for when you’re not sure if something is selected and you’re about to paste something in.

Set Status

Use one of the following to set the status of a row’s checkbox:

• Checked
• Unchecked
• Calculated
• None

Edit Note (Command–’)

Edit the Note for the currently selected row or column cell.

Attach File

Attach a file to the document.

Start/Stop Audio Recording

Add an audio clip to your document.

Pause Audio Recording

Pauses a current audio recording in progress.

Insert Time Stamp

Inserts one of the following time stamps on the current row:

• Short Date (Command–/)—Inserts a localized numerical date string; for example: 10/05/2013.

• Long Date (Option-Command–/)—Inserts a localized numerical date string; for example: October 5, 2013.

• Time (Command–@)—Inserts a localized numerical time string; for example: 12:34:56 PM.

• Short Date and Time (Command–|)—Inserts a localized numerical date and time string; for example: 10/05/2013 12:34 PM.

• Long Date and Time (Option-Command–|)—Inserts a localized numerical date and time string; for example: October 5, 2013 12:34:56 PM PDT.

Find

Use one of the following search options:

• Find (Command–F)—This opens the Find dialog, in which you can enter something to search for. You can search for a text string, such as the Omni Group, or you can use a regular expression, such as Omni\s, to search for the word Omni followed by a space (\s).

• Find Next (Command–G)—Find the next instance.

• Find Previous (Shift-Command–G)—Find the previous instance.

• Use Selection for Find (Command–E)—Uses the current selection as the search criteria when using Find. You can use this option before or after opening the Find dialog (Command–F).

Spelling

Choose one of the following options for checking the spelling and grammar in your document:

• Show/Hide Spelling and Grammar (Command–:)—Opens the Spelling and Grammar window so you can check for any spelling or gramatical mistakes in the current document.

• Check Spelling (Command–;)—Just checks the spelling in the current document. Who cares about grammar, anyway?

• Check Spelling While Typing—Turned on by default, this option checks your spelling as you type. Any words you misspell get a red squiggle underneath and macOS offers up similar words from which you can select the correct spelling.

Speech

You can have macOS read aloud the text in the current row or note using the system voice you’ve set up in the Dictation & Speech preferences (System Preferences ▸ Dictation & Speech ▸ Text to Speech).

• Start Speaking—Start speaking the text in the current row.

• Stop Speaking—Stop speaking.

LinkBack

LinkBack is a way of embedding content between applications in such a way that you can always go back and edit the content with the software used to create it originally.

• Edit LinkBack Item—If you have pasted LinkBack content from another app, select the object and use this command to open the content in the original app.

• Remove LinkBack for Item—Selecting this option removes the LinkBack feature from the selected content so that this content is unaware of its source, and is treated like any other attachment of its file type.

Start Dictation (fn fn)

When dictation is turned on, OmniOutliner uses macOS’s speech recognition capabilities to convert the words you speak into text. When you’ve finished, just press fn fn again to stop dictation.

Emoji & Symbols (Control-Command–Space)

This opens the Characters window, which gives you access to a broader set of characters, including arrows, symbols, and even Emoji.

The Format menu contains options for formatting the contents of your document, including font and text styles, row numbering, and more.

Copy Style (Option-Command–C)

Copies the style of the current selection and places that on the Clipboard.

Paste Style (Option-Command–V)

Pastes the previously copied style onto the current selection.

Clear Style (Control-Command–Delete)

Removes any non-structural styles that have been applied to the selection, along with any styles applied to text within the selection.

Font

Change the typeface and style of your text:

• Show Fonts (Command–T)—This opens the Fonts window, from which you can choose another font, its typeface, and size.

• Bold (Command–B)—Turns on or applies bold to the current selection.

• Italic (Command–I)—Turns on or applies italics to the current selection.

• Underline (Command–U)—Turns on or applies an underline to the current selection.

• Outline—Turns on or applies an outline to the current selection.

• Bigger (Command–+)—Increase the size of the current row or selected text.

• Smaller (Command–−)—Decreases the size of the current row or selected text.

Kern

Use these options to change the spacing between characters:

• Use Default
• Use None
• Tighten
• Loosen

Ligature

Use these options to control ligatures in your document:

• Use Default
• Use None
• Use All

Baseline

Use these options to adjust the baseline of the current row or selection:

• Use Default
• Superscript
• Subscript
• Raise
• Lower

Show Colors (Shift-Command–C)

Opens the color palette to make adjustments to the selection color.

Text

Alignment options for text, images, and attachments:

• Align Left—Aligns text and objects to the left margin of the current row or column.

• Center—Aligns text and objects based on the midpoint of the current row or column.

• Justify—Evenly space the words in a row or column so that multiline text uses the full width of the column.

• Align Right—Aligns text and objects to the right margin of the current row or column.

Writing Direction

Change the writing direction:

• Right to Left—Change the writing direction from Left to Right to Right to Left.

Row Numbering

The controls in this submenu are used to assign a row-numbering scheme to your document, and are split into two parts. The upper section of the menu determines numbered style to use as the prefix for the rows in your document. If you have set a numbered style other than None, the suffix styles in the lower section—x., x), and (x)—can also be applied to the row number; for example 1.1.1., 1.1.1), or (1.1.1), respectively.

Choose the formatting for row numbers from the following:

• None—When selected, the rows in your document will not be numbered.

• 1, 2, 3, 4—When selected, the rows in your document are numbered sequentially, starting with 1.

• A, B, C, D—When selected, the rows in your document are lettered sequentially using uppercase letters, starting with A.

• a, b, c, d—When selected, the rows in your document are lettered sequentially using lowercase letters, starting with a.

• I, II, III, IV—When selected, the rows in your document are numbered sequentially using uppercase Roman numerals, starting with I.

• i, ii, iii, iv—When selected, the rows in your document are numbered sequentially using lowercase Roman numerals, starting with i.

• 1, 1.1, 1.1.1—When selected, the rows in your document are numbered sequentially using section numbering, starting with 1 for the parent row, 1.1 for the next level of indented rows, and so on.

• x.—This places a period after the chosen row number style; for example, 1.1.2..

• x)—This places a closing parenthesis ) after the chosen row number style; for example, 1.1.2).

• (x)—This places row numbers in parenthesis; for example, (1.1.2).

Apply Template Theme

Opens a sheet that looks similar to the Resource Browser so you can choose and apply a template theme to the current document.

The View menu contains options for working within your OmniOutliner document.

Expand All (Control-Command–9)

Expand all of the rows in your document.

Collapse All (Control-Command–0)

Collapse all of the rows in your document.

Expand Row(s) (Command–9)

Expand the currently selected row or rows.

Expand Row(s) Completely (Option-Command–9)

Expands the currently selected row or rows, and all child rows as well.

Collapse Row(s) (Command–0)

Collapses the currently selected row or rows.

Collapse Row(s) Completely (Option-Command–0)

Collapses the currently selected row or rows, and all child rows as well.

Focus (Shift-Command–F)

Brings the currently selected row and its children (or rows and their children, if more than one are selected) into focus by hiding everything else in your OmniOutliner document.

Unfocus (Option-Shift-Command–F)

Removes the previously assigned Focus.

Zoom In (Command–>)

Magnify the view of your document. You can scale your document up to 400 percent.

Zoom Out (Command–<)

Demagnify the view of your document. You can scale your document down to 50 percent.

Zoom to Actual Size

Automatically scales your document back to 100 percent (normal size).

Column Headers

Choose whether column headers are displayed using one of these options:

• Show—Displays all column headings.

• Automatic—Turns on column headings if there are two or more columns in your document.

• Hide—Hides all column headings.

Show/Hide Status Checkboxes

Choose to display or hide the clickable status checkboxes. These are helpful for when you have an outline that pertains to a project (such as the outline for writing OmniOutliner’s documentation) and you want to tick things off as you go.

Hide Column

Hides the selected column, or the column where editing is currently in progress.

Columns

Choose which columns to display:

• Show All Columns—Displays all of the columns in your OmniOutliner document.

• Note—Hide or show the Notes column.

• Topic—The Topic column cannot be hidden; it is always viewable.

Show Full Row Text

Use these options for displaying text within a row:

• Always—The text in a row will always be visible, even when the cursor is in another row.

• When Editing—Text in the row is truncated at the end of the first line (rather than wrapping and continuing) when the row is not being edited. This is particularly helpful when you’ve imported text from another document (such as a Word document), and you only want to see the text for the row you’re working on.

Notes

Choose how you want the Notes in your OmniOutliner file to appear; either inline or in a separate pane:

• Display Inline—Have your Notes appear inline with the rest of your content.

• Display in Pane—Opt to have the Notes in your OmniOutliner file appear in a separate pane at the bottom of the window.

Show/Hide Note(s) (Option-Command–‘)

Shows or hide notes on the selected rows.

Show/Hide Note Pane (Option-Command–’)

Shows or Hides the note pane (if Display in Pane is chosen).

Show/Hide All Notes (Control-Command–’)

Toggle the visibility of the notes in your document.

Use Typewriter Mode

OmniOutliner keeps your scroll position static when you add a new row to an outline or select a row other than the current one (until you reach the very bottom of the window).

This command changes this. When in use, typewriter mode detects when your selection moves above or below the center of the document window, and adjusts the scroll position in response. This keeps the row you select front and center—just like it would on a typewriter.

Row Filters

This submenu provides the option to create a new saved filter for your outline, and lists any other saved filters you have already created (just like the Filters tab of the sidebar).

Hide/Show Sidebar (Option-Command–1)

Choose whether to display the left Sidebar that contains the Sections, Styles, and Filters tabs.

Sidebar

Use the commands in this submenu to navigate between the various tabs of the Sidebar.

• Sections
• Styles
• Filters

Hide/Show Inspector (Shift-Command-I)

Choose whether to display the Inspector pane that contains the Selection Style and Document Inspector sets.

Inspectors

Use the commands in this submenu to navigate between the various tabs of the Inspector.

• Selection Style
• Document

Enter/Exit Full Screen (Control-Command–F)

Make it so OmniOutliner takes over the entire screen. The advantage of going to Full Screen is so you can focus on your work without other distractions. To exit from Full Screen mode, use either Control-Command–F again, or press the Esc key.

Show/Hide Toolbar (Option-Command–T)

Choose whether to display the Toolbar at the top of the document window.

Create/Remove Document-Specific Toolbar

This option lets you create a Toolbar that’s specific to the document you’re working on. For example, the tools you need for writing a script might be totally different from the tools you use to create invoices. After creating a document-specific Toolbar, you might consider saving that file as an OmniOutliner Template (File ▸ Save as Template) so you don’t have to recreate that Toolbar again.

Customize Toolbar

Choose this option if you want to customize the Toolbar for every OmniOutliner document, except for any templates for which you’ve created a document-specific Toolbar (see the previous menu option). See the Customizing the Toolbar section for details on how to customize and create document-specific Toolbars.

Customize Touch Bar

This command appears when running OmniOutliner on a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar support, and provides customization options for the Touch Bar similar to those for the Toolbar. See the Customizing the Touch Bar section for details.

The Organize menu contains options for adding, removing, and sorting the contents of your document.

Add Row

Insert a row beneath the current row.

Add Inside (Command–})

Inserts and indents a new row beneath the current row.

Add Outside (Command–{)

Inserts and outdents a new row beneath the current row.

Add Column

Inserts a new column after the currently selected column.

Remove Column

Removes the selected column.

Keep Sorted

Choose one of these options to either reset or maintain the type of sorting you’d like for your document. These parameters are non-destructive and do not change the actual organization of your outline—just order in which rows appear.

• Clear Sorting—Removes any previously selected sorting choice. This is useful for when you want to resort a document using another method, or want to restore the original ordering of your rows.

• Notes, A-Z—Sorts the contents of the document in alphabetical (A-Z) order based on the Notes for each row.

• Notes, Z-A—Sorts the contents of the document in reverse alphabetical (Z-A) order based on the Notes for each row.

• Status, Unchecked to Checked—Sorts the contents of the document based the state of the Status Checkboxes, from unchecked to checked.

• Status, Checked to Unchecked—Sorts the contents of the document based the state of the Status Checkboxes, from checked to unchecked.

• Topic, A-Z—Sorts the contents of the document in alphabetical (A-Z) order based on the Topics used in the document.

• Topic, Z-A—Sorts the contents of the document in reverse alphabetical (Z-A) order based on the Topics used in the document.

Sort Outline/Sort Selected Rows

Sort the items in your document or selection, once, based on the following parameters. Choosing one of these options actually changes the order of the rows in your document—not just their apparent placement.

• Notes, A-Z—Sorts the contents of the document in alphabetical (A-Z) order based on the Notes for each row.

• Notes, Z-A—Sorts the contents of the document in reverse alphabetical (Z-A) order based on the Notes for each row.

• Status, Unchecked to Checked—Sorts the contents of the document based the state of the Status Checkboxes, from unchecked to checked.

• Status, Checked to Unchecked—Sorts the contents of the document based the state of the Status Checkboxes, from checked to unchecked.

• Topic, A-Z—Sorts the contents of the document in alphabetical (A-Z) order based on the Topics used in the document.

• Topic, Z-A—Sorts the contents of the document in reverse alphabetical (Z-A) order based on the Topics used in the document.

Move

Use the following commands to move, indent, or outdent rows in your document:

• Move Up (Control-Command–↑)—Moves the selected row and its children up one row.

• Move Down (Control-Command–↓)—Moves the selected row and its children down one row.

• Move Left (Control-Command–←)—Moves the selected row and its children to the left while ignoring any of its siblings.

• Move Right (Control-Command–→)—Moves the selected row and its children to the right, making them children of the preceding row.

Indent (Command–])

Indents the current row.

Outdent (Command–[)

Outdents the current row.

Group (Option-Command–G)

Indents the selected rows and groups them together under a new parent row.

Ungroup (Option-Command–U)

Ungroups the rows of a selected group. Ungrouping does not remove a parent row; you’ll need to delete that separately, if you so choose.

The Window menu contains options for working with OmniOutliner’s windows.

Minimize (Command–M)

Relegates the current window to the right side of the Dock so it’s out of your way. To bring the window back into focus, you can either choose Window ▸ [filename] (look at the bottom of the Window menu for a list of open documents), or just click on the document’s icon in the Dock to restore it to view.

Zoom

This resizes the OmniOutliner document window to fit the content of your outline as well as possible, or (if used again) restore the previous window size.

Show Previous Tab (Control-Shift-Tab)

macOS Sierra and later support grouping windows from the same application into a unified window with tabs for each document (similar to the tabs used by most web browsers). With multiple OmniOutliner documents sharing a window in this way, this command navigates to a previous tab in the row.

Show Next Tab (Control-Tab)

With multiple OmniOutliner documents sharing a window, this command navigates to the next tab in the row.

Move Tab to New Window

If an outline is displayed as a tab in a window with others, this command detaches the document’s tab into its own separate window.

Merge All Windows

Move all currently open OmniOutliner document windows into a single window with the documents separated by tabs.

Bring All to Front

Brings all open OmniOutliner windows to the front of any other application windows that are currently open on your Mac.

This menu contains options for accessing OmniOutliner’s support resources and documentation.

OmniOutliner Help

Opens the in-app help document that you’re currently reading.

Intro Video

Opens a page with an introductory video that showcases just some of the wonderful uses of OmniOutliner (the app that you’re using right now)!

Quickstart Guide

Opens a page with a brief tutorial explaining OmniOutliner’s most basic features. If you’re brand new to the app, this is a great place to start.

Release Notes

Discover what’s new in the latest release of OmniOutliner. Details you’ll find here include bug fixes, additions, and changes.

News

Important information from Omni about recent changes to OmniOutliner or macOS that impact your use of the app. (This menu item only appears if we have such news to share.)

Open Scripts Folder

Choosing this menu option opens a new Finder window, taking you to the location on your hard drive where OmniOutliner scripts are stored. If you create AppleScripts for use with OmniOutliner 5, this is the location to which you should save your scripts.

Contact Omni

This queues up an email to omnioutliner@omnigroup.com so you can send us feedback about, or ask for help with, OmniOutliner. We’ve pre-filled the Subject line of the message with your specific build number and information about your version’s license so we can better help you.