The Inspectors

The Inspectors hold tools for editing the style, structure, and formatting of your document.

The Inspectors are located on the trailing edge of the window on Mac, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro, and at the bottom of the screen on iPhone.

To show the Inspector:

• Select Show/Hide Inspector from the View Menu
• Select the Inspector Button in the Toolbar

Inspectors will update to reflect any selection you make, whether editing a cell, selecting a row or column, or deselecting everything.

Inspectors are divided into two groups, based on how the tools apply to the document:

• Selection Style — Modify attributes for a selection in the Outline or Sidebar
• Document — Modify attributes for the whole document.

You can switch between the Selection Style and Document Inspectors by selecting one of the buttons in the top of the Inspector, or choosing from the Inspectors submenu on Mac.

Inspectors are structured differently on Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro. Please read the relevant section to learn more:

Inspectors on Mac

Selection Style Inspectors on Mac

Use the Selection Style Inspector when you want to change the appearance of rows, columns, text selections, or styles in your document.

If you have a row, column, or text selected, changes will apply to only that selection; if you do not have anything selected, changes will apply to the whole document.

Preview Inspector on Mac

This Inspector previews styles applied to your current selection, as well as an indication of what that selection is (with nothing selected, for example, Whole Document is displayed).

Font Inspector on Mac

This Inspector provides a variety of controls for changing the appearance of the text in your document.

• Font — Select the font for the selected text, row, or document. On Mac, you can also open the Font panel; on other devices, you can tap on Manage Fonts, which will open the Fonts section of Settings.
• Size — Select the font size for the selected text, row, or document.
• Color — Select the font color for the selected text, row, or document. See Choosing Colors for more detail on setting colors in OmniOutliner.
• Bold — Apply or remove the bold style to the selected text, row, or document.
• Italic — Apply or remove the italic style to the selected text, row, or document.
• Underline — Apply or remove the underline style to the selected text, row, or document.
• Strikethrough — Apply or remove the strikethrough style to the selected text, row, or document.

On Mac, you can click and hold the buttons for Bold, Italic, Strikethrough, or Underline to reveal additional style options.

Choosing Colors on Mac

Throughout the inspectors, you will find color wells which you can use to change the default colors.

On Mac:

• Click on the arrows to the right of the color well, and select a new color from the Omni-selected list of options.
• Select Other… or click on the color well to open the Colors window, which allows you to select, manipulate, and save colors.

When the Colors window first opens, you will see the Color wheel. To select a color, click within the Color Wheel and drag the handle to find the value you want. Beneath the Color Wheel there is a slider for Opacity, with 0% being transparent and 100% opaque.

You can switch from the Color Wheel to other color selecting options by clicking the icons along the top of the Colors window, which include the Color Sliders, Color Palettes, Image Palettes, and Pencils.

The lower section of the Colors window contains an eyedropper (click it to sample a color anywhere on your screen), and a color well that contains your selected color. This is the Color Inspector. Drag a color from the Inspector to one of the empty color swatches along the bottom of the window to save it for later use.

If you run out of space in the color swatches area, you can drag to adjust the size of the window or adjust the divider between the color wheel and the swatches, to reveal more empty rows for saving your custom color selections.

To learn more about the Colors window, see the Apple User Guide article:

• Use colors in documents on Mac

Paragraph Inspector on Mac

Use the Paragraph Inspector to choose the layout and background attributes for the current selection.

• Text Alignment — This row of buttons is used to align left, center, align right, or justify text in the selection. See Align or Justify
• Line Height — Choose single spacing, double spacing, or one of several options in-between. Line height adds spacing above a line of text within a row, while Padding adds spacing between rows.
• Background — Set the background color for the selected row or style. See Choosing Colors
• Writing Direction — Set the writing direction to Natural (based on the system language), Left to Right, or Right to Left.

Column Type Inspector on Mac

On Mac, this Inspector appears while editing text in a column, or when a column is selected by clicking its header. If column headers are hidden, select Show in the Column Headers submenu.

When first added, the type for a new column is Rich Text.

You can choose a new column type by making a selection from the Type menu. Available types include:

Column Width

Enter a value in the Width field to set the width of the selected column. If the Topic column is selected, the Auto button can be used to have the Topic column resize automatically based on the changing widths of the window or the other columns in the outline. (This is referred to in the Topic header contextual menu as Autosize, and in the View > Columns submenu as Autosize Topic.)

Click the Resize to Fit button to have the column width automatically adjust to fit the longest single line of text. (This is a one-time operation. Subsequent changes to the text do not cause the column to resize again.)

Row Inspector on Mac

Use these controls to set options for your current row selection.

• Handle — (Mac only) Determines whether the row handle is Always visible, only visible when you Hover over the row, or Never visible.
• Numbering — Choose a numbering style to use for the selected rows in your document. The dropdown menu offers a variety of options that mirror those in the Row Numbering submenu, with the addition of an Other… option (Mac only), which presents two fields to enter custom prefix and suffix characters. Values entered here surround any existing row numbering scheme.
• Gutter — (Mac only) Set a color to use for the gutter (the area where the row handle and status checkbox appear). Click the arrows on the right edge to choose from one of the Omni-selected color choices, offered, or choose Other to open the Colors palette.
• Row Padding — (Mac only) Set the amount of space (in pixels) above and below the text within the row.
• Above Note — (Mac only) Set the amount of space above an inline note.
• Above Children — (Mac only) Set the amount of space between a parent row and its children.
• Below Children — (Mac only) Set the amount of space below the last child row.
• Start a New Page — (Mac only) Determines whether the currently selected row forces the start of a new page. When you select this option, a red dashed line appears above the row, as if you were going to cut the document with a pair of scissors. This is specifically for the purposes of printing or exporting to PDF.
• Indent Children — Choose whether to indent a row’s children. If you choose to not indent children, it might be hard to determine which is the parent and which is the child row. As such, you might want to style child rows differently, perhaps giving them a different background color or shade, reducing the font size, and so on.

Style Attributes Inspector on Mac

The Style Attributes Inspector shows a detailed list of all the styles currently applied to the selection, organized by source (Text, Row, Whole Document, and so forth). It also provides controls for removing styles on the selection, or applying them (via drag and drop) to other items or styles in the outline.

The order of styles shown (from top to bottom) matches the priority with which they are applied to the selection, providing insight on how the item’s style is calculated. where styles conflict, the topmost style overwrites those beneath it.

Click the button at the right of each style to remove it from the selection.

Document Inspectors on Mac

Use the Document Inspectors to adjust the styles or attributes of the outline as a whole, rather than styles that can be applied to a certain part of the outline.

The Document Inspector controls the appearance of how elements (rows, columns, margins, and more) are laid out within the outline.

Dynamic Theme on Mac

Starting with OmniOutliner 5.4 and macOS 10.14, your macOS appearance settings control the appearance of the window surrounding your outline, including the Toolbar, Sidebar, and Inspector. Dark Mode does not update the outline appearance, which is controlled by the Whole Document background color you choose in the Inspector, or by applying a template theme.

Previous versions of OmniOutliner relied on specific background colors to create documents compatible with macOS Dark Mode.

Appearance Inspector on Mac

Alternative Rows on Mac

Use the Alternate rows option to set a background color to alternating rows in your document. You can choose from one of the preset color options, or click the color bar to choose a custom color or background pattern from the Colors palette.

Horizontal grid

Use the Horizontal grid option to add a thin line of color between the rows in your document. You can choose from one of the preset color options, or click the color bar to choose a custom color from the Colors palette.

Vertical grid

Use the Vertical grid option to add a thin line of color between the columns in your document. You can choose from one of the preset color options, or click the color bar to choose a custom color from the Colors palette.

Margin

Choose a color for the document margin—the space outside the bounds of the outline’s canvas. This appears when in full screen mode, or when the width of all visible columns is less than the width of the outline in the window. You can choose from one of the preset color options, or click the color bar to choose a custom color from the Colors palette.

Column Headers

Choose whether to Show or Hide column headers. The Automatic option shows any text you’ve entered for a header, but hides the generic Topic header if you have only one column in your document. You can also do this by choosing View > Column Headers > Show/Automatic/Hide.

Show Row Status

Choose this option if you want to display the status checkboxes along the left side of every row. These are different from the checkbox option you can set on a column, in that status checkboxes are always located on the left edge of and follow the indentation level of your rows.

Inline Notes

Choose whether inline notes will wrap based on the first column of the document, or if they’ll span the width of all columns. (Inline notes, which are styled using the Notes style, appear beneath the text you’ve entered in a row.)

Indent Child Rows

This pop-up menu lets you choose how far child rows will be indented. You can choose from one of the options we’ve provided, or enter a value of your liking and press Return.

Format and Metadata on Mac

Use the Format and Metadata Inspector to provide additional information (metadata) about the document you’re working on. The information you provide here stays with the document and makes it easier to find on your Mac using Spotlight.

Save As

The first option in the Document Inspector is a popup menu with options for how your Outliner document is saved: either as a flat file or as a file package. (This option is document-specific.)

If you choose to save as a flat file (the default), OmniOutliner compresses your files down to the smallest practical size. Compressed files don’t just take up less space on your hard drive; they’re also easier to share, and to sync between devices.

Choosing to save as a file package means your files won’t be compressed. This generally isn’t recommended, but can be useful if you are saving your OmniOutliner files in a version control or document management system, or if you run scripts (Python, Ruby, and so on) on the XML inside your document.

Encryption on Mac

Click the Gear button to add or modify #encryption on your document (detailed at the end of this chapter).

Use the gear button in the Format and Metadata Inspector (or the **File >

You are prompted to enter and confirm a password. With the New Password and Verify fields matching (and an optional password hint added), click OK to finish the encryption process. The next time you open the document, you’ll see the following prompt:

Your document is now encrypted and cannot be opened—or have its contents otherwise read—without entering the password. This is true both of the original document and any copies of it that are subsequently created, so if you send a copy to a coworker they’ll need the password to open it.

To remove encryption from a password-protected document (and remove the requirement for a password), choose File > Encrypt Document, enter the existing password, and click Remove Password.

Metadata

The rest of this Inspector is composed of metadata fields for contextually enriching your document, and have no direct effect on the contents of your outline. The metadata fields in the Format and Metadata Inspector include:

Copyright

Copyright statements typically declare who owns the legal rights to something. (Usually you, your company, or some other entity.)

Version

Version numbers are used to indicate a certain “state” of a project. For example, 0.1 might be a beta release while 1.0 might be an initial release.

Subject

Something similar to what you would enter as the subject line for an email; for example, Staff project assignments for OmniOutliner 5, or Fried Chicken Recipe.

Description

Beneath the Comments field is a popup menu that’s set to Authors. This menu works in conjunction with the combo box below it for creating metadata attribute and value pairs.

Comments

Use the Comments field to enter more information about the file you’re working on. For example, you could provide additional detail about a project this file is associated with, or notes to yourself about other things that you’d like to add to the file.

Key Value Pairs

To create a metadata attribute and value pair using the popup menu and the combo box:

1. Select one of the options in the popup menu (Authors, Organizations, Languages, Keywords, or Projects).
2. Click the Add button (the + sign) at the bottom of the Document Inspector. When you click Add, the focus changes to the box in the middle so you can enter information about the item you’ve selected in the popup menu.
3. When you’ve finished entering some text, either press Tab or Return to save the metadata information to the file.

If you decide later that you want to remove an item, select it with the mouse and then click Remove (the - button, next to the Add button). To edit an existing item, double-click to highlight the text, and then enter your changes and press Tab or Return to save the changes.

Options in the popup menu include (all of these options can have multiple entries):

Authors

The name(s) of the person or people who created the document.

Organizations

The name of your company or the organization the document has been created for.

Languages

Enter the language, such as English or Japanese, or use one of the ISO 639 language codes, such as en or jp.

Keywords

Keywords increase the find-ability of your files more than anything else. Add as many keywords as you like; they help make each document unique when it comes to finding files with Spotlight.

Projects

If you’ve created an Outliner file for a specific project, enter the project name here.

private or sensitive material.

Inspectors on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

Selection Style Inspectors on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

Use the Selection Style Inspector when you want to change the appearance of rows, columns, text selections, or styles in your document.

If you have a row, column, or text selected, changes will apply to only that selection; if you do not have a selection, changes will apply to the whole document.

Style Attributes Preview on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

This Inspector previews styles applied to your current selection, as well as an indication of what that selection is (with nothing selected, for example, Whole Document is displayed).

Tap on the preview to view the Style Attributes Inspector.

Font Inspector on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision pro

Use the Font Inspector to change the appearance of the text in your document.

• Font — Select the font for the selected text, row, or document. The bottom of the list contains Manage Fonts, which will open the Fonts section of Settings.
• Font Color — Select the font color for the selected text, row, or document. See Choosing Colors for more detail on setting colors in OmniOutliner.
• Bold — Apply or remove the bold style to the selected text, row, or document.
• Italic — Apply or remove the italic style to the selected text, row, or document.
• Underline — Apply or remove the underline style to the selected text, row, or document.
• Strikethrough — Apply or remove the strikethrough style to the selected text, row, or document.
• Size — Select the font size for the selected text, row, or document.

Choosing Colors on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

Throughout the inspectors, you will find color wells which you can use to change the default colors.

On iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro:

• Tap a color well to open a pane of Omni-selected color choices, and tap one to select it.
• You can tap another color to change your selection, or tap the HSB, RGB, or Gray tabs to mix your own colors by adjusting the sliders in each tab.

Paragraph Inspector on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

Use the Paragraph Inspector to choose the alignment and background color for the current selection.

• Text Alignment — This row of buttons is used to align left, center, align right, or justify text in the selection. See Align or Justify
• Background — Set the background color for the selected row or style. See Choosing Colors

Row Inspector on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

Use the Row Inspector to change options for your current row selection.

• Numbering — Choose a numbering style to use for the selected rows in your document. The dropdown menu offers a variety of options that mirror those in the Row Numbering submenu on Mac.
• Indent Children — Choose whether to indent a row’s children. If you choose to not indent children, it might be hard to determine which is the parent and which is the child row. As such, you might want to style child rows differently, perhaps giving them a different background color or shade, reducing the font size, and so on.

Apply Styles Inspector on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

The Apply Styles inspector provides controls for applying named styles to the current selection, editing existing styles, and removing custom styles from the selection.

To apply a style to a selected row, rows, or text, tap the style’s name in the inspector. A check mark appears next to the style to indicate that it is applied to the selection. Tap the style’s name again to remove it.

See Edit Styles in the Document Inspector section of this chapter to learn more about creating, editing, and deleting Named Styles.

If any custom styles have been applied to the selection, tap Clear Custom Styles to remove them all and return the style to that inherited from the document’s underlying structural styles.

Style Attributes Inspector on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

The Style Attributes Inspector shows a detailed list of all the styles currently applied to the selection, organized by source (Text, Row, Whole Document, and so forth). It also provides controls for removing styles on the selection, or applying them (via drag and drop) to other items or styles in the outline.

The order of styles shown (from top to bottom) matches the priority with which they are applied to the selection, providing insight on how the item’s style is calculated. where styles conflict, the topmost style overwrites those beneath it.

Tap the Clear button at the right of each style to remove it from the selection.

Document Inspector on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

The Document section of the inspector holds controls that affect the entire outline.

Tap the segmented control at the top of the inspector pane to switch between the Selection and Document inspectors.

This chapter describes the features of the Document inspectors, including controls for applying a template theme to the entire document, editing the document’s structural and named styles, creating, editing, and managing global settings for document columns, and managing other document-wide visual and file properties (such as (encryption and metadata).

Edit Styles on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

Tap Edit Styles to view a list of all style presets currently saved with the document. These include structural styles, which apply to universal components of the outline, and named styles, which are saved sets of style attributes that can be applied to individual selections. To create a new named style, tap Add Named Style at the bottom of the list of named styles. This presents the style editor, where you can add a name for the style and define its attributes just as if you were setting style attributes on a selection in the outline.

Tap a style’s name in the list to open it for editing. An inspector pane appears with controls similar to the Selection inspectors described in this chapter, except that the values set for each parameter apply to the chosen style rather than a selection in the outline. (When a named style is applied to a selection, it brings its entire set of style attributes along for the ride.)

To reorder or delete named styles saved with the document, tap Edit next to the Named Styles inspector header. [Use the reordering handle on the right of a style’s row to change its position in the list, and tap the Delete button on the left to reveal a delete control that removes the style from the document entirely.

Dynamic Theme on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

• Allow Independent Light and Dark Color Palettes
• Swap Palettes
• Apply a New Theme…

Apply a New Theme

Choose Apply Template Theme to open the template chooser and select a template with structural styles that you would like to apply to the outline.

Unlike choosing a template at initial document creation (where the document you create is populated with sample content from the template), applying a template to an existing outline just overwrites the document’s style properties — not any of its content.

Appearance Inspector on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

• Background
• Alternate Row
• Horizontal Grid
• Vertical Grid
• Column Headers
• Row Status
• Note Span Columns
• Zoom

Background Color

This control offers a convenient way to set the background color of the entire outline. This is identical to the background color property of the Whole Document [structural style]), so changing it in either place leads to the same result (the change is reflected in both places).

Alternate Row Color

This control adds an alternating row color to every row in the outline. This style is applied above the Whole Document style but below any row level structural styles, so setting a background color on a Level X Row style supersedes the alternate row color for that level row and any above it.

See Document Styles for a general explanation of the order in which styles are applied to content in the outline.

Horizontal grid

Use the Horizontal grid option to add a thin line of color between the rows in your document. You can choose from one of the preset color options, or click the color bar to choose a custom color from the Colors palette.

Vertical grid

Use the Alternate rows option to set a background color to alternating rows in your document. You can choose from one of the preset color options, or click the color bar to choose a custom color or background pattern from the Colors palette.

Column Headers

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

• Show — Displays all column headings.
• Automatic — Displays column headings if there are two or more columns in your document.
• Hide — Hides all column headings.

Row Status

Tap the View icon next to the Status control to toggle status checkbox visibility on the Topic column.

Changes to checkbox status persist regardless of the checkbox visibility setting, so you can check them off while visible, hide them, and reveal them again, and the latest checked (or unchecked) status remains.

Notes Span Columns

Zoom

The Zoom setting controls the magnification of text in the outline. Tap the plus and minus buttons to increment or decrement the zoom by ten percent.

This setting does not affect the actual size of the text in the outline; just the display size. This is useful for improving visibility of small text or fitting more of the outline onto the screen without changing any of its style properties.

Columns Inspector on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

The Columns section of the document inspector governs the appearance of columns in the outline, and provide the opportunity to customize existing columns and create new ones.

• Tap Add Column at the bottom of the list to add a new column to the outline. Creating a new column opens it for editing in the inspector, with controls for its style properties and column type.
• Tap Edit next to the Columns inspector header to reveal handles next to each column for rearranging them in the outline. Touch and drag the reordering handle of the column you want until it is in the desired location in the list.
• While editing the column order, columns other than Notes and Topic also have buttons that can be tapped to delete them from the outline entirely.
• Tap the View icon next to a column in the list to show or hide it from view. Hiding a column this way only removes it from display in the outline; its contents are preserved intact.

Tap any column in the list to configure its style and column type properties, as described in the Selection Inspectors’ Column section.

Two columns are present in every document upon creation, and differ slightly from others subsequently added to the outline: Notes and Topic.

The Notes Column

The Notes column exists in every document, and acts as a visual and interactive indication of the presence of notes on a row.

When visible, the notes column displays icons next to each row with a note attached. Tap one of these icons to open or close the note on the row, or tap the empty space where an icon would be to add a new note on a row without one.

Tap the View icon next to the Notes column in the columns list to toggle its visibility in the outline.

Other than toggling the column’s visibility or changing its order in the columns list, the Notes column cannot be modified.

The Topic Column

The Topic column is the only column that can be reorganized in your Outline hierarchy

The Topic column is the only column that can be structured hierarchically in a document created using one of OmniOutliner’s default templates. (For many templates, it is the only column other than Notes.)

As such, it has some unique properties not shared by other columns (See The Anatomy of an Outline for a complete overview).

• The Topic column can be set to Autosize based on the width of the window or other column widths.
• The Topic column contains components not present in any other column, including hierarchy, row handles, and its own built-in checkboxes.
• The Topic column is linked to the Note field such that notes only span the width of the Topic column, not any other subsequently created columns.
• Unlike other columns, the Topic column cannot be hidden.

When editing the Topic column, its default name can be changed and the document saved as a custom template for outlines where another hierarchical column name would be more descriptive.

Other Columns

Column Name

Tap here to change the existing column name to something else.

Column Type

The Topic column and any additional columns always start out with the Rich Text type by default. However, you can change this to one of the following to suit the needs of your outline.

Autosize Column

When the Topic column is selected, use the Autosize switch to have it resize automatically based on the changing widths of the device view or the other columns in the outline. (This control only appears when editing the Topic column and is not available for other columns.)

Column Style

Tap to apply a custom style to the column. The top level of the Column Style editor has controls for commonly used styles like bold, italic, and underline, as well as the list of named styles saved with the document.

Tap Customize style for the full set of additional style controls, identical to those in the Selection inspector (described throughout this chapter).

Type of File

By default, OmniOutliner saves documents as flat files: files that are compressed down to the smallest practical size. Flat files don’t just take up less space on your device; they’re also easier to share, and to sync between devices.

Alternatively, you can choose to save your file as a file package. This means the file won’t be compressed, and isn’t generally recommended. It can be useful in specific cases, however, such as for files stored in a version control or document management system, or when running scripts (Python, Ruby, and so on) on the XML inside your document.

Encryption on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

Encryption adds password protection to documents containing private or sensitive material.

When you choose to encrypt a document, you are prompted to enter and confirm a password. With the enter password and verify password fields matching (and an optional password hint added), tap OK to finish the encryption process.

The document is now encrypted using industry standard AES-256 encryption in CCM mode. The document’s thumbnail preview in the document browser changes to a lock icon to indicate that the contents are hidden and password protected.

The next time you open the document, you’ll see the following prompt:

Your document is now encrypted and cannot be opened — or have its contents otherwise read — without entering the password. This is true both of the original document and any copies of it that are subsequently created, so if you send a copy to a coworker they’ll need the password to open it.

After adding a password to a document, controls in this section change to include Remove Password and Change Password. Enter the current password when prompted to either remove the password entirely (and remove encryption from the document), or to change the existing password to something else.

Metadata

The metadata section of the Document inspector provides a set of ten metadata properties for adding information to enrich and contextualize your document.

The first five metadata properties are text fields (labeled Empty by default). Tap any of these to enter text in the field.

• Copyright
• Version
• Subject
• Description
• Comments

The remaining metadata consist of key-value pairs. Each property represents a key; tap it to add values corresponding to that key.

• Authors
• Organizations
• Languages
• Keywords
• Projects

Tap Edit when viewing a key-value list to delete or reorder the values stored there.

Editing Columns

Columns have a few common properties, with specific Column Types expanding or narrowing the range of supported properties.

Every column has at least:

Column Types

When first added, the type for a new column is Rich Text.

You can choose a new column type by making a selection from the Type menu. Available types include:

Once you have selected a column type, additional menus may appear from this list of options:

• Format — Format options depend on the selected column type, and many update depending on your Language & Region settings in System Settings.
• Values — Values are only available for Pop-up List Columns; please see that section for more information.
• Summary/Summaries — Summary options depend on the selected column type. Summaries only appear on the parent row for a group. In that parent row, the summary is calculated based on the values of its children; on Mac, it is also displayed with a slight gray background to the cell.

Each column type discussed in this section includes information about the available options.

Checkbox Columns

Supported fields:

• Name
• Summary/Summaries

Tap the checkbox in a checkbox column cell to toggle between a checked and unchecked binary state. (The checkbox is the only content in a column of this type.)

Checkbox Summary

Options include:

Date Columns

Supported fields:

• Name
• Format
• Summary/Summaries

When entering dates into columns, OmniOutliner uses date parsing logic that accurately interprets entries like now, yesterday, 2d, September, thu, or –5w and renders the date in the relevant format.

You can be pretty creative with the way you enter dates; OmniOutliner is rather smart about guessing what you mean. For example:

• 2d, –3w, 1h, 1y1m, and so on — Relative dates and times put the date at a certain amount of time from right now. Negative numbers represent times in the past.
• 2 days, –3 weeks, 1 hour, 1 year 1 month, and so on — You can use the full names of units too.
• yesterday, tomorrow, tonight, next thursday, last month, this friday, and so on — You can refer to relative dates using common words. “This”, “next”, and “last” have specific meanings: this friday always means the Friday in this week, next friday always means the Friday in the next week, and last friday always means the Friday in last week, regardless of what day today is. Other units work in the same way.
• september, fri, 2019, and so on — If you enter the name of a specific time period, the date will be at its beginning. So september means September first.
• 5/23/08 10a, 9.30.09 2:00 PM, and so on — You can use the short date format as defined in your Language & Region System Settings.
• 2w sat, 4d @ 5p, mon 6a, aug 6 tue 5p, and so on — Mix the available formats however you like.
• now, 9, 14:00, tom, and so on — OmniOutliner makes its best guess at things like bare numbers, times, and word fragments. If you think something might work, give it a try.

Date Format

With the Date column type chosen, use the Locale dropdown menu (only available on Mac) to switch between regions used to calculate the time. Use the Format dropdown menu to choose how dates and times are displayed in the column.

If you choose Custom Format (only on Mac) from the Format menu, the Date Format Editor appears. To use the Date Format Editor, drag the items you’d like as part of the date/time string up to the field at the top of the dialog window. Items, such as Day of the Week or Month, have additional formats which you can choose by clicking the downward-pointing arrow. By default, the custom format uses slashes ( / ) for the delimiter, but you can enter another character (or different characters) or remove them entirely, if you’d like.

Date Summary

Options include:

• None — There is no summary.
• Minimum — The summary cell displays the earliest date (or time) in the column from among the child rows.
• Maximum — The summary cell displays the latest date (or time) in the column from among the child rows.
• Hidden — The summary cell is empty.

Duration Columns

Supported fields:

• Name
• Format
• Summary/Summaries

Use a Duration column for estimating or tracking the amount of time a task or project takes.

Use the Settings popup menu to select from Work Time, Calendar Time, or to use a Custom time of your choosing. OmniOutliner formats the duration time based on the Setting you’ve chosen; for example, 12h in Calendar Time is equivalent to 1d 4h in Work Time (assuming an 8 hour workday). If you turn on Long format, OmniOutliner spells out the time durations; for example, 1d 4h gets expanded to 1 day 4 hours.

Use the hours per day, hours per week, and hours per month fields to adjust or fine-tune the Duration settings to suit your needs.

Duration Summary options include:

• None—There is no summary.

• Total—The summary cell displays the total of all cells in the column.

• Minimum—The summary cell displays the lowest duration in the column.

• Maximum—The summary cell displays the highest duration in the column.

• Average Leaves—The summary cell displays the weighted average of durations among children of branches of the parent row (also known as leaves). If one branch has two leaves and another has one, for example, the first branch is weighted at 2/3 of the average displayed in the parent cell, while the second is weighted at 1/3.

• Hidden—The summary cell is empty. ### Number Columns

Supported fields:

• Name
• Format
• Summary/Summaries

When you choose this column type, an additional Format menu appears with options for number formatting:

• 9,999.99 — Numbers with a two-digit decimal at the end. Large numbers will use a comma or period to separate thousands, depending on the Number format setting in the Language & Region section of System Settings.
• 9999.99 — Numbers with a two-digit decimal. Large numbers do not use a separator.
• 10000 — Whole numbers, with decimal numbers rounded up or down to the nearest whole number. Examples: both 2.67 and 3.14 are rounded to 3.
• 10000% — Whole number percentage, with decimal numbers rounded up or down to the nearest whole number. Examples: both 2.67% and 3.14% are rounded to 3%.
• 99.99% — Percentages with a two-digit decimal value, if needed. For example, 99% appears as that and not 99.00%, while 3.14159% is rounded to 3.14%.
• 99.99% — Percentages with a two-digit decimal value, if needed. Examples: 99% appears as 99%, while 3.14159% is rounded to 3.14%.
• $9,999.99 — Currency, with format based on the Region setting in the Language & Region section of System Settings.

Number Summary options are:

• None — There is no summary, and all cells in the column are available for editing.
• Total — Summary displays the total value for all indented rows. Only non-parent row cells are available for editing.
• Minimum — The summary cell displays the lowest number in the column. Only non-parent row cells are available for editing.
• Maximum — The summary cell displays the highest number in the column. Only non-parent row cells are available for editing.
• Average Leaves — The summary cell displays the weighted average of numerical values among children of branches of the parent row (also known as leaves). If one branch has two leaves and another has one, for example, the first branch is weighted at 2/3 of the average displayed in the parent cell, while the second is weighted at 1/3. Only non-parent row cells are available for editing.
• Hidden — The summary cell is empty. Only non-parent row cells are available for editing.

Pop-up List Columns

Supported fields:

• Name
• Values
• Summary/Summaries

Pop-up List Values

Choose the Pop-up List column type when you have a set of repeating options that you need to choose from.

A table in the Column Type Inspector contains the list of values (pop-up options) that you can customize using the + and - buttons below it.

After creating the list, start entering one of the terms in a pop-up list column cell and you’ll have the option automatically enter it from the selection that appears.

If you enter a term in a pop-up list column cell that isn’t already part of the list, you can press Command-Return to add it to the list.

Pop-up List Summary

Pop-up List Summary options include:

• Minimum— The the summary cell displays uses the first entry in the Column Type Inspector.
• Maximum— The the summary cell displays the last entry in the Column Type Inspector.
• Hidden—The summary cell is empty.

Rich Text Columns

Choose Rich Text for regular text; this is the default column type for new columns.

Rich Text column type summary options include:

• None — There is no summary.

• Hidden — The summary cell is empty.