The Toolbar

Along the top of OmniOutliner’s window is the Toolbar. Packed with buttons and fully customizable, the Toolbar puts many useful controls just a click away.

Above you’ll see the Toolbar in its default layout. At opposing ends you’ll find buttons for hiding and showing the Sidebar (on the left) and the Inspectors (on the right, next to the Search field).

Toolbar Button Details

When customizing the Toolbar, many of the available buttons have effects that are obvious or identical to the menu commands of the same name. Some of them warrant further explanation, which follows in the sections below.

Using the Share Button

The Share button offers a way to send content straight from OmniOutliner to other apps on your device.

Select the button to choose from among a list of available destination applications, or click More to customize the list in macOS Settings. When you choose a destination, any rows you have currently selected in the outline, along with their children, will be sent to the destination app as plain text (styles are not preserved).

Hierarchy is shown by children being tab-indented beneath their parent rows, and if you are using status checkboxes (View > Show Status Checkboxes) their state will be indicated before each row as well.

Applying Themes

Click the Theme button in the toolbar or choose Apply Template Theme… to open the Template Picker and choose a theme to apply to your document.

To theme an outline is to take the set of styles stored in an OmniOutliner .otemplate file and apply them to the current document. This overwrites any existing saved styles in the document’s Styles Sidebar tab (but leaves styles directly applied to text intact).

Attaching Files

While OmniOutliner outlines are primarily focused on text, if you have a file that’s relevant to your document (such as an image, a video clip, a PDF file, or even another OmniOutliner document) you can attach it with the Attach button in the Toolbar.

You can also attach files in other ways:

• Drag anything in from anywhere, including files from a Finder window or images from a webpage. Alternatively, press Control while dragging to add a link to the file instead.
• Choose Edit > Attach File.
• Click the Toolbar’s Action menu and choose Attach File.

When attaching files by any method other than dragging and dropping things into OmniOutliner, you are presented with a file chooser that looks very much like a Finder window. Use the file chooser to navigate through your Mac’s hard drive until you locate the file you’d like to attach.

In the chooser, you’ll notice two options that affect how the file is attached to your OmniOutliner document:

• Embed the file in the document—The default. A copy of the file you’ve attached is embedded within the OmniOutliner file you’re presently working on.
• Create a link to the file—Rather than embedding an exact duplicate of the file, as with the previous option, this copies the file’s location on your Mac’s hard drive into the OmniOutliner document.

The difference between the two options is relevant when sharing or syncing the document beyond your current Mac. For that, you’ll want to go with the default option (Embed the file in the document) so the destination will also receive the attachment. If you choose the other option, all that appears is the icon and the filename of the file you linked from your Mac.

When you attach an image or PDF file, a preview automatically scales to the width of the column in which it appears. Other types of files appear as an icon with their filename.

If you click an image or PDF file you’ve attached, the following popover menu appears:

You can choose to have the attachment Show as Image or Show as Icon, and you can change the Display name for the attached file from its filename (the default) to something more descriptive. (Non-image files won’t have the Show as Image and Show as Icon buttons along the top.) To open the file, click the Open with button, which recommends an app to use based on the kind of file you’ve attached.

Recording Audio

You can add recorded audio file attachments to your OmniOutliner document right from within the app. To record something, click the Start Recording button in the Toolbar; it’s the one that looks like an old-timey microphone. OmniOutliner starts recording the instant you click that button. When you press that button, you’ll also notice a couple changes in the user interface.

First, the text for the microphone button in the Toolbar changes from Start Recording to End Recording. The button also has a small Stop button applied to it. The other change you’ll notice is a red Recording bar appears just beneath the Toolbar.

In the center of the Recording bar, you’ll see a button to Pause recording, which changes the Recording bar’s color to gray, and a checkmark button (Save) to stop recording. In the gray bar, you’ll notice that Recording has changed to Paused, and the Pause button has been replaced with a Resume button.

Click the Resume button to continue recording where you left off, or click the checkmark (Save) button to stop recording. When you stop recording, an audio player clip shows up in your Outline.

Much like attachments, if you click an audio clip’s Info button (the little i icon at its right edge), a display options popover appears. Here you can opt to have the audio clip show up as a player (the default) or as an icon. More importantly, you can change the audio clip’s Display name from a random number string to something more descriptive. This is particularly important if you choose Show as Icon at the top of the popover.

Check out the Audio Recording Preferences section later in this guide for more information about audio recording options in OmniOutliner.

Using the Filter Field

If you have a long document, OmniOutliner’s integrated search field can save the day when you need to find something that’s buried many levels deep in your outline.

By default, the search field is set to filter your document based on what you enter. Rows in the document that contain matching text are displayed in the outline, while all others are hidden. Click the downward-facing arrow next to the magnifying glass icon to access other options:

• The first section of the dropdown menu defines the area of the search, from the widest scope (the entire document) to individual columns and notes.

• The second section toggles between using the search field for filtering or batch finding in the document. Choose Batch Find to display a list of rows matching the search criteria in the Sections tab of the Sidebar. Unlike filtering, the entire outline remains visible when batch finding.

• Save as Filter, the last option in the menu, creates a new saved filter based on the term entered in the search field. Saved filters can subsequently be re-applied via the View > Row Filters submenu or the Sidebar’s Filters tab, and can be enriched with sophisticated filtering criteria.

  Learn more about setting up saved filters in the Filters tab section.

To clear the search field, press Esc or click the icon at its right edge. If you were previously focused on a particular row or section of your document, OmniOutliner restores the outline to where you were when you cancelled the search.

Document Toolbar on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro

The Document Toolbar is located above the outline whenever you are working in an OmniOutliner document. The document toolbar presents document-specific controls, from opening and closing the sidebar or inspectors to sharing or exporting the currently open document.

From left to right, the default controls in OmniOutliner’s document toolbar are as follows:

Show/Hide Sidebar

Tap to show or hide the Sidebar along the left side of the screen. (This button is represented by at smaller device widths.)

Documents

Tap to close the current document and return to its folder in the Document Browser.

Document Title

The toolbar displays the name of the current document here. Tap to edit and change the file name.

On narrow devices the document title is hidden to leave room for more functional button controls. You can always change the title of your document by tapping its preview icon text in the document browser.

Only files stored in your On My [device] folder or a connected OmniPresence folder can be renamed within OmniOutliner. To rename other files (such as those stored in iCloud Drive), tap the filename in the Files app instead.

Sync with OmniPresence

This icon appears to the right of the document filename if the file is synced via OmniPresence. The icon indicates whether a sync is in-progress; tapping the OmniPresence icon initiates a sync

Undo/Redo

Tap to undo the previous change to your document. Touch and hold to reveal a pop-up menu with the option to Redo.

Search

Tap to open the search bar, a secondary bar which spans the width of the outline beneath the document toolbar. Enter keywords here to filter the outline to only rows and notes containing those terms.

Tap Filtering on: to change the scope of the filter from the default Entire Document to something narrower, such as a single column or the Notes field.

If you create a search that you plan to refer to often, tap Save as Filter to save it as a filter for future use.

Tap X at the far side of the search bar to clear the field, and tap Cancel to dismiss the search.

Share

Tap to open a menu containing options for exporting or sharing the document you are working on. See Sharing and Exporting in the Document Browser chapter for details on the menu options.

Automation

Tap to open a menu with controls related to Omni’s JavaScript automation. See Automation Menu in the Document Browser chapter for more on these tools.

Edit Mode

Tap to switch to Edit Mode for selecting rows and applying changes en masse. In Edit Mode the Sidebar and Inspector are still available, but other controls are hidden.

While in Edit Mode, tap a row anywhere to select (or deselect) it. With one or more rows selected, the following controls become available in the edit bar at the bottom of the screen. (Depending on your device width, some of them may be hidden behind a More button.)

• Cut
  Remove the selected rows and copy them to the pasteboard.

• Copy
  Copy the selected rows to the pasteboard. To paste them, tap Done to exit Edit Mode and select the row where you would like the pasted rows to appear. Touch and hold it to reveal the contextual menu. Tap Paste and choose Above, Below, or Inside to add the copied rows as peers above or below the selected row, or as children of the selected row.

• Delete
  Deletes the selected rows from the outline.

• Group
  Creates a new row and groups the selected rows as children beneath it.

• Move
  Tap Move, then tap a row in the outline to move selected rows relative to a position relative to it. A contextual menu appears, offering options to move the selected rows Above, Below, or Inside the target row.

Show/Hide Inspector

Tap to show or hide the Inspectors.

More

If you see three dots in the toolbar, this implies there are more options/buttons available than there is space for in the toolbar. Tap to open the More menu, which presents the other available options.

Toolbar Menu on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

Tap to show the OmniOutliner menu:

• About OmniOutliner
• License
• OmniOutliner Help
• Contact Omni
• Omni Newsletter Signup
• Release Notes
• Connected Folders
• Configure OmniPresence
• Settings

Bottom Toolbar on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro

The edit bar is located beneath the outline, and contains all the basic controls you need to add content to your document and organize it.

Indent and Outdent

Use the Indent and Outdent buttons to add hierarchy to your outline.

Tap to indent the selected row, making it a child of the row above it. Tap to outdent the selected row, making it a parent of the row or rows below it.

Audio Recording

Requires OmniOutliner Pro

Tap to start an audio recording. Tap to pause the recording, and tap

to end and save it.

When you finish a recording, the audio file is attached to the outline in a new row beneath the current selection (or at the end of the document, if nothing is selected). The audio attachment file is labeled with the timestamp of the recording.

Tap the recording file in the row to play it back, and tap it again to pause playback. During playback, controls to start, pause, and cancel playback appear in the edit bar as well.

To delete an audio recording from the document, open its row for editing and press delete to remove it just as you would a piece of text.

Notes

Tap to edit the note on the currently selected row. Touch and hold the Notes button and other options appear as flyouts: tap to expand all notes in the outline, and tap to collapse all notes.

New Row

Tap to add a row to the outline that is beneath and at the same level as the currently selected row. Touch and hold the New Row button and other options appear as flyouts.

• Add Parent
  Tap to add a row above and one level of hierarchy higher than the selected row.

• Add Above
  Tap to add a row above and at the same level as the selected row.

• Add Aunt
  Tap to add a row beneath and one level higher than the selected row.

• Add Child
  Tap to add a row beneath and one level lower than the selected row.

• Expand All
  Tap to expand all sections of the outline, revealing every row.

• Collapse All
  Tap to collapse all sections of the outline, hiding all but the top level rows.

Attaching Files

OmniOutliner supports adding just about any type of file to the outline as an attachment.

There are two ways to attach files to an outline:

• Touch and hold an item in another app to reveal the contextual menu and choose Copy. Then switch to OmniOutliner, and touch and hold at the location in the outline where you would like to attach it and choose Paste from the contextual menu that appears.

• With multitasking on iPad, drag and drop items directly from other apps into OmniOutliner.

The way that OmniOutliner handles attachments differs slightly depending on the file type.

• OmniOutliner recognizes all common image types (such as JPEG, PNG, and GIF), and adds them to the outline as images imbedded in the row where they are dragged or pasted.

• Files of other types (such as OmniGraffle diagrams or OmniPlan projects) are represented in the rows where they are added by icons indicative of the filetype.

Tap an attachment to open the iOS share sheet and access the standard array of controls that it provides for duplicating, saving, or copying the file to another application.

Dragging from the Outline

When multitasking on iPad, you can drag rows and selected text from the outline to other apps. This allows you to quickly export text from the outline or place it in other apps on your device.

For example, you can drag rows, sections, or text selections to:

• …Files, creating a new text file (named “text” by default) in the target location, such as another app’s local documents folder or iCloud Drive.
• …Mail or Notes, adding the selected rows as a hierarchically indented plaintext list.

By default, when you drag out of the OmniOutliner outline to another app, the selected content is exported in a hierarchically indented plain text list.

Use the controls in OmniOutliner Settings to determine whether handles are included in this text export.

For export options for the entire document, see Available Export File Formats.

Toolbar Reference

In this section, toolbar buttons are listed in alphabetical order.

This section is being built out…

Add Column Button

Requires OmniOutliner Pro
Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

Inserts a new Column in your document.

See also Add Column command

Indent Button

Outdent Button