Settings

Settings can be used to customize the app’s behavior and appearance, so that OmniOutliner is fully configured for your needs.

This chapter is structured to help you easily find the information you need, with each section organized for a different purpose.

Mac Settings — Listed in app order, for ease of reference.
iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro Settings — Listed in app order, for ease of reference.
Settings Reference — Listed in alphabetical order. A good place to start if you would like more information about a setting, want to see which platforms support the setting, or need to locate the setting on different platforms.

To open Settings:

On Mac, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro, choose Settings… from the OmniOutliner Menu, or press Command+,
On iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro, tap More in the Toolbar, then tap Settings

Where appropriate, sections of this chapter may link to a related section of the Commands and Shortcuts chapter.

Mac Settings

Settings panes are listed in the order they are displayed in the app.

On Mac, each settings pane has a Reset button in the bottom corner. If you press the Option key, the button updates to Reset All. Clicking on either option will present a confirmation before making any changes.

Reset will restore settings in the pane you are viewing to the state they were in when OmniOutliner was first installed.
Reset All will restore all settings to the state they were in when OmniOutliner was first installed.

General Settings

General settings affect app-wide interactions in OmniOutliner.

Keyboard Settings

Adjust how OmniOutliner interprets certain keys:

Update Settings

Update settings control how frequently OmniOutliner checks for updates to itself (for non-App Store builds), and offers the option to help Omni improve future versions of OmniOutliner by sending us anonymous data about your device.

System Info Settings

System Info settings for Mac App Store builds offer the option to help Omni improve future versions of OmniOutliner by sending us anonymous data about your device.

Send anonymous system information to the Omni Group

iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro Settings

Settings rows and groups are listed in the order they are displayed in the app.

The options on this screen are particularly helpful if you are using an external keyboard:

Settings Reference

This section lists all OmniOutliner settings in alphabetical order.

Each entry contains links to where the setting (or command) can be found on each platform.

App Lock

Available on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro in Settings

If you use OmniOutliner on a device that you occasionally share (with your children, coworkers, or clients, for example), there may be times you would prefer that your OmniOutliner documents be hidden. The App Lock feature prevents accidental taps and casual glances by adding a password-locked privacy screen that must be dismissed before accessing any of your OmniOutliner documents or settings.

App Lock does not encrypt your documents, nor does it prevent someone with physical access to your device from connecting it to another device and copying your documents, or deleting OmniOutliner from your device outright. Files can also be used to retrieve your documents regardless of whether App Lock is turned on.

App Lock is solely intended as a privacy feature, to prevent accidental exposure or corruption of data when others are using your device. It is not meant to thwart serious attempts to access or compromise your data. Device-level security measures are recommended for those with additional security needs.

App Lock is turned off by default. To turn it on, tap App Lock.

When you turn on App Lock, you will be prompted to choose (and confirm) a new App Lock password.

If you use OmniOutliner on multiple devices, you need to configure and set an App Lock password on each device where you would like the additional privacy.

Warning

If you forget the App Lock password, OmniOutliner can no longer be used on your device.

If you are using iCloud Drive or other Connected Folders, the easiest way to recover is to delete OmniOutliner, then reinstall the app from the App Store, and reconfigure your folders.

If you have chosen not to sync, you can retrieve your documents by connecting your device to the Finder. Read Apple’s support article Use the Finder to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with your Mac to learn more.

You can also use the Files app to retrieve your documents.

After saving a backup of your documents, delete OmniOutliner from your device and reinstall it from the App Store. Once you have reinstalled OmniOutliner, you can set a new App Lock password, and use the Finder to return documents to your device.

After choosing a password, App Lock is turned on.

App Lock Settings offer the option to turn App Lock off, change your password, or use Touch ID, Face ID, or Optic ID to unlock OmniOutliner on supported devices.

To change your App Lock password, Tap Change Password…. You are prompted to enter your old password, and then to choose and confirm a new one.

With App Lock turned on, the next time you open OmniOutliner you will see a privacy screen with a field to enter the password you chose. Enter the password, and jump into your documents!

If you choose to use Touch ID, Face ID, or Optic ID, a prompt for your fingerprint, face, or eye will appear instead. You will still have the option to enter a password, or you can tap the icon next to the password field to unlock with Touch ID, Face ID, or Optic ID if you dismissed the prompt initially.

To minimize interruptions while using OmniOutliner, App Lock will not engage for 90 seconds after switching away, in case you are quickly switching between apps.

Apply Named Styles With

Available on Mac in Keyboard Settings

You can use these keyboard shortcuts to apply one of the Named styles to the current row.

On Mac, Named styles are found in the lower portion of the Styles section of the Sidebar.

Function keys — Press and hold the Fn key, then press a numbered function key (F1 through F9) to apply the style. For example, to apply the Heading 1 named style in the default Blank template, press Fn+F1.
Control + number — Press and hold the Control key, and then press a number to apply the style. For example, to apply the Heading 1 named style in the default Blank template, press Control+1. These are the keyboard shortcuts used on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro.

For iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro, see Show Keyboard Shortcuts in Inspector.

Color Palette

Available on Mac in General Settings
Available on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro in Settings

Choose between three color palette options:

Automatic — Follows the Appearance (Light, Dark, or Auto) selected in System Settings.
Light — Uses the Light color palette, regardless of your device’s Appearance settings.
Dark — Uses the Dark color palette, regardless of your device’s Appearance settings.

You can also filter by Palette when using the Template Picker to create a new document.

This feature is not yet supported by Apple Vision Pro.

Read these Apple User Guide articles to learn more:

Check for Updates (Omni Store Only)

Available on Mac in Update Settings

OmniOutliner will periodically check for updates. You can choose the interval you prefer, or uncheck the box to turn off automatic checking.

You can manually check for updates by clicking on Check Now, or with the Check for Updates… command.

For New Documents

Available on Mac in General Settings

Choose what happens when you create a new document using the New command.

OmniOutliner will either:

Open Template Picker
Use Template: Default Template

Opening Template Picker allows you to choose a specific Template for each new document you create.

Choosing a default template creates all new documents using the same template.

To change the default template, click Change Template… and select a template from the Template Picker.

This setting can also be updated using Make Default in the Template Picker.

Full Screen Mode

Available on Mac in General Settings

Select which Full Screen mode you would like to use:

Standard — The Toolbar, Sidebar, and Inspector are visible at all times.
Distraction Free — The Toolbar, Sidebar, and Inspector are hidden, until you move the cursor to the edges of the screen.

Include Handles in Text Export

Available on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro in Settings

When turned off, row handles are not included when exporting to plain text.

When turned on, row handles are represented as a single dash (-) when exporting to plain text.

This applies to text exported from OmniOutliner Documents or OPML Documents.

Links

Available on Mac in General Settings

OmniOutliner automatically creates clickable hyperlinks when you type or paste URLs, such as omnigroup.com or https://omnigroup.com.

If you turn off this setting, any URLs you type or paste will remain text, and clicking them will not open the URL.

New Rows Are Created

Available on Mac in Keyboard Settings

Choose what happens when you create a new row:

Indented if there are children — Return creates a new child row, if the selected row already has children; but creates a row at the same level, if the selected row does not have children.
Always at the same level — Return always creates a row at the same level as the selected row.

OPML Display Theme

Available on Mac in General Settings

Select the Theme to use for OPML files in OmniOutliner.

Unlike theming for OmniOutliner documents, where text and row styles are saved with the document, this setting only affects the display of OPML documents, and is not saved.

To change the default theme, click Change Theme… and select a different theme from the Template Picker.

Send Anonymous System Information to the Omni Group

Available on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro in Settings
Available on Mac (Direct Download) in Update Settings
Available on Mac (Mac App Store) in System Info Settings

If you would like to help improve future versions of OmniOutliner, you can choose to send us anonymous information about your OmniOutliner data and device.

On iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro, all the information that will be shared is visible in this Settings screen.

On Mac, click on Learn more about what kind of information is sent.

Show Keyboard Shortcuts in Inspectors

Available on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro in Settings

Named Styles are listed in the Apply Styles Inspector, and can be applied to selected rows by pressing Control+1 through Control+9.

When this setting is turned on, keyboard shortcuts appear next to the related style. When this setting is turned off, keyboard shortcuts do not appear, but can still be used to apply styles.

Styles/New Rows Use Peers’ Style

Available on Mac in General Settings
Available on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro in Settings

When turned on, adding a new row (by pressing Return, Shift+Return, or using the New button) applies the styles of the previously selected row to the newly created row.

When turned off, new rows are created using the default styles from the theme you are using.

Warnings

Available on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro in Settings

Set whether compatibility warnings will appear when you open an OmniOutliner 3 Document or OPML Document.

When Pressing Escape

Available on Mac in Keyboard Settings

Select which Esc key behavior you would like:

Unchecked — Esc opens the system-wide completion menu.
Checked — Esc begins or ends editing.

The system-wide completion menu can be very useful, when you aren’t quite sure how to spell something. You can type in the first few characters of the word, press Esc, and a popup menu appears with a list of possible options. To accept one of the options, you can click it with your mouse, or use the Down Arrow and Up Arrow keys to highlight the word you want, then press Tab or Return to accept that option.

Beginning or ending editing is useful for quickly moving around your outline, editing rows and cells more efficiently. Pressing Esc after entering text in a row will highlight that row. Pressing Esc again places the cursor at the end of the line, so you can continue typing.

When Pressing Return

Available on Mac in Keyboard Settings

Select which Return key behavior you would like:

Create a new empty row — Return creates a new empty row.
Insert a line break in the current row — Return inserts a line break inside of the current row.
Split the current row at the insertion point — Return splits the row being edited into two, at the point of insertion.

Regardless of the above setting:

Option+Return always inserts a newline in the current row.
Control+Return always splits the current row into two rows.