Contents
Welcome to OmniOutliner 6
The Outline
The Sidebar
The Toolbar
The Inspectors
Documents and Templates
Connecting OmniOutliner
Commands and Shortcuts
Settings
Integration and Automation
Support and Troubleshooting
Glossary

Welcome to OmniOutliner 6

Introducing OmniOutliner 6 for Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro.

Ready for the latest operating systems, OmniOutliner 6 features beautiful Liquid Glass design elements, smart Dynamic Themes, robust Omni Links, integration with Apple Intelligence, and more.

With new universal licensing and improved feature parity across platforms, your outlines are always available on the device you have at hand.

Backwards Compatibility: OmniOutliner 6 can be installed and run alongside previous versions of OmniOutliner for Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Outlines created in OmniOutliner 6 can be opened and edited by previous versions of OmniOutliner. New features such as Dynamic Theme style customization and enhanced filter rules will be discarded by previous versions of OmniOutliner.

All Platforms

New Universal Purchase — A single purchase of OmniOutliner 6 unlocks access to OmniOutliner across all of your supported Apple devices.
New Design Refresh — OmniOutliner has been visually refreshed, adopting beautiful Liquid Glass design elements and a modernized look and feel when run on macOS Tahoe 26, iOS 26, or iPadOS 26. With updated iconography throughout the application and a new app icon that adapts to clear and tinted on supported devices, OmniOutliner 6 feels right at home on the latest Apple operating systems.
New Dynamic Themes — Theme colors can now automatically update when Dark Mode is turned on or off. Override the automatic color conversion when desired, to create your own light or dark appearance.
New Template Picker — New cross-platform Template Picker supports creating documents with Dynamic Themes, as well as documents with a light or dark appearance.
New Omni Links — Create links to documents, or specific content within a document, which can be shared with other users. Omni Links work on any device running OmniOutliner 6.
New Attachment Enhancements — Image attachments can now be resized to better fit your content. Additionally, attachment support, previously a Pro-only feature, is now available in the Essentials edition of OmniOutliner.
New Saved Filters — Saved filters now support nested AND/OR/NOT rules, an expanded set of date-based rules, and rule comments.
New Paste — New “Pasting from other apps” setting offers options for pasting styled text. Dedicated menu items are now available for “Paste and Merge Styles,” “Paste and Match Style,” and “Paste with Original Style” behaviors.
New Omni Automation — On devices running macOS Tahoe 26, iOS 26, iPadOS 26, or visionOS 26 with hardware support for Apple Intelligence, OmniOutliner plug-ins can now consult Apple’s on-device Foundation Models. Omni Automation APIs have also been updated with support for automating Omni Link functionality, and a variety of smaller enhancements and bug fixes.
New Essentials Mode — Pro customers who want to test the Essentials experience can now disable Pro features in the License window.

Mac

In addition to the cross-platform features listed above, OmniOutliner 6 for Mac includes the following refinements:

New Multiple Windows — Open multiple windows for the same document to view different parts of your file at the same time.
New Spotlight — OmniOutliner Shortcuts actions can be run directly from Spotlight on macOS Tahoe 26.
New Hide-able Status Bar — The Status Bar can be turned off to get an even more distraction free experience.
Updated Saved Filters — Saved Filters can now be duplicated.
Updated RTF Export — Improved RTF export to better match the source content.

iPad & iPhone

In addition to the cross-platform features listed above, OmniOutliner 6 for iPad & iPhone improves feature parity with OmniOutliner for Mac.

New OS Compatibility — OmniOutliner 6 has been updated for compatibility with functionality introduced in recent operating system updates, including support for menus and flexible windowing on iPadOS 26.
New Document Management — Updated document manager supports quick document creation and seamless iCloud Drive integration.
New Document Styling — Advanced document styling features previously only available on Mac are now available on all devices.
- Style Attributes Inspector — Use the new Style Attributes Inspector view to see and remove the custom styling affecting your selection.
- Notes Span Columns — Row notes can now display across multi-column documents.
- Grid Lines — Horizontal and vertical grid lines are now displayed and can be customized on iPad and iPhone.
- Row Indentation — Child row indentation can now be turned on or off on iPad and iPhone.
New Saved Filters — Saved Filters can now be created and edited on iPad and iPhone.
updated - Attachments — Easily add attachments from your Photo Library, camera, or Files, with the new Attachment button.

Apple Vision Pro

OmniOutliner 6 for Apple Vision Pro is a brand new application, developed natively for visionOS.

The Outline

The Outline is the center of everything you do in OmniOutliner. It allows you to create and organize your content, offers a hierarchy of rows to create the structure you seek, and can be easily updated with styles you choose.

An Outline in OmniOutliner Pro is composed of one or more Rows and one or more Columns, with editable cells available at each intersection of row and column. Rows are displayed in a Hierarchy, allowing you to create simple lists, complicated outline structures, or something right in the middle.

Rows

When working in the Outline, Rows are the building blocks of your content. Rows may be as simple as a line of text; or they may include Row Handles for moving, collapsing, or expanding sections; Status Checkboxes for managing lists and tasks; or Notes for adding anything relevant to your work. If you are using OmniOutliner Pro, rows can even span multiple columns.

You can hide or show any attributes of a row, other than the text of the row itself. If you are using OmniOutliner Pro, the text can be collapsed into a single line on Mac, by setting Show Full Row Text to When Editing.

Editing Rows

Tap or click a row cell to begin editing. A cursor will appear in the cell, and you can add text or other data, depending on the column type.

To learn more about available column types, see Column Types in the Inspectors chapter.

Row Handles

Row Handles can be used to move rows, along with any indented (child) rows, or can be used to hide or show indented rows. The style of the row handle indicates whether there are any indented rows.

Row Handles will display as:

Bullet — Does not contain any indented rows.
Collapsed Disclosure Arrow — An arrow pointing to the row indicates that the row contains indented rows, which are currently hidden. Click or tap this handle to show the next level of indented rows. On Mac, Option + click to expand all indented rows.
Expanded Disclosure Arrow — An arrow pointing down indicates that the row contains indented rows, which are currently displayed. Click or tap this handle to collapse indented rows. On Mac, Option + click to collapse all indented rows.

In addition to clicking or tapping the arrows, you can use the keyboard shortcut keys for the Expand and Collapse commands.

On Mac, If you are using OmniOutliner Pro, you can hide handles, or set them to show only when hovering a cursor over the handle. The setting can apply to specific rows or the entire document, by using the Row Inspector. Even with handles hidden, you can still expand or collapse rows using the Expand or Collapse commands.

Status Checkboxes

If you would like to track the status for items in your outline, you can display a Status Checkbox next to each row.

Turn the display of Status Checkboxes on or off for your document using the Show Status Checkboxes menu command on Mac, the Show Row Status toggle in the Document Inspector on Mac, or the Row Status toggle in the Document Inspector on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro.

The state of each Status Checkbox is saved even when the display of checkboxes is turned off, allowing you to update the appearance without losing information.

On Mac, there are additional options for setting status on a given row. Read about the Set Status submenu to learn more.

Notes

OmniOutliner supports adding notes to individual rows. On the leading edge of the Outline is a narrow Note column. This column may appear empty, but hovering the cursor over it will reveal a Note icon next to the row.

Click or tap this icon to add note text to the row, or drag in attachments. Once text or attachments have been added to a note, the Note icon will permanently display, instead of only when hovering a cursor.
Selecting the Note icon will expand or collapse the note for that row.
To hide the Notes column, choose Note from the Columns submenu of the View Menu on Mac, or toggle Notes in the Columns Inspector on iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro.

Notes are displayed in the Topic Column by default, but you can choose to display notes across all columns. To change between single column or spanning columns, update the Notes Span Columns setting on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro, or the Inline Notes setting on Mac.

Notes are displayed immediately below the related row. On Mac, you can choose to show them in a pane at the bottom of your Outline, by selecting Display in Pane from the Notes submenu of the View Menu.

Columns

While rows allow you to organize and group your information, columns allow you to expand the information for each row, while still respecting the hierarchy defined by your rows.

Two columns are present in every document, and each has unique properties:

Notes Column
Topic Column

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.

Topic Column

The Topic column is the primary column of your document, and has unique properties:

It can be hierarchically organized; when the organization of the Topic column changes, other columns come along for the ride.
It can have a fixed width, or be set to automatically adjust to fit the width of the window or other columns.

If you would like your document to use a single column, whether for streamlining or simplicity, you may want to consider OmniOutliner Essentials. With a license for OmniOutliner Pro, you can turn off Pro features in the License panel, which provides an easy way to create Essentials-compatible documents for sharing.

Many templates in the Template Picker contain only the Topic column, while others use multiple columns to organize and display data of different types. If you are using OmniOutliner Pro, you can add columns to start tracking additional data.

Adding Columns

To add columns on Mac:

Select the Add Column button in the Toolbar
Use the Add Column menu command

To add columns on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro:

Select the Add Column button in the Toolbar
Select Add Column in the Columns Inspector

Removing Columns

To remove columns on Mac:

Select the column by clicking the column header, and press the Delete key
Select Remove Column from the Organize Menu
Select Remove Column from the Column Header Menu

To remove columns on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro:

Select Delete from the Column Header Menu
Select Remove Column in the Columns Inspector for a specific column

Editing Columns

Most column editing features are available cross-platform, using the Column Type Inspector on Mac, or Columns Inspector on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro.

On Mac, you can quickly edit the title of a column by double-clicking the column header, adjust the width of any column by dragging the column borders, and access additional options in the Column Shortcut Menu.

On iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro, you can adjust the width of any column by dragging the column handle, and access additional options in the Column Shortcut Menu, including quick access to the Columns Inspector by selecting Edit.

Column Headers

Outlines with a single column do not display the column header, as there’s no need to distinguish between multiple columns. Once a second column is added, the headers are shown above each column.

This is the Automatic column header behavior, which can be changed by choosing another option from the Column Headers submenu on Mac, or the Column Headers section of the Document Inspector on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro.

Autosizing

Autosizing allows the Topic Column to take as much space a possible, given the size of the containing window, and the width of other columns. It is only available for documents with more than one column.

To switch between width modes on Mac:

Select Auto in the Column Type Inspector
Select Autosize from the Topic Column Shortcut Menu
Select Autosize Topic from the Columns submenu of the View Menu

To switch between width modes on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro:

Select Autosize in the Column Type Inspector for the Topic column
Select Autosize from the Topic Column Shortcut Menu

Hierarchy

Once you have more than one row in your document, you can add hierarchy to your document, in order to create structure.

Sections and Levels

Each top level row of your outline is its own section, and each section can contain one or more subsections (children of that section). Those children, in turn, can have children of their own (grandchildren of the top level row), and so on.

Sections live at levels in the hierarchy of your outline. Every outline has at least one Level 1 section: all the rows at the top level are peers (or siblings) of one another. Indenting a row makes it a Level 2 subsection, beneath the top level Level 1 section above it, and so on.

Specific levels can have consistent, document-wide styling applied, using Structural Styles.

Selecting Rows

To select a single row, click or tap the space to the left of the row handle, and to the right of the Note icon. (This is called the Gutter.)

To select multiple rows using a hardware keyboard, you can Shift + click to select a range of rows, or Command + click to select individual rows.

To select multiple rows on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro, use Select Mode.

Adding Hierarchy

With one or more rows selected, you can indent one or more selected rows beneath the row above, to create a parent/child relationship. To indent, you can (depending on your device):

Press Tab on a hardware keyboard
Press Command+] on a hardware keyboard
Use the Indent command on Mac or iPad
Tap the Indent button in the bottom toolbar on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro

The handle of the new parent row changes from a bullet to a disclosure arrow to indicate that it contains indented rows.

Tap a parent row’s disclosure arrow to collapse and expand its contents. A vertical line descending from an open disclosure arrow denotes the span of child rows contained in the parent row. Any number of levels of hierarchy can be added to the outline, provided there are enough rows to keep indenting.

With one or more rows selected, you can outdent one or more selected rows from beneath the row above, restoring their positions as peers to the row above, creating a sibling relationship. To outdent, you can (depending on your device):

Press Shift+Tab on a hardware keyboard
Press Command+[ on a hardware keyboard
Use the Outdent command on Mac or iPad
Tap the Outdent button in the bottom toolbar on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro

Copying and Pasting Rows

Touch and hold a row, then release it to reveal its contextual menu. This contains several editorial functions such as Cut, Copy, and (with something on the pasteboard) Paste.

Choose any of these commands to edit the outline as needed. When using the contextual menu to paste, the option is presented to paste above, below, or inside the target row (adding the pasteboard contents as children).

When copying and pasting a row with children (one with a disclosure arrow handle), the parent row and all of those hierarchically nested beneath it come along for the ride.

Organizing Rows With Drag and Drop

Touch and hold a row handle or disclosure arrow to pick it up, then drag it elsewhere in the outline to reposition it. When you have the row where you want it to be, let go and it will fall into place.

As you drag a row over others, they will move apart to make room for the row you’re holding to be dropped between them as a peer (if dragging between a parent and child, the dropped row becomes a peer of the child). If you position a row directly atop another before dropping it, the row beneath is highlighted and upon being dropped, the held row becomes a child of the one you drop it on top of.

When dragging and dropping a row with children (one with a disclosure arrow handle), the parent row and all of those hierarchically nested beneath it come along for the ride.

Multiple rows can be picked up at a time. To do this, touch and hold the first row you want to move, then tap each other row to add them to the selection (each row is picked up and added to the first). Dropping multiple rows works just like dropping a single one; any hierarchy in the rows you pick up will be preserved after dropping them.

Select Mode is available as an alternative to drag and drop for more complex organizational tasks, such as copying, pasting, or moving multiple discontiguous sections at once.

Filtering the Outline

If you have a long document, filtering your outline can quickly surface what you’re looking for, no matter where it is located in your document.

Use the Filter/Go to Filter Field command or select the Filter button to show the Filter bar at the top of your document.

Once the Filter bar displays, you can:

Enter search terms to filter the outline, so that only rows and notes containing those terms display.
Select the Filter button to change the scope of the filter from the default Entire Document to a specific column, or the Notes field.
Select Save (as) Filter, if you would like to use this filter in the future.
Select the button to clear the field, and close the Filter bar.

To create more complex filters, or use filters that you have saved, read about the Filters Tab.

Styles

Styling in OmniOutliner can be quite sophisticated, and can affect the whole document, certain types of content (such as columns, rows, or even specific levels of rows), or individually selected rows or blocks of text.

Styles are automatically or manually applied, depending on whether they are:

Structural Styles, which are automatically applied to classes of objects
Named Styles, which are manually applied on top of structural styles

Structural Styles

Structural Styles are style presets that apply to elements of the document, based on the structure of the document.

Structural Styles will include:

Whole Document — Properties that apply to all rows in the document.
Level 1 Rows — Properties that apply only to top-level rows.
Column Titles — Properties that apply to all column titles.
Notes — Properties that apply to all notes.
Topic — Properties that apply only to the Topic Column.

Structural Styles may also include:

Level 2 Rows — Properties that apply only to second-level rows.
Level 3 Rows — Properties that apply only to third-level rows.
Level n Rows — Properties that apply only to n-level rows.
Columns — Properties that apply only to specific columns, much like the Topic style above; each column is listed by Column Name.

Since Structural Styles are based on how you organize rows and columns, they will be added to or removed from the lists above as you make changes to your document.

It is possible for multiple Structural Styles to apply to a given element of your document; see Layering Styles to learn more.

Configuring Styles on Mac:

Select the style in the Styles Tab
Use the Selection Style Group Inspectors

Configuring Styles on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro:

Use the Edit Styles sub-inspector
Tap on the Style you would like to edit

Named Styles

Named Styles are saved sets of style attributes that can be applied to anything that supports style attributes, such as rows, columns, blocks of text, or even other styles.

When applied to objects, Named Styles adjust any Structural Styles which apply to an object. For example, you could apply a Heading style on top of a Level 1 Row style, in order to make the text bigger or change the font.

Using Named Styles on Mac:

Named Styles are in the Styles Tab.
Select one or more objects in the Outline, then click the checkbox next to a Named Style to apply it to your selection.

Using Named Styles on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro:

Named Styles are in the Apply Styles Inspector.
Select one or more objects in the Outline, then tap the Named Style row to apply it to your selection.

Configuring Styles on Mac:

Select the style in the Styles Tab
Use the Selection Style Group Inspectors

Configuring Styles on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro:

Use the Edit Styles sub-inspector
Tap on the Style you would like to edit

As with Structural Styles, editing a Named Style automatically updates the style of any objects to which it has been applied.

Layering Styles

Styles are applied in the following order, from most general to most specific, with specific items taking precedence over general items:

Structural Style for Whole Document
Alternate Row Color; see Alternate Rows
Structural Style for Column Styles; see Column Style
Structural Style for Level Styles
Structural Style for Notes
Named Styles, from uppermost to bottommost
Styles applied directly to a selected row
Styles applied directly to selected text

Looking at the same list in a slightly different way, styles are prioritized in the following order, with higher priority styles taking precedence over lower priority styles:

Styles applied directly to selected text
Styles applied directly to a selected row
Named Styles, from bottommost to uppermost
Structural Style for Notes
Structural Style for Level Styles
Structural Style for Column Styles; see Column Style
Alternate Row Color; see Alternate Rows
Structural Style for Whole Document

Linking and Copying Styles

There are two features that make it even easier to build out styles in OmniOutliner:

Linking Styles
Copying and Pasting Styles

Linking Styles

Linking styles allows a secondary style to inherit traits from a primary style. As an example: you could configure Style A with a robust set of appearance changes, then link Style B to it with only a single font change. Any subsequent changes to Style A will also update Style B, while leaving untouched the font change in Style B, as inherited attributes are overriden by local attributes.

Structural Styles can inherit traits from Named Styles
Named Styles can inherit traits from Named Styles
Named Styles can not inherit traits from Structural Styles

To link styles on Mac using Drag and Drop:

Open the Styles Tab in The Sidebar
Drag the Named Style that will be your source (Style A) for style attributes, and drop it on the Named or Structural Style that will inherit style attributes (Style B).
Verify that the Styles are linked by selecting Style B, then viewing the Preview Inspector; you should see one or more attribute rows that begin with “inherited:”

To link styles on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro:

Open Edit Styles in the Document Inspector
Tap on the Named or Structural Style that will inherit style attributes (Style B).
Scroll to the Apply Styles section.
Tap on the Named Style that will be your source (Style A) for style attributes.

See Copying and Pasting Styles for another approach.

Copying and Pasting Styles

On Mac, you can copy style attributes from one style to another:

Open the Styles Tab in The Sidebar
Select the Named or Structural Style with style attributes you would like to copy.
Use Copy Style (in the Format Menu or More menu in the bottom of the Styles tab)
Select the Named or Structural Style to which you would like to apply the copied style attributes (Style B).
Use Paste Style (in the Format Menu or More menu in the bottom of the Styles tab)
Verify that the style attributes have been successfully copied and pasted by selecting Style B, then viewing the Preview Inspector; you should see the pasted attributes.
If your source Style was a Named Style, you will also likely see or more attribute rows that begin with “inherited:”; these will update as the linked Style is updated.

Style Swatches

In the Styles Tab and Preview Inspector on Mac, and in the Style Attributes Preview on iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro, Style Swatches provide a quick visual reference of Style attributes.

Possible swatch options include:

Empty — No styles have been applied to the selection, so only the Whole Document style applies.
Letter A — Text-specific styles have been applied, such as selecting a specific font.
Letter A with Color — Text-specific styles have been applied, including a color change, such as selecting a specific font and updating the color.
Solid Color — The style applies a background color to the selection.
Diagonal Color — The style applies a transparent background color to the selection.
Split Color — The style applies a background color to the selection, and Allow Customization of Alternate Dynamic Colors is turned on for the Dynamic Theme.
Split Partially Diagonal Color — The style applies a transparent background color to the selection in one of the Dynamic Theme colors.
Split Fully Diagonal Color — The style applies a transparent background color to the selection in both of the Dynamic Theme colors.
Checkboard — The style applies many different attributes.

The Sidebar is located on the leading edge of the window, and contains three or four tabs, depending on the platform:

Sections Tab — Lists all the Sections of your document.
Styles Tab — Create, delete, edit, and apply or remove Styles. (Mac only)
Filters Tab — Create, delete, edit, and apply or remove Filters.
Batch Find Tab — Quickly find any rows that match a given string.

To show the Sidebar:

Tap or click the Sidebar Button in the Toolbar
Select Show/Hide Sidebar from the View Menu

Sections Tab

The first tab of the Sidebar displays the Sections of your outline in a scrollable pane, representing a compact summary of the document hierarchy.

As with rows in the outline, sections in the Sidebar have handles that can be dragged to reposition them (on Mac), and sections with children have disclosure arrows that can be clicked to expand or collapse their contents.

If you select one or more sections in the Sections list, OmniOutliner focuses on those sections—making those sections and their subsections the only thing you’ll see in the outline to the right. Command-click on multiple sections in the sections list to select them, thereby adding them to the set of items focused in the outline.

Focusing on selected content can also be done with View > Focus (Shift+Command+F) and reverted with View > Unfocus (Option+Shift+Command-F), or by Control + clicking to reveal the contextual menu and choosing Focus or Unfocus as desired.

When sections of the outline are focused, that narrowed scope is reflected in the document stats displayed at the bottom of the outline. If the outline is focused when printing, only the focused sections will be printed.

Adding Sections With the Sections List

With sections selected in the Sidebar, new sections (rows) can be added just as they would appear in the outline, using the same set of controls.

Press Return to add a section beneath the selected one(s) that’s a peer of the lowest section selected. The cursor is placed in the outline so you can enter some text for that section.

Similarly, if you wanted to add another section at the same level but above the currently selected section, press Shift+Return.

Styles Tab

The Styles tab is only available on Mac. For iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro, see the Editing Styles section of the Inspectors chapter.

This tab includes Structural Styles at the top of the list, which are automatically applied to classes of objects, and Named Styles at the bottom of the list, which can be manually applied to items you have selected.

To edit a Structural or Named Style, click on its row and use the Selection Style Group Inspectors, which apply changes only to the current selection.
To create a new Named Style, click New Named Style in the lower corner of the Styles tab. Enter a memorable name in the Sidebar, and use the Selection Style Group Inspectors, which apply changes only to the current selection.
To delete a Named Style, click on its row and then press Delete or select
Delete Style from the More menu in the bottom of the Styles tab. If you accidentally delete a style, you can use Undo to restore it.
Structural Styles have a fixed order in the list, but you can drag Named Styles to reorder them.

Click on the More menu in the bottom of the Styles tab to open a mini-menu containing commands for:

New Named Style
Duplicate Style
Delete Style
Copy Style
Paste Style
Clear Style

Learn more about Styles in the Outline chapter.

Filters Tab

The Filters Tab allows you to edit, apply, and save sets of rules, in order to control the visibility of rows in The Outline.

To create a Filter, select the + button in the bottom of the Sidebar, New Filter… from the Row Filters submenu on Mac, or Save (as) Filter while you are Filtering the Outline.

The filter editor appears, allowing you to define rules for rows that are visible when the filter is applied. Once you have filter rules set up the way you want, give it a title and click Done to save the filter.

The filter is added to the list in the Filters Tab (on all devices), as well as to the Row Filters submenu of the View Menu (on Mac only). Choose the filter from either location, to apply it to your outline.

While your Outline is filtered, the filter bar appears just beneath The Toolbar It displays the filter title, along with buttons to edit, refresh (rows created while the filter is applied aren’t filtered until you refresh), or dismiss the filter.

When a filter is dismissed, your outline returns to its original view state with all content visible.

Batch Find Tab

Enter keywords in the search field at the top of the sections list to find all sections of the document containing those keywords. The list displays all rows with matching text, with the keyword text highlighted.

Click or tap a row in the batch find results to navigate to its corresponding position in the outline, with the keyword text selected.

The Inspectors

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. They contain tools for editing the style, structure, and formatting of your document.

To show the Inspectors:

Tap or click the Inspector Button in the Toolbar
Select Show/Hide Inspector from the View Menu

Inspectors are divided into two groups, loosely based on how the tools apply to the document, and you can switch between the groups by selecting one of the buttons in the top of the Inspector, or selecting from the Inspectors submenu on Mac.

The Selection Style group contains inspectors which allow you to modify properties for a selection in the Outline or Sidebar
The Document group contains inspectors which allow you to modify properties for the entire document

The Inspectors are grouped differently on Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro, and provide different options.

Inspectors on Mac are grouped by:

Selection Style Group
Document Group
- Document Inspector
- Format and Metadata Inspector

Inspectors on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro are grouped by:

Selection Style Group Inspectors
Document Group

Inspectors on Mac

The Selection Style Group includes:

Preview Inspector
Font Inspector
Paragraph Inspector
Column Type Inspector
Row Inspector
Style Attributes Inspector

The Document Group includes:

Document Inspector
Format and Metadata Inspector

Selection Style Group on Mac

Use inspectors in the Selection Style Group 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.

The Selection Style Group includes:

Preview Inspector
Font Inspector
Paragraph Inspector
Column Type Inspector
Row Inspector
Style Attributes Inspector

Preview Inspector on Mac

The Preview inspector previews styles which have been applied to your current selection, while also indicating the selected item:

Row “title” — Styles applied to the selected row
“Title” — Styles applied to the selected column
Selected text — Styles applied to the selected text
Text insertion — Styles applied to text surrounding the cursor
Whole Document — Styles applied to the whole document
Name of structural style — Styles applied to the selected Structural Style
Name of named style — Styles applied to the selected Named Style

On Mac, the Preview inspector will only display for a single selection. If you have multiple items selected, no preview is displayed.

Font Inspector on Mac

The Font inspector provides controls for changing the appearance of text in your document:

Font — Select the font for the selected text, row, column, or whole document. On Mac, you can also open the Font Panel.
Size — Select the font size for the selected text, row, column, or whole document.
Color — Select the font color for the selected text, row, column, or whole document; see Choosing Colors.
Bold — Apply or remove the bold style to the selected text, row, column, or whole document.
Italic — Apply or remove the italic style to the selected text, row, column, or whole document.
Underline — Apply or remove the underline style to the selected text, row, column, or whole document.
Strikethrough — Apply or remove the ~~strikethrough~~ style to the selected text, row, column, or whole document.

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

Paragraph Inspector on Mac

The Paragraph inspector allows you to adjust the layout and background color for the current selection.

Text Alignment — This row of buttons is used to Align or Justify text.
Line Height — Choose the spacing applied to line height, in increments from 1.0 to 2.0; contrast with Row Padding.
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

The Column Type inspector provides controls to adjust properties of existing columns.

To add new columns:

Click Add Column in the Toolbar
Use Add Column in the Organize Menu

To edit columns:

See Editing Columns

To remove existing columns:

Use Remove Column in the Organize Menu
Use Remove Column in the Column Header Menu
Select the column by clicking the column header, and press Delete

This Inspector only 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).

Row Inspector on Mac

The Row inspector allows you set options for the current row selection:

Handle
Numbering
Gutter
Row Padding
Above Note
Above Children
Below Children
Start a New Page
Indent Children

Style Attributes Inspector on Mac

The Style Attributes inspector shows all styles applied to the current selection, and provides controls for removing styles from the selection.

Styles are displayed in the order in which they are applied to the selection, from top to bottom.
Styles are grouped by their source, whether Text, Row, Column, or Whole Document
Click the Clear button next to a style, to remove it from the selection.

Document Group on Mac

Use inspectors in the Document Group to adjust the styles or attributes of the document as a whole, rather than styles that can be applied to specific parts of the document. These inspectors control how rows, columns, margins, and more appear within the Outline.

The Document Group includes:

Document Inspector
Format and Metadata Inspector

Document Inspector on Mac

The Document inspector allows you to adjust the overall appearance of your document.

Options include:

Dynamic theme
Alternate rows
Horizontal grid
Vertical grid
Margin
Column headers
Show row status
Inline notes
Indent child rows

Format and Metadata Inspector on Mac

The Format and Metadata inspector provides options for changing how your document is stored, as well as the ability to add information to make the document easier to find.

Save as
Encryption
Metadata

Inspectors on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

The Selection Style Group includes:

Style Attributes Preview
Font Inspector
Paragraph Inspector
Row Inspector
Apply Styles Inspector
Style Attributes Inspector

The Document Group includes:

Document Inspector
Columns Inspector
Format and Metadata Inspectors

Selection Style Group on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

Use inspectors in the Selection Style Group 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.

The Selection Style Group includes:

Style Attributes Preview
Font Inspector
Paragraph Inspector
Row Inspector
Apply Styles Inspector
Style Attributes Inspector

Style Attributes Preview on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

The Style Attributes Preview inspector previews styles which have been applied to your current selection, while also indicating the selected item:

Selected rows — Styles applied to the selected row
Multiple — Styles applied to multiple selected rows
Selected text — Styles applied to the selected text
Text insertion — Styles applied to text surrounding the cursor
Whole Document — Styles applied to the whole document

Tap on the preview to view the Style Attributes Inspector.

Font Inspector on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

The Font inspector provides controls for changing the appearance of text in your document:

Font — Select the font for the selected text, row, column, or document. The bottom of the list contains Manage Fonts, which will open the Fonts section of Settings on your device.
Font Color — Select the font color for the selected text, row, column, or document; see Choosing Colors.
Bold — Apply or remove the bold style to the selected text, row, column, or document.
Italic — Apply or remove the italic style to the selected text, row, column, or document.
Underline — Apply or remove the underline style to the selected text, row, column, or document.
Strikethrough — Apply or remove the ~~strikethrough~~ style to the selected text, row, column, or document.
Size — Select the font size for the selected text, row, column, or document.

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

The Row inspector allows you set options for the current row selection:

Numbering
Indent Children

Apply Styles Inspector on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

The Apply Styles inspector provides controls for applying or removing Named Styles from the currently selected text, row, column, or whole document (if there is no selection).

With (or without) a selection in the Outline:

Tap a Named Style in the Inspector. A check mark appears, to indicate that it has been applied to the selection or whole document.
Tap the Named Style again, to remove it from the selection or whole document.
Multiple styles can be applied, with styles lower in the list taking priority over those higher in the list, depending on the contents of each style.
Tap Clear Custom Styles to remove any applied styles from your selection or whole document, reverting to only Structural Styles.

See Edit Styles to learn more about editing Structural Styles and Named Styles.

Style Attributes Inspector on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

The Style Attributes inspector shows all styles applied to the current selection, and provides controls for removing styles from the selection.

Styles are displayed in the order in which they are applied to the selection, from top to bottom.
Styles are grouped by their source, whether Text, Row, Column, or Whole Document
Click the Clear button next to a style, to remove it from the selection.

Document Group on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

The Document Group includes:

Document Inspector
Columns Inspector
Format and Metadata Inspectors

Document Inspector on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

The Document inspector allows you to adjust the overall appearance of your document.

Options include:

Edit Styles
Dynamic Theme
Background
Alternate Rows
Horizontal Grid
Vertical Grid
Column Headers
Row Status
Notes Span Columns
Zoom

Columns Inspector on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

The Columns inspector provides controls to add or remove columns, rearrange the order of columns, or adjust properties of existing columns.

This inspector displays a list of every column in the document, in order from left to right.

Drag and drop column names to reorder them, which also moves the columns in the document to the left or right.
Tap the switch next to each column name to display or hide a specific column; the Topic column cannot be hidden.
Tap Add Column at the bottom of the list to add a new column to your document.
Tap a column row to edit the column; see Editing Columns to learn more.

Format and Metadata Inspectors on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

The Format and Metadata inspector provides options for changing how your document is stored, as well as the ability to add information to make the document easier to find.

Type of File
Encryption
Metadata

Editing Columns

Available on Mac in the Column Type Inspector
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Columns Inspector

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

Every non-Notes column has properties for:

Name
Type
Style
Width (Mac only)

Additional properties are described below, in the sections for each Column Type.

Column Name

Every column can be renamed, except for the Notes Column, as it does not display a title.

On Mac:

Click in a Column Header to rename the column.

On iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro:

Tap the row of the column you would like to rename.
Tap into the Name field to rename the column.

Column Types

All new columns use Rich Text, but you can easily change the column type by choosing another option from the Type menu:

Checkbox
Date
Duration
Number
Pop-up List
Rich Text

If you have entered content which is specific to a given column type, switching to a column type which doesn’t support that type of content will erase what you have entered. If you unintentionally switch column types, Undo will switch back to the previous type while restoring any lost content.

Each column type has one or more additional options:

Format — Format options depend on the selected column type, and some options update depending on the Language & Region settings in System Settings.
Settings — Settings are only available for Duration Columns; please see that section for more information.
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. Except for the None option, only non-parent column cells are available for editing. On Mac, summary cells are displayed with a slight gray background.

Available options for each column type are discussed below.

Checkbox Columns

Checkbox Columns provide you with another checkbox to tick off, in addition to Status Checkboxes, and can be used to track any binary state.

Checkbox Column properties include:

Name
Summary
Width (Mac only)

You can add as many Checkbox Columns as you find useful, and can show or hide each column using the Columns submenu on Mac, or the Column Inspector on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro.

When combined with the Keep Sorted command, you can use checkboxes to automatically organize your document.

Checkbox Column Summaries

Checkbox Column summary options include:

None — Summary cells do not provide a summary, and all cells in the column are available for editing.
State — Summary cells display an empty checkbox if no items have been checked off, a partially filled checkbox (with a dash inside) if some items have been checked, or a filled checkbox if all the items have been checked.
Hidden — Summary cells are empty, regardless of the state of other checkboxes in the column.

Date Columns

Date Columns can be used to track any date-related values.

Date Column properties include:

Name
Format
Summary
Width (Mac only)

You can be creative with the way you enter dates, and OmniOutliner will do its best to understand what you mean:

Relative dates — Relative dates and times calculate a new date and time, based on the current date and time, with negative numbers representing dates and times in the past. Examples: 2 days, –3 weeks, 1 hour, 1 year 1 month
Abbreviations — You can use full names, as in the previous set of examples, or abbreviations. Examples: 2d, –3w, 1h, 1y1m
Common words — You can refer to relative dates using common words for periods of time. 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 periods of time work in the same way. Examples: yesterday, tomorrow, tonight, next Thursday, last month, this Friday, next year
Specific time period — You can enter a specific time period, which will add a date for the beginning of that time period. Examples: fri, september, 2028
Short date format — You can use the date format selected in your Language & Region System Settings. Examples: 5/23/08 10a, 9.30.09 2:00 PM
Mixed formats — Mix the available formats however you like. Examples: 2w sat, 4d @ 5p, mon 6a, aug 6, tue 5p
Final thoughts — As noted above, OmniOutliner makes its best guess at whatever you enter, whether that is bare numbers, times, or word fragments. If you think something might work, give it a try. If it doesn’t work, and you think it should, please Email Support. Examples: now, 9, 14:00, tom

Date Column Formats

Date Column format options are partially based on your current selections in the Language & Region section of System Settings. On Mac, you can specify any of your Preferred Languages from the Language & Region section, using the Locale pop-up menu.

You can select two options (one from Date and one from Time), or a single combined option (from Technical).

Date options include:

Short — Short format date based on your settings, such as 01/06/26.
Medium — Medium format date based on your settings, such as Jan 06, 2026.
Long — Long format date based on your settings, such as January 06, 2026.

Time options include:

None — Does not display a time.
Short — Short format time based on your settings, such as 09:41.
Medium — Medium format time based on your settings, such as 09:41:00.
Long — Long format time based on your settings, such as 09:41:00 PST.

Technical options include:

Timestamp — Long format timestamp including date, time, and timezone offset, such as 2026-01-06 09:41:00 -0800.
HTTP — Long format timestamp including day, date, time, and timezone, such as Tue, 06 Jan 2026 17:41:00 GMT.
ISO 8601 (UTC) — ISO 8601 format timestamp in UTC, such as 20260106T174100.000Z.
ISO 8601 (Local) — ISO 8601 format timestamp with timezone offset, such as 20260106T094100.000-0800.

On Mac, there is an additional Custom Format… option, which opens the Date Format Editor:

Drag items you would like to use for your date/time string to the field at the top of the window.
Click the pull-down menu (the downward facing arrow) to choose a format for each item.
Add or remove characters between the items, to use as delimiters.
Click Save to apply your changes, or Cancel to discard your changes.

Date Column Summaries

Date Column summary options include:

None — Summary cells do not provide a summary, and all cells in the column are available for editing.
Minimum — Summary cells display the earliest date or time in the column.
Maximum — Summary cells display the latest date or time in the column.
Hidden — Summary cells are empty.

Duration Columns

Durations Columns can be used for estimating or tracking the amount of time a task or project takes.

Duration properties include:

Name
Settings
Summary
Width (Mac only)

Duration Column Settings

OmniOutliner displays duration information based on your selected Setting:

Work Time — 8 hours per day, 40 hours per week, 160 hours per month
Calendar Time — 24 hours per day, 168 hours per week, 720 hours per month
Custom (Mac only) — enter custom values for day, week, month

Examples:

12h in Calendar Time is 1d 4h (12h) in Work Time
1d (24h) in Calendar Time is 3d (24h) in Work Time

By default, OmniOutliner will display single-letter abbreviations for time units; if you would prefer to have time units displayed using full words (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years), select the Long format option (Mac only).

Duration Column Summaries

Duration Column summary options include:

None — Summary cells do not provide a summary, and all cells in the column are available for editing.
Total — Summary cells display the total of all child cells in the column.
Minimum — Summary cells display the lowest duration in the column.
Maximum — Summary cells display the highest duration in the column.
Average Leaves — Summary cells display the weighted average of durations from children of branches of the parent row (also known as leaves). Example: if one branch has two leaves, and a second branch has one leaf, the first branch contributes 2/3 of the average displayed in the parent cell, while the second is contributes 1/3 of the average. This summary option benefits from some experimentation, to get a good sense of how it works.
Hidden — Summary cells are empty.

Number Columns

Number Columns can be used to track any numeric values.

Number Column properties include:

Name
Format
Summary
Width (Mac only)

Number Column Formats

Number Column format options include:

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 Column Summaries

Number Column summary options include:

None — There is no summary, and all cells in the column are available for editing.
Total — Summary cells display the total of all child cells in the column.
Minimum — Summary cells display the lowest number in the column.
Maximum — Summary cells display the highest number in the column.
Average Leaves — Summary cells display the weighted average of durations from children of branches of the parent row (also known as leaves). Example: if one branch has two leaves, and a second branch has one leaf, the first branch contributes 2/3 of the average displayed in the parent cell, while the second is contributes 1/3 of the average. This summary option benefits from some experimentation, to get a good sense of how it works.
Hidden — Summary cells are empty.

Pop-up List Columns

Pop-up List Columns can be used when you have a consistent set of options, from which you would like to choose.

Pop-up List Column properties include:

Name
Values
Summary
Width (Mac only)

Pop-up List Column Values

Pop-up List Column Values are easily configured, and can be quickly accessed when editing a column cell.

On Mac:

A table in the Column Type Inspector displays the list of values
Click on + to add a new row
Select a row, and click on - to remove the row
Double-click on a row to rename the entry
Drag rows to reorder them
After creating the list, you can select a value from the pull-down menu in the cell, or begin typing to autocomplete a value
If you enter a value in a column cell that isn’t already part of the list, you can press Command+Return to add it

On iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro:

Tap Values to show a table containing all value
Tap Add Value to add a new row
Tap in the row to rename the entry
Drag rows to reorder them
After creating the list, tap a column cell to choose from a menu of the preset values, or use the field at the top of the menu to search for a value to apply
If you enter a value that isn’t already part of the list, you can tap Add “x” to add it to the list

Pop-up List Column Summaries

Pop-up List Summary options include:

None — Summary cells do not provide a summary, and all cells in the column are available for editing.
Minimum — Summary cells display the uppermost entry in the list.
Maximum — Summary cells display the bottommost entry in the list.
Hidden — Summary cells are empty.

Rich Text Columns

Rich Text Columns can be used for any plain or formatted text.

Rich Text Column properties include:

Name
Summary
Width (Mac only)

Rich Text Column Summaries

Rich Text Column summary options include:

None — Summary cells do not provide a summary, and all cells in the column are available for editing.
Hidden — Summary cells are empty.

Column Style

Each column can have specific styles applied to it.

On Mac:

Select a column in the Styles Tab.
Use the Selection Style Group Inspectors to make any desired changes.

On iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro:

Open the Document Inspector.
Select Edit Styles.
Select a column to edit.

Column Width

On Mac, the width of a given column can be quickly adjusted:

Enter a value (in pixels) in the Width field
Click Resize to Fit to automatically fit the column width to the longest single line of text

Inspectors Reference

This section lists OmniOutliner inspector options in alphabetical order.

Each entry contains links to where the option can be found on each platform. If no platforms are specified, it is available on all devices.

Above Children

Available on Mac in the Row Inspector

Set the amount of space (in pixels) above the first child row.

Above Note

Available on Mac in the Row Inspector

Set the amount of space (in pixels) above an inline note.

Alternate Rows

Available on Mac in the Document Inspector
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Inspector

Use the Alternate Rows option to add 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.

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

Background Color

Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Inspector

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 will update it in the other.

Below Children

Available on Mac in the Row Inspector

Set the amount of space (in pixels) below the last child row.

Choosing Colors

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.
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.

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 selection 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 need more 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. More empty rows will be displayed, 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

Column Autosize

Available on Mac in the Column Type Inspector
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Columns Inspector
Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Column Header Menu

With the Topic column selected, you can enable automatic sizing. This dynamically adjusts the width of the Topic column, based on the size of the window and of the surrounding columns. With this option turned on, your columns should fill the entire document window.

On Mac:

Click the Auto button in the Column Type Inspector
Select Autosize from the Column Header Menu
Select Autosize Topic from the Columns submenu of the View Menu

On iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro:

Tap the Topic row in the Columns Inspector, the tap the Autosize toggle
Select Autosize from the Column Header Menu

Column Headers

Available on Mac in the Document Inspector
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Inspector

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.

Document Format

Available on Mac in the Format and Metadata Inspector
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Format and Metadata Inspector

Note that the name for this setting differs between devices. It begins with Save as… on Mac, and is labeled Type of File on iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro.

Select a format for this document:

Flat file — By default, OmniOutliner saves documents as a flat file, compressed to the smallest practical size. This format is easier to share, and is compatible with iCloud Drive, OmniPresence, and other cloud services.
File package — Documents can also be saved as a file package, which contains the OmniOutliner XML file and any attachments. This format can be helpful for storing files in a version control or document management system, or running scripts against the contents of your document. and is compatible with iCloud Drive and OmniPresence.

For many years (and across several versions), the default for OmniOutliner documents was file packages, which excel at storing attachments alongside your OmniOutliner content. They are also very efficient to save, sync, and open, making them ideal for version control and document management systems.

Unfortunately, cloud services aside from iCloud Drive and OmniPresence do not always handle file packages well. It is possible for only a portion of the file package to be synced, resulting in document corruption and data loss.

To help preserve customer data, OmniOutliner now uses flat file as the default format. This makes the documents safer to use with other cloud services, but does make them less efficient to save, sync, and open.

Please use the document format which works best for you. If you have any questions or suggestions, email Support to let us know!

Dynamic Theme

Available on Mac in the Document Inspector
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Inspector

With this option on, the appearance of the Outline automatically updates when your device switches between a Light or Dark appearance. If you select a color when using a Light or Dark appearance, the other appearance uses an automatically generated version of your selected color.

Allow Customization of Alternate Dynamic Colors — With this option turned on, Light and Dark appearances can be set to use specific colors, instead of one appearance using an automatically generated version of the other.
Swap Palettes — Switch the Outline between a Light and Dark appearance. This can result in a state where your Outline appearance is Light when the device is using a Dark appearance, or Dark when the device is using a Light appearance.
Apply a New Theme… — Open the Template Picker and select a template with Styles you would like applied to the current document.

Unlike choosing a template when creating a new document, where the document you create contains sample content from the template, applying a template to an existing outline overwrites the document’s style properties, but not any of its content.

Note that applying a template theme will overwrite both Structural Styles and Named Styles, including any new or custom styles added after creating the document. The one exception is if the selected template contains a named style with an indentical name, in which case the style will simply be replaced, rather than removed.

Styles applied directly to text will not be cleared by changing templates.

Edit Styles

Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Inspector

Tap Edit Styles to view a list of all styles saved with the document.

These include Structural Styles at the top of the list, which are automatically applied to classes of objects, and Named Styles at the bottom of the list, which can be manually applied to items you have selected.

To edit a Structural or Named Style, tap on its row and you will see a version of the Selection Style Group Inspectors, which apply changes only to the style currently being edited.
To create a new Named Style, tap Add Named Style at the bottom of the list. This will open the Selection Style Group Inspectors for that style, with the addition of a Name field and Delete Style button. Tap into the Name field, and give it a memorable name.
To delete a Named Style, tap on its row and then on the Delete Style button. If you accidentally delete a style, you can use Undo to restore it.
Structural Styles have a fixed order in the list, but you can drag Named Styles to reorder them.

Learn more about Styles in the Outline chapter.

For Mac, see the Styles Tab section of the Sidebar chapter.

Encryption

Available on Mac in the Format and Metadata Inspector
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Format and Metadata Inspector

Any document can be encrypted with a password, which must be entered before opening the document; this helps protect documents containing private or sensitive material.

Add encryption on Mac:

Click the More button or use the Set Password… command in the File Menu
Enter a New Password
Re-enter the password to Verify
Add an optional Password Hint
Click OK to save, or Cancel to discard changes

Add encryption on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro:

Tap the Encryption row
Enter a new Password
Re-enter the password to Verify
Add an optional password Hint
Tap OK to save or the Back arrow to discard changes

The document is now encrypted using industry standard AES-256 encryption in CCM mode, 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.

Update or remove encryption on Mac:

Click the More button or use the Set Password… command in the File Menu
Enter the current Password
Click on Remove Password or Change Password…
If you are removing the password, you should see a confirmation that the document is no longer encrypted
If you are changing the password, follow the same steps as when you initially added a password

Update or remove encryption on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro:

Tap the Encryption row
Enter the current Password, and tap OK
Tap on Remove Password, or enter a new Password, Verify the new password, and update your optional Hint
Tap OK to save or the Back arrow to discard changes

Gutter Color

Available on Mac in the Row Inspector

Set a color to use for the Gutter.

See Choosing Colors.

Horizontal Grid

Available on Mac in the Document Inspector
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Inspector

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.

Indent Child Rows

Available on Mac in the Document Inspector

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.

Contrast Indent Children, which controls whether or not children are indented.

Indent Children

Available on Mac in the Row Inspector
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Row Inspector

Choose whether to indent a row’s children.

If you choose to not indent children, it can be hard to determine row hierarchy. You may want to style parent and child rows differently, such as giving them different background colors or shades, or changing the font size.

Contrast Indent Child Rows, which controls how far child rows are indented.

Margin

Available on Mac in the Document Inspector

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.

Metadata

Available on Mac in the Format and Metadata Inspector
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Format and Metadata Inspector

Use Metadata to provide additional information about your document. Metadata is saved with the document, and makes it easier to find using Spotlight. Metadata properties are collected in two groups, with the first group being single text fields, and the second group allowing multiple key-value pairs.

On Mac:

The first group is at the top level of the Format and Metadata Inspector
The second group is below the first group, and is accessed via a pop-up menu, initially set to Authors.

On iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro:

The first group is immediately under the Metadata sub-inspector, in the first part of the list.
The second group is below the first group, and each property has a right arrow indicating that tapping it will reveal a sub-inspector, where you can Add values.

The first group allows a single entry for each option:

Copyright — Copyright statements typically declare who owns the legal rights to something, such as you, your company, or some other entity, as well as the year(s) of copyright.
Version — Version numbers can be used to indicate the state (beta or release) or progression (first version, second version) of a project.
Subject — Similar to what you might use as the subject line for an email, such as Staff project assignments, or Launch plan.
Description — Anything that helps you or another person understand the purpose of the document.
Comments Any additional information about the document. 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.

The second group allows multiple entries for each option:

Authors — The name(s) of the person or people who created the document.
Organizations — The name of the company or organization for whom the document has been created.
Languages — The primary language(s) of the document, such as English or Japanese; you can also use ISO 639 language codes, such as en or jp.
Keywords — Add any relevant keywords, as they help make each document unique, and make it easier to find using Spotlight.
Projects — Any related project or projects.

Working with key-value pairs on Mac:

Select one of the options from the popup menu
Click the Add button
Enter metadata, and press Tab or Return to save the information
To remove an item, select the row and click the Remove button
To edit an item, double-click to select the text, enter your changes, and press Tab or Return to save changes

Working with key-value pairs on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro:

Tap one of the right arrows to show the sub-inspector
Tap the Add button
Enter metadata, and tap the Back button to save changes
Drag to reorder your entries
To remove a row, tap into the row and delete the text, then tap the Back button to save changes
To edit a row, tap into the row and edit the text, then tap the Back button to save changes

If you are using other Omni apps, such as OmniGraffle or OmniPlan, you can enter similar metadata in the Metadata inspector for those apps.

Spotlight indexes these attributes, making it easy to find files that share metadata.

To learn more about using Spotlight to search for documents, see the Apple User Guide articls:

Notes Span Columns/Inline Notes

Available on Mac in the Document Inspector
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Inspector

Choose whether inline notes will wrap based on the first column of the document, or if they’ll span the width of all columns.

Row Handles

Available on Mac in the Row Inspector

Select whether the row handle is:

Always — Handles are always visible
Hover — Handles are only visible when you hover over the row
Never — Handles are never visible

Row Numbering

Available on Mac in the Row Inspector
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Row Inspector

These menus offer options similar to those in the Row Numbering submenu on Mac.

Choose a numbering style to use for the selected rows in your document:

None — Rows in your document are not numbered.
Numeric or 1, 2, 3, 4, … — Rows in your document are numbered sequentially, starting with 1.
Alphabetic or A, B, C, D, … — Rows in your document are lettered sequentially, using uppercase letters, starting with A.
Alphabetic (lowercase) or a, b, c, d, … — Rows in your document are lettered sequentially, using lowercase letters, starting with a.
Roman or I, II, III, IV, … — Rows in your document are numbered sequentially, using uppercase Roman numerals, starting with I.
Roman (lowercase) or i, ii, iii, iv, … — Rows in your document are numbered sequentially, using lowercase Roman numerals, starting with i.
Legal or 1, 1.1, 1.1.1, … — 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.

You can also select a prefix and/or suffix to surround the row numbers:

a — The chosen row number style is presented without prefix or suffix. Example: 1.1.2.
a. — This places a period after the chosen row number style. Example: 1.1.2..
a) — This places a closing parenthesis after the chosen row number style. Example: 1.1.2).
(a) — This places row numbers in parentheses. Example: (1.1.2).
Other… (Mac only) — Displays fields to enter custom prefix and suffix characters. Example: «1.1.2».

Row Padding

Available on Mac in the Row Inspector

Set the amount of space (in pixels) between the text, both above and below, and the row boundary.

Row Status/Show Row Status

Available on Mac in the Document Inspector
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Inspector

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.

Start a New Page

Available on Mac in the Row Inspector

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.

Vertical Grid

Available on Mac in the Document Inspector
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Inspector

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.

Zoom

Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Inspector

The Zoom setting controls the magnification of text in the outline. Tap the plus and minus buttons to increase or decrease 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.

Documents and Templates

Whether you are creating reference materials, working on your next novel or paper, or simply gathering your thoughts, you can use OmniOutliner Documents as the foundation for your next project, and OmniOutliner Templates as the foundation for all your documents.

Documents

Documents allow you to quickly capture your thoughts, organize them into a logical structure, import existing material, export to other formats, or print your latest project.

Continue reading to learn more about working with documents, or jump directly to one of the following sections:

Creating Documents
Opening Documents
- Importing to OmniOutliner
Editing Documents
Saving Documents
- Exporting from OmniOutliner

Creating Documents

To start capturing your thoughts, you will need to create a new document.

On Mac, use the New or New from Template commands in the File Menu.

On iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro, tap the New Outline or Create Document button in the Document Manager, and then choose between New Outline or New from Template.

You can read about the Template Picker to learn more about working with Templates.

Opening Documents

Documents are files that OmniOutliner can open, edit, save, and print.

OmniOutliner 6 supports the following document types:

OmniOutliner Document
OmniOutliner Template
OmniOutliner 3 Document
OmniOutliner 3 Template
OPML Document

On Mac, use the Open or Open Recent commands in the File Menu, and choose a document for editing.

You can also open documents using the Finder by:

Double-clicking on an OmniOutliner Document, OmniOutliner Template OmniOutliner 3 Document, OmniOutliner 3 Template, or OPML Document.
Selecting a document, and choosing Open in the File menu.
Control + clicking on a document, and choosing Open or Open With > OmniOutliner from the shortcut menu.
Dragging the document on top of the OmniOutliner app in the Dock or Applications folder.

If double-clicking on the document doesn’t open OmniOutliner, read this Apple User Guide article for help:

Choose an app to open a file on Mac

On iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro, tap a document in the Document Manager to open it for editing.

You can also open documents using Files app:

Tap or touch and hold on an OmniOutliner Document, OmniOutliner Template OmniOutliner 3 Document, OmniOutliner 3 Template, or OPML Document.
Tap Open With.
Choose OmniOutliner.

If OmniOutliner isn’t listed in the Open With menu, make sure that the file you are trying to open has a file extension of .ooutline, .otemplate, .oo3, .oo3template, or .opml.

Importing to OmniOutliner

In addition to opening OmniOutliner documents, OmniOutliner 6 can import several types of files; this leaves the original file in place, and creates a new OmniOutliner Document.

On Mac, use the Open command in the File Menu to import one of the following file types:

Plain Text (TXT)
Rich Text Format (RTF)
Rich Text Format Directory (RTFD)
Symantec MORE 3.1

On iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro, tap a file in the Document Manager to import one of the following file types:

Plain Text (TXT)
Rich Text Format (RTF)

You can also import files using Files app:

Touch and hold on a Plain Text (TXT) or Rich Text Format (RTF) file.
Tap Open With.
Choose OmniOutliner.

If OmniOutliner isn’t listed in the Open With menu, make sure that the file you are trying to open has a file extension of .txt or .rtf.

Editing Documents

OmniOutliner can open, edit, save, and print the following file types:

OmniOutliner Document
OmniOutliner 3 Document
OmniOutliner Template
OmniOutliner 3 Template
OPML Document

Saving Documents

This section is being updated.

Exporting from OmniOutliner

If you need to share your OmniOutliner Document with somebody who doesn’t use OmniOutliner, you can select from a wide range of file types.

On Mac, use the Export… command in the File Menu to export one of the following file types:

CSV
Excel 2010 Format (xslx)
HTML
HTML (Dynamic)
Microsoft Word (indented)
Microsoft Word (outline)
OmniOutliner Document
OmniOutliner Template
OmniOutliner 3
OmniOutliner 3 Template
OPML Document
Plain Text (Symantec MORE 3.1)
Plain Text (with tabs)
PowerPoint 2012 Format (pptx)
Rich Text Format (RTF)
Rich Text Format with Attachments (RTFD)

Note that PDF is not included as an export option on Mac, as it is available from the standard Print dialog.

See Printing to PDF to learn more.

On iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro, there are several ways to export:

With an open document, use the Export As… command in the Document Title Menu.
From the Document Manager, touch and hold a document (or use Control + click), tap Share, then tap Share As….
From the Document Manager, tap the Select button, select one or more documents, tap Share, then tap Share As….

You can then select one of the following file types, and choose a destination for the export:

OmniOutliner Document
OmniOutliner Template
OmniOutliner 3 Document
OmniOutliner 3 Template
OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language)
PDF Document
Dynamic HTML
Simple HTML
Plain Text
CSV (Comma-Separated Values)
XLSX
DOCX
DOCX (indented)
PPTX
Rich Text Format

Templates

A template is an OmniOutliner document, which has been saved with a special file extension (.otemplate), and which can be used to quickly create new documents. These documents will use the same Theme as the template, and pre-populate with any template contents.

This section is being updated.

Template Picker

The Template Picker presents each time you use the New or New from Template… commands on Mac, or tap the New from Template button on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro.

The center part of the Template Picker allows you to select from a range of Omni-created Built-In Templates, in addition to any Custom Templates stored in a Connected Folder you have configured to Use For templates.

The sidebar contains options for filtering the available templates:

All Templates — Displays all available templates.
Custom — Displays templates stored in Connected Folders. Select Custom to display all templates, or select a folder to limit the display.
Built-In — Displays all built-in templates. Select Built-In to display all templates, or select a category to limit the display.

The toolbar contains additional options:

Menu — Contains Manage Connected Folders, which you can use to configure the Use For options for templates.
Sidebar — Shows or hides the Template Picker sidebar.
Palette — Filters templates to display only Dynamic, Light, or Dark–themed templates. Note that Built-In Templates support all three options, but your selection will determine the new document’s Dynamic Theme setting.

Touch and hold or Control + click on a template to display a menu containing one or more of these options:

Show in Files — Display the selected template in Files app on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro. Only available for Custom Templates.
Show in Finder — Display the selected template in the Finder on Mac. Only available for Custom Templates.
Make Default — Use this template for documents created using the New command on Mac or iPad, or by tapping on the New Outline button on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro.
Edit — Edit the selected template. Only available for Custom Templates.
Edit a Copy — Make a copy of the selected template, and open the copy for editing.

Built-in Templates

This section is being updated.

Custom Templates

If you have a document styled just so and would like to preserve its style setup for future use, you can save it as a template (File > Save As Template). This creates an .otemplate file version of the document, and makes it available as a template from the Template Picker in the Templates section.

This section is being updated.

Creating Templates

This section is being updated.

Opening Templates

This section is being updated.

Importing Templates

This section is being updated.

Printing

There are times that nothing beats a paper copy of your document, so OmniOutliner supports printing from Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro.

On Mac:

Select Print from the File Menu, or press Command+P.

You can customize your printout when Printing from Mac.

On iPad, Apple Vision Pro:

Tap the Document Title Menu.
Select Print.

On iPhone:

Tap the More button.
Tap the Share button.
Select Print.

The Print window will show you a preview of your document to review before printing.

If you would like to learn more about printing from Apple devices, read these Apple User Guide articles:

Printing from Mac

On Mac, additional options are available under the Content, Headers & Footers, and Margins sections of the Print dialog.

The preview of your document will update as you modify options in the Print dialog, providing an easy way to see what happens as you change settings. If you would like a preview, click the PDF pop-up menu, then select Open in Preview.

Printing to PDF

If you would like a PDF of your document:

Click the PDF pop-up menu.
Select Save as PDF.
Select a location for your new PDF.
Add any relevant metadata.
Click Save.

Printing to PDF is not available from iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro, but Exporting to PDF is supported.

Content Options

Content options allows you to configure which information is printed, as well as how it is displayed.

Options that control which rows (and notes) are included in your printout:

Print selected rows only — Only the selected rows are included.
Filter rows by status checkbox — Only rows that are checked or unchecked are included. If the rows are part of a group, any enclosing rows will also be included.
Expand to show all descendants — Automatically expand groups, so all contained rows are visible in the printout.
Flatten indentation — Remove indentation from the printout, so that all rows have the same initial alignment.
Include notes — Select between printing notes that are currently visible as shown in document, or print all notes in the document by selecting expanded.

Options that control how the entire document displays:

Scale to fit page width — Columns are scaled to fit on a single page. With this option unchecked, the printout matches OmniOutliner, so you may need to manually adjust page breaks. When you adjust a column or window, a dashed line displays to indicate where the page break will occur.
Print column titles — Only applies if Column Headers are set to Show or Automatic.
Print row handles — Only applies if Row Handles are set to Always show.
Print alternate row colors — If an Alternate Row color has been set, it will be included.
Print other background colors — Other background colors will be printed, such as those applied by a Highlight style.

Headers and Footers

Headers and Footers options allow you to add details about your document to the top and bottom of each page of your printout.

Select an option from the pop-up menu at the top of the section to apply the headers and footers to:

Master Page — All pages of the printout, unless another option applies to a given page.
First Page — Only the first page of your printout.
Odd Pages — All odd pages of your printout.
Even Pages — All even pages of your printout.

The six boxes below are grouped in two sets, representing the left, center, and right positions on the page, with a top row for headers, and a bottom row for footers.

Click in a given box, and use the Insert pop-up menu below the row to insert one or more of the following:

Page Number — Current page number.
Section Title — If a Focus is applied, the name of the focused row; if no focus is applied, the document name.
Last Modification Time — Date and time document was last updated.
Page Count — Number of pages in the document.
Document Title — By default, the same as the document name. Documents created by OmniOutliner 3 for Mac and earlier may have a separate document title.
Document Name — Name assigned to the file when it is saved or renamed, and which appears in the document Toolbar.
Print Time — Date and time document is printed.

Text in the headers and footers use the Whole Document style. If you would like to independently style the headers and footers, you can use the Fonts and Colors panels.

Once one of the panels is open, select any text you would like to format, and select an option in the panel.

Margins

Margin options allow you to control the appearance of your document within the bounds of a printed page.

To adjust any of the margin values, click into a field and enter a new distance, or click arrows to the right of the field to increase or decrease the value.

Top of page to header — Distance between the top edge of the page and the header. Should be smaller than the distance to the content.
Top of page to content — Distance between the top edge of the page and the content. Should be larger than the distance to the header.
Left margin — Distance between the left edge of the page and the content.
Right margin — Distance between the right edge of the page and the content.
Content to bottom of page — Distance between the bottom edge of the page and the content. Should be larger than the distance to the header.
Footer to bottom of page — Distance between the bottom edge of the page and the footer. Should be smaller than the distance to the content.

Document Manager

When you first launch OmniOutliner on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro, you arrive at the Document Manager, where you can open an existing file or create a new one from scratch.

The document manager provides access to the OmniOutliner folder in iCloud Drive, On My iPad, On My iPhone, and On My Apple Vision Pro, in addition to files and folders from other applications.

If you have Configured OmniPresence, synced files and folders are available inside the OmniOutliner folder in On My iPad, On My iPhone, or On My Apple Vision Pro.

To learn more about the document manager in OmniOutliner, which is part of the Files app, please review these Apple User Guide articles:

Files basics for iPad
Files basics for iPhone
View, modify, and organize files and folders in Files on Apple Vision Pro

Recents

Tap Recents to display recently opened files in a flat list, sorted by date from most to least recently opened, from all available locations on this device.

If you looking for a file that does not display in Recents, tap the Search button to search your device, or switch to the Browse view.

Browse

Tap Browse to display the locations and folders stored on your device, or in any connected cloud services.

In Regular View, the Sidebar contains a Locations section, in addition to sections for Favorites and Tags. If the Sidebar is not visible, tap the Sidebar button.

In Compact View, the Sidebar is visible by tapping the Back button.

Locations

The Locations list displays storage locations on your device.

This includes:

iCloud Drive, as long as the device is signed in to your Apple Account.
On My Device (On My iPad, On My iPhone, or On My Apple Vision Pro), containing files which are stored locally rather than in the cloud.
Other Cloud Services which are configured on your device.
Recently Deleted, listing deleted files for quick retrieval.

OmniPresence does not appear in this list of cloud services, because it doesn’t run as a separate application.

Recently Deleted

If you delete an OmniOutliner file, that file is moved to the Recently Deleted folder in the Locations list.

To manage files in the Recently Deleted folder, tap Select in the upper right and tap the thumbnails for each file you would like to manage. Options appear at the bottom of the screen to either Recover the files, returning them to their previous location, or Delete the selected files permanently.

Note that files stored with some cloud storage providers may be permanently deleted immediately instead of moving to Recently Deleted first. Because these recovery standards differ, it’s a good idea to always take care when deleting files.

Beneath the list of available locations is a list of Tags. Tap a tag in the list to view all of the items with that tag applied; you can apply tags to individual files using their contextual menu (see File Details below).

Finally, the More button at the top of the Locations list provides additional functions for modifying the contents of the list.

Connect to Server—Choose a server to connect to via SMB, adding it as a location in a separate Shared section of the Locations list.
Edit—Switch the list to Edit mode, where you can rearrange locations and tags, and choose which locations you want to be visible in the list. Note that changes made here apply to the Locations list everywhere it appears, including the Files app and other apps that use the iOS document browser.

Browsing a Location

Upon selecting a location in the Locations list, its contents appear in a pane to the right (this pane appears on top of the Locations list when in compact views).

A search field at the top of the pane offers options to search recently opened files, the entire current location, or just the current folder for filenames that match the search terms.

Drag down on the browsing pane to access more controls for the location, choose how files are sorted, and switch between thumbnail and list views.

When viewing a location, the toolbar across the top of the screen will include some or all of these buttons:

On the leading edge of the toolbar is the Back button. Tap to go up in the folder hierarchy, or return to the Locations list.
Next to the Back button is the name of the current folder, such as OmniOutliner or Templates. Tap the down arrow to show options from the operating system.
Opens the Toolbar OmniOutliner Menu.
Automation Menu
New Outline
OmniPresence

Displayed buttons depend on which device you are using, the orientation of your device, and window size. The toolbar also contains buttons from the operating system.

File Details

Each file is represented by a thumbnail image. Once modified, OmniOutliner generates a preview based on the contents of the file; otherwise, the file is represented by a generic document icon.

Along with the thumbnail, each file displays its name, the date it was last opened, and its location on your device.

Tap a document preview to open the associated file.
To change the name of a file or folder, tap the name and then enter a new title.

Tap and hold a file’s thumbnail to open a contextual menu for the file, with the following commands:

Copy — Copies the selected file and makes it available on the clipboard for pasting.
Duplicate — Copies and instantly pastes a copy of the selected file at the current location.
Move — Opens a hierarchical view of your locations where you can choose a new destination for the file.
Delete — Deletes the selected file (it can still be recovered if necessary).
Info — Presents a popup with detailed information on the file, including a larger document preview, metadata related to the file’s creation and modification, location on your device, and any tags you have assigned.
Tags — Presents the list of available tags along with the option to create a new one. Tap a tag in the list to assign it to or remove it from the file.
Rename — Opens the file rename dialog, just as if you had tapped its name in the document browser.
Share — Opens the iOS share sheet, where you can choose from among the standard array of iOS share destinations as well as additional OmniOutliner-specific share options, as described below.

Formats and File Types

OmniOutliner supports working with many document formats and file types.

Documents are specific file types which OmniOutliner can open, edit, save, and print. OmniOutliner 6 supports these documents formats:

OmniOutliner Document
OmniOutliner Template
OmniOutliner 3 Document
OmniOutliner 3 Template
OPML Document

In addition to documents, OmniOutliner 6 supports importing these file types:

Plain Text (TXT)
Rich Text Format (RTF)
Rich Text Format Directory (RTFD) (Mac only)
Symantec MORE 3.1 (Mac only)

OmniOutliner 6 supports exporting these document formats and file types:

Comma-Separated Values (CSV)
HTML
HTML (Dynamic)
Microsoft Excel (XLSX)
Microsoft PowerPoint (PPTX)
Microsoft Word (DOCX)
OmniOutliner Document
OmniOutliner 3 Document
OmniOutliner Template
OmniOutliner 3 Template
Outline Processor Markup Language (OPML)
Plain Text (TXT)
Plain Text (Symantec MORE 3.1) (Mac only)
Portable Document Format (PDF)
Rich Text Format (RTF)
Rich Text Format Directory (RTFD) (Mac only)

OmniOutliner Document

Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

This is the default format for documents created with OmniOutliner 6 for Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro; OmniOutliner 5 for Mac; and OmniOutliner 3 for iPad and iPhone.

OmniOutliner Document files are saved with a filename extension of .ooutline.

OmniOutliner 6 supports:

Editing an OmniOutliner Document
Exporting an OmniOutliner Document

Editing an OmniOutliner Document

OmniOutliner documents support all current features of OmniOutliner 6, and can be opened, edited, saved, or printed without limitations.

When opening a document created in OmniOutliner Pro which contain features not supported by OmniOutliner Essentials, a notice bar appears at the top of the window indicating that the document is Read Only. These documents can be read by Essentials, but require Pro for editing or saving.

On Mac, you can:

Select the button to learn more.
Select the Import button to remove Pro features from the document.

On iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro, you can:

Select the Learn More button, then choose whether you want to Unlock Pro or Import to remove Pro features from the document.
Select the button to hide the notice bar one time only.

Exporting an OmniOutliner Document

Creates an OmniOutliner document using the current OmniOutliner format.

These documents can be opened, edited, and saved by OmniOutliner 5 for Mac and OmniOutliner 3 for iPad and iPhone, but saving in that earlier version of the app may discard Dynamic Theme customization, as well as some Filter rules.

Diagramming Outlines in OmniGraffle

If you also use OmniGraffle, you can use it to create visual representations of your OmniOutliner Document, based on your original styled text layout.

Open OmniGraffle.
Select File > Open.
In the Open dialog, choose any OmniOutliner Documnet with a filename extension of .ooutline.
Click Open.
OmniGraffle presents and Import Outline dialog.
Use the default OmniOutliner Import Template, or select another template from the pop-up menu at the top of the dialog.
Click Open, and start diagramming!

You can also select View > Show Contents > Outline to use OmniGraffle’s Outline Editor to continue building your outline.

OmniOutliner Template

Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

This is the default format for templates created with OmniOutliner 6 for Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro; OmniOutliner 5 for Mac; and OmniOutliner 3 for iPad and iPhone.

OmniOutliner Templates are saved with a filename extension of .otemplate.

OmniOutliner 6 supports:

Editing an OmniOutliner Template
Exporting an OmniOutliner Template

Editing an OmniOutliner Template

OmniOutliner Templates support all current features of OmniOutliner 6, and can be opened, edited, and saved without limitations.

OmniOutliner Essentials supports opening OmniOutliner Templates and OmniOutliner 3 Templates, but is not able to edit or save them.

Templates which are stored in a Connected Folder are available when using the Template Picker.

If a template contains multiple columns, only the first column will be used when creating a new document using Essentials.

On Mac, editing a Template requires launching OmniOutliner, and then using the Open command. Opening a Template in any other way, such as double-clicking on it or dragging it to the app icon in the Dock, will create a new document based on the Template.

Exporting an OmniOutliner Template

Creates an OmniOutliner template using the current OmniOutliner format.

These templates can be opened, edited, and saved by OmniOutliner 5 for Mac and OmniOutliner 3 for iPad and iPhone, but saving in that earlier version of the app may discard Dynamic Theme customization, as well as some Filter rules.

Comma-Separated Values (CSV)

Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

CSV files are saved with a filename extension of .csv.

OmniOutliner 6 supports:

Exporting to CSV
Importing from CSV (if converted to a tab-delimited file)

Exporting to CSV

Creates a Comma-Separated Values file.

If your document contains multiple columns, each row is placed on a separate line with each column separated by a comma, and text containing spaces is within quotation marks.

This export option is ideal for preserving data from multiple columns. If you want to preserve Styles, consider Exporting to Microsoft Excel.

Importing from CSV

OmniOutliner imports CSV files as Plain Text (TXT), which results in a single-column document.

If you transform your CSV file into a tab-delimited file (see Tab-separated values) with a filename extension of .txt, then Importing from TXT will successfully import both rows and columns of text.

OmniOutliner 3 Document

Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

This was the format for documents created with OmniOutliner 4 for Mac; OmniOutliner 3 for Mac; OmniOutliner 2 for iPad and iPhone; and OmniOutliner 1 for iPad. These documents can be opened, edited, and saved by OmniOutliner 6, but do not support all current features.

OmniOutliner 3 Documents are saved with a filename extension of .oo3.

OmniOutliner 6 supports:

Editing an OmniOutliner 3 Document
Exporting an OmniOutliner 3 Document

Editing an OmniOutliner 3 Document

When opening an OmniOutliner 3 Document a notice bar appears at the top of the window indicating that you are using an older file format, which does not support the full set of OmniOutliner 6 features.

On Mac, you can:

Select the button to learn more.
Select the Convert… button to update to the newest format.
Select the button to hide the notice bar.

On iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro, you can:

Select the Learn More button, then choose whether you want to Convert to the newest format, Hide Warning this time, or Don’t Warn Again for any OmniOutliner 3 Document.
Select the button to hide the notice bar one time only.

Exporting an OmniOutliner 3 Document

Creates an OmniOutliner document using a legacy OmniOutliner format.

These documents can be opened in OmniOutliner 4 for Mac; OmniOutliner 3 for Mac; OmniOutliner 2 for iPad and iPhone; and OmniOutliner 1 for iPad. They are not compatible with OmniOutliner 2 for Mac and earlier.

They can be opened in OmniOutliner 6 for Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro; OmniOutliner 5 for Mac; and OmniOutliner 3 for iPad and iPhone; but must be updated to the current OmniOutliner Document format to access all newer features.

OmniOutliner 3 Template

Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

This was the format for templates created with OmniOutliner 4 for Mac; OmniOutliner 3 for Mac; OmniOutliner 2 for iPad and iPhone; and OmniOutliner 1 for iPad. These templates can be opened, edited, and saved by OmniOutliner 6, but do not support all current features.

OmniOutliner 3 Templates are saved with a filename extension of .oo3template.

OmniOutliner 6 supports:

Editing an OmniOutliner 3 Template
Exporting an OmniOutliner 3 Template

Editing an OmniOutliner 3 Template

When opening an OmniOutliner 3 Template a notice bar appears at the top of the window indicating that you are using an older file format, which does not support the full set of OmniOutliner 6 features.

On Mac, you can:

Select the button to learn more.
Select the Convert… button to update to the newest format.
Select the button to hide the notice bar.

On iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro, you can:

Select the Learn More button, then choose whether you want to Convert to the newest format, Hide Warning this time, or Don’t Warn Again for any OmniOutliner 3 Templates.
Select the button to hide the notice bar one time only.

Exporting an OmniOutliner 3 Template

Creates an OmniOutliner template using a legacy OmniOutliner format.

Outline Processor Markup Language (OPML)

Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

OPML Documents are saved with a filename extension of .opml.

OmniOutliner 6 supports:

Editing an OPML Document
Importing an OPML Document
Exporting an OPML Document

Available for import, export, editing.

.opml—The Outline Processor Markup Language format, which is not unique to OmniOutliner but can be both read and written by it. Some features such as text and structural styles are not supported by this format.

Editing OPML

OmniOutliner supports native editing of OPML files. OPML is a structured writing file format that is widely used among various platforms, but does not support the rich styling controls offered by OmniOutliner.

When editing an OPML file in OmniOutliner, the Selection inspectors are disabled to indicate that custom styles are not saved along with the file while it is in OPML format. Template themes can be applied with the Document inspector, but are not saved when closing the file.

If OPML warnings are turned on in OmniOutliner Settings, a notice bar appears at the top of the outline indicating that some features are unavailable while editing a native OPML document.

.opml—A valid OPML file.

When opening an OPML Document a notice bar appears at the top of the window indicating that some OmniOutliner features are disabled.

On Mac, you can:

Select the button to learn more.
Select the Don’t Show Again button to hide this notice for all OPML Documents.
Select the button to hide the notice bar one time only.

On iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro, you can:

Select the Learn More button, then choose whether you want to Hide Warning this time, or Don’t Warn Again for any OPML Documents.
Select the button to hide the notice bar one time only.

Importing from OPML

OmniOutliner 6 can edit OPML Documents without importing them. If you would like to use OmniOutliner-specific features, you need to save a copy as an OmniOutliner Document.

OPML Documents can be directly edited bu Omni

Exporting to OPML

Exports a .opml file, which retains the hierarchical structure of your outline. However, OPML files do not retain any of the styles or attachments you may have applied in OmniOutliner.

If you apply a Focus to your document, only the focused contents will be exported.

HTML (Simple)

Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

OmniOutliner 6 supports:

Exporting to HTML (Simple)

Exporting to HTML (Simple)

Creates a folder named after your document which contains an index.html HTML file, along with any images or other attachments included in your document.

Styles are converted to CSS.

HTML (Dynamic)

Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

OmniOutliner 6 supports:

Exporting to HTML (Dynamic)

Exporting to HTML (Dynamic)

Creates a folder named after your document which contains an index.html HTML file, along with any images or other attachments included in your document. This export also includes an outliner.js JavaScript file, which adds support for expanding and collapsing sections of the outline when viewed in a web browser.

Styles are converted to CSS.

Microsoft Excel (XLSX)

Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

Microsoft Excel files are saved with a filename extension of .xslx.

OmniOutliner 6 supports:

Exporting to XLSX

Exporting to XLSX

Creates a Microsoft Excel file which can be edited with Microsoft Excel 2010, or other versions of Excel which support the format.

If you apply a Focus to your document, only the focused contents will be exported.

This export option is ideal for preserving data from multiple columns, while also representing Styles within the limits of Excel. If you need to export multiple columns, but do not need to preserve styles, consider Exporting to CSV.

Microsoft Excel allows assigning links to cells, so OmniOutliner maps existing links when exporting. Links which are not exported as a linked cell are still exported as plain text in the destination cell, and can be converted back to links within Excel. If an OmniOutliner cell contains:

A single link, with no other links or text, then the exported cell is linked.
A single link, along with unlinked text, then the exported cell is not linked.
Multiple links, then the exported cell is not linked.

Microsoft PowerPoint (PPTX)

Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

Microsoft PowerPoint (2012 Format) files are saved with a filename extension of .pptx.

OmniOutliner 6 supports:

Exporting to PPTX

Exporting to PPTX

Creates a Microsoft Powerpoint file which can be edited with Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, or other versions of PowerPoint which support the format.

Each Level 1 row is exported as a separate slide, with each contained row listed on that slide, while notes become presenter notes. Image attachments are placed on slides corresponding to their level in the hierarchy, but must be manually repositioned to the desired location on the slide. OmniOutliner and PowerPoint styles have different structures, so most OmniOutliner styles are removed during export.

If you apply a Focus to your document, only the focused contents will be exported.

In addition to opening the file in PowerPoint, you can also import the file into Keynote. This provides you a quick start to building out a full Keynote presentation.

Microsoft Word (DOCX)

Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

Microsoft Word files are saved with a filename extension of .docx.

OmniOutliner 6 supports:

Exporting to DOCX

Exporting to DOCX

There are two options for exporting to DOCX.

Both Microsoft Word export options:

Include the Topic Column only.
Convert Level Styles to heading styles.
Flatten other styles and apply them directly to text, as Word does not support the OmniOutliner style model.

If you apply a Focus to your document, only the focused contents will be exported.

Exporting to DOCX (Indented)

Creates a Microsoft Word file which retains the outline structure using indentation, and is useful for transitioning from your outline into a final document.

Exporting to DOCX (Outline)

Creates a Microsoft Word file which retains the outline structure when viewed in Word’s Outline view, and is useful for continuing to build your outline in Word after starting in OmniOutliner.

Plain Text (TXT)

Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

Plain Text files are saved with a filename extension of .txt.

OmniOutliner 6 supports:

Importing from TXT
Exporting to TXT

Importing from TXT

.txt—Plain text and tab-delimited files.

Exporting to TXT

Exports a raw .txt file without any styles. Child rows and columns are aligned using tabs rather than spaces, making this type of export useful for importing into spreadsheet apps such as Numbers or Excel.

Portable Document Format (PDF)

Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

PDF files are saved with a filename extension of .pdf.

OmniOutliner 6 supports:

Exporting to PDF (iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro)
Printing to PDF (Mac)

Exporting to PDF

The popular PDF file format is not included as an export option because OmniOutliner supports the macOS standard Save as PDF option available from the print panel. See Printing in OmniOutliner for details on configuring the appearance of your document for both print and PDF export.

Rich Text Format (RTF)

Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

Rich Text Format (RTF) is a file type that many word processors, such as TextEdit, Pages, or Microsoft Word, can open and edit.

Rich Text Format files are saved with a filename extension of .rtf.

OmniOutliner 6 supports:

Importing from RTF
Exporting to RTF

Importing from RTF

Creates an OmniOutliner Document which includes the text, text styles, and colors from the original RTF file.

Exporting to RTF

Creates a Rich Text Format file, which includes Styles applied in OmniOutliner.

RTF is a good choice if your document contains text and numbers; if it contains attachments and images, consider Exporting to RTFD.

Rich Text Format Directory (RTFD)

Available on Mac

Rich Text Format Directory (RTFD) is a file type that many word processors, such as TextEdit, Pages, or Microsoft Word, can open and edit.

Rich Text Format Directory files are saved with a filename extension of .rtfd.

OmniOutliner 6 supports:

Importing from RTFD
Exporting to RTFD

Importing from RTFD

Creates an OmniOutliner Document which includes the text, text styles, colors, and images from the original RTFD file.

Exporting to RTFD

Creates a Rich Text Format Directory file, which includes Styles applied in OmniOutliner, as well as any attachments.

RTFD is a good choice if your document contains attachments and images; if it contains only text and numbers, consider Exporting to RTF.

Symantec MORE 3.1

Available on Mac

OmniOutliner 6 supports:

Importing from MORE
Exporting to MORE

Importing from MORE

OmniOutliner can import files created with Symantec MORE 3.1, which have a filename extension of .more.

Exporting to MORE

OmniOutliner can export to a plain text file structured for easy import into Symantec MORE 3.1.

Plain Text (Symantec MORE 3.1) files are saved with a filename extension of .txt.

Connecting OmniOutliner

OmniOutliner documents can be used on your Mac, iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro. For extra planning power and focused flexibility, documents can easily sync between devices, and be edited anywhere. You can sync OmniOutliner documents using iCloud Drive, OmniPresence, and other cloud services that are supported by the operating system.

You can also expand the reach of OmniOutliner by using Connected Folders and Omni Links to pull together a range of resources.

iCloud Drive

iCloud Drive supports syncing OmniOutliner documents between your Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro devices.

If you need to set up iCloud Drive, start with this Apple Support article:

Set up iCloud Drive

Once you have iCloud Drive set up, open System Settings, and navigate to Apple Account > iCloud > Drive > Apps syncing to iCloud Drive, and turn on OmniOutliner.

OmniPresence

If you would rather not use iCloud Drive, you may be interested in a sync solution we created.

The first part of our sync solution is OmniPresence.

OmniPresence runs in the background, watching a folder that you select, and makes sure that the files inside are in sync with files in the cloud, as well as with your other devices which are configured to use OmniPresence.

On Mac:

Download OmniPresence for Mac from our Downloads page.
Open the Disk Image, and drag OmniPresence to your Applications folder.
Double-click the OmniPresence icon to launch the app.
Click on Set Up Syncing, and follow the instructions to configure your own sync folder.
If you need additional help, select OmniPresence Help from the menu.

On iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro:

Select Configure OmniPresence from the Toolbar OmniOutliner Menu.
Select Add OmniPresence Account.
Choose from Add Omni Sync Server Account or Add WebDAV Server.
Enter your cloud service credentials.

As part of configuring OmniPresence, you will need to select a cloud services provider. You can use our Omni Sync Server, or your own WebDAV server.

Omni Sync Server

Omni maintains the Omni Sync Server, which is designed to work well with OmniPresence. We recommend this as the best sync solution for most users using OmniPresence, since it’s the one for which we can provide Support, and it also happens to be free!

If you choose to entrust your data with the Omni Sync Server, we’ll treat it with utmost care and responsibility. Please see our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, to learn more.

If you have an Omni Account, you can use our sync service. If you don’t yet have an account, and want to use the Omni Sync Server, get started by creating a new Omni Account.

WebDAV Server

Omni Sync Server is a great solution for most OmniPresence users, but if your sync needs require that your data be kept completely within a system you control, you can configure OmniPresence to sync using another WebDAV server.

We are not able to provide support for third party servers, so this option is not recommended unless you have a specific need, and you have the technical knowledge for server configuration and administration.

OmniPresence sync is compatible with any WebDAV standards-compliant server, whether remote (there are many fine providers available) or hosted on your own Mac.

If you choose to use your own WebDAV server, please read our support article about Configuring a WebDAV server for OmniPresence sync.

Other Cloud Services

You can also use OmniOutliner with cloud services other than iCloud Drive or OmniPresence.

There are two different ways of using cloud services with OmniOutliner:

Syncing Documents
Connecting Folders

Some cloud services support both ways of working, while others support syncing documents, but do not support using Connected Folders.

If you need help configuring cloud services on iPhone, iPad, or Apple Vision Pro, start with this Apple Support article:

Use third-party cloud apps in the Files app

Syncing Documents

By default, OmniOutliner stores documents as flat files, which are compatible with common cloud storage services such as Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive.

If you are using iCloud Drive or OmniPresence to sync, you may want to store documents as file packages instead. You can read about Document Format options to learn more.

Connecting Folders

Folders synced using other cloud services can be used as Connected Folders, as long as the cloud service is fully supported by the operating system. This requires a higher level of integration than simply syncing documents, so may limit which cloud service you decide to use.

macOS supports using Connected Folders with most cloud services, so if you are using Connected Folders only with Macs, you will have many options. Please email Support if you encounter any issues, or have questions.

iPadOS, iOS, and visionOS currently support using Connected Folders with iCloud Drive, OmniPresence, and Dropbox. They do not currently support Box, Google Drive, OneDrive, or Proton Drive, amongst others.

This support may change over time. You can check others cloud services, or see if updates from Apple or the cloud services have added support for your device by either:

Connecting a Synced Folder or Reconnecting a Synced Folder on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro. If the Open button can’t be selected, the service cannot be used for Connected Folders.
Open Apple’s Shortcuts app, and create a new shortcut with the operating system Select File action. Switch from Select File to Select Folder, and run the shortcut. If a service can’t be selected for this shortcut, the service also cannot be used for Connected Folders.

Connected Folders

New in OmniOutliner 6, Connected Folders support jumping directly to OmniOutliner documents or rows using Omni Links, as well as syncing Custom Templates and Omni Automation Plug-Ins between devices.

OmniOutliner creates a default Connected Folder in iCloud Drive:

Configuring the iCloud Drive Folder

You can also add Connected Folders from OmniPresence or other cloud services:

Connecting a Synced Folder
Reconnecting a Synced Folder

iCloud Drive Connected Folder

By default, OmniOutliner uses the OmniOutliner folder inside iCloud Drive as the default Connected Folder, as long as you have already configured iCloud Drive to support OmniOutliner. Please see the iCloud Drive section, if you need help.

Configuring the iCloud Drive Folder

The default Connected Folder has support for Omni Links turned on by default. To turn on support for additional item types, select the Connected Folders command:

From the OmniOutliner Menu on Mac and iPad.
From the Toolbar OmniOutliner Menu on iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro.

Once the Connected Folder window opens:

Select OmniOutliner in the Sidebar.
Select Omni Links to turn support for Omni Links on or off for documents stored anywhere in the OmniOutliner folder.
Select Templates to turn support for Templates on or off for templates stored in the OmniOutliner > Templates folder.
Select Plug-Ins to turn support for Plug-Ins on or off for plug-ins stored in the OmniOutliner > Plug-Ins folder.

Once you have updated the settings you can either close the window, or connect additional folders by selecting the add button.

Please note that the default Connected Folder will only display templates and plug-ins which are stored in specific folders. This allows you to store additional templates or plug-ins in the OmniOutliner folder, without having them show in-app. To create those folders, you can either select the magnifying glass button next to the Location field, or:

On Mac, open Finder and choose Go > iCloud Drive from the menu bar, then open the OmniOutliner folder.
On iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro, open Files, tap on iCloud Drive in the left sidebar, then open the OmniOutliner folder.

You can now create the required folders, if they do not exist:

iCloud Drive > OmniOutliner > Templates
iCloud Drive > OmniOutliner > Plug-Ins

Connecting a Synced Folder

If you are connecting a folder which has previously been configured on any device (either by you or somebody else) please jump directly to Reconnecting a Synced Folder.

In addition to the default Connected Folder in iCloud Drive, you can connect as many synced folders as needed, using either OmniPresence or other cloud services which are supported by the operating system.

To connect a new folder, select the Connected Folders command:

From the OmniOutliner Menu on Mac and iPad.
From the Toolbar OmniOutliner Menu on iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro.

Once the Connected Folder window opens:

Select the button.
On Mac, navigate inside of the folder you would like to configure, and click the Connect Folder button.
On iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro, navigate inside of the folder you would like to configure, and tap the Choose or Open button.

The Connected Folder is automatically selected for editing, with the following attributes set to their default values:

Display Name
Location
Use For
Omni Links Folder ID

The window also contains a Settings menu, which contains commands to:

Disconnect Folder
Show in Finder

Reconnecting a Synced Folder

To use existing Omni Links on different devices, or when reinstalling OmniOutliner on the same device, you must ensure that OmniOutliner is using the same Omni Links Folder ID everywhere you want to use the Omni Links.

The easiest way to reconnect is:

Sync the folder you would like to use to your current device.
Click or tap the Omni Link to a document in that folder.
OmniOutliner will prompt you to select the synced folder which matches the Folder ID in the existing Omni Link.
Navigate to the requested folder, and select the Connect Folder button.
The link should successfully resolve, and show you the document you were trying to access.

If you have already connected a synced folder, and are still being prompted to connect it after selecting an Omni Link, you can either:

Remove the existing synced folder, and add it again using the steps described above.
Edit the existing Folder ID to match the requested ID; read the Omni Link Folder ID section to learn more.

Connected Folder Attributes

Once you have finished Connecting or Reconnecting a synced folder, you can edit the following attributes:

Display Name
Location
Use For
Omni Links Folder ID

You can also:

Disconnect Folder
Show in Finder

Display Name

When you connect or reconnect a synced folder, the Display Name is based on the name of the folder.

To change the Display Name:

Select the folder in the sidebar.
Tap or click into the Display Name field.
Edit the name.
Press Return or exit the field to save changes.

This updates the name displayed in this window, but does not change the name of the synced folder.

Location

The Location field shows where the synced folder is located on your device.

To view the local copy of your synced folder, you can either:

Select the button next to the Location field.
Select Show in Files or Show in Finder from the Settings menu.

Use For

When you connect or reconnect a synced folder, support for Omni Links is turned on, with the rest of the supported types turned off.

To update the Use For section:

Select the folder in the sidebar.
Select Omni Links to turn support for Omni Links on or off.
Select Templates to turn support for Templates on or off.
Select Plug-Ins to turn support for Plug-Ins on or off.

The default iCloud Connected Folder looks for templates and plug-ins stored in specific folders inside of the iCloud OmniOutliner folder:

Omni Links are available for documents stored anywhere in iCloud Drive > OmniOutliner.
Templates are available if they are stored in iCloud Drive > OmniOutliner > Templates.
Plug-Ins are available if they are stored in iCloud Drive > OmniOutliner > Plug-Ins.

Connected Folders that have been added by Connecting a Synced Folder or Reconnecting a Synced Folder display templates and plug-ins from anywhere inside that folder.

Omni Links Folder ID

When you connect a new folder, a unique Omni Links Folder ID is generated, by combining the name of the synced folder with a random number. This Folder ID is used as part of any Omni Links you create. Using a random number ensures that different synced folders with the same name will have unique Omni Links, so you can consistently access the documents you intend.

Once generated, the Folder ID is stable, unless you intentionally change it; it will not change if you update the name of the synced folder or the Display Name.

A different Folder ID will be generated if you connect the same synced folder on different devices, or connect a synced folder multiple times on the same device.

To update the Omni Links Folder ID:

Select the folder in the sidebar.
Select the button.
Enter your preferred ID.
Select Update to save your changes, or Cancel to discard your changes.

Updating the Omni Links Folder ID will break any existing Omni Links, so please carefully consider the warning before making any changes. You may need to manually update existing links, or create new links.

Disconnecting a Folder

To disconnect a folder:

Select the folder in the sidebar.
Select Disconnect Folder from the Settings menu.

Omni Links

You may be familiar with the Copy as Link command from earlier versions of OmniOutliner, which allowed linking to specific rows in an open document. This command is still available in OmniOutliner 6, though it has been renamed to Copy Legacy Link.

OmniOutliner 6 introduces a more powerful version of this command: Copy Omni Link, which allows you to link to specific rows in any OmniOutliner document that is stored in a Connected Folder. These links can be used on any device where you are using OmniOutliner, as long as your devices are configured to use the same Connected Folder.

To use Omni Links:

Select one or more rows.
Select the Copy Omni Link command from the Edit Menu or Row Shortcut Menu.
Navigate to another location, and Paste the link.
Select the pasted link to jump back to your original location.

In OmniOutliner for Mac, you can either select the link and replace the text, or Option + click on the link and edit the Display title.

You also have the option to Show URL, or Remove Link.

When you have finished editing the link, click Done.

Configuring Omni Links

Omni Links are easy to use, but need to be carefully configured. Please select one of these options:

If you are using the default iCloud Drive Connected Folder, see Configuring the iCloud Drive Folder.
If you are adding a non–iCloud Drive Connected Folder which has never been used (on any device), see Connecting a Synced Folder.
If you are adding a non–iCloud Drive Connected Folder which has been used (on any device), see Reconnecting a Synced Folder.

Structure of Omni Links

There are several required components of an Omni Link.

In order of appearance, they are:

Omni App Name — Name of the Omni application, in lowercase, followed by a colon (:) and three forward slashes (///).
Link Type — The link type, in lowercase. Currently, only document (doc) links are supported.
Path — Folder path to the location of your document, with Percent-encoding used for spaces and other special characters.
Document Name — Name and file extension for your document, with Percent-encoding used for spaces and other special characters.
Omni Links Folder ID — Unique Folder ID generated when Connecting a Synced Folder, preceded with ?folder=.

What do these components look like, when combined in an Omni Link? Let’s start with a simple example, from the default iCloud Drive Connected Folder:

omnioutliner:///doc/My%20Outline.ooutline?folder=iCloud%20Drive

We can see that this Omni Link has the following components:

Omni App Name of OmniOutliner (omnioutliner:///)
Link Type of Document (doc)
Path is empty (/)
Document Name of My Outline (My%20Outline.ooutline)
Omni Links Folder ID of iCloud Drive (iCloud%20Drive)

Reading this Omni Link, you can see that it will use OmniOutliner to open a Document named My Outline (with a file extension of .ooutline, indicating that it is an OmniOutliner Document, rather than an OmniOutliner Template), located directly inside the iCloud Drive Connected Folder.

Adding a little more complexity, an Omni Link may also contain one or more optional Elements, each preceded with an &. OmniOutliner currently supports:

Focus — Element type and ID for the focused row, such as focus=mDFTZpAeCb8,
Row Selection — Element type and ID for the selected row, such as row=fh4Q0jgg5iB.

Looking at another example, from a non–iCloud Drive Connected Folder:

omnioutliner:///doc/foo/bar/My%20Outline.ooutline?folder=Work%20Server%209070&focus=mDFTZpAeCb8&row=fh4Q0jgg5iB

We can see that this Omni Link has the following components:

Omni App Name of OmniOutliner (omnioutliner:///)
Link Type of Document (doc)
Path of foo > bar (/foo/bar/)
Document Name of My Outline (My%20Outline.ooutline)
Omni Links Folder ID of Work Server 9070 (Work%20Server%209070)
Element of Focus (focus=mDFTZpAeCb8)
Element of Row Selection (row=fh4Q0jgg5iB)

Reading this Omni Link, you can see that it will use OmniOutliner to open a Document named My Outline (with a file extension of .ooutline), located inside of foo > bar, in the Work Server 9070 Connected Folder. Once the document has been opened, it will Focus on a row with an id of mDFTZpAeCb8, and add a Row Selection on a row with an id of fh4Q0jgg5iB.

Troubleshooting Omni Links

Now that you understand how Omni Links are structured, and can read a link to learn more about it, let’s complicate things a touch.

Here are a few ways that a link can stop working, and how you can resolve the issue:

Changing the name of a document — To resolve this you can change the document name back to the original name, use Copy Omni Link to create an updated Omni Link, or manually edit your existing Omni Link to use the new name.
Changing the location of a document — To resolve this you can move the document back to the original location, use Copy Omni Link to create an updated Omni Link, or manually edit your existing Omni Link to use the new location.
Removing a document from the Connected Folder — To resolve this, you need to return the document to its original location in the Connected Folder.

Here are a few items that can reduce the effectiveness of an Omni Link, and how you can resolve the issue:

Moving a row with Row Selection outside of a row with Focus applied — The row with Focus will still display, but the Row Selection will not, as it is not currently in the Outline. If you want to have both Focus and Row Selection, they must be part of the same group.

We will continue to add examples to this section; please Email Support to let us know what you would like to see.

Templates

Templates which are stored in a Connected Folder are available to OmniOutliner on all devices.

To make sure templates are available, you may need to configure the Use For attribute for a given folder.

If you need to configure a Connected Folder, please select one of these options:

iCloud Drive Connected Folder
Connecting a Synced Folder
Reconnecting a Synced Folder

Plug-Ins

Omni Automation Plug-Ins which are stored in a Connected Folder are available to OmniOutliner on all devices.

To make sure plug-ins are available, you may need to configure the Use For attribute for a given folder.

If you need to configure a Connected Folder, please select one of these options:

iCloud Drive Connected Folder
Connecting a Synced Folder
Reconnecting a Synced Folder

Legacy Links

Legacy Links are the same type of link found in OmniOutliner 5 and earlier, which allowed you to jump quickly between rows in the same document, with a new name.

Omni Links support more powerful workflows, but they can only be used with documents stored in a Connected Folder. In contrast, Legacy Links work as long as the document is open, which makes them ideal for linking within the same document, or building folder-independent Templates.

To use Legacy Links:

Select one or more rows.
Select the Copy Legacy Link command from the Edit Menu or Row Shortcut Menu.
Navigate to another location in the outline, and Paste the link.
Select the pasted link to jump back to your original location.

In OmniOutliner for Mac, you can either select the link and replace the text, or Option + click on the link and edit the Display title.

You also have the option to Show URL, or Remove Link.

When you have finished editing the link, click Done.

Structure of Legacy Links

There are two required components of a Legacy Link.

In order of appearance, they are:

Omni App Name — Name of the Omni application, in lowercase, followed by a colon (:) and three forward slashes (///).
Link Type — The link type, in lowercase. Legacy Links only support open (open) links.

The simplest possible Legacy Link is:

omnioutliner:///open

Reading this Legacy Link, you can see that it will open OmniOutliner. That isn’t often useful by itself, so we need to add some complexity. A Legacy Link may also contain one or more optional Elements. OmniOutliner currently supports:

Focus — Element type and ID for the focused row, such as focus=nBZUyLQl3b6,
Row Selection — Element type and ID for the selected row, such as row=j3NzslZpCi8.

Looking at another example:

omnioutliner:///open?focus=nBZUyLQl3b6&row=j3NzslZpCi8

We can see that this Legacy Link has the following components:

Omni App Name of OmniOutliner (omnioutliner:///)
Link Type of Open (open)
Element of Focus (focus=nBZUyLQl3b6)
Element of Row Selection (row=j3NzslZpCi8)

Reading this Legacy Link, you can see that it will open OmniOutliner, as above. If the document containing the destination for these links is also open, it will Focus on a row with an id of nBZUyLQl3b6, and add a Row Selection on a row with an id of j3NzslZpCi8.

Troubleshooting Legacy Links

Troubling Legacy Links tends to be easier than Troubleshooting Omni Links, as there is one primary reason a link stops working: the document containing the link is no longer open. This can be difficult to resolve, as the link doesn’t contain any information about the original document. Situations like this are part of the reason that we built Omni Links!

Commands and Shortcuts

This chapter gathers the commands and shortcuts found throughout OmniOutliner into a single reference.

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

Keyboard Shortcuts — Quick information about Keyboard Shortcuts, with tables organized by topic.
Menu Bar on Mac — Mac menu bar items and commands, in app order.
Menu Bar on iPad — iPad menu bar items and commands, in app order.
Shortcut Menus — Shortcut menu items and commands, grouped by category.
Menus by Category — All menus, grouped by category. This is a good place to start if you know the category of a menu, menu item, or menu command, and want to know more about it.
Commands Reference — All commands are listed in alphabetical order. This is a good place to start if you know the name of a menu item or menu command, and want to know more about it.

Commands are located in Mac and iPad menu bars, as well as in Shortcut Menus on Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro.

Many commands are also available using Keyboard Shortcuts.

Shortcuts Reference

This section of the manual is being updated.

Feel free to email us with questions, suggestions, or feedback.

When using OmniOutliner with a keyboard, you can take advantage of the built-in keyboard shortcuts for many common tasks.

In addition to the built-in shortcuts, custom keyboard shortcuts can be created when using a Mac. To learn more, please see the Apple User Guide article:

Create keyboard shortcuts for apps on Mac

The OmniOutliner menu contains commands related to the overall app. Check for updates, view and modify your settings, configure Connected Folders, or enter license information.

About OmniOutliner
License…
Check for Updates…
Settings…
Keyboard Shortcuts…
Connected Folders…
In-App Purchase…
Services
Hide OmniOutliner
Hide Others
Show All
Quit OmniOutliner
- Quit and Close All Windows

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

New
New from Template…
Open…
Open Recent
Close
- Close All
Save
Duplicate
- Save As…
Rename…
Move To…
Share
Export…
Save As Template…
Revert To
Set Password…
Page Setup…
Print…

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

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

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

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

Add Row
Add Inside
Add Outside
Add Column
Remove Column
Keep Sorted
Sort Outline/Sort Selected Rows
Move
Indent
Outdent
Group
Ungroup

Automate the way you create in OmniOutliner, using JavaScript.

Installed Plug-Ins
Show Console
Clear Console
API Reference
Configure…

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

Minimize
Zoom
Fill
Center
Move & Resize
Full Screen Tile
Remove Window from Set
Move to Display
New Window on Document
Show Previous Tab
Show Next Tab
Move Tab to New Window
Merge All Windows
Bring All to Front
OmniOutliner Windows

Contains a variety of support resources, including this documentation, release notes, and an easy way to contact our friendly Support Humans.

Search
OmniOutliner Help
Release Notes
News
Sign Up for the Omni Newsletter
Open Scripts Folder
Contact Omni

The OmniOutliner menu contains commands related to the overall app. View and modify your settings, configure Connected Folders, or enter license information.

Settings…
About OmniOutliner
License
Connected Folders
Hide OmniOutliner
Hide Others

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

Open…
Open Recent
Close Window
- Press Option for Close All Windows

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

Undo
Redo
Cut
Copy
Paste
Copy Omni Link
- Press Option for Copy Legacy Link
Paste and Match Style
Paste and Merge Styles
Paste with Original Style
Delete
Select All
Duplicate
Start Editing
Split Row
Insert Line Break
Edit Note
Filter
Writing Tools
AutoFill
Dictation
Emoji
Show Keyboard

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

Font
- Bold
- Italic
- Underline
- Bigger
- Smaller
Text
Copy Style
Paste Style
Clear Style
Named Styles
Apply Template Theme…

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

Expand All
Collapse All
Expand Row(s)
Collapse Row(s)
Expand Row(s) Completely
Collapse Row(s) Completely
Focus
Unfocus
Zoom Out
Zoom In
Show/Hide Note(s)
Show/Hide All Notes
Customize Toolbar…
Show/Hide Sidebar

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

Add Above
Add Inside
Add Outside
Move
Indent
Outdent
Group
Ungroup

Automate the way you create in OmniOutliner, using JavaScript.

Installed Plug-Ins
Show Automation Console
Show Automation Reference
Manage Plug-Ins

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

Close
Minimize
Enter/Exit Full Screen
Center
Move & Resize
Slide Over
Move to Display
New Window
Show All Windows
OmniOutliner Windows

Search for menu items and commands.

Shortcut Menus

This section of the manual is being updated.

Feel free to email us with questions, suggestions, or feedback.

This menu is only available for attachments and images.

On Mac, Control + click an attachment to display a menu which may contain:

Open with Default.app
Quick Look Attachment
Open with
Reveal in Finder
Show as Icon
Show as Image
Edit Attachment Properties
Cut
Copy
Resize
Insert from iPhone or iPad

On iPhone, iPad, or Apple Vision Pro touch and hold an attachment to display a menu which may contain:

Copy Image
Save to Camera Roll
Preview
Resize
Select
Share

This section of the manual is being updated.

Feel free to email us with questions, suggestions, or feedback.

Column Type —
Summary Type —
Keep Sorted —
Clear Style —
Hide Column —
Remove Column — Removes the selected column from your document; only displays for columns other than the Topic column
Resize to Fit —
Columns —

Edit
Sorting — Apply Keep Sorted criteria to cells in the selected column, sorting rows in matching order
Autosize — Only displays for the Topic column, if it not currently set to autosize
Hide — Hides the selected column from your document; only displays for columns other than the Topic column
Delete — Removes the selected column from your document; only displays for columns other than the Topic column

This section of the manual is being updated.

Feel free to email us with questions, suggestions, or feedback.

Without any text selected:

Cut
Copy
Paste
Paste and Merge Styles
Paste and Match Style
Paste with Original Style
Writing Tools
AutoFill
Format
- Bold
- Italic
- Underline
- More…
Look Up
Translate
Search Web

With text selected:

Paste
Select
Select All
Split Row
Insert Line Break
Paste and Merge Styles
Paste and Match Style
Paste with Original Style
Writing Tools
AutoFill
Format
- Bold
- Italic
- Underline
- More…

This section of the manual is being updated.

Feel free to email us with questions, suggestions, or feedback.

With one or more rows selected:

Cut
Copy
Paste
Delete
Paste and Merge Styles
Paste and Match Style
Paste with Original Style
Format
- Bold
- Italic
Copy Omni Link
Copy Legacy Link
Expand Completely
Collapse Completely

Menus by Category

This section groups menus into categories, listed in alphabetical order, so you can easily find all related commands, such as those used to Edit or Organize.

Some commands are available only on specific platforms, so each section links to information for each supported Platform.

Menu bar menus are only available on Mac and iPad, but the same commands are available on iPhone and Apple Vision Pro, when using a hardware keyboard.

Mac
iPad

See also Automation Menu in The Toolbar chapter.

Mac
iPad
iPhone
Apple Vision Pro

Mac
iPad
Shortcut Menu

Mac
iPad
iPhone
Apple Vision Pro

Mac
iPad

Mac
iPad

Mac
iPad

iPad

Mac
iPad

Mac
iPad
Shortcut Menu

Mac
iPad
iPhone
Apple Vision Pro

Mac
iPad

Mac
iPad

Commands Reference

These are listed in alphabetical order, and link to where they may be found in OmniOutliner. That location may be different on Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Apple Vision Pro.

Keyboard shortcuts are listed under each command.

If a keyboard shortcut is available only on specific Apple platforms, those platforms are listed. If a keyboard shortcut is available on any Apple device with an external keyboard, platform is not specified.

About OmniOutliner
Add Above
Add Column
Add Document-Specific Toolbar
Add Inside
Add Outside
Add Row
Align or Justify
- Align Left
- Center
- Align Right
- Justify
API Reference
Apply Template Theme…
Attach File
Audio Recording
- Start Audio Recording/End Audio Recording
- Pause Audio Recording/Resume Audio Recording
AutoFill
Automation
- Automation API Reference
- Automation Configuration
- Automation Console
Baseline
Bigger
Bold
Bring All to Front
Center
Center Window
Check for Updates
Clear Console
Clear Style
Close
Close All
Collapse
- Collapse All
- Collapse Row(s)
- Collapse Row(s) Completely
Columns
Column Headers
Configure…
Connected Folders…
Contact Omni
Copy
Copy Image
Copy Legacy Link
Copy Omni Link
Copy Style
Customize Toolbar
Cut
Delete
Delete Style
Deselect All
Duplicate File
Duplicate Selection
Duplicate Style
Edit Attachment Properties
Edit Note
Emoji & Symbols
Enter Full Screen/Exit Full Screen
Expand
- Expand All
- Expand Row(s)
- Expand Row(s) Completely
Export
Fill Window
Filter
Find
Focus
Font
Full Screen Tile
Go to Filter Field
Group
Hide Bottom Bar/Show Bottom Bar
Hide Column
Hide OmniOutliner
Hide Others
Show/Hide Sidebar
In-App Purchases
Indent/Outdent
Insert from iPhone or iPad
- Take Photo
- Scan Documents
- Add Sketch
Insert Time Stamp
Inspectors
Installed Plug-Ins
Italic
Justify
Keep Sorted
Kern
Keyboard Shortcuts
License…
Ligature
Link
LinkBack
Manage Omni Account and Purchases
Manage Plug-Ins
Merge All Windows
Minimize Window
Move
- Move Up
- Move Down
- Move Left
- Move Right
Move and Resize
Move To
Move to Display
Move Tab to New Window
New Window on Document/New Tab on Document
New
New Outline
New from Template…
New Named Style
News
Notes
OmniOutliner Help
Open
Open with
Open with Default.app
Open Recent
Open Scripts Folder
Outline
Page Setup
Paste
- Paste and Match Style
- Paste and Merge Styles
- Paste with Original Style
Paste Style
Pause Audio Recording/Resume Audio Recording
Preview
Print
Quick Look Attachment
Quit OmniOutliner
Quit and Close All Windows
Redo
Release Notes
Remove Column
Remove Document-Specific Toolbar
Rename
Resize Image
Reveal in Finder
Revert To
Row Filters
Row Numbering
Save
Save As
Save As Template
Save to Camera Roll
Select
Select All
Services
Set Password
Set Status
Settings
Share
Show All
Show All Notes/Hide All Notes
Show All Tabs/Exit Tab Overview
Show as Icon
Show as Image
Show Automation Console
Show Automation Reference
Show Colors/Hide Colors
Show Console
Show Fonts/Hide Fonts
Show Full Row Text
Show Inspector/Hide Inspector
Show Next Tab/Show Previous Tab
Show Note Pane/Hide Note Pane
Show Note(s)/Hide Note(s)
Show Status Checkboxes/Hide Status Checkboxes
Show Tab Bar/Hide Tab Bar
Show Toolbar/Hide Toolbar
Sidebar
- Batch Find Tab
- Filters Tab
- Sections Tab
- Styles Tab
Sign Up for the Omni Newsletter
Smaller
Sort Outline/Sort Selected Rows
Speech
Spelling
Stage Manager (Mac)
Start Audio Recording/End Audio Recording
Start Dictation
Strikethrough
Styles
- Clear Style
- Copy Style
- Delete Style
- Duplicate Style
- New Named Style
- Paste Style
System Search
Text
Underline
Undo
Unfocus
Ungroup
Use Typewriter Mode
Writing Direction
Writing Tools
Zoom
- Zoom In
- Zoom Out
- Zoom to Actual Size
Zoom Window

About OmniOutliner

Available on Mac, iPad in the OmniOutliner Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Toolbar OmniOutliner Menu

View details about your copy of OmniOutliner.

This is good for checking exactly which version you’re using, which can be very helpful when contacting our Support Humans.

Some versions of this screen also include a link to write a review on the App Store.

See also About OmniOutliner in The Toolbar chapter.

Add Above

Available on iPad in the Organize Menu

Insert a row above the current row.

Though it is not listed in the Organize Menu on iPad, the keyboard shortcut for Add Row also works.

Return to add a row below the current row
Shift+Return to add a row above the current row

See Add Row.

See also Add Above in The Toolbar chapter.

Add Column

Available on Mac in the Organize Menu
Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Toolbar

Inserts a new Column after the currently selected column.

See also Add Column in The Toolbar chapter.

Available on Mac in the View Menu

This allows you to create a Toolbar specifically for 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 want to Save as Template, so you don’t have to recreate that Toolbar again.

Add Inside

Available on Mac, iPad in the Organize Menu

Inserts and indents a new row beneath the current row, resulting in the new row being one level lower in the hierarchy.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+}

See Hierarchy.

See also Add Inside/Add Child in The Toolbar chapter.

Add Outside

Available on Mac, iPad in the Organize Menu

Inserts and outdents a new row beneath the current row, resulting in the new row being one level higher in the hierarchy.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+{

See Hierarchy.

See also Add Outside/Add Aunt in The Toolbar chapter.

Add Row

Available on Mac in the Organize Menu

Insert a row beneath the current row.

Return to add a row below the current row
Shift+Return to add a row above the current row

By default, Return adds a row beneath the current row, and Shift+Return adds a row above the current row.

On Mac, this can be changed in Keyboard Settings, by selecting the other option for When Pressing Return.

See also Add Row/New Row in The Toolbar chapter.

Apply Template Theme

Available on Mac, iPad in the Format Menu

Opens the Template Picker so you can choose and apply a template theme to the current document.

See also Apply Theme in The Toolbar chapter.

Attach File

Available on Mac in the Edit Menu
Available on Mac in the The Toolbar

For iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro, please see Attachments in The Toolbar chapter.

You can attach related files to your OmniOutliner document. These may be images, video clips, PDF files, or even another OmniOutliner document.

There are several ways to attach a file:

Use this Attach File… command, located in the Edit Menu
Click the Attach button in the toolbar
Click the Action Menu in the toolbar, and select Attach File…

When using any of these methods, you are presented with a standard Open window, which allows you to navigate through your Mac’s hard drive until you locate the file you’d like to attach.

At the bottom of this window, there are 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 attach is embedded within the OmniOutliner document you are working with.
Create a link to the file — Instead of embedding an exact duplicate of the file, this links the location of the file on your Mac’s hard drive into the OmniOutliner document.

If you are only using this document on a single Mac, or are syncing it with another Mac which contains exactly the same file structure, linking will allow you to work with an external file without needing to sync the attached file.

If you are using this document on multiple devices, with different file structures, embedding the external file allows you to access it on all supported devices.

If you are linking to an OmniOutliner document, please read about the Copy Omni Link for another option.

In addition to the methods above, you can also drag and drop files or images from almost anywhere on your Mac, including files from a Finder window, or images from a webpage. By default, these items will be embedded in your document; press Control while dragging, to instead add a link to the item.

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 have options to:

Select between Show as Image or Show as Icon.
Change the Display name for the attachment from the filename to something more descriptive.
Open with the default app for the attachment type.
Resize the attachments.
Save changes by clicking Done.

If you click on a non-image or PDF file, you have options to:

Change the Display name for the attachment from the filename to something more descriptive.
Open with the default app for the attachment type.
Save changes by clicking Done.

If you Control + click on an attachment, you will see the Attachment Shortcut Menu.

Audio Recording

See also Audio Recording in The Toolbar chapter.

Start Audio Recording/End Audio Recording

Available on Mac in the Edit Menu

Add an Audio Recording to your document. Select this item again to end recording.

Pause Audio Recording/Resume Audio Recording

Available on Mac in the Edit Menu

Pause your in-progress Audio Recording. Select this item again to resume recording.

Automation

See also Automation Menu in The Toolbar chapter.

Automation API Reference

Command may also be named API Reference or Show Automation Reference
Available on Mac, iPad in the Automation Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Toolbar Automation Menu

Learn more about what you can do with Omni Automation in OmniOutliner by viewing the available classes along with their constructors, functions, and properties.

Shift+Command+0 on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro

Automation Configuration

Command may also be named Configure… or Manage Plug-Ins
Available on Mac, iPad in the Automation Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Toolbar Automation Menu

Opens Automation Configuration, where you can add, remove, and manage your Omni Automation Plug-Ins, as well as change scripting-related security settings.

Keyboard shortcut:

Control+Option+Command+, on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro

To learn more about scripting OmniOutliner, and to browse a library of Plug-Ins, visit the Omni Automation website:

Automation Console

Command may also be named Show Console or Show Automation Console
Available on Mac, iPad in the Automation Menu
Available on Mac in the top toolbar
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Toolbar Automation Menu

Opens the Omni Automation Console, for developing and testing automation.

Keyboard shortcut:

Shift+Command+C on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro

See also Show Console in The Toolbar chapter.

Installed Plug-Ins

Available on Mac, iPad in the Automation Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Toolbar Automation Menu

Any Omni Automation Plug-Ins which you have installed are displayed in a list at the top of the menu.

Choose one to run the plug-in.

See also Omni Automation Plug-Ins in The Toolbar chapter.

AutoFill

Available on Mac in the Edit Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Editing Shortcut Menu

This is a system-provided command which allows automatically filling information from contacts, credit cards, user names and passwords, and some other forms.

It is available on macOS 14 or later, iOS 17 or later, iPadOS 17 or later, and visionOS 1 or later.

To learn more, please read these Apple User Guide articles:

Baseline

Available on Mac in the Format Menu

Adjust the baseline of body text:

Use Default — Places selected text at the same level as body text.
Superscript — Move selected text above the body text.
Subscript — Move selected text below the body text.
Raise — Move selected text up.
Lower — Move selected text down.

Bigger/Increase Font Size

Available on Mac, iPad in the Format Menu
Available on iPad in The Toolbar

Increase the size of the selected note text.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command++

Compare Smaller.

See also Increase Font Size in The Toolbar chapter.

Bold

Available on Mac, iPad in the Format Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Editing Shortcut Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Row Shortcut Menu
Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in The Inspectors

Apply or remove the bold style to the selected text, row, or document.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+B

Bring All to Front

Available on Mac in the Window Menu

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

Center Window

Available on Mac, iPad in the Window Menu

Center the frontmost window.

Keyboard shortcut:

Fn+Control+C on Mac, iPad

Check for Updates

Available on Mac in the OmniOutliner Menu (Direct Download version only)

See if there is a new version of OmniOutliner available to download.

You can also configure automatic checking in Update Settings.

Versions of OmniOutliner from the App Store use Apple’s process for updates.

Clear Console

Available on Mac in the Automation Menu

Clears the Automation Console display.

Clear Style

Available on Mac, iPad in the Format Menu
Available on Mac in the Sidebar Styles Tab

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

Keyboard shortcut:

Control+Command+Delete

Close (Window)

Available on Mac, iPad in the File Menu
Available on iPad in the Window Menu

Close the current window.

On Mac, you may be prompted to save documents, depending on your settings for Ask to keep changes when closing documents and Close windows when quitting an application in System Settings for Desktop & Dock > Windows

On iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro, changes are automatically saved.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+W

Close All (Windows)

Available on Mac, iPad in the File Menu

Close all open windows.

You may be prompted to save documents, depending on your settings for Ask to keep changes when closing documents and Close windows when quitting an application in System Settings for Desktop & Dock > Windows

Keyboard shortcut:

Option+Command+W

Columns

Available on Mac in the View Menu

There are two sections to this submenu. The top section determines how the Topic column width is determined, and the bottom section allows you to hide or show specific columns.

Top section:

Show All Columns — Displays all of columns in your OmniOutliner document. This option is only available if one or more columns have been hidden.
Autosize Topic — When checked, the Topic column will resize based on the width of the window and other columns; when unchecked, it will stay at a fixed width, regardless of other changes.

Bottom section:

Note — Hide or show the Notes column.
Topic — The Topic column cannot be hidden; it is always viewable.
All other columns — Each additional column can be hidden or shown.

Since you can change the default name of the column heading from Topic to anything else, the options you see in the Columns submenu will reflect the titles you’ve assigned to the column headings, including text or any Emoji characters you may have used.

See also Columns in The Toolbar chapter.

Column Headers

Available on Mac in the View Menu

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.

Collapse

Hide rows that are currently showing.

Collapse Row(s)

Available on Mac, iPad in the View Menu

Collapses the currently selected row or rows.

Keyboard shortcuts:

Left Arrow
Command+0

Compare Expand Row(s)

Collapse Row(s) Completely

Available on Mac, iPad in the View Menu
Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Row Shortcut Menu

Collapses the currently selected row or rows, along with any child rows.

Keyboard shortcut:

Option+Command+0

Compare Expand Row(s) Completely

Collapse All

Available on Mac, iPad in the View Menu

Collapse all the rows in your document.

Keyboard shortcut:

Control+Command+0

Compare Expand All

See also Collapse All in The Toolbar chapter.

Configure

See Automation Configuration.

Configure OmniPresence

Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Toolbar OmniOutliner Menu

Tap to connect an OmniPresence cloud synced folder to your device.

Documents in this folder are automatically synced to the cloud whenever a change is made.

You can sync with a free Omni Sync Server account, or an OmniPresence-capable WebDAV server of your choice.

See also Configure OmniPresence in The Toolbar chapter.

Connected Folders

Available on Mac, iPad in the OmniOutliner Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Toolbar OmniOutliner Menu

Configure your Connected Folders, by either updating the settings for the built-in iCloud Drive folder, or by Adding a Connected Folder of your own.

Contact Omni

Available on Mac in the Help Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Toolbar OmniOutliner Menu

Use this command to Email Support, while including information about the version you’re running, which operating system you’re running it on, and what type of license you have, which helps us quickly assist you.

If you see a “The operation couldn’t be completed. Not authorized to send Apple events to Mail.” error when you select Contact Omni, you can grant OmniOutliner authorization to send email.

Open System Settings, then navigate to Privacy & Security > Automation, and click on the disclosure arrow next to OmniOutliner to view additional options. Make sure that Mail is turned on (along with any other apps that you would like), then select Contact Omni again.

See also Contact Omni in The Toolbar chapter.

Copy

Copies the selected text, image, or row, while saving it on the clipboard, so you can paste the selection somewhere else.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+C

Copy Omni Link

Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu
Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Row Shortcut Menu
Available on iPad, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Title Menu

Compare Copy Legacy Link.

See Connected Folders and Omni Links.

See also Document Title Menu in The Toolbar chapter.

Copy Legacy Link

Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu
Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Row Shortcut Menu

See Legacy Links.

Contrast Copy Omni Link and Connected Folders.

Copy Style

Available on Mac, iPad in the Format Menu
Available on Mac in the Sidebar Styles Tab

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

Keyboard shortcut:

Option+Command+C

The Copy Style and Paste Style options are very useful for cleaning up your document. Once you have a row styled the way you’d like, you can select Copy Style select the other rows that you’d like to have the same style, and then select Paste Style.

Cut

Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Row Shortcut Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Editing Shortcut Menu
Available on Mac in the Attachment Shortcut Menu
Removes the selected text, image, or row, while saving it on the clipboard, so you can paste the selection somewhere else.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+X

Compare Copy and Paste.

Delete

Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Row Shortcut Menu

Remove the selected item(s) or text from your document.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+Delete

Compare Cut.

Delete Style

Available on Mac in the Sidebar Styles Tab
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Edit Styles sub-inspector

Deletes the currently selected Named Style.

Deselect All

Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu

Clear your selection completely, so that nothing is selected.

This can be helpful when you’re not sure whether something is selected, you’re about to paste something in, and want to make sure you don’t paste over a selection.

Keyboard shortcut:

Shift+Command+A

Duplicate File

Available on Mac in the File Menu

Create an identical copy of the current document.

The exact contents of the current window are copied into a new document window, with the filename in the title bar highlighted, so you can enter a different name for the new file.

The duplicate file will be saved in the same location as the original.

Keyboard shortcut:

Shift+Command+S

Duplicate Style

Available on Mac in the Sidebar Styles Tab

Creates an identical copy of the currently selected Named Style.

Duplicate Selection

Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu

Copy and paste the current selection, creating an identical copy of the selected item.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+D

Edit Attachment Properties

Available on Mac in the Attachment Shortcut Menu

This dialog allows you to:

Select between Show as Icon or Show as Image, for images and PDF attachments only.
Change the Display name for the attachment from the filename to something more descriptive.
Open with the default app for the attachment type.
Resize the attachment, for images and PDF attachments only.
Save changes by clicking Done.

This dialog is also available by clicking directly on the attachment.

Edit Note

Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu

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

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+‘

See also Add Note in The Toolbar chapter.

Emoji & Symbols

Command may also be named Emoji
Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu

Open the Character Viewer to insert emoji, or other special characters.

More information about the Character Viewer is available in this Apple User Guides article:

Use emoji and symbols on Mac

Keyboard shortcuts:

Control+Command+Space bar
Fn
Fn+E

Set Password

Available on Mac in the File Menu

Opens a window for configuring or removing document encryption, for the current outline.

To learn more, see Encryption in the Inspectors chapter.

Enter Full Screen/Exit Full Screen

Available on Mac, iPad in the View Menu

View OmniOutliner using your full screen, allowing you to focus on your work without other distractions, or return to a single window view.

Keyboard shortcut:

Control+Command+F

Expand

Show rows that are currently hidden.

Expand Row(s)

Available on Mac, iPad in the View Menu

Expand the currently selected row or rows.

Keyboard shortcut:

Right Arrow
Command+9

Compare Collapse Row(s)

Expand Row(s) Completely

Available on Mac, iPad in the View Menu
Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Row Shortcut Menu

Expands the currently selected row or rows, along with any child rows.

Keyboard shortcut:

Option+Command+9

Compare Collapse Row(s) Completely

Expand All

Available on Mac, iPad in the View Menu

Expand all the rows in your document.

Keyboard shortcut:

Control+Command+9

Compare Collapse All.

See also Expand All in The Toolbar chapter.

Export/Export As…

Available on Mac in the File Menu
Available on iPad, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Title Menu

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

Keyboard shortcut:

Option+Command+E

See also Document Title Menu in The Toolbar chapter.

Fill Window

Available on Mac in the Window Menu

Operating system command which expands the front OmniOutliner window to fill the screen.

Keyboard shortcut:

Fn+Control+F on Mac

Filter/Go to Filter Field

Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu

Places the cursor in the toolbar Filter field.

This command has no effect if the Filter Button has been removed from The Toolbar by Customizing the Toolbar. to remove the Filter field.

Keyboard shortcut:

Option+Command+F

See Filtering the Outline

Find

Available on Mac in the Edit Menu

The Find submenu contains the standard Find commands found in many applications:

Go to Filter Field — Places the cursor in the toolbar Filter field.
Find… — Opens the Find dialog. Use the Find dialog to search for instances of a keyword in the document. If an instance is found, it will be highlighted in the row or note text where it appears (column headers are not searched). You can also use the Replace command to overwrite one or more instances of the search term.
Find and Replace — Opens the Find & Replace dialog, only on iPad; on Mac, use the Find… dialog.
Find Next — Find the next instance.
Find Previous — Find the previous instance.
Use Selection for Find — Uses the current selection as the search criteria when using Find. You can use this option before or after opening the Find dialog

Unlike using the Filter field in the Toolbar, which filters what you see in the Outline, the Find dialog searches all visible fields, and highlights results. This allows you to browse through results, until you find what you need.

The Find dialog on Mac supports the use of regular expressions to match more complex text strings and combinations. See the NSRegularExpression developer documentation for details regarding the regex syntax, including a list of supported characters and operators.

Keyboard shortcuts:

Command+F for Find… on Mac
Command+G for Find Next on Mac
Shift+Command+G for Find Previous on Mac
Command+E for Use Selection for Find on Mac

Focus/Unfocus

Available on Mac, iPad in the View Menu

Focus on the currently selected row(s) and any indented rows, by hiding everything else in your OmniOutliner document.

Keyboard shortcuts:

Shift+Command+F to Focus
Option+Shift+Command+F to Unfocus

Remove an assigned Focus, showing all rows in the document.

Font

Available on Mac, iPad in the Format Menu
Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in The Inspectors

Change the typeface and style of your text.

Show Fonts/Hide Fonts
Bold
Italic
Underline
Outline
Bigger
Smaller
Kern
Ligature
Baseline
Show/Hide Colors

Full Screen Tile

Available on Mac in the Window Menu

These menu commands are provided by the operating system, and may include:

Left of Screen
Right of Screen
Replace Tiled Window

To learn more, read the Apple User Guide articles:

Group

Available on Mac, iPad in the Organize Menu

Indents the selected rows, grouping them together under a new parent row.

Keyboard shortcut:

Option+Command+G

Compare Ungroup

Hide Column

Available on Mac in the View Menu

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

Hide OmniOutliner

Available on Mac, iPad in the OmniOutliner Menu

Temporarily hide all OmniOutliner windows.

To bring OmniOutliner back into view, either click the app icon in the Dock, or use Command+Tab to use the macOS application switcher.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+H

Hide Others

Available on Mac, iPad in the OmniOutliner Menu

Temporarily hide windows of all other applications, so you can concentrate on OmniOutliner.

Keyboard shortcut:

Option+Command+H

In-App Purchases

Available on Mac in the OmniOutliner Menu (App Store version only)
Available on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro in License Settings

Open the In-App Purchases window to unlock OmniOutliner features by purchasing either the Essentials or Pro edition of the app, or restoring a previous purchase.

Indent/Outdent

Available on Mac, iPad in the Organize Menu

Indents or outdents the current row.

Indent — Moves the selected row to the right, ignoring any parents or children.
Outdent — Moves the selected row to the left, ignoring any parents or children.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+] for Indent
Command+[ for Outdent

Depending on your setting for When Pressing Tab on Mac, or Tab Navigates Between Cells on iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro, you may also be able to use:

Tab for Indent
Shift+Tab for Outdent

Contrast Move Up, Down, Left, Right

See also Indent and Outdent in The Toolbar chapter.

Inspectors

Available on Mac in the View Menu

Use this submenu to navigate between tabs in the Inspector:

Selection Style Inspector
Document Inspector

See also Inspectors in The Toolbar chapter.

Insert from iPhone or iPad

Available on Mac in the Attachment Shortcut Menu

This system command allows you to take a photo, scan documents, or add a sketch, using your iPhone or iPad.

With a connected device, each of these options may display as a separate command.

To learn more, please read the Apple User Guide article:

Insert sketches, photos, and scans from iPhone or iPad on Mac.

Insert Line Break

Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu
Available on iPad in The Toolbar
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Editing Shortcut Menu
Keyboard shortcut available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro

Inserts a line break inside of the current row, at the location of your cursor.

Keyboard shortcut:

Option+Return

Compare Split Row.

See When Pressing Return.

See also Insert Line Break in The Toolbar chapter.

Insert Time Stamp

Available on Mac in the Edit Menu

Insert one of the following timestamps on the current row, using the format from Language & Region Settings in System Settings:

Short Date — Inserts a localized numerical date, such as 10/05/2013.
Long Date — Inserts a localized textual date, such as October 5, 2013.
Time — Inserts a localized numerical time, such as 12:34:56 PM.
Short Date and Time — Inserts a localized numerical date and time, such as 10/05/2013 12:34 PM.
Long Date and Time — Inserts a localized textual date and time, such as October 5, 2013 12:34:56 PM PDT.

Keyboard shortcuts:

Command+/ for Short Date
Option+Command+/ for Long Date
Shift+Command+@ for Time
Shift+Command+| for Short Date and Time
Option+Shift+Command+| for Long Date and Time

Italic

Apply or remove the italic style to the selected text, row, or document.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+I

Link

Available on Mac in the Edit Menu

Add a hyperlink URL to selected text, or create a link attached to new text (the default display title for a new link is Link).

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+K

Keep Sorted

Available on Mac in the Organize Menu
Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Column Header Menu

Select an option from this submenu to update the displayed order of rows in your document.

These options do not change the actual structure of your outline, just the display order. Contrast Sort Outline/Sort Selected Rows.

If you are using Row Numbering and select one of these options, your rows may display numbering in non-sequential order (since rows aren’t actually being reordered, just moved around visually).

Clear Sorting — Removes any currently selected sorting. This is useful when you want to restore the original ordering of your rows, or sort a document using another method.
Notes, A-Z — Sorts the contents of the document in alphabetical (A-Z) order, based on the Note contents for each row.
Notes, Z-A — Sorts the contents of the document in reverse alphabetical (Z-A) order, based on the Note contents 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 Topic contents for each row.
Topic, Z-A — Sorts the contents of the document in reverse alphabetical (Z-A) order, based on the Topic contents for each row.

Kern

Available on Mac in the Format Menu

Adjust spacing between characters:

Use Default — Automatically adjust spacing between selected characters.
Use None — Turn off spacing adjustments between selected characters.
Tighten — Reduce the spacing between selected characters.
Loosen — Increase the spacing between selected characters.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Available on Mac in the OmniOutliner Menu

Opens the Keyboard Shortcuts window, to create and manage custom shortcut sets.

License

Available on Mac, iPad in the OmniOutliner Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Toolbar OmniOutliner Menu

The License window allows you to manage your OmniOutliner licenses, while providing quick access to your Omni Account.

Select the Omni Account button to open the Omni Account window, or select the Sign In button to begin, and then enter your Omni Account information.

If you already have a license for OmniOutliner 6, the application will be unlocked.
If this is the first time you have signed in to OmniOutliner 6, you will automatically begin a free two-week trial. You can select the Buy License button to learn more about pricing, and purchase a new or upgrade license.

Once you are signed in to your Omni Account, you can select:

Edit Account… to visit the Manage Your Omni Account website.
Sign Out to remove your Omni Account from this application.
Close Account to request closure of your Omni Account.

Accidentally tapping the Close Account button will not close your account. An email is automatically sent to the registered email address for the Omni Account, requesting confirmation. If you accidentally tap the button, simply ignore that email.

If you are signed into a Site License, the Omni Account window will offer you options to either Renew Session or Remove License.

If you have an OmniOutliner 6 Pro license, or are in your free two-week trial, you can toggle the Turn on Pro features setting. This allows you to choose between the OmniOutliner Essentials and OmniOutliner Pro feature sets, either to see which edition is best for your needs, or to easily create Essentials-compatible documents.

See also License in The Toolbar chapter.

Ligature

Available on Mac in the Format Menu

Adjust the use of ligatures to join two characters, in the selected text:

Use Default — Use the default ligatures from the font you are using.
Use None — Use none of the available ligatures from the font you are using.
Use All — Use all available ligatures from the font you are using.

LinkBack

Available on Mac in the Edit Menu

LinkBack supports embedding content from one applications in another application, in a way that allows editing the embedded content with the original app.

For example, let’s say that you’ve used LinkBack to include some information from OmniGraffle in one of your OmniOutliner documents. To edit the OmniGraffle content that’s linked to from your OmniOutliner document:

Double-click the OmniGraffle content in your OmniOutliner document.
This opens an OmniGraffle window containing that content.
Edit the content in the OmniGraffle window, as you normally would.
In OmniGraffle, choose File > Save.
The content in the OmniOutliner window updates automatically.

This makes it easy for you to round trip content shared by LinkBack apps without having to update the content in two different places. For more information about LinkBack, see the LinkBack repository on GitHub.

Edit LinkBack Item — If you have pasted LinkBack content from another app, select the object and use this command to edit 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 the same file type.

Compare this to Connected Folders

Look Up

Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Editing Shortcut Menu

This is a system-provided command which allows you to look up information about the selected text, either online or on device.

To learn more, please read this Apple User Guide article:

Look up words on Mac

Though this article is for Mac, the information also applies to other platforms.

Manage Plug-Ins

See Automation Configuration.

Merge All Windows

Available on Mac in the Window Menu

Merge all currently open OmniOutliner documents into a single window with multiple tabs.

To learn more, read the Apple User Guide article:

Move and arrange app windows on Mac

Minimize Window

Available on Mac, iPad in the Window Menu

Shrink the front OmniOutliner window down into the Dock.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+M

Move Up, Down, Left, Right

Available on Mac, iPad in the Organize Menu

Use the following commands to move rows in your document.

These commands rearrange the currently selected rows in the Outline, without affecting deselected items.

Move Up — Moves the selected row up one row, along with its children.
Move Down — Moves the selected row down one row, along with its children.
Move Left — Moves the selected row to the left, along with its children. The row becomes a sibling of its former parent.
Move Right — Moves the selected row to the right, along with its children. The row becomes a child of the row immediately above.

Keyboard shortcuts:

Control+Command+Up Arrow for Move Up
Control+Command+Down Arrow for Move Down
Control+Command+Left Arrow for Move Left
Control+Command+Right Arrow for Move Right

Contrast Indent/Outdent

See also Move Down, Move Left, Move Right, and Move Up in The Toolbar chapter.

Move and Resize

Available on Mac, iPad in the Window Menu

Operating system commands to move and resize windows in the app.

Keyboard shortcuts:

Fn+Control+Left Arrow for Left on Mac, iPad
Fn+Control+Right Arrow for Right on Mac, iPad
Fn+Control+Up Arrow for Top on Mac, iPad
Fn+Control+Down Arrow for Bottom on Mac, iPad
No shortcut for Top Left on Mac, iPad
No shortcut for Top Right on Mac, iPad
No shortcut for Bottom Left on Mac, iPad
No shortcut for Bottom Right on Mac, iPad
Fn+Control+Shift+Left Arrow for Left & Right on Mac, iPad
Fn+Control+Shift+Right Arrow for Right & Left on Mac, iPad
Fn+Control+Shift+Up Arrow for Top & Bottom on Mac, iPad
Fn+Control+Shift+Down Arrow for Bottom & Top on Mac, iPad
No shortcut for Quarters on Mac, iPad
Fn+Control+R for Return to Previous Size on Mac

To learn more, read the Apple User Guide articles:

Though these articles are for Mac, most of the commands and shortcuts are also available on iPad.

Move Tab to New Window

Available on Mac in the Window Menu

With multiple OmniOutliner documents open in tabs of the same window, move the current tab to a new OmniOutliner window.

Move To

Available on Mac in the File Menu

Choose this option to open a window, which allows you to quickly change the location your file is stored.

Move to Display

Available on Mac, iPad in the Window Menu

This sends the front most window to the selected display; it only appears if you have an external monitor or iPad connected.

To learn more, read the Apple User Guide article:

Move an app to an external display

Named Styles

Available on iPad in the Format Menu

Apply any of the Named Styles in the document.

See Apply Named Styles With for Mac, and Show Keyboard Shortcuts in Inspectors for iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro.

New/New Outline

Available on Mac in the File Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Manager
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Manager Toolbar

Create a new OmniOutliner Document, using the Template Picker.

If you have selected a default template by selecting Make Default in the Template Picker, or by changing the setting for For New Documents (Mac only), a new document is created using the chosen template, without presenting the Template Picker.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+N

New Filter

Available on Mac in the View Menu

New from Template

Available on Mac in the File Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Manager

Open the Template Picker, which allows you to select a template to use as the basis for a new OmniOutliner Document.

Keyboard shortcut:

Shift+Command+N on Mac

New Named Style/Add Named Style

Available on Mac in the Sidebar Styles Tab
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Edit Styles sub-inspector

Creates a new Named Style, ready for configuration.

New Window

Available on iPad in the Window Menu

Open a new OmniOutliner window.

New Window on Document/New Tab on Document

Available on Mac in the Window Menu

News

Available on Mac in the Help Menu

View the latest information from the Omni Group about changes to OmniOutliner or Apple’s operating systems that may affect your use of the app.

This item only appears when there is news to share.

Notes

Available on Mac in the View Menu

Choose how you want the Notes in your OmniOutliner file to appear:

Display Inline — Notes appear inline, with the rest of your content.
Display in Pane — Notes appear in a separate pane, at the bottom of the window.

OmniOutliner Help

Available on Mac in the Help Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Toolbar OmniOutliner Menu

View this help documentation.

See also OmniOutliner Help in The Toolbar chapter.

OmniOutliner Windows

Available on Mac, iPad in the Window Menu

At the bottom of the Window menu is a list of all of your open OmniOutliner windows; choose one to bring it to the front.

Open

Available on Mac, iPad in the File Menu

Open an existing file.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+O

Open Recent

Available on Mac, iPad in the File Menu

OmniOutliner keeps track of recently opened files, and includes the filenames in this menu.

Select a file to quickly reopen it, and continue your work.

Open Scripts Folder

Available on Mac in the Help Menu

Opens the designated Finder folder for storing AppleScript scripts, which can then be used in OmniOutliner without additional permissions.

Once you have placed scripts in this folder, you can use the Customize Toolbar… command to add any of the scripts to the Toolbar.

If you add or change a script’s icon in the Finder, the updated icon will be displayed in app. This can be useful if you have multiple scripts installed, and want to easily tell them apart.

Open With

Available on Mac in the Attachment Shortcut Menu

This command typically appears twice in the menu: one time using the default app for the attachment, and one time with options for other apps that can open the attachment.

Open with Default.app opens the selected attachment using the default app.

If the attachment is an image, the command will likely display as Open with Preview.app, which opens the selected image using Preview.

Open with lists other apps on your system that can also open the selected attachment.

To learn more about setting a default app, please see the Apple User Guide article:

Choose an app to open a file on Mac

To learn more about using Preview.app, please read the Apple User Guide for Preview.

Outline

Available on Mac in the Format Menu

Apply or remove the outline style to the selected note text.

Page Setup

Available on Mac in the File Menu

Open the standard macOS Page Setup window, where you can change some settings for printing or exporting to a PDF file. These settings are saved even when you quit OmniOutliner.

Keyboard shortcut:

Shift+Command+P

Paste

Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Row Shortcut Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Editing Shortcut Menu

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.

If you cut or copy text that has line breaks from another app, and paste that into a row, all the text appears on a single row with line breaks intact. If you want each line to appear as a row, first select a row (by clicking or tapping in the gutter), and then paste.

When copying and pasting text within OmniOutliner, all formatting is retained.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+V

Paste and Merge Styles

Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Row Shortcut Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Editing Shortcut Menu

By default, OmniOutliner attempts to Merge Styles when pasting text copied from outside of the app.

This paste method preserves only essential styles such as bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, subscript or superscript, ligatures, and writing direction, as well as links with titles, and attachments.

Keyboard shortcut:

Control+Option+Shift+Command+V on Mac

Paste and Match Style

Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Row Shortcut Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Editing Shortcut Menu

This paste method discards all formatting, including the URL for links with titles, and matches the style of the note into which you are pasting.

You can use this paste method as your default by changing the setting for Pasting from Other Apps.

Keyboard shortcut:

Option+Shift+Command+V on Mac

Paste with Original Style

Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Row Shortcut Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Editing Shortcut Menu

This paste method preserves all original formatting, and ignores the style of the note into which you are pasting.

Keyboard shortcut:

Control+Shift+Command+V on Mac

Paste Style

Available on Mac, iPad in the Format Menu
Available on Mac in the Sidebar Styles Tab

Pastes the previously copied style onto the current selection.

Keyboard shortcut:

Option+Command+V

Preview/Quick Look Attachment

Available in the Attachment Shortcut Menu

Displays a preview of the selected image without leaving OmniFocus.

Print

Available on Mac in the File Menu
Available on iPad, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Title Menu
Available on iPhone in the Share menu

Opens the Print dialog, where you can customize the appearance of your outline for printing or PDF export.

To learn more, read the Printing section of the Documents and Templates chapter.

Command+P on Mac

Quit OmniOutliner

Available on Mac in the OmniOutliner Menu

Stop using OmniOutliner and put it away for now.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+Q

Quit and Close All Windows

Available on Mac in the OmniOutliner Menu

Stop using OmniOutliner, and close all windows. The next time you open OmniOutliner, you will have only a single window open.

Keyboard shortcut:

Options+Command+Q

Redo

Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu

Re-create the most recent change that you just used Undo to reverse. You can keep redoing edits, allowing you to return to a later point in time.

Keyboard shortcuts:

Shift+Command+Z

Compare Undo

Release Notes

Available on Mac in the Help Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Toolbar OmniOutliner Menu

Read the release notes for the current version of OmniOutliner.

See also Release Notes in The Toolbar chapter.

Remove Column

Available on Mac in the Organize Menu
Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Column Header Menu

Removes the selected column.

See also Remove Column in The Toolbar chapter.

Rename

Available on Mac in the File Menu
Available on iPad, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Title Menu

Choose this option to rename the document.

See also Document Title Menu in The Toolbar chapter.

Resize Image

Available in the Attachment Shortcut Menu

Adds resizing handles to the corners of the selected image. Drag the handles to resize, while maintaining the original aspect ratio.

Tap or click outside of the image to end resizing. If you are using a hardware keyboard, you can also press Return or Esc.

Reveal in Finder

Available on Mac in the Attachment Shortcut Menu

Show the selected image in Finder, with the file selected for further management.

Revert To

Available on Mac in the File Menu

Opens Time Machine, so you can walk back through earlier versions of the current document, as well as restore from those versions.

To learn more, see this Apple User Guide article:

View and restore past versions of documents on Mac

Row Filters

Available on Mac in the View Menu

This submenu allows you to apply any saved filters, which are also available in the Filters Tab of the Sidebar, or create a

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

Row Numbering

Available on Mac in the Format Menu
Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in The Inspectors

The options in this submenu are used to assign a row numbering style to part or all of your document, and are split into two parts.

The upper section of the menu determines the style of numbering to use as the prefix for the rows in your document:

None — Rows in your document are not numbered.
1, 2, 3, 4, … — Rows in your document are numbered sequentially, starting with 1.
A, B, C, D, … — Rows in your document are lettered sequentially, using uppercase letters, starting with A.
a, b, c, d, … — Rows in your document are lettered sequentially, using lowercase letters, starting with a.
I, II, III, IV, … — Rows in your document are numbered sequentially, using uppercase Roman numerals, starting with I.
i, ii, iii, iv, … — Rows in your document are numbered sequentially, using lowercase Roman numerals, starting with i.
1, 1.1, 1.1.1, … — 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.

If you select a style other than None, the styles in the lower section can also be applied to the row number; for example 1.1.1., 1.1.1), or (1.1.1), respectively.

Choose from these formatting options:

No Prefix or Suffix — The chosen row number style is presented without prefix or suffix. Example: 1.1.2.
x. — This places a period after the chosen row number style. Example: 1.1.2..
x) — This places a closing parenthesis after the chosen row number style. Example: 1.1.2).
(x) — This places row numbers in parenthesis. Example: (1.1.2).

Save

Available on Mac in the File Menu

Save the contents of the current document.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+S

Save As

Available on Mac in the File Menu

Save your current document in one of the following formats, which are described in Exporting from OmniOutliner:

OmniOutliner Document
OmniOutliner Template
OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language)

Your current document will be updated to the new format, and remain open, allowing you to keep editing.

The format of document that you were previously editing remains in the same location it was originally saved, so you can return to that format in the future.

Keyboard shortcut:

Option+Shift+Command+S

Save (as) Filter

Available on Mac in the View Menu

Creates a new saved filter, based on the search terms and scope entered in the Filter bar.

Read Filtering the Outline to learn more.

Save As Template/Create Template from Outline

Available on Mac in the File Menu
Available on iPad, Apple Vision Pro in the Document Title Menu

Saves the current file as an OmniOutliner template file.

For more on using templates, see Managing and Working with Templates.

See also Document Title Menu in The Toolbar chapter.

Save to Camera Roll

Available on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro in the Attachment Shortcut Menu

Save the selected image to your Photos library.

Search Web

Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Editing Shortcut Menu

This is a system-provided command which allows you to search the web for the selected text.

Select

Available on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro in the Attachment Shortcut Menu

Select the image for further editing.

Select All

Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Editing Shortcut Menu

Select all visible rows in the outline, or if you are editing text, all text in the cell.

Note that collapsed/hidden rows are not selected.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+A

Services

Available on Mac in the OmniOutliner Menu

Contains system-wide macOS services offered by other applications.

To learn more, please read the Apple User Guide article:

Use services in apps on Mac.

Set Status

Available on Mac in the Edit Menu

Set one of these options for status checkbox on selected row(s):

Checked — Mark the status checkbox completed.
Unchecked — Mark the status checkbox uncompleted.
Calculated — Calculate the value of the status checkbox.
None — Hide the status checkbox.

Assigning a status of Checked or Unchecked to a parent row also assigns that status to all child rows. If you want a parent row to reflect the status of child rows, instead of setting their status, select Calculated. This option is only available for parent rows with a current status of None, and at least one child set to either Checked or Unchecked. Once selected, the parent row will display as:

Checked — If all children are Checked.
Unchecked — If all children at Unchecked
Mixed — If some children are Checked, and others are Unchecked.

Settings

Available on Mac, iPad in the OmniOutliner Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Toolbar OmniOutliner Menu

Open Settings, where you can customize how the application works for you.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+,

See also Settings in The Toolbar chapter.

Available on Mac in the File Menu
Available on Mac, iPhone in The Toolbar
Available on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro in the Attachment Shortcut Menu

Opens a system menu containing options to share either selected items, or the open document (iPhone only), to another application.

Choose from a list of available destination applications, or select Edit Extensions… (on Mac) or More (on iPhone) to customize the available options.

Selected rows are shared as plain text. If you share the open document, you can choose from several formats; to learn more about available option, read Exporting from OmniOutliner.

Show All

Available on Mac in the OmniOutliner Menu

Show all windows, from all applications.

Show All Notes/Hide All Notes

Available on Mac, iPad in the View Menu

Show or hide all notes in your document.

Keyboard shortcut:

Control+Command+‘

Show All Tabs/Exit Tab Overview

Available on Mac in the View Menu

Switch to a view that displays thumbnail views of each tab as a tile in the OmniOutliner window, or return to the standard full view.

Show All Windows

Available on iPad in the Window Menu

Operating system command to show all OmniOutliner windows.

Keyboard shortcut:

Fn+Down Arrow on iPad

Show as Icon/Show as Image

Available on Mac in the Attachment Shortcut Menu

Select between displaying the attached image or PDF file as an icon, or an image preview of the attachment.

Show Colors/Hide Colors

Available on Mac in the Format Menu

Show or hide the Colors window, to make adjustments to the selection color.

Keyboard shortcut:

Shift+Command+C

Show Fonts/Hide Fonts/More

Available on Mac in the Format Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Editing Shortcut Menu
Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in The Inspectors

On Mac, show or hide the Fonts window from which you can choose a font, styling, and size.

On iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro, show the More… window, from which you can choose a font, styling, size, alignment, and color.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+T on Mac

Show Full Row Text

Available on Mac in the View Menu

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, and you only want to see the text for the row you’re working on.

The option to truncate row text when rows are not being edited is a Pro-only feature otherwise known as Text Folding.

Show Inspector/Hide Inspector

Available on Mac in the View Menu

Show or hide the Inspectors, which contain the Selection Style Inspector and Document Inspector.

Keyboard shortcut:

Shift+Command+I

Show Keyboard

Available on iPad in the Edit Menu

Show the on-screen keyboard.

Show Next Tab/Show Previous Tab

Available on Mac in the Window Menu

With multiple OmniOutliner documents open in tabs of the same window, navigate to the next or previous tab in the bar.

Keyboard shortcut:

Control+Tab to Show Next Tab
Control+Shift+Tab to Show Previous Tab

Show Note(s)/Hide Note(s)

Available on Mac, iPad in the View Menu

Shows or hide notes on the selected rows.

Keyboard shortcut:

Option+Command+‘

See also Hide Note, Show Note, Hide All Notes, Show All Notes in The Toolbar chapter.

Show Note Pane/Hide Note Pane

Available on Mac in the View Menu

Shows or hides the note pane, if Display in Pane is selected in the Notes submenu.

Keyboard shortcut:

Option+Command+‘

Available on Mac, iPad in the View Menu

Show or hide the Sidebar, which contains the Sections, Styles, and Filters tabs.

Keyboard shortcut:

Option+Command+1

Show Status Bar/Hide Status Bar

Available on Mac in the View Menu

Hides or shows the Status Bar, which contains the word count, character count, and row count.

Show Status Checkboxes/Hide Status Checkboxes

Available on Mac in the View Menu

Display or hide the clickable status checkboxes.

These are helpful when you have an outline that pertains to a project, and you want to tick things off as you go.

You can use the status checkboxes together with Sort Outline or Keep Sorted, to sort rows by checked or unchecked status boxes.

This option is available on iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro, using the Row Status toggle in the Document Inspector.

Show Tab Bar/Hide Tab Bar

Available on Mac in the View Menu

Show or hide the macOS tab bar on the current OmniOutliner window.

Available on Mac in the View Menu

Show or hide the Toolbar at the top of your document.

Keyboard shortcut:

Option+Command+T

Available on Mac in the View Menu

Use this submenu to navigate between tabs in the Sidebar:

Sections
Styles
Filters
Batch Find

See also Sidebar in The Toolbar chapter.

Available on Mac in the Help Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Toolbar OmniOutliner Menu

Visit the Omni Newsletter web page, where you can subscribe to our email newsletter. You’ll get nothing but the latest news and tips for OmniOutliner and the other apps in the Omni Group family.

See also Omni Newsletter Signup in The Toolbar chapter.

Slide Over

Available on iPad in the Window Menu

Operating system commands to manage Slide Over windows.

Keyboard shortcuts:

Fn+Option+Left Arrow for Move to Left Slide Over
Fn+Option+Right Arrow for Move to Right Slide Over
Fn+\ for Hide Slide Over
No shortcut for Exit Slide Over

To learn more, read the Apple User Guide articles:

Though these articles are for Mac, most of the commands and shortcuts are also available on iPad.

Smaller/Decrease Font Size

Available on iPad in The Toolbar
Available on Mac, iPad in the Format Menu

Decrease the size of the selected note text.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+-

See Bigger

See also Decrease Font Size in The Toolbar chapter.

Sort Outline/Sort Selected Rows

Available on Mac in the Organize Menu

Select an option from this submenu to update the structural order of rows in your document.

These options change the order of the rows in your document, not just the display order. Contrast Keep Sorted.

If you have selected one or more rows, sorting affects the selected rows; if you do not have any selected rows, sorting affects the entire document.

Undo can be helpful, when using this command.

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

Speech

Available on Mac in the Edit Menu

The Speech submenu supports having your Mac read selected text out loud.

Start Speaking — Start reading the selection.
Stop Speaking — Stop reading the selection.

A similar feature can be turned on for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro, using Accessibility settings in the Settings app.

Spelling

Available on Mac in the Edit Menu

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

Show/Hide Spelling and Grammar — Opens the Spelling and Grammar window so you can check for any spelling or grammatical mistakes in the current document.
Check Spelling Now — Checks the spelling in the current document.
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 suggests up similar words from which you can select the correct spelling.

Command+: for Show/Hide Spelling and Grammar
Command+; for Check Spelling Now

Spelling and Grammar

Available on Mac in the Edit Menu

The Spelling and Grammar submenu contains the standard macOS spell checking commands:

Show Spelling and Grammar — Opens the Spelling and Grammar window, where you can check spelling and grammar, add words to your personal dictionary, get definitions for entered words, or have the spelling engine guess at a word for you.
Check Document Now — Checks spelling in the open document.
Check Spelling While Typing — Checks spelling while you are typing.
Check Grammar With Spelling — Checks grammar at the same time spelling is checked.
Correct Spelling Automatically — Automatically corrects spelling, instead of simple alerting you to the issue.

Keyboard shortcuts:

Command+: for Show/Hide Spelling and Grammar
Command+; for Check Document Now

Split Row

Splits the current row at the location of your cursor, creating two rows from a single row.

Keyboard shortcut:

Control+Return

See also Split Row in The Toolbar chapter.

Stage Manager (Mac)

Available on Mac in the Window Menu

This menu command is provided by the operating system:

Remove Window from Set

To learn more, read the Apple User Guide article:

Organize your Mac desktop with Stage Manager

Start Dictation

Command may also be named Dictation
Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu

With dictation turned on for Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Apple Vision Pro, select an editable text field and use this command to enter text by speaking.

Keyboard shortcut:

Fn+D

A separate shortcut key can also be set in Keyboard System Settings.

Start Editing

Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu

Begin editing the topic field of a selected row.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+Return

Strikethrough

Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in The Inspectors

Apply or remove the ~~strikethrough~~ style to the selected text, row, or document.

Substitutions

Available on Mac in the Edit Menu

The Substitutions submenu allows you to choose which macOS text substitutions will be used in OmniOutliner.

To learn more, read the Apple User Guide article:

Replace text and punctuation in documents on Mac

System Search

Available on Mac, iPad in the Help Menu

On Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro, search OmniOutliner menu items in order to find a specific command.

On Mac, the same command will also search OmniOutliner Help (this document). Results appear as a list of menu items and help topics respectively.

Keyboard shortcut:

Shift+Command+?

Text

Available on Mac, iPad in the Format Menu

Alignment and direction options for text, images, and attachments.

Align or Justify

Available on Mac, iPad in the Format Menu

Adjust the alignment of the row or column containing selected text:

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.

Keyboard shortcuts:

No shortcut for Align Left
Command+| for Center
No shortcut for Align Right

Writing Direction

Available on Mac, iPad in the Format Menu

Adjust the writing direction of the selected text, or of the paragraph containing the selected text.

Paragraph:

Default — Writing direction of paragraph matches the default for the selected language.
Left to Right — Writing direction of paragraph is left-to-right. May override the selected language.
Right to Left — Writing direction of paragraph is right-to-left. May override the selected language.

Selection:

Default — Writing direction of selected text matches the default for the selected language. May override the above setting for Paragraph.
Left to Right — Writing direction of selected text is left-to-right. May override the above setting for Paragraph.
Right to Left — Writing direction of selected text is right-to-left. May override the above setting for Paragraph.

Transformations

Available on Mac in the Edit Menu

The Transformations submenu contains commands that apply to selected text in the outline, sidebar, and inspector, to convert it to upper case, lowercase, or capitalize each selected word.

Make Upper Case
Make Lower Case
Capitalize

Translate

Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Editing Shortcut Menu

This is a system-provided command which allows you to translate the selected text.

To learn more, please read this Apple User Guide article:

Translate text on Mac

Though this article is for Mac, the information also applies to other platforms.

Underline

Available on Mac, iPad in the Format Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Editing Shortcut Menu
Available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in The Inspectors

Apply or remove the underline style to the selected text, row, or document.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+U

Undo

Available on Mac, iPad in the Edit Menu

Reverse the most recent change that you made. You can keep undoing edits, allowing you to return to an earlier point in time.

You can use Redo to restore an edit that you have undone.

Keyboard shortcuts:

Command+Z

Compare Redo

Ungroup

Available on Mac, iPad in the Organize Menu

Ungroup the rows of a selected group, turning the children of the parent row into sibling of the parent row.

The parent row can then be removed, if you choose.

Keyboard shortcut:

Option+Command+U

Compare Group.

See also Ungroup in The Toolbar chapter.

Use Typewriter Mode

Available on Mac in the View Menu

By default, 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).

Typewriter Mode detects when your selection moves above or below the center of the document window, and adjusts the scroll position. This keeps the row you select front and center, just like it would on a typewriter.

Writing Tools

Available on Mac in the Edit Menu
Available on iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision Pro in the Editing Shortcut Menu

To learn more about Writing Tools, please read these Apple User Guide articles:

Zoom Window

Available on Mac in the Window Menu

Operating system command to switch the front OmniOutliner window between the largest possible size, and the last size you set.

To learn more, read the Apple User Guide article:

Move and arrange app windows on Mac

Zoom

Zoom In

Available on Mac, iPad in the View Menu

Magnify the view of your document, up to 400 percent.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+>

Zoom Out

Available on Mac, iPad in the View Menu

Demagnify the view of your document, down to 50 percent.

Keyboard shortcut:

Command+<

Zoom to Actual Size

Available on Mac, iPad in the View Menu

Scales your document back to 100 percent (normal size).

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.

General Settings
Keyboard Settings
Text Import & Export Settings
RTF Export Settings
Audio Recording Settings
Update Settings

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.

For New Documents
OPML Display Theme
Links
Styles
Full Screen Mode
Color Palette
Pasting From Other Apps

Keyboard Settings

Adjust how OmniOutliner interprets certain keys:

When pressing Tab
When pressing Return
New rows are created
When pressing Escape
Apply named styles with
Keyboard shortcuts

Text Import & Export Settings

View or change the characters used to represent elements when importing a plaintext document, or exporting an OmniOutliner document to plaintext.

You can update:

Bullets for rows with no children
Bullets for rows with children (expanded)
Bullets for rows with children (collapsed)
Checkboxes that are checked
Checkboxes that are unchecked
Checkboxes that are indeterminate (a mix of checked and unchecked children)

There is also a popup menu that lets you select the Text encoding for import/export, which defaults to Unicode (UTF-8).

RTF Export Settings

View or change the characters used to represent elements, when exporting an OmniOutliner document to RTF.

There are preset characters and sizes, based on the object types for bullets and checkboxes, as well as spacing for indents, and the distance between columns.

You can update:

Bullets for rows with no children
Bullets for rows with children (expanded)
Bullets for rows with children (collapsed)
Bullet minimum width
Bullet width
Checkboxes that are checked
Checkboxes that are unchecked
Checkboxes that are indeterminate (a mix of checked and unchecked children)
Checkbox minimum width
Checkbox width
Indent width per level
Space between columns

Audio Recording Settings

See which microphone you’re using for recording, change the compression level, or access in-progress recordings.

Input Device displays the currently selected input, and an Edit Settings button to quickly open System Settings and change the selected input.

Input Device:

Displays the currently selected input.
The Edit Settings button opens System Settings, so you can change the selected input.

Compression:

Best Performance — Smaller file sizes, less processor power, and basic audio quality.
Best Quality — Larger file sizes, slightly more processor power, and the best quality sound.

Compression allows you to select between Best Performance and Best Quality, allowing you to strike your preferred balance.

Temporary Recording Folder:

OmniOutliner creates a temporary file to store audio while you are recording.
- When you finish recording, that temporary file moves into your OmniOutliner document.
- If OmniOutliner unexpectedly quits while you are recording, your audio is safe, as the temporary file is still there!
Click the Open Folder button, and the temporary file will show in the Finder.
Drag the file into OmniOutliner, or put it in the Trash if you would rather start over.

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.

Check for updates
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:

App Lock
Color Palette
New rows use peers’ style
Tab navigates between cells
Show keyboard shortcuts in inspectors
Pasting From Other Apps
Command-V pastes as plain text
Include handles in text export
Higher-quality audio recording
Configure Plug-Ins
Send Anonymous Data
Warnings

Settings Reference

This section lists all OmniOutliner settings (or commands found in Settings on iPhone, iPad, or Apple Vision Pro) in alphabetical order.

Each entry contains links to where the setting (or command) can be found on each platform. If no platforms are specified, it is available on all devices.

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 data 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 data or settings.

App Lock does not encrypt your OmniOutliner data, nor does it prevent someone with physical access to your device from connecting it to another device and copying your data file, or deleting OmniOutliner from your device outright.

The Files app can also be used to retrieve your OmniOutliner data file 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, which is distinct from both your OmniOutliner sync password and encryption passphrase.

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 syncing your OmniOutliner data, the easiest way to recover is to delete OmniOutliner, then reinstall the app from the App Store, and use your existing sync credentials to restore your database.

If you have chosen not to sync, you can retrieve your OmniOutliner data by connecting your device to the Finder or iTunes, and copying your OmniOutliner data (the OmniOutliner.ofocus file) to a safe location.

You can also use the Files app to retrieve your data file, and share it using email, or another option in the Share menu, to another location.

After saving a backup of your data, 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 Finder or iTunes to load your OmniOutliner.ofocus file back onto 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 action list!

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.

Read these Apple User Guide articles to learn more:

This feature is not yet supported by Apple Vision Pro.

Command-V Pastes as Plain Text

Available on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro in Settings

When turned on, Command+V (the standard paste keyboard shortcut) pastes copied text without any of its original style attributes, and Option+Shift+Command+V pastes rich (formatted) text.

When turned off, Command+V pastes rich text, and Option+Shift+Command+V pastes plain text.

For Mac, see Paste and Paste with Original Style.

Configure Plug-Ins

Available on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro in Settings

Open a sheet with a list of the Omni Automation Plug-Ins available in connected folders on your device.

To add Plug-Ins to this list, select Connect Folder… at the bottom of the list, and navigate to the folder on your device that contains them.

For more information about this feature, see the Omni Automation in OmniOutliner website, as well as the OmniOutliner Plug-In Collection.

See Connected Folders

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.

Higher-Quality Audio Recording

Available on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro in Settings

When turned on, Audio Recordings are recorded at high quality (a higher sample rate).

Turn this off to save space on your device.

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 export from OmniOutliner or OPML files.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Available on Mac in Keyboard Settings

Keyboard shortcuts make it easy for you to quickly access menu options without having to use a mouse. You can create, export, and import sets of keyboard shortcuts customized for your needs.

To open the Keyboard Shortcuts window, click on the Customize button in Keyboard Settings, or choose Keyboard Shortcuts… from the OmniOutliner Menu.

The Keyboard Shortcuts window is divided into two sections:

Outline — The top section contains commands used when navigating and manipulating The Outline. Keyboard shortcuts for Outline commands can be a single letter or number, without needing to use a modifier key (Control, Option, Shift, or Command).
Menus — Menus found at the top of the screen, along with each menu item or Command in that menu. You can expand and collapse each menu section by clicking the disclosure arrows to the left of each menu name.

You can use the Search field at the top of the window to search for a menu item or command. This makes it easy to see how the assigned keyboard shortcuts relate to each other, and to set or reassign keys, if desired.

Editing Keyboard Shortcuts

To set or change a keyboard shortcut, click the field to the right of a menu item or command, and press keys for your new shortcut. You can use one or more of Control, Option, Shift, or Command, along with a letter or number.

The changes are immediately available, without needing to quit and restart OmniOutliner.

If you enter a shortcut that is already used by another menu item or command, the Keyboard Shortcuts window displays a warning symbol in both shortcut fields. In addition, the normally-grayed out warning button at the top of the window becomes available. This makes it easy for you to identify and correct the conflict.

Clicking the Warning button at the top of the Keyboard Shortcuts window focuses on the conflicting items, and a revert arrow is placed to the right of each item causing the conflict. Clicking the revert arrow changes that item back to its default keyboard shortcut, or removes the shortcut if none was previously assigned.

To remove a keyboard shortcut for an item, click the field to the right of a menu item or command, and press Delete. This removes the keyboard shortcut for that item.

The first time you make a change to the Default keyboard set, the name of the current keyboard set (used in the drop-down menu) becomes editable. By default, OmniOutliner places your user account name in the field, but you can change this to whatever you’d like.

If you would like to change the name of a keyboard set, click the Action menu, and select Rename. Enter a new name, and press Return to apply it.

To export your keyboard set:

Click the Action menu, and select Export Shortcuts….
OmniOutliner will create a shortcuts file named after your set, with an .outliner-shortcuts file extension (such as Rapid Edit Set.outliner-shortcuts).

To import another keyboard set:

Click the Action menu, and select Import Shortcuts….
In the window that opens, locate and select the .outliner-shortcuts file to import, then click Open to add that keyboard set to the Keyboard Shortcuts drop-down menu.
You can also double-click a .outliner-shortcuts file in the Finder. The Keyboard Shortcuts window will open with that shortcuts file already selected in the popup menu.

Pasting from Other Apps

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

This setting only applies to styled text copied from outside of OmniOutliner, and pasted into an OmniOutliner note.

By default, OmniOutliner attempts to Merge Styles when pasting text copied from outside of the app. Selecting another option for this setting will update the Paste method for styled text:

Merge Styles — Uses Paste and Merge Styles for styled text. Preserves only essential styles such as bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, subscript or superscript, ligatures, and writing direction, as well as links with titles, and attachments.
Match Style — Uses Paste and Match Style for styled text. Discards all formatting from the copied text, including the URL for links with titles.
Keep Original Style — Uses Paste with Original Style for styled text. Preserves all styles from the copied text.

When copying and pasting styled text within OmniOutliner, Paste with Original Style is always used, so that all formatting is retained.

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 Resource Browser.

Send Anonymous System Information to the Omni Group

Available on iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro in Settings
Available on Mac in Update Settings
Available on Mac in System Information 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

You can use Control+1 through 9 to apply one of the Named styles to the current row.

Named styles are found in the Apply Styles section of the Inspector.

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.

Keyboard shortcuts on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro use the Control + number presentation, which is also an option on Mac.

For Mac, see Apply Named Styles With.

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 older OmniOutliner documents or OPML documents.

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.

When Pressing Tab/Tab Navigates Between Cells

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

On Mac, select which Tab key behavior you would like:

Indent row — Tab indents a row, and Shift+Tab outdents a row.
Go to next cell —
Tab navigates to the next cell in the row, and Shift+Tab navigates to the previous cell in the row,

On iPhone, iPad, or Apple Vision Pro, turn on Tab navigates between cells for Go to next cell, and turn it off for Indent row.

Regardless of the above setting, Option+Tab always inserts a Tab character.

Integration and Automation

OmniOutliner is deeply integrated into the system of whichever device you are using. This allows OmniOutliner to integrate with a range of Apple technologies, including:

Apple Intelligence
Shortcuts
Siri
Spotlight

In addition to the available Apple technologies, we have our own cross-platform automation system: Omni Automation!

Apple Intelligence

Apple Intelligence is available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro, if your device meets the minimum system requirements:

How to get Apple Intelligence

As Apple continues to update Apple Intelligence, we evaluate each new feature to determine which will help you accomplish more in OmniOutliner. OmniOutliner currently supports:

Foundation Models
Genmoji
Shortcuts Actions
Writing Tools

Foundation Models

OmniOutliner 6 includes support for Apple’s Foundation Models framework, allowing you to integrate Apple’s on-device large language model into your Omni Automation workflows.

To learn more about using Foundation Models with OmniOutliner 6, please visit the Apple Foundation Models page.

Genmoji

Genmoji can be used in row titles, row notes, and any cell which is part of a Rich Text Column.

To learn more about creating Genmoji, see these Apple User Guide articles:

Shortcuts Actions

The Shortcuts app supports Apple Intelligence actions, which can be combined with the OmniOutliner actions described below.

As of the time of writing, Apple Intelligence actions include using a cloud, on-device, or ChatGPT language model; creating an image using Image Playground; or incorporating Writing Tools into your workflow.

To learn more about using Apple Intelligence with Shortcuts, see these Apple User Guide articles:

Writing Tools

Writing Tools are available for row titles, row notes, and text contained in any cell.

To use Writing Tools, select the text you want to modify, then choose Show Writing Tools from the Shortcut Menu; on Mac, you can also select Writing Tools from the Edit Menu.

If you select a row (instead of text inside the row), Writing Tools will focus on the row title, but is unable to successfully Replace the title. You can still Copy and Paste the result manually.

To learn more about using Writing Tools, see these Apple User Guide articles:

Shortcuts

OmniOutliner 6.1 (or later) adds a collection of actions to the Shortcuts app. These actions are described below, with additional context and links to other sections of this documentation, where helpful.

You can also view available actions by launching the Shortcuts app, creating a New Shortcut, and then scrolling to the OmniOutliner section. Shortcuts also allows you to search action details, which is a quick way to find specific actions, or narrow your search to actions affecting one primary element (such as rows).

Select the Info button to the right of an action title to show details, including the intended purpose of the action, as well as possible inputs and results.

If you are just getting started with Shortcuts, please start with these helpful Apple User Guide articles:

Shortcut Actions Reference

All available OmniOutliner Shortcuts actions, in alphabetical order:

Add Child to Row
Add Column to Outline
Add Value to Pop-up List
Append Rich Text
Create New Outline
Delete Row
Get All Columns
Get All Descendants for Row
Get Children for Row
Get Column with Name
Get Note Column
Get Outline Column
Get Outline Root
Get Outline Row with Identifier
Get Row Value in Column
Get Selected Rows
Get Status Column
Keep Sorted by Column
Omni Automation Plug-In
Omni Automation Script
Prepend Rich Text
Set Column Summary
Set Column Visibility
Set Rich Text
Set Row Value in Column

Add Child to Row

Description:

Add a child with the given topic to the provided row.

Action:

Add Topic to Parent

Inputs:

Topic — The Rich Text topic for the added row.
Parent — The parent row for the child or, if not provided, the child will be added to the root of the outline.
Use OmniOutliner setting for Pasting From Other Apps — When turned on, this uses your setting for Pasting from Other Apps. Turning off this setting allows you to customize how styled text is used for this action.
Styled Text — Customize how styled text is used when setting the “topic” for this child.

This Shortcuts action is the equivalent of the Add Inside command.

Add Column to Outline

Description:

Add a column with a chosen Column Type and name to the current outline.

Action:

Add Column Type

Inputs:

Column Type — The Column Type of the newly added column. A Rich Text Column will be created when no value is specified.
Name — If specified, the string will be used as the name for the added column.
Position — Optionally used to control the position of the new column. Choices are “Before” or “After” and your selection is relative to an optional “Column”. If not set, “After” will be used.
Column — Optionally specifies the existing column next to which the new column will be ordered. Any choice works in conjunction with the optionally provided Position.

This Shortcuts action is the equivalent of the Add Column command.

Add Value to Pop-up List

Description:

Adds a new value to a Pop-up List retrieved from a column of the appropriate type.

Action:

Add Value to Enumeration

Inputs:

Value — The value to add to the Pop-up List.
Enumeration — A Pop-up List retrieved from a Pop-up List Column.
Position — Optionally used to control the position of the new value. Choices are “Before” or “After” and your selection is relative to an optional Relative Value. If not set, “After” will be used.
Relative Value — Optionally specifies the existing relative value next to which the new value will be ordered. Any choice works in conjunction with the optionally provided “Position.”

Append Rich Text

Description:

Appends the provided Rich Text in a row’s chosen column. Produces an error if the provided column is not a Rich Text Column.

Action:

Append Rich Text for Row in Column

Inputs:

Rich Text — The rich text to append to existing content in the provided row’s column.
Row — The row in which to set the value.
Column — A chosen column for the provided rich text or, if not provided, the outline column.
Use OmniOutliner setting for Pasting From Other Apps – When turned on, this uses your setting for Pasting from Other Apps. Turning off this setting allows you to customize how styled text is used for this action.
Styled Text — Customize how styled text is used when setting the topic for this child.

The Topic of a row is another name for text entered into the row.

The Outline Column defines the overall structure of your OmniOutliner document, and is frequently referred to as the Topic Column.

Compare Prepend Rich Text.

Create New Outline

Description:

Create a new outline in OmniOutliner.

Action:

Create New Outline

Inputs:

No inputs.

This Shortcuts action is the equivalent of the New command.

Delete Row

Description:

Deletes the provided row from the current outline.

Action:

Delete Row

Inputs:

Row — The row that should be deleted. Deleting the outline root produces an error.

This Shortcuts action is the equivalent of the Delete command.

Get All Columns

Description:

Gets all columns in the current outline.

Action:

Get All Columns

Inputs:

No inputs.

Get All Descendants for Row

Description:

Gets all descendants for the given row.

Action:

Get All Descendants for Row

Inputs:

Row — The parent row whose descendants should be returned or, if not provided, all rows in the outline will be returned.

Get Children for Row

Description:

Gets the children of the given row.

Action:

Get the Children for Row

Inputs:

Row The parent row whose children should be returned or, if not provided, the top-level children of the outline root.

Get Column with Name

Description:

Gets the first column in the current outline that exactly matches the provided name.

Action:

Get Columns with Name

Inputs:

Name Specifies the name of the column to retrieve.

Get Note Column

Description:

Gets the note column from the current outline.

Action:

Get Note Column

Inputs:

No inputs.

Get Outline Column

Description:

Gets the primary outline column from the current outline. This is typically the topic column, but can be renamed.

Action:

Get Outline Column

Inputs:

No inputs.

Get Outline Root

Description:

Gets the root in the current outline.

Action:

Get Outline Root

Inputs:

No inputs.

Get Outline Row with Identifier

Description:

Gets the row in the current outline with a given identifier if possible.

Action:

Get Outline Row with Identifier

Inputs:

Identifier — The identifier of the row to retrieve.

Get Row Value in Column

Description:

Gets the row’s value in a given column.

Action:

Get value for Row in Column

Inputs:

Row — The row from which to retrieve the value.
Column — The column from which to retrieve the value.

Compare Set Row Value in Column

Get Selected Rows

Description:

Gets the selected rows from the current outline.

Action:

Get Selected Rows

Inputs:

No inputs.

Get Status Column

Description:

Gets the status column from the current outline.

Action:

Get Status Column

Inputs:

No inputs.

Keep Sorted by Column

Description:

Set the persistent sort order on a given column. This only changes the displayed order of rows and not the actual structure of your outline. Row numbering may appear out of order.

Action:

Set Sort Ordering for Column

Inputs:

Sort Ordering — The sort ordering to set for the column. If no sort ordering is selected, the default is “None” and clears an existing sort.
Column — The column on which to set the persistent sort order.

This Shortcuts action is the equivalent of the Keep Sorted command.

Omni Automation Plug-In

Description:

Runs an action from an Omni Automation plug-in.

Action:

Run the Plug-In Action Omni Automation Plug-In

Inputs:

Plug-In Action — Any installed Omni Automation Plug-In for OmniOutliner

To learn more about incorporating Omni Automation into your Shortcuts workflows, visit the Omni Automation and Shortcuts page on the Omni Automation website, and try Installing Plug-Ins from the Omni Automation Plug-Ins for OmniOutliner collection.

Omni Automation Script

Description:

Runs an Omni Automation script, using optional input from another Shortcuts action.

Action:

Run a script with Input via Omni Automation

Inputs:

Input — Result from another Shortcuts action.
Script — Omni Automation script, using JavaScript.
Associated Files — Files to be used by the script.

To learn more about incorporating Omni Automation into your Shortcuts workflows, see Omni Automation and Shortcuts on the Omni Automation website.

Prepend Rich Text

Description:

Prepends the provided Rich Text in a row’s chosen column. Produces an error if the provided column is not a Rich Text Column.

Action:

Prepend Rich Text for Row in Column

Inputs:

Rich Text — The rich text value to prepend to the existing value in the provided row’s column.
Row — The row in which to set the value.
Column — A chosen column for the provided rich text or, if not provided, the Outline Column.
Use OmniOutliner setting for Pasting From Other Apps – When turned on, this uses your setting for Pasting from Other Apps. Turning off this setting allows you to customize how styled text is used for this action.
Styled Text — Customize how styled text is used when setting the “topic” for this child.

The Topic of a row is another name for text entered into the row.

The Outline Column defines the overall structure of your OmniOutliner document, and is frequently referred to as the Topic Column.

Compare Append Rich Text.

Set Column Summary

Description:

Set the summary for a given column in an outline.

Action:

Set Summary for Column

Inputs:

Summary — The summary to set for the column. If no summary is selected, the default is “None” and clears an existing summary.
Column — The column on which to set the summary.

Set Column Visibility

Description:

Set the visibility for a given column in an outline.

Action:

Set Visibility for Column

Inputs:

Visibility — The desired visibility for the column. The default is to toggle the visibility of the column.
Column — The column on which to set the desired visibility.

This Shortcuts action is the equivalent of toggling a column in the Columns submenu.

Set Rich Text

Description:

Sets the provided Rich Text in a row’s chosen column. Produces an error if the provided column is not configured for rich text input.

Action:

Set Rich Text for Row in Column

Inputs:

Rich Text — The rich text value to set in the provided row’s column.
Row — The row in which to set the value.
Column — A chosen column for the provided rich text or, if not provided, the outline column.
Use OmniOutliner setting for Pasting From Other Apps — When turned on, this uses your setting for Pasting from Other Apps. Turning off this setting allows you to customize how styled text is used for this action.
Styled Text — Customize how styled text is used when setting the “topic” for this child.

Set Row Value in Column

Description:

Set the rows’s value in a given column.

Action:

Set Value for Row in Column

Inputs:

Value — The value to set in the provided row’s column, if not provided, clears the existing value.
Row — The row in which to set the value.
Column — The column in which to set the value.

Compare Get Row Value in Column

Siri

Once you have configured a shortcut using the Shortcuts app, you can launch it using Siri.

To learn more, see these Apple User Guide articles:

For general information about Siri, these articles are useful:

Spotlight

Spotlight indexes OmniOutliner documents, allowing you to quickly search by row title, document title, attachment name, and note contents.

Spotlight is available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro:

Omni Automation

Omni Automation is our JavaScript-based cross-platform automation system, which is available on Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro.

To learn more about Omni Automation, please visit the What is Omni Automation? and Omni Automation in OmniOutliner pages.

Plug-Ins

Omni Automation Plug-Ins are written in Apple’s Core JavaScript, and can be used to automate a wide variety of workflows.

To learn more about Omni Automation Plug-Ins, visit the Omni Automation Plug-Ins website, try building your own using The Action Template Generators, or Installing Plug-Ins from the Omni Automation Plug-Ins for OmniOutliner collection.

Installing Plug-Ins

To install Omni Automation Plug-Ins on Mac:

Add the plug-in to a Connected Folder which is configured to support Plug-Ins, such as the iCloud Drive Connected Folder.
Double-click the plug-in, then select from On My Mac to use the plug-in on this device only, or OmniOutliner to add the plug-in to iCloud Drive > OmniOutliner > Plug-Ins, so it can be used on all your devices.
Select Configure… from the Automation Menu, then drag the plug-in over the Automation Configuration window.

To install Omni Automation Plug-Ins on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro:

Add the plug-in to a Connected Folder which is configured to support Plug-Ins, such as the iCloud Drive Connected Folder.
Tap the plug-in, then select from On My Device to use the plug-in on this device only, or OmniOutliner to add the plug-in to iCloud Drive > OmniOutliner > Plug-Ins, so it can be used on all your devices.
Select Manage Plug-Ins from the Automation Menu in The Toolbar, then drag the plug-in over the On My Device or OmniOutliner headers. This is easier on iPad or Apple Vision Pro, but still possible on iPhone.

Uninstalling Plug-Ins

To uninstall Omni Automation Plug-Ins on Mac:

If it is in a Connected Folder, remove it from that folder.
Select Configure… from the Automation Menu, Control + click on the plug-in, and select Move to Trash.

To uninstall Omni Automation Plug-Ins on iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro:

If it is in a Connected Folder, remove it from that folder.
Select Manage Plug-Ins from the Automation Menu in The Toolbar, swipe on the plug-in row from right to left, and select Delete.

Support and Troubleshooting

When you’re in need of help—whether you’re trying to figure out how columns work, how to apply a theme, or having some other issue with OmniOutliner—it’s good to know that the Support Humans at the Omni Group are always available to lend you a hand.

In addition to contacting Support directly, there are several online and in-app resources that can help answer your questions about OmniOutliner, and provide additional troubleshooting.

Release Notes

For a summary of the latest changes, start by reading the Release Notes.

They are available:

On Mac, from the Help Menu
On iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro, from the OmniOutliner Help menu item in the Toolbar OmniOutliner Menu

Online Support

Our OmniOutliner Support page provides a wealth of information (including this reference manual), as well as support articles which cover other topics related to working with OmniOutliner.

Community Support

Omni maintains a public Discourse Forum, which is available to everyone. Come share your questions and ideas with other users, share tips to show off how you’re using OmniOutliner, and seek help from the OmniOutliner community.

Omni also maintains a public Slack Workspace, where you’re welcome to join the community of fellow productivity enthusiasts to hang out and share OmniOutliner-related insights.

Note that while Discourse and Slack are a great resource for interacting with others in the OmniOutliner community, they are not monitored for troubleshooting purposes, and are not considered an official support channel. Please use our email and phone options to contact our support team directly.

Email Support

If you are stuck, have a great idea for the next version of OmniOutliner, or just want to let us know how we are doing, please send us an email.

Using the Contact Omni command creates an email message addressed to us, and includes information about the version you’re running, which operating system you’re running it on, and what type of license you have, which helps us quickly assist you.

Alternatively, you can email omnioutliner@omnigroup.com directly! Either way, we take support seriously, so you can expect a prompt response typed by our Support Humans.

If you are contacting support with an issue, it’s very helpful if you can include a screenshot or screen recording of the behavior that you’re experiencing, along with the steps that are causing the issue. This helps us understand the problem and find a solution more quickly and effectively.

Apple provides useful instructions for capturing screenshots or screen recordings:

Phone Support

We understand that sometimes you just can’t wait for an email response, like when you’re knee-deep in a project, and something isn’t working quite right. When this happens, you can call our Support Humans!

Please check our Support site for current hours and telephone numbers.

Troubleshooting

Move any troubleshooting sections here…

Glossary

If there is a term missing from this list which you might find helpful, or something that could use additional context or clarification, please email support to let us know.

Apple Account

Your Apple Account (previously known as your Apple ID) is used to access all services from Apple, including iCloud Drive.

If you need helping signing in to your Apple Account, please read this Apple User Guide article:

Apple User Guides

Apple provides User Guides for a variety of devices and applications.

There are links to specific articles throughout this reference manual, but if you’d like to learn more, these guides are a good place to start:

Columns

Each row can have multiple columns.

This allows you to create additional context, add metadata for easier reference, or expand the types of information you capture.

To learn more, read the Columns section of The Outline chapter.

Compact View

This is the default view on iPhone, which is also available on iPad when using split screen, slideover, or narrow windows.

This view shows each pane of OmniOutliner individually, and can be thought of as navigating a series of stacked cards. You can move between the Sidebar, Outline, and Inspectors panes.

The Document Manager works in a similar fashion.

Contrast Regular View.

See Shortcut Menu.

Device

The hardware that supports running the OmniOutliner app.

Supported devices include Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro.

Compare Platform.

Document

OmniOutliner can create two different types of documents:

Outlines contain structured writing or other data.
Templates contain settings and content you can use when creating a new Outline.

To learn more, read the Documents and Templates chapter.

Drag and Drop

A platform feature that allows dragging items around inside of OmniOutliner, from other apps to OmniOutliner, and from OmniOutliner to other apps.

Drag and Drop is supported on macOS, iPadOS, iOS, and visionOS.

See Organizing Rows With Drag and Drop in The Outline chapter

A menu available in text fields on iPad, iPhone, and Apple Vision Pro, which can be accessed by tapping in the field while editing text.

Most often contains system commands such as:

Cut
Copy
Paste

May also contain OmniOutliner-specific commands, such as:

Paste and Merge Styles
Paste and Match Style
Paste with Original Style

Filter

A way to control the visibility of rows in the Outline, in order to quickly find relevant information.

See Filtering the Outline in The Outline chapter.

Group

One or more rows, indented below another row.

The indented rows are part of a group, which is contained by the row above.

See Hierarchy.

Gutter

The space on the leading edge of the document between the Notes Column and Row Handles.

Tapping or clicking in this space selects the row.

Hierarchy

The structure of your outline, showing the relationship between rows.

Higher level rows are outdented, while lower levels rows are indented beneath higher level rows.

If a row sits below another row, and is at the same level, they are referred to as peers. These can also be thought of as siblings.

If a row sits below another row, and is at a lower level (indented), it is referred to as either being inside the row above, or contained by the row above. These can also be thought of as parent and child.

To learn more, read the Hierarchy section of The Outline chapter.

Inspectors

A window which allows you to view and adjust attributes for selected text, rows, columns, or even the whole document.

To show the Inspector, select the Inspectors button in the Toolbar, or choose Show Inspector from the View Menu.

If you have a selection in the Outline or Sidebar, the Inspectors will automatically display relevant fields.

To learn more, read The Inspectors chapter.

Leading Edge/Trailing Edge

When using OmniOutliner with a left to right language, the leading edge is the left side, and the trailing edge is the right side.

When using OmniOutliner with a right to left language, the leading edge is the right side, and the trailing edge is the left side.

Omni Account

Your Omni Account can be used to start a free trial of our applications, purchase a license or subscription, upgrade an existing license, or sync our applications using the Omni Sync Server.

To learn more, read our Using and managing your Omni Account support article.

Omni Automation

A method of using JavaScript to automate OmniOutliner Pro, OmniFocus Pro, OmniGraffle Pro, and OmniPlan Pro.

To learn more about Omni Automation, visit the Omni Automation website.

Outline

On Mac, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro, the Outline is in the center of the OmniOutliner window, with the Sidebar available on the leading edge, and the Inspectors available on the trailing edge.

On iPhone, the Outline is the primary view, with the Sidebar and Inspectors available when you need them.

Read The Outline chapter to learn more.

Outline Column

See Topic Column.

Plain Text

Plain Text does not support formatting of any kind.

Plain text is supported in Notes, Pop-up List Columns, and Rich Text Columns (including the Topic Column).

Contrast Rich Text.

Platform

The operating system that runs on each device supported by OmniOutliner.

Supported platforms include macOS, iPadOS, iOS, and visionOS.

Compare Device.

Plug-In

Plug-ins are written in JavaScript using Omni Automation, and can be used to automate a variety of tasks when using OmniOutliner Pro (or other Pro apps from the Omni Group).

To learn more about Omni Automation Plug-Ins, visit the Omni Automation Plug-Ins website.

Regular View

The is the default view on Mac, iPad in most screen configurations, and Apple Vision Pro.

This view can show the Sidebar, Outline, and Inspectors at the same time.

The Document Manager works in a similar fashion.

Contrast Compact View.

Rich Text

Rich Text is the native text format on most Apple devices, and supports different Fonts, Styles, and Colors, with additional attributes available depending on the Platform.

Rich text is supported in Notes and Rich Text Columns (including the Topic Column).

To learn more about formatting text, see the Apple User Guide article:

Format text in documents with fonts on Mac

Contrast Plain Text.

Row

The basic building block of content in OmniOutliner.

To learn more, read the Rows section of The Outline chapter.

Settings

If you would like to change something about how OmniOutliner works, see OmniOutliner Settings.

If you would like to change something about the system on which OmniOutliner is running, see System Settings.

If you touch and hold on a Row, Column, or selection of text, a Shortcut Menu may appear with relevant commands.

Apple previously referred to this type of menu as a context menu or contextual menu.

A pane on the leading edge. of the Outline.

When using Regular View, select the Sidebar Button, or use the Show/Hide Sidebar command, to show or hide the Sidebar next to the Outline.

When using Compact View, select the Sidebar Button, to slide the Sidebar in from the leading edge; tap the button again to slide it out when you are finished using it, leaving the Outline visible.

To learn more, read The Sidebar chapter.

Status Bar

The status bar is at the bottom of your document window on Mac.

It displays the number of rows, words, and characters currently shown in the Outline. Numbers are based on rows currently displayed in the Outline, as if they are fully expanded. Filtering the Outline will change the numbers, but expanding or collapsing displayed rows will not.

System Settings

Application from Apple that allows you to change options which can affect your entire device, or just OmniOutliner.

On iPad, iPhone, or Apple Vision Pro, the application is named Settings.

On Mac, the application is named System Settings, and it is also available in the Apple menu, located in the top-left corner of your screen.

Template

An OmniOutliner document which contains settings such as row styles, background colors, or numbering, which can be used as the basis for creating a new OmniOutliner document.

Templates can also include content in addition to settings, which is added to new documents created using the Template Picker.

An area at either the top or bottom of the OmniOutliner window, which contains Toolbar Buttons.

These buttons provide easy access to Commands, Settings, and Automation.

For additional information, see The Toolbar chapter.

Topic Column

The primary column of your OmniOutliner document.

May also be referred to as the Outline Column.

To learn more, read the Topic Column section of The Outline chapter.

Contents

Welcome to OmniOutliner 6

All Platforms

Mac

iPad & iPhone

Apple Vision Pro

The Outline

Rows

Editing Rows

Row Handles

Status Checkboxes

Notes

Columns

Notes Column

Topic Column

Adding Columns

Removing Columns

Editing Columns

Column Headers

Autosizing

Hierarchy

Sections and Levels

Selecting Rows

Adding Hierarchy

Copying and Pasting Rows

Organizing Rows With Drag and Drop

Filtering the Outline

Styles

Structural Styles

Named Styles

Layering Styles

Linking and Copying Styles

Linking Styles

Copying and Pasting Styles

Style Swatches

The Sidebar

Sections Tab

Adding Sections With the Sections List

Styles Tab

Filters Tab

Batch Find Tab

The Toolbar

Toolbar on Mac

Customizing the Mac Toolbar

Toolbars on iPad

Customizing the iPad Toolbar

More Menu on iPad

Bottom Toolbar on iPad

Toolbars on iPhone

More Menu on iPhone

Bottom Toolbar on iPhone

Toolbars on Apple Vision Pro

More Menu on Apple Vision Pro

Bottom Toolbar on Apple Vision Pro

Toolbar Buttons Reference

About OmniOutliner

Action Menu

Add Above

Add Column

Add Inside/Add Child

Add Note

Add Outside/Add Aunt

Add Parent

Add Row/New Item/New Row

Apply Theme

Attachments

Audio Recording

Automation Menu

Collapse All

Colors

Columns

Configure OmniPresence

Connected Folders

Contact Omni

Copy

Cut

Decrease Font Size/Increase Font Size

Delete

Document Title Menu

Documents