Feature requests
 

Two features would make OO the most powerful tool for organizing thoughts available.

One, as noted elsewhere in the forum, would be the ability to filter based on column content.

The other would be to show the main subheadings of a hoisted topic in the utility drawer so that at deeper levels of an outline I could use drag & drop to reorganize a subset of the outline. The current ability to reorder an outline at the top level by dragging to topics in the utility drawer is fantastic, and I'd love to see it extended to all depths of the hierarchy. Apologies if this feature is already available; if so I haven't figured out how to access it and a how-to tip would be welcome.

Thanks!

never mind
 

Well, I still vote for filtering but figured out how to access subtopics in the utility drawer for drag & drop reorganizing. I am sooooo embarrassed it is so easy. Just click on the icon for the topic with subtopix. Never mind.

Zoom for OmniOutliner
 

Greetings,
I love and use OmniOutliner all of the time. However one thing I would like is a zoom function. When I print my outlines a 12pt font or so works fine. However on my screen that can be a bit small-ish. Rather than having to manipulate the actual font in the document could you folks add a zoom-in/zoom-out function?
Thank you.
Ad Astra Per Aspera,
Kevin

i think this, along with cloning and aliases, is one of the most oft-requested new feature. it seems pretty fundamental to me (and my strained eyes - i use a MacBook) , but doesn't seem likely any time soon.
the omni people tell us that it's quite complex to implement - but being a Scrivener user (which that application's developer openly acknowledges - is heavily influenced by OO's look and feel) and constantly use its zoom capabilities, i really don't know why this isn't being priorotised in OO. O well, i suppose we have to wait for 4.00

We're very keen to have this feature ourselves; in fact, we tried implementing this for several of our 3.x releases. We were able to get all of our code drawing at the scaled size, but some attachments (like QuickTime movies) are rendered by system code which refused to scale properly. So we ended up pulling the feature rather than have things draw incorrectly.

We think all of those bugs might finally be fixed in Leopard, so we plan to try implementing this feature again in OmniOutliner 4.

Ken: Thanks for the update.

This one feature is sooo important that it ranks only behind the Iraq war and Middle East negotiations on my list of priorities!

I rarely add in QT attachments and the like in OO. I would gladly (nee, VERY very gladly) download 2 versions of OO: one with font scaling/zoom and one without (kind of like PPC and Intel versions). I could use the non-scaling one for that 1% of the time I needed it. But literally every day I use OO with text only, and each of those days I'm reminded of this issue. As it is I've made a compromise: on-screen text small for my eyes, print font size too big.

The good news for OmniGroup is I use this piece of software every day. The bad news is the constant reminder of the lack of zoom functionality when all of my other relevant text-based apps have it.

keyboard shortcuts
 

Hi,

I use MS Word's outline view, which I find pretty darn good, because the keyboard shortcuts allow me to move items around with ease. I have used OO for a month, and I found it harder to move things around. For example,

Heading 1
Subheading 1
Subheading 2
Heading 2
Heading 3

In OO, if I want to move Subheading 1 down under Heading 2, I have to promote Sh1, move it down, then demote it to get it under H2: 4 keystrokes.

In MSWord, all I have to do is to move the item down: 2 keystrokes, and it's a lot easier because I don't have remember to move left and right (moreover, if I do forget to promote, the cursor jumps, and I end up moving Heading 2 down below Heading 3).

What is the reason for this restriction? Is there going to be an opt-out in OO4? I'm interested in buying OO for all its other features, but ease-of-use is the most important.

GREAT!
ZOOM
will make OO even more usable and will safe time for formatting/reformatting cycles before printing which takes away from the willingness to use the program in some cases.
looking forward to it.
kk

[QUOTE=Jody Severson;36057]Well, I still vote for filtering [/QUOTE]
+100 for filtering. Until OmniOutliner has it I will continue to be forced to use other tools.

Add to filtering the ability to have multiple windows on the same document and you are really getting somewhere :).
[url]http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?p=38177#post38177[/url]

d

[QUOTE=kristian;38024]GREAT!
ZOOM
will make OO even more usable and will safe time for formatting/reformatting cycles before printing which takes away from the willingness to use the program in some cases.
looking forward to it.
kk[/QUOTE]

Why not just use the Universal Access global ZOOM features built into the Mac OS RIGHT NOW to do all the zooming you like?

It takes just a little time to get used to how it works, but once you do, you can zoom in, pan around your document, and edit text pretty simply - then zoom out and "put away" the zoom environment until you need it again.

Universal Access isn't JUST for the disabled after all - its a great tool for ANYONE who needs to momentarily overcome the inability to see stuff like small text perfectly.

For what it's worth.

Two requests:

1. Copy the row and column controls from Numbers, i.e. the little submenu that shows up when you hover over the first row or column in a Numbers file that gives you the option to add, remove, etc an item.

2. As much as I'd hate to think so, Omni might stop making Outliner some time in the future. What would I do with all my outlines then? It would be nice to have either an XML export option, with a published schema, or the ability to save an Outliner file with a plain text rather than binary XML file inside it.

jkb

The XML is just zipped to save disk space. Uncheck the "compress on disk" box in the "Advanced" tab of the Document inspector, resave, and you're good to go.

Name of hosting folder in Headers & Footers
 

Is there, like in Word, a possiblility to set in the name of the hosting folder name in the Header of a Omni- document. I wish not the complete track, only the folder name, one level up. I can not find this, so I wish it will be soon.

And what is the difference between Document Name and Document Title?

Bill,

Thanks for the suggestion on the Universal Access global Zoom feature. You're right, these are under-appreciated features.

I tried it out, but it doesn't really do what I want. The issue is to have the text in a particular software program document zoomed ALL the time (not all the "stuff" on the screen for parts of the time). Also the text when zoomed using Universal Access is not very crisp.

InDesign does zoom, Nisus Writer Pro does zoom, heck OmniGraffle does zoom, etc. etc. So many apps do zoom. Then, of those that don't, some offer a "screen size" versus "print size" of text. That's also just fine.

If I understood Ken correctly (from a previous post), the only problem they have with implementing zoom is how some "non-text" things like QuickTime movies show up. I'd gladly live with the compromise of pretty crappy looking enlarged QT movies (which I embed every other year at the most), but having the text-ability to zoom (which I use every day).

My Feature Request List
 

Further, and in confirmation to some of the above here is my feature request list:

# Clones
Need to be able to create clones of items. The methodology I envisage is that for each item there may be one or more clones: each clone being a pointer to the original, so if any clone or the original is changed all are updated; if one or more clones are deleted the original and any other clones survive, if the original is deleted then all clones are deleted. Clones should be able to be visually identified as being clones by say a clone icon superimposed on their handle or by having a clone style or badge (see below).

# Multiple document windows (views)
It should be possible to have many windows open into a document so that it would be possible to have various items hoisted in their own windows.

# Find and Gather
There needs to be a new find tool, with say ⌥⌘F as the shortcut, whereby the results of the find are created as clones in a new window. This find also needs to be able to use regex and to be able to find based on named styles (at present it is not possible to find all instances of say the "Review" style without manually inspecting the whole outline). This find should be able to be run without destroying the results of any previous find by creating a new results window.

# Columns
Need to be able to set a column as hidden (not just zero width) so that when navigating across a row the cursor doesn't enter a hidden column.

Need to be able to filter the display based on column contents.

# Internal Links
Need to be able to click on and follow internal document links which should be styled as links. These links should survive HTML export.

# Collapse and Expand
Need to be able to expand and collapse the outline to each level. A ⌘-click on a row handle should expand/contract every other sibling in that view. Keyboard shortcuts ⌃⌘1 to ⌃⌘8 should expand/collapse the outline view to that level.

# Badges
It should be possible to add badges, or icons, to items to help in visually providing information as to their content or import.

Hoping for your consideration to this request
Thanks
John

Johno's post sums up my hopes for OO4 perfectly.

"The XML is just zipped to save disk space. Uncheck the "compress on disk" box in the "Advanced" tab of the Document inspector, resave, and you're good to go."

Thank you. This puts my mind at ease about the future of all my many, many lists.

jkb