Design
The principal attribute of outline editors is that they support or enforce the use of a hierarchy of their items.
- Editing: Sound parent-child relationships are enforced when the user modifies the document structure. For example:
- Promoting, demoting, copying, or deleting a parent has the same effect on the children.
- Every item entry must be within one level of its predecessor, such that each item must be a sibling or child of the preceding item (thus, no item can be a grandchild of the preceding item).
- Viewing: The tool enables the user to affect the display by level. For example:
- Applying styles by outline level (e.g., bold all 1st level items)
- Displaying selected levels (e.g., show all 1st and 2nd level items, but none deeper).
- Hoisting an item hides all parent and sibling items; thereby focusing, or zooming in, on a particular branch. De-hoisting again reveals the full outline.
- Search/Filter: The tool displays only items that contain the query terms plus their ancestors (parent, grandparent...) to give them context.
- File import and export: Both the content and structure of outlines are conveyed when files are imported or exported (e.g., from and to tab-indented files).
- Fields/Columns: Items can also have additional fields of information. This data can be shown as columns of data in the outline or as fields in the second pane (see 'Layout' below). Some outliners also allow the user to create custom fields and/or filter on fields.
Read more about this topic: Outliners
Famous quotes containing the word design:
“Teaching is the perpetual end and office of all things. Teaching, instruction is the main design that shines through the sky and earth.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“With wonderful art he grinds into paint for his picture all his moods and experiences, so that all his forces may be brought to the encounter. Apparently writing without a particular design or responsibility, setting down his soliloquies from time to time, taking advantage of all his humors, when at length the hour comes to declare himself, he puts down in plain English, without quotation marks, what he, Thomas Carlyle, is ready to defend in the face of the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance. There is as much secrecy about the cooking as if he had a design to poison you.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)