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The Outliner of Giants offers three options for adding rich text formatting to your outline:

Textile is a full-featured plain text markup that supports a wide range of formatting options;

Markdown is a popular light-weight plain text markup for adding basic styling to your text;

The rich text editor supports a wide range of formatting options in a 'what-you-see-is-what-you-get' view. If you are not confident using a plain text markup language, or just want to use point-and-click formatting, then this option is the best for you.

You can change your editing syntax at any time by opening your outline, and then selecting your preferred syntax in the outline settings bar at the bottom of the view.

To import existing content into a new outline simply select 'Create an outline' in the top left of your your home page and then click the 'Import' button. This will expose the import field into which you can paste your content.

Import existing content using plain text

Import an existing outline using OPML

The Outliner of Giants offers a number of templates to help get you started with your new outline. Templates offer a framework within which you can structure your work, but which can be easily adapted once you get started.

To use a template simply select 'Create an outline' in the top left of your your home page and then click the 'Templates' button to show a list of the available templates.

To delete an entire outline open your list of outlines, identify the row of the outline you would like to delete, and then click the small button in the first column. This will highlight the row of the outline to be deleted. Now that you have selected the outline to be deleted, click the 'Delete' button in the toolbar at the top of the view. You will be presented with a notification warning you that you are about to delete the selected outline. Click the 'Cancel' button if you do not wish to delete the outline, otherwise click the 'Delete' button within the notification.

Your outline and all of the nodes associated with it will now be removed from our severs. Please note that this action cannot be undone, and we cannot recover outlines that you have deleted.

Outlines are made up of a series of nested lists. When you first open an outline you only see the first level in the hierarchy, and must expose further layers as you navigate down through your document's branching structure.

Within the context of this particular outline, nodes with levels beneath them are identified by a number (a count of nodes within the next layer down) and a small chevron or arrow.

Clicking the icon will unfold the next layer of your document, and clicking it a second time will collapse that branch again.

You can also use keyboard shortcuts to open and close branches: E to expand the currently selected node's children; and C to collapse them.

'Hoisting' allows you to focus in on a particular branch, by moving it to the top of your current view, and hiding your outline's other branches.

To hoist a node click the up arrow to the right of the node text, or use the modifier + U keyboard shortcut.

If you find yourself hoisting to a particular branch on a regular basis you can save it to your list of outlines. To save a hoist simply click the star icon on the node body whilst in that hoist (it will turn yellow when the shortcut is saved). To remove the shortcut just enter that hoist, and click the star icon again, turning it grey.

To return to your outline from a hoist, simply click the down arrow on the root node, or the 'Root' button within the toolbar at the top of your screen.

The free text search enables you to search both within and across your different outline documents for the presence of the given search terms.

If you need to a hoist to a specific node within an outline, searching for it by name within the search bar at the top of the screen with offer a dropdown of suggestions; clicking one of these will take you directly to a hoist of that node.

Whether simply adding a link from your browser, or uploading an entire document, the ability to import existing content into your outline allows you to quickly build your outline.

Importing content into a new outline

Importing content into an existing outline

The hierarchical nature of outliners gives you two options when creating new nodes within your outline: to add them to the current level (a sibling); or to add them at the next level down (a child).

You can also create individual nodes or whole branches by pasting text into your outline. To do this simply select the node that you would like your content to go after (by hovering over it with your mouse), and then hitting modifier + v. If you paste in a single item this will be added as a node after the currently selected one. However, if you add a list of items then a new node will be created and your items will be added as its children. In addition you can paste the contents of an OPML file (.opml) exported from another outlining application (see the branch on starting a new outline for more information about OPML).

Node types

To edit an existing node within your outline just click the 'Edit' link at the end of your node's text, the 'Edit' button in the node toolbar (click the node body or hit the 's' key to expose this functionality), or hitting the space bar when a node has been selected.

Editing a node's wiki

To create a copy of a node click the 'Clone' button on the node toolbar (click the node or hit the 's' key to expose this functionality).

To create a copy of the node in the current location select 'Duplicate here', or hit modifier + d.

To send a copy of the node to another outline select the outline's title from the list.

Alternatively you can copy the node to the clipboard, navigate to the location that you would like to paste it - either within the current outline, or in another one - and then select paste within the Clone menu of the node after which you want to paste it.

As you re-organize your outline's nodes it may become clear that what is currently two separate nodes should be merged into a single node, or that a node has grown too large, and needs to be split into a number of smaller nodes.

You can merge the contents of two nodes that are next to each other by clicking the 'Merge' button available from the node toolbar (click a node or hit the 's' key to expose this functionality), or by hitting the modifier + m keys. The node text and wiki content of the second node will be appended to that of the first node, and any children that the nodes have will be combined into a single list below the newley merged node.

You can split the contents of a node based on one of the characters within the node's text e.g. a period or semi-colon. Each string of text will be converted into a new node, and any children that sat below the original node will be moved down a level. To split a node click the 'Split' button available from the node toolbar (click a node or hit the 's' key to expose this functionality), or hit the modifier + n keys. The default character that the will be used to split the text is a period [.], but you can change this by entering your preferred character in the field next to the split button.

If you would like to remove a node or an entire branch from one of your outlines then you can either archive it - which places the node into your archive and stores it for one year - or you can permanently delete the node, in which case it will be completely removed from the system. It is both safer - archived nodes can be recovered later if you change your mind! - and faster to archive nodes rather than delete them. Archived nodes do not count towards your account's limits.

Archiving nodes

Deleting nodes

As your outline develops, or if you collaborate with others on its creation, it can be useful to view a history of the changes made to it over time.

Viewing a history of the changes made across your outline (paid accounts only)

Viewing a history of the changes made to an individual node (paid accounts only)

View a history of the changes made by a collaborator (paid accounts only)

You can move nodes up and down within the context of their immediate siblings by using the arrows in the node menu, visible when you hover over a node with your mouse, or by hitting the modifier + up arrow keys to move a node before the node above it, or the modifier + down arrow keys to move it after the node below it.

You can also re-order each node amongst its immediate siblings by dragging it up or down the list of nodes using the drag bar on the left hand side of each node. Using this approach you can also drag a node into any of the other open branches of your outline. On mobile devices, drag and drop can be activated by holding down on the node with your finger until the node becomes active.

You can promote or demote a node within the context of your outline's hierarchy by clicking the 'Promote' or 'Demote' buttons available from the node toolbar (click a node or hit the 's' key to expose this functionality), or by hitting the Tab key to demote and the Backspace key to promote the currently selected node. A demoted node will become a child of the node before it, and a promoted node will be placed before its immediate parent. Nodes that are children of the outline's root node - i.e. they are at the top of your outline's hierarchy - will be promoted out of that outline, becoming a new outline in their own right.

You can also drag & drop nodes across your outline's hierarchy, so nodes at the bottom of your outline's hierarchy can be dragged to the top, or vice versa.

You can also use drag-to-demote if you want to demote a node into a closed branch, or below a node that doesn't yet have any children. To do this drag the node to the right until the drag placeholder turns red, and then release the node.

Once a node has more than two children they can be sorted by clicking the [] button available from the node toolbar (click a node or hit the 's' key to expose this functionality) and selecting one of the sort options. All sorts can be done in both ascending and descending order, and provide a quick way to re-organize a list of nodes.

Sorting nodes using the Alphanumric option orders them by the text within the node's title.

Sorting nodes using the Checked option orders them by the checked status of each node.

Sorting nodes using the Label option orders them by the colored label that each node has been marked with (un-marked nodes will be moved to the end of the list).

Sorting nodes using the Highlight option orders them by the colored highlight that each node has been marked with (un-marked nodes will be moved to the end of the list).

Sorting nodes using the Font color option orders them by the colored font that each node has been marked with (un-marked nodes will be moved to the end of the list).

Sorting nodes using the Priority option orders them by the priority that each node has been marked with (un-marked nodes will be moved to the end of the list).

Sorting nodes using the Date option orders them by the date that each node has been marked with (un-marked nodes will be moved to the end of the list).

As your outline grows in size it is important to be able to find the information that you need by searching and filtering your nodes, both within the current outline as well as across all of your outlines.

Quick search

Full text search

Filtering nodes

The Outliner of Giants offers three options for creating rich text within your outline: Textile, Markdown, and the rich text editor. You specify which syntax your outline uses when you create it, but this can be changed at any time using the settings bar available at the bottom of each outline.

The Textile markup language

The Markdown markup language

The rich text editor

If you are proficient in writing HTML then you can also use plain HTML and in-line styles within your nodes (select the Textile editor). Note however that, because the nodes themselves are formed of HTML, adding your own can have unpredictable results if you are not careful with closing your tags.

The ability to 'mark' nodes provides you with a range of options for visually distinguishing your nodes from one-another, sorting individual branches, as well as filtering nodes both within and across outlines.

Marking nodes with a checkbox

Marking nodes with a colored label

Marking nodes with a colored highlight

Marking nodes with a colored font

Marking nodes with a priority

Marking nodes with a tag

Marking nodes with a date

You can attach your own files to individual nodes by clicking the [] button available from the node toolbar (click a node or hit the 's' key to expose this functionality), or the node's form menu.

If you would like to attach a file from your Dropbox or Google Drive account then you can select these services using the drop-down menu next to the attachment button. You will then be presented with the selected service's file picker, from which you can choose the files that you would like to attach to your node. Note that the attachment will link to the service's web-view for the file, rather than directly to the file itself.

Once a file is attached to a node you can then embed a link to it from within your node's title or wiki text using the 'Insert' button within the table of attachments. If the attachment is an image file then these will be automatically embedded as an image within your node text.

If you would like to view all of the attachments associated with an outline then select 'Attachments' from the outline actions menu exposed by clicking the gear icon in the top right of your outline [].

Please note that attachments are not included when an outline is published. If you would like to include your file within a published outline then embed a link to it within your node's text.

Many sites, such as YouTube or Google Maps, allow you to embed their content within other applications. To embed content from another site within your outline go to the item you wish to embed and look for the 'share' or 'embed' button. Then simply copy and paste the exposed code into a new node and click save.

If your are using the rich text editor, then you can use the 'Insert video' button, or switch to HTML view using the '</>' button to insert the embed code.

Files stored in both Dropbox and Google Drive can be directly attached to nodes, enabling you to reference them from within your outlines.

You can select these services using the drop-down menu next to the attachment button. You will then be presented with the selected service's file picker, from which you can choose the files that you would like to attach to your node. Note that the attachment will link to the service's web-view for the file, rather than directly to the file itself.

If working away from your outline, or if you simply want to add an email's contents to your document, you can send it to any of the nodes within your outline (paid accounts only). When a node receives an email, its contents will be added as a new child node: the email's subject line will be used to populate the node's text; the email's body will be used to populate the node's wiki; and any files attached to the email will be attached to the node.

Each of your nodes has its own email address, so you can send emails to any part of your outline's hierarchy, whether it be a single node that serves as an inbox for the whole outline, or each of the nodes that serve as your outline's major headings or categories.

To access a node's email address open that node's details view by clicking the [] button available from the node toolbar (click a node or hit the 's' key to expose this functionality). Adding the address to your contacts app will give you quick access to it from within your preferred email client, allowing you to easily add new nodes from any device or location.

Your node's email address is unique and can be reset at any time by viewing that node's details (see above), and then clicking the red 'Reset secret' button. A new email address will be generated for the node, and the old one will stop working, so you will need to update your address book with the new address.

Showing nodes within your calendar can be a useful way to track upcoming tasks, or keep a record of past events.

To show your nodes within a calendaring application - such as Google Calendar, Microsoft's Outlook, or Apple's Calendar app - open your list of available calendars (there's one for each one of your outlines), and copy the 'View calendar' link into your preferred calendar application's 'add' or 'subscribe' functionality.

Each node that has been marked with a date will be added to your calendar, with the node text being used for the event's title.

The default time zone used for calendars is Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), but this can be changed to your local time zone by clickingthe time zone button within the Calendars view, or within the settings panel available at the bottom of each outline.

Note that if you change your time zone you will need to re-subscribe to the calendar's URL, as this is updated based uponthe selected time zone.

Your work is important, so saving regular back-ups gives you the peace-of-mind that your efforts will not be wasted.

Manually backing-up your outline

Automatically backing-up your outline (paid accounts only)

The outline view most closely matches the the layout within which your outline was created, and allows others to navigate down through your outline's hierarchy. This support outline is an example of a published outline.

The document view renders your outline as a structured document and is particularly useful if you would like to share a document as it is being drafted. Our terms of service page is an example of an outline rendered as a document.

The blog view renders your outline as a time-based web-log. Your root node will be used to entitle the blog and any text in the root node's wiki will be used for the sub-title. Each of the branches within your outline's first level will then become the blog's individual posts. Because blogs are defined by their temporal order, for a branch to be included as a post it must be marked with a date (see the Marking branch above). The individual posts of your blog will then be ordered in reverse by this date value i.e. the most recent will be at the top, the oldest at the bottom. Posts that are not given an explicit date will not be visible in the published view. Our blog is an example of an outline rendered as a blog.

If you have files attached to any of your outline's nodes that you would like to include within your published document, simply include a link to them within your node's text (we don't automatically publish a node's list of attachments in order to give you control over which files get published online).

To insert a link to a file within a node's text simply edit the node, place your cursor where you would like the link to go, and then click the 'Insert' button within the node's table of attachments. Note that if your attachment is an image file this functionality will insert an embedded image, rather than a link to a file.