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Chapter 7: continued

Outline-Based Windows

There are three outline-based windows in Frontier: outline windows, menubar editing windows and script-editing windows. We'll first discuss outline windows since everything that pertains to them is also relevant to the other two types. Then we'll talk about the individual distinctions of the other types of windows.

Frontier outlines differ from most computerized outlines in that they permit you to have as many summit-level (leftmost) headings as you like. A Frontier outline contains only text-based headings (lines), not pictures or other types of data. Headings do not word-wrap, no matter how many characters they contain. Each heading is limited to 255 characters.

You add a heading to a Frontier outline by pressing Return. If the current heading has any expanded sub-headings, the new heading is inserted as the first child of the heading. If it doesn't have any sub-headings, or if its sub-headings are all collapsed, the new heading is inserted as a heading at the same level as the one on which you pressed Return. If you want to make it a child of the current heading, use the Tab key.

To delete a heading, you select it by clicking on its item marker and then deleting it using the Clear command or delete key.

You collapse and expand a heading by double-clicking on its item marker. If the heading is already collapsed, it expands. If it is expanded, double-clicking its item marker collapses it. Collapsing a heading always hides all of the headings subordinate to it, including sub-headings of nested sub-headings, and so on. Expanding a heading, however, only expands the next level down. With the Outline menu (discussed above), you can fully expand and collapse an outline.

An outline can be in one of two modes for editing and navigation purposes. In text mode, the entire heading is not selected. The cursor is either positioned between characters or it selects multiple characters (including every character on the line, but not the item marker). In that mode, navigation follows the same rules as word processing documents described above. When the outline is in outline mode (or "structure" mode), however, the entire heading is selected by the bar cursor. You can switch into and out of text mode in an outline with the Enter key. (Scripting tip: because of the relationship to word processing, the scripting commands to deal with text mode are in the "wp" category, wp.inTextMode and wp.setTextMode.)

Table 4-2 describes how the Command and Option keys control navigation in an outline when it is in its default outline or "structure" mode.

Table 4-2. Cursor Movement Modifier Keys in Outline Windows (Outline Mode) 

Key    No Modifier      Option           Command
-----  ---------------  ---------------  --------------------
   up  structured up    (no change)      up to first sibling
 down  structured down  (no change)      down to last sibling
 left  flat up          structured left  up to first heading
right  flat down        structured down  down to last heading
NOTE

You can switch an outline between structured mode (which is its default condition) and flat mode with the UserTalk verb op.flatCursorKeys. In that event, the arrow keys work differently from the way they work in structured mode. See DocServer for details.

In Table 4-2, the following terms have the indicated meanings:

In addition to the normal Cut/Copy/Paste operations, you can also reorganize a Frontier outline in one of these ways: The Frontier outliner also supports hoisting and de-hoisting operations which allow you to look at only part of an outline as if it were the entire outline.

If you click on a heading's item marker and hold the mouse button down, the cursor changes into a small hand that appears to be grasping the item marker. You can physically drag this item in the outline. Other item markers will turn into arrows pointing up, down, or on a 45-degree angle down and to the right indicating where you are about to place the outline segment. Figure 7-41 shows a selected heading being dragged so that it appears as a new summit. Notice that the item marker of Summit 2 is a down-arrow indicating that the user is presently moving the heading so that it is directly under and on the same level as Summit 2.


Figure 7-41. Moving a Heading by Direct Manipulation

If you press the Tab key while you're on a heading in outline mode, Frontier moves that heading to the right if possible. Shift-Tab moves the heading to the left if possible. If either movement is blocked because the heading on which you are positioned is already as far right or as far left as it will go, Frontier beeps.

NOTE

The ability to use the Tab key for reorganizing an outline can be turned on and off with the UserTalk verb op.tabKeyReorg. See DocServer for details.
You can choose the Promote and Demote options from the Outline menu to reorganize part of an outline as well. Each of these options works on the sub-headings of the current heading. If you promote sub-headings, you move them all to the left one level. If you demote them, you move the siblings below the selection to the right one level.

Frontier includes four fast reorganization key combinations. These are summarized in Table 43.

Table 43. Fast Reorganization Key Combinations 

Command Key  Combination Effect
-----------  ------------------------------------------------
Command-U    Moves selected headline up, 
             swapping with its previous sibling
Command-D    Moves the selected headline down, 
             swapping with its next sibling
Command-L    Moves the selected headline to the left, 
             making it the next sibling of its parent
Command-R    Moves the selected headline to the right, 
             making it the last child of its previous sibling
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HTML formatting by Steven Noreyko January 1996, User Guide revised by UserLand June 1996