Tree Outliner for the web

Open treeoutliner.app in Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox, on a computer or a phone. Nothing to install, no account.

On Windows and Linux use Ctrl where this guide says ⌘, and Alt where it says ⌥.

Your documents

• The web version keeps two documents: Welcome to Tree Outliner, with the basics and an example trip, and one document of your own. Tree Outliner for Mac keeps as many as you like.
• New document (⌥N, or the button at the bottom left) opens your document if it is empty. If it already has something in it, Tree Outliner asks first: Save to file first, Start over or Cancel.
• Everything stays in this browser on this device. Nothing is sent to us or to anyone else. If you clear the browser’s data, the documents go with it — save a copy to a file now and then.
• Changed your mind? After Start over, opening a file over your document, or Erase all documents and start over, press Restore in the note at the bottom. Later, the same is in the command palette: Restore erased documents.
• Restore welcome document (in the palette) puts the welcome document back as it was at the start.

Files

• ⌘S saves your document as a .treeoutline file. It opens in Tree Outliner for Mac too, with labels, notes and checkmarks. In Chrome and Edge the next ⌘S writes to the same file; in other browsers each save downloads a copy.
• ⌘O opens a .treeoutline or an OPML file. You can also drop a file on the window. If your document is not empty, Tree Outliner asks before replacing it.
• Import OPML… and Export to OPML are in the command palette.

Writing

What	Keys
Edit the selected item	Enter or F2
Finish editing	Enter or Esc
New item below	⌘↩
New item above	⇧⌘↩
New item inside the selected one	Tab (in the tree), ⌥K
New item next to the parent	⇧⌘A
Split the item at the cursor	⌥⇧↩
Duplicate	⌘D
Delete	Backspace
Mark as done	Space
Note under the item	⌘‘
Undo, redo	⌘Z, ⇧⌘Z

Copy, cut and paste (⌘C, ⌘X, ⌘V) take an item with everything inside it. A list pasted from elsewhere keeps its levels.

Labels and style

What	Keys
Color label: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, grey	⌥⇧1 … ⌥⇧7
The same key again, or ⌥⇧0	takes the label off
Bold title	⌥⇧9
Underlined title	⌥⇧8

Moving things around

What	Keys
Move in, move out	⌘] or ⌥] (Tab in the list), ⇧Tab or ⌥[
Move up, down	⌥↑, ⌥↓
Open, fold a branch	⌥→, ⌥←
Open, fold the whole branch	⌥⌘→, ⌥⌘←
Open, fold everything	⇧⌥⌘→, ⇧⌥⌘←

You can also drag an item with the mouse: onto another item to put it inside, between items to put it there.

Seeing it another way

What	Keys
List, Tree, Map	⌥1, ⌥2, ⌥3 (or the buttons at the top)
Show the selected branch on its own	⌥O; ⌥⇧O shows the whole document again
Go to an item by its text	⌥J
Highlight the selected branch	⌥⌘P
Show or hide all notes	⌥⌘‘
Sidebar	⌘B
All keys	? (the button at the top right)
Every command	⌘K

The theme — light, dark or as in your system — is at the bottom left.

On a phone

• Tap an item to select it, tap it twice to type.
• Under the selected item a small bar appears: + adds an item below, ↳ adds one inside, ⇤ and ⇥ move the item out and in. The keyboard stays open while you add items one after another.
• Press and hold an item to drag it.
• The sidebar opens with the button at the top left; Commands there has everything else.

Tree Outliner for Mac

Everything here, plus as many documents as you like, each in its own tab or window, and the documents in your Mac’s files: Tree Outliner for Mac.