TVO: The Vim Outliner | $Id: README.otl 121 2006-05-16 01:51:54Z ned $ | Note: Things that aren't done yet are marked as TODO. Background | I've used outliners for years to brainstorm and edit text. With | the prospect of doing more writing, I've wanted to have an | outliner that matched my editing style and wasn't too mouse-heavy. | Since I'm a Vim user, and since Vim 6.0 added folding, it seemed | natural to make an outliner out of it. The name "TVO: The Vim | Outliner" was suggested by Ben Peterson. Vim and folding | The Vim editor has had folding added to it for version 6.0. | | TVO uses Vim's folding capabilities to provide an outlining | capability similar to that of familiar outliners: | | * folded headlines hide all sub-headlines | * text blocks fold separately so you can see the first line under | its corresponding headline. | | One of the things that TVO provides is a way to selectively hide | all but the first line in a group of lines. | | Another is changing the folding behavior of Vim to do the expected | outline nesting. | | By itself, Vim doesn't work quite right as an outliner. So I added | a foldexpr() routine to make folding work right. This defines text | blocks as level 10, and headlines from level 1 to 9 depending on | how many tabs (0 to 8) precede them. About macros | TVO can supply a number of keystroke macros. By default, these are | two-character sequences that start with a backslash (\) character. | However, the first character can be changed using the | 'maplocalleader' setting (see below). | | In this document, wherever a macro is mentioned, it is shown with | a backslash. If you've changed the 'maplocalleader' setting, make | the required adjustment in your head. | | For instance, the sequence to show all text is shown as \a here. | If you've changed the 'maplocalleader' setting to ',' (as I do), | then you'd actually type ,a for this operation. Syntax highlighting | TVO uses Vim's syntax highlighting to color headlines. The colors | are fixed, though you can edit the syntax/otl.vim file to change | them. | | You can toggle between having bold (colored) headers and non-bold | headers using the h (by default, '\h') command. Hyperlink navigation using Vim tags | TVO provides hyperlinking between files using a "tags" file. | When you jump to a tag, the tag is looked up in a tags file, and | that file tells Vim where to jump to. | | If you install the Viki script | [http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=861] you will | have live links to URLs as well as the ability to define links | between TVO files just by using a WikiName (capitalized word with | internal caps) and navigating using a or | keystroke combination. If the file named by | the link does not exist, you will be prompted whether you want to | create that file. Vim tag navigation | TVO provides four kinds of tags: | * Regular vim tags (that use an index file) | * Tags recognized by Viki (if you have it installed) | * File tags that refer directly to another file | * Vim command tags that can execute a Vim command directly | (the tags below that start with "[:he" are an example of | these) | Either double click inside the square brackets below, or put | your cursor between the square brackets below and hit ctrl-] | to learn more about Vim's tag navigation features. | | [:he tags] | | If you jump to a regular tag (as opposed to a file or to a Vim | command reference) you can jump back using the usual ctrl-O | [:he ctrl-O] or ctrl-T [:he ctrl-T] commands. If you jumped to a | file, you can jump back using :e # or ctrl-^ [:he ctrl-^]. Jumping to tags | You can jump from one outline to a specified point in the same | or another outline by using the ctrl-] key, or by the "Jump to | this tag" menu choice in the Tools menu, or by typing the "g" | key and then clicking with the left mouse button. | | You can jump back from the tag using the ctrl-T key, or by | using Control-, or by using g | | You can insert tag references in your text by using square | brackets, like this: | | [this is a tag] | | Note that you can have spaces in the tag reference. Jumping to files | If you enclose the name of a file within square brackets, and | there is no tag by that name, then TVO will jump to the | first line of that file instead. Jumping to arbitrary Vim commands | You can make a tag that will execute a Vim command by | prefixing it with a ':' sign: | | [:set] Jumping to anchors within another file (using Viki) | If you have Viki installed, you can use its ability to define | anchors | Your link will look like | VikiName | VikiName#anchor | [--file name--] | [[README.otl#anchor][name]] Specifying a different tags file | The default tags file is "tags" in the current directory. If | you want outlines in different directories to share tags | files, you can change the Vim tags option in one of several | ways: | * Use a modeline to set the tags option [:he tags-option]: | | vim: tags=../tags | * Set up a .vimrc [:he .vimrc] (and set the exrc option | [:he 'exrc']) | * Set it in your own .vimrc Deplate support Upgrading | Follow the installation instructions below, but remove any | plugin/filetype_otl.vim files from prior installations. | Also remove anything TVO-related from your filetype.vim file, if | any. Installation | Please read the file INSTALL for directions on how to install TVO. Configuring the outliner Changing the colors Changing the tab stops Problems with ts=2 and hanging indents? Problems with ts=3 and numbered lists? Using modelines for settings | See the last line of this file for an example of a modeline. You | can set the tab stop, textwidth, and other options. See :he | modeline | | For instance, if you want to open an outline and only see its | top-level headings, you can use this modeline: | | # vim: foldlevel=0 | Redefining the macro leader character | If you want to use something other than a backslash to introduce | the macros, you can set the 'maplocalleader' variable in your .vimrc | file. For instance, you can do this to set it to a comma: | | set maplocalleader = "," Setting textwidth | The textwidth can be set with the tw or textwidth options like | this: | | :set tw=72 | | This will affect where lines are automatically broken. When you | type over the column position given by the textwidth, a new line | will be created. This will happen for both headers and text. If | you want it to happen just for text blocks (ones that start with | "|" characters), do this (perhaps in a modeline): | | :set fo-=t | | TODO should I have a variable for this? Setting tabwidth (and shiftwidth) Contents of an outline Headings | Headings are plain text with zero or more tabs to their left. They | don't wrap automatically like text does. + Marking headings so they stay with extracted text | If you prepend a "+" sign to the text of a heading, that | heading will be extracted along with the text (the plus sign | and any spaces following it will be removed). | However, when these headings are extracted as headings, the + | sign and any spaces following it will also be removed. Text | Text appears in a different color than the headings. | The "|" character introduces text blocks that will remain flush | when the text wraps. The default highlighting tries to make | the "|" sign less noticeable than the text itself. | | You can use other characters after the '|' sign as markers: | | - The "-" character introduces items that will appear with a | hanging indent. So when you break a line the new characters | will appear offset. | * The "*" character also introduces items that will appear | with a hanging indent. Markup | You can markup various pieces of text using: | | > | | I | | > | | B | | > | | C | | > Using TVO License Hyperlinks Creating links Navigating between links Making or refreshing the tags file Keystrokes Standard Vim keystrokes Redefined | Some little-used Vim commands have been re-defined for | convenience in TVO: = open heading (zo) - close heading (zc) Work slightly differently in TVO | Some commands have been enhanced for TVO, mostly to deal | with the differences between headlines and text blocks: Ctrl-] tag jump J join lines o open line below O open line above Fold operations | Read the Vim manual about folding | [:he fold-commands] Outliner macro keys Display operations \1 show level 1 \2 show level 2 \3 show level 3 \4 show level 4 \5 show level 5 \6 show level 6 \7 show level 7 \8 show level 8 \9 show level 9 \a show all \t toggle showing text Heading operations | All of these that change text operate on a heading and all | its text and subheadings. \k move cursor up one heading \j move cursor down one heading \u move heading up one \d move heading down one \C change the current heading \D delete the current heading \y yank the current heading \p insert yanked/deleted heading after the current line \P insert yanked/deleted heading before the current line \> shift current heading right (demote) | TODO make this work in Visual mode inside insertmode \< shift current heading left (promote) | TODO make this work in Visual mode inside insertmode - close current heading = open current heading Formatting \f reformat text block, maintain paragraphs \F reformat text block, join paragraphs Heading operations | For these two tab commands to work, you'll need to set | otl_map_tabs to 1 in your .vimrc like this: | let otl_map_tabs = 1 shift current heading left (promote) shift current heading right (demote) Miscellaneous \T extract text to new window \H extract headers to new window \b convert heading to text or back Switching modes | These let you switch between entering text and | entering headers. If the cursor is on a header line, | these make a new text line, or if the cursor is on a text | line, these make a new header. Ctrl-CR toggle mode and insert line after current \o toggle mode and insert line after current \O toggle mode and insert line before current Word-compatible level changing Alt-shift-down shift heading down one Alt-shift-up shift heading up one Alt-down move cursor down one heading Alt-up move cursor up one heading Alt-shift-Left promote current heading Alt-shift-Right demote current heading Alt-shift-keyboardPlus open current fold TODO: do these work? Alt-shift-keyboardMinus close current fold Menu ToolBar | If you are using the toolbar, some buttons have been added: | * Left, right: promote or demote the current heading (\< and \>) | * Convert to body text | * Up, down: move the current heading up or down | * +, - : expand or collapse the current heading | * 1 - 7: show the corresponding level (\1 - \7) | * All: show all levels plus text (\t toggles this view) Wrapping text blocks | You can reformat a TVO outline text block using the \f macro. This | will respect the ends of paragraphs. Or if you also wish to join | the paragraphs, use the \F macro. | Note that if you do this on headlines that don't have text blocks, | the headlines will be run together. Mouse usage Left double click | Double-clicking in the outline with the left mouse button will | either follow a link, or will alternately expand and fold the | headline or text block that you clicked on. Right click | Right clicking will bring up a context menu. TODO Extracting text | You can extract all the text in your outline into a new buffer, | without any headings that don't have "+" signs in front. Vim | modelines at the bottom of the file will also be deleted. TODO: | is this a good idea? | | To do this, use the \T macro or use the menu choice | Outliner/Extract Text. Extracting headings | You can extract all the headings in your outline into a new buffer, | without any text. | | To do this, use the \H macro or use the menu choice | Outliner/Extract Headings. Syntax coloring | You can switch the bold headings on or off using the \h mapping. MS Word compatibility | You may be used to using Microsoft Word's outlining. So I added some | keystrokes for compatibility: Promote a heading ALT+SHIFT+LEFT ARROW (same as \<) Demote a heading ALT+SHIFT+RIGHT ARROW (same as \>) Demote to body text CTRL+SHIFT+N (or CTRL+N) Move current heading up ALT+SHIFT+UP ARROW Move current heading down ALT+SHIFT+DOWN ARROW Expand text under a heading ALT+SHIFT+PLUS SIGN TODO Collapse text under a heading ALT+SHIFT+MINUS SIGN TODO Expand or collapse all text or headings ALT+SHIFT+A or the asterisk (*) key on the numeric keypad TODO Hide or display character formatting The slash (/) key on the numeric keypad TODO Show the first line of body text or all body text ALT+SHIFT+L TODO Show all headings with the Heading 1 style ALT+SHIFT+1 TODO Show all headings up to Heading n ALT+SHIFT+n TODO Credits | Ben Peterson added proper up/down | movement. ##anchor Contacting the author | You can reach me at ned@bike-nomad.com . I would appreciate hearing | about bugs, suggestions, or just about how you're using this. Thanks! | | [http://www.bike-nomad.com] | | (modeline:) | vim: tw=72 ts=3 sw=3 fo-=t foldlevel=10