Marking nodes

The Outliner of Giants supports a wide range of node ‘marks’, which provide a mechanism for visually distinguishing your nodes from each other, sorting individual branches, as well as filtering nodes both within and across your outlines.

Marking a node with a checked box enables you to distinguish between nodes that are in one of two states: checked or unchecked.

This can be useful for marking the individual tasks of a project as completed, or highlighting nodes as awaiting further action, such as a proof read.

The node checkbox can be hidden or shown using the ‘Show checkboxes’ option within the settings bar at the bottom of each outline (they are shown by default), and the state can be changed with a click, or by hitting the Modifier + X keyboard shortcut.

Note that when you change the checked state of a node, the state of all of that node’s children will also be changed to match its current state.

To filter nodes with a given checked status simply use checked:yes or checked:no in the search box, or click ‘Unchecked’ or ‘Checked’ from within the filter view (accessed by clicking the [ Filters ] button within the outline toolbar).

Marking a node with a colored label allows you to differentiate it with one of seven background colors.

This can be useful for highlighting a document section, or for placing nodes from across your outlines into a particular category.

To mark a node with a colored label click the [ Label] button available from the node toolbar (click a node or hit the ‘s’ key to expose this functionality), or hit the Modifier + L + [1-7] keyboard shortcut (use 0 to clear the label).

To filter nodes with a particular label simply enter label: followed by the color into the search box – e.g. label:red – or select the label color that you would like to filter by from within the filter view (accessed by clicking the [ Filters ] button within the outline toolbar).

Marking a node with a colored highlight allows you to differentiate it with one of nine highlight colors.

This can be useful when highlighting a node within a set of lecture notes as being of particular importance, or for drawing attention to project tasks that are awaiting further action.

To mark a node with a colored highlight click the [ Highlight] button available from the node toolbar (click a node or hit the ‘s’ key to expose this functionality), or hit the Modifier + H + [1-9] keyboard shortcut (use 0 to clear the highlight).

To filter nodes with a particular colored highlight simply enter highlight: followed by the color into the search box – e.g. highlight:red – or select the highlight color that you would like to filter by from within the filter view (accessed by clicking the [ Filters ] button within the outline toolbar).

Marking a node with a font color allows you to differentiate it with one of nine font colors.

This can be useful for highlighting a node that requires additional research, or for marking a section as having been proof read.

To mark a node with a colored font click the [ Color] button available from the node toolbar (click a node or hit the ‘s’ key to expose this functionality), or hit the Modifier + T + [1-9] keyboard shortcut (use 0 to clear the font color).

To filter nodes with a particular colored font simply enter font: followed by the color into the search box – e.g. font:red – or select the font color that you would like to filter by from within the filter view (accessed by clicking the [ Filters ] button within the outline toolbar).

Marking a node with a priority allows you to differentiate it with one of seven priority values.

This can be useful for prioritising tasks from across a project, or for ordering the nodes that you need to edit before a document is published.

To mark a node with a priority click the [ Priority] button available from the node toolbar (click a node or hit the ‘s’ key to expose this functionality), or hit the Modifier + P + [1-7] keyboard shortcut (use 0 to clear the priority).

To filter nodes with a given priority simply enter priority: followed by the priority number into the search box – e.g. priority:1 – or select the priority that you would like to filter by from within the filter view (accessed by clicking the [ Filters ] button within the outline toolbar).

Marking a node with one or more tags allows you to sub-categories your nodes outside of an outline’s hierarchical structure, both within and between outlines.

This can be useful for linking academic references to a document’s individual nodes, or for assigning tasks to a named individual by giving them their own tag.

To mark a node with a tag click the [ Tag] button available from the node toolbar (click a node or hit the ‘s’ key to expose this functionality), or hit the Modifier + T keyboard shortcut, and use the search bar to find an existing tag or create a new one.

You can use the Tags database to manage the tags that are applied to your nodes, such as adding additional notes to a tag, applying a colored label to them, or deleting them from all of your outlines.

To filter nodes with a given tag enter tag: followed by the tag text into the search box – e.g. tag:author-name – or select the tag that you would like to filter by from within the filter view (accessed by clicking the [ Filters ] button within the outline toolbar).

Marking a node with a date enables you to identify all the nodes with a date before, on, or after a given date.

This can be useful if you need to filter tasks that should be completed by a particular date, or if you need categorise meeting minutes by the date that they were taken.

To mark a node with a date click the [ Date] button available from the node toolbar (click a node or hit the ‘s’ key to expose this functionality) and use the pop-up calendar to select the date that you want to apply to the node.

Nodes with a date stamp applied can be filtered in a number of ways: those marked with a date before the given date; those marked with a date on the given date; and those marked with a date after the given date.

Using the search box you can enter before:yyyy-mm-dd, before:yesterday, before:today, and before:tomorrow to filter nodes that are marked with a date before the given date, yesterday’s date, today’s date, or tomorrow’s date respectively.

Using the search box you can enter on:yyyy-mm-dd, on:yesterday, on:today, and on:tomorrow to filter nodes that are marked with a date on the given date, yesterday’s date, today’s date, or tomorrow’s date respectively.

Using the search box you can enter after:yyyy-mm-dd, after:yesterday, after:today, and after:tomorrow to show filter nodes that are marked with a date after the given date, yesterday’s date, today’s date, or tomorrow’s date respectively.

Using the search box you can enter last: or next:, followed by a number, to show the nodes marked with a date within that number of days.

You can also select the date that you would like to filter by from a calendar within the filter view (accessed by clicking the [ Filters ] button within the outline toolbar).

If you have used the multi-select functionality to select a number of nodes, you can then use the mark functionality to apply node markings to them. Using the toolbar at the top of the screen you can apply a colored label, highlight or font, as well as a priority to all of the currently selected nodes.

To make use of this functionality simply sign up and create your first outline (it’s free!).

Keyboard shortcuts for a complete list of the available keyboard shortcuts.

Search and filter for more detail of finding information within your outline.

Selecting nodes for more information on how to select the nodes within your outlines.

Sorting nodes for more information on how to sort a list of siblings.