*vo_readme.txt* VimOutliner 0.3.4 for Vim 6.1+ *vo* *vimoutliner* Contents LICENSE |vo-license| VERSION |vo-version| INSTALLING AND TESTING VIMOUTLINER |vo-install| Automatic method |vo-auto-install| Updating an existing installation |vo-updating| Manual method |vo-manual-install| Color schemes |vo-color| Testing |vo-testing| Debian |vo-debian| USING VIMOUTLINER ON OTHER FILE TYPES |vo-other-files| TROUBLESHOOTING |vo-troubleshooting| VIMOUTLINER PHILOSOPHY |vo-philosophy| RUNNING VIMOUTLINER |vo-running| What are the comma comma commands |vo-command| How do you perform basic VimOutliner activities |vo-activities| Menu |vo-menu| Vim Outliner objects |vo-objects| Post Processors |vo-post-processors| CAUTIONS!!! |vo-cautions| ADVANCED |vo-advanced| Executable Lines |vo-executable-lines| PLUGINS |vo-plugins| Checkboxes |vo-checkbox| Hoisting |vo-hoisting| SCRIPTS |vo-scripts| vo_maketags.pl |vo-maketags| otl2html.py |otl2html| OTHER INFORMATION |vo-other-info| ------------------------------------------------------------------------- LICENSE *vo-license* VimOutliner Copyright (C) 2001, 2003 by Steve Litt Copyright (C) 2004 by Noel Henson Licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 2 Absolutely no warranty, see COPYING file for details. If your distro doesn't come with this file HTML: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html Text: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.txt ------------------------------------------------------------------------- VERSION *vo-version* Version 0.3.4 Released Additions/changes: Added ,,cp which works like ,,c% but forces % signs to be added Color schemes have been added Checkboxes and hoisting default to 'on' Modified ,,cb and ,,c% (and ,,cp) to work only on headings Fixed the ,,cz command to make the correct call Added descriptions of VO objects to help (headings, text, tables, etc.) Bug fixes: W18 errors have been fixed ------------------------------------------------------------------------- INSTALLING AND TESTING VIMOUTLINER *vo-install* How do I install VimOutliner? Automatic Method |vo-auto-install| Updating |vo-updating| Manual Method |vo-manual-install| Testing |vo-testing| Automatic method *vo-auto-install* The new automatic installation targets Unix-compatible platforms. $ tar xzvf vimoutliner-0.3.x.tar.gz $ cd vimoutliner $ sh install.sh First you can decide whether to install the VimOutliner files or abort the process leaving everything unchanged. Assuming you confirmed the installation, the script creates the necessary directory tree and copies the files which provide the core functionality and documentation. With the second question you decide whether you want to install some brand new add-ons, currently implementing hoisting and checkboxes. Updating an existing installation *vo-updating* Updating an existing installation might require some manual work. If you are already working with a previous VimOutliner release, there is a slight chance that the current directory tree is different from your current one. In this case, you will have to manually migrate your files to the new locations. The installation script creates unique backups of files being replaced with newer versions. So if you put some local customisations into, say $HOME/.vimoutlinerrc, you'll probably have to merge the backup with the new file by hand. Manual method *vo-manual-install* You can also copy the files from the unpacked distribution tarball into their destination folders by yourself. The following steps are a description of what has to go where and assume some knowledge of your vim setup. If you encounter problems, please contact the mailinglist for an immediate solution and more complete future documentation. www.lists.vimoutliner.org If you want to setup VimOutliner on a system running Microsoft Windows, the directory $HOME denotes the base folder of the vim installation. If you're on Unix based system, $HOME is as usual. You need the following subtrees in your $HOME directory: $HOME/.vim/ doc/ ftdetect/ ftplugin/ syntax/ $HOME/.vimoutliner/ plugins/ scripts/ The distribution tarball unpacks into a directory vimoutliner with the following contents add-ons/ plugins/ (2) scripts/ (2) doc/ (1) ftdetect/ (1) ftplugin/ (1) install.sh* scripts/ (2) syntax/ (1) vimoutlinerrc (3) (1) The content of these folders should be copied to their namesakes in the $HOME/.vim folder (2) The content of these folders should be copied to their namesakes in the $HOME/.vimoutliner folder (3) This file needs to be moved to $HOME/.vimoutlinerrc Your $HOME/.vimrc file should contain the lines filetype plugin indent on syntax on Your $HOME/.vim/ftplugin/vo_base.vim file should contain the lines runtime! ftdetect/*.vim Finally, you need to integrate the online help provided with VimOutliner into the vim help system. Start vim and execute the following command: :helptags $HOME/.vim/doc At this point, VimOutliner should be functional. Type "help vo" to get started. Color Schemes *vo-color* Color schemes specify the colors Vim Outliner uses when displaying an outline. Colors are specified by object and level. These objects currently include: headings, body text, pre- formatted body text, tables and others. See |vo-objects| for more information. Color scheme files are located in the system-wide vim colors directory and/or your $HOME/.vim/colors directory. You can select from any of the provided schemes. Vim Outliner internally includes a scheme the matches vo_light.vim. To override the default color scheme you can edit these lines in your $HOME/.vimoutlinerrc file: "Custom Colors ********************************** " Uncomment this next line to force using VO on " a light background " colorscheme vo_light " Uncomment this next line to force using VO on " a dark background " colorscheme vo_dark To create your own scheme follow these simple steps: 1. Move to your $HOME/.vim/colors directory. If you don't have one, create it. 2. Make a copy of one of the included schemes to use as a starting point. You should be able to find them in places like: $HOME/.vim/colors and /usr/share/vim/vim63/colors. Put the copy in your own colors directory ($HOME/.vim/colors) 3. Edit the scheme file to change whatever colors you wish. 4. Select the scheme in your $HOME/.vimoutlinerrc file. The line should look something like this: colorscheme noel That's all there is to it. Testing base functionality *vo-testing* rm $HOME/vo_test.otl gvim $HOME/vo_test.otl or vim $HOME/vo_test.otl Verify the following: Tabs indent the text Different indent levels are different colors Lines starting with a colon and space word-wrap Lines starting with colons are body text. They should word wrap and should be a special color (typically green, but it can vary). Verify that paragraphs of body text can be reformatted with the Vim gq commands. Verify interoutline linking Interoutline linking currently requires a working perl installation to generate the necessary tag file. We are looking into porting this to vim's own scripting language. Place the following two lines in $HOME/vo_test.otl: _tag_newfile $HOME/vo_newfile.otl Note that in the preceding, the 2nd line should be indented from the first. To create VimOutliner's tag file $HOME/.vimoutliner/vo_tags.tag, run vo_maketags.pl, which resides in $HOME/.vimoutliner/scripts/: $ $HOME/.vimoutliner/scripts/vo_maketags.pl $HOME/vo_test.otl In $HOME/vo_test.otl Cursor to the _tag_newfile marker Press Ctrl+K You should be brought to $HOME/vo_newfile.otl Press Ctrl+N You should be brought back to $HOME/vo_test.otl Note: Ctrl+K is a VimOutliner synonym for Ctrl+] Ctrl+N is a VimOutliner synonym for Ctrl+T Debian Installation *vo-debian* Debian does include Vim Outliner as a package. However some Debian version require this line to be added to your .vimrc file: syntax on ------------------------------------------------------------------------- USING VIMOUTLINER ON OTHER FILE TYPES *vo-other-files* How do I use VimOutliner on non .otl files Overview Previous VimOutliner versions used the ol script to invoke VimOutliner. As of VimOutliner 0.3.0, the ol script is no longer necessary nor provided. Instead, VimOutliner is now a Vim plugin, so Vim does all the work. This makes VimOutliner much simpler to use in most cases, but Vim plugins are file extension based, meaning that if you want to use VimOutliner on a file extension other than .otl, you must declare that file extension in $HOME/.vim/ftdetect/vo_base.vim. In this section we'll use the .emdl extension (Easy Menu Definition Language) as an example. To enable VimOutliner work with .emdl files, do this: vim $HOME/.vim/ftdetect/vo_base.vim Right below the line reading: au! BufRead,BufNewFile *.otl setfiletype vo_base Insert the following line: au! BufRead,BufNewFile *.emdl setfiletype vo_base Save and exit Test with the following: gvim $HOME/vo_test.emdl You should get level colors, body text (lines starting with colon) comma comma commands (try ,,2 and ,,1) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- TROUBLESHOOTING *vo-troubleshooting* Troubleshooting I can't switch between colon based and space based body text See next question My ,,b and ,,B don't do anything. How do I fix it? vim $HOME/.vim/ftplugin/vo_base.vim Search for use_space_colon Make sure it is set to 0, not 1 Rerun Vim, and ,,b and ,,B should work I don't get VimOutliner features on files of extension .whatever vim $HOME/.vim/ftdetect/vo_base.vim Right below the line reading: au! BufRead,BufNewFile *.otl setfiletype vo_base Insert the following line: au! BufRead,BufNewFile *.whatever setfiletype vo_base Save and exit ------------------------------------------------------------------------- VIMOUTLINER PHILOSOPHY *vo-philosophy* Authoring Speed VimOutliner is an outline processor with many of the same features as Grandview, More, Thinktank, Ecco, etc. Features include tree expand/collapse, tree promotion/demotion, level sensitive colors, interoutline linking, and body text. What sets VimOutliner apart from the rest is that it's been constructed from the ground up for fast and easy authoring. Keystrokes are quick and easy, especially for someone knowing the Vim editor. The mouse is completely unnecessary (but is supported to the extent that Vim supports the mouse). Many of the VimOutliner commands start with a double comma because that's very quick to type. Many outliners are prettier than VimOutliner. Most other outliners are more intuitive for the newbie not knowing Vim. Many outliners are more featureful than VimOutliner (although VimOutliner gains features monthly and is already very powerful). Some outliners are faster on lookup than VimOutliner. But as far as we know, NO outliner is faster at getting information out of your mind and into an outline than VimOutliner. VimOutliner will always give you lightning fast authoring. That's our basic, underlying philosophy, and will never change, no matter what features are added. Vim integration Earlier VimOutliner versions prided themselves on being standalone applications, self-contained in a single directory with a special script to run everything. As of 0.3.0, VimOutliner is packaged as a Vim Plugin, eliminating the need for the ol script, which many saw as clumsy. Given that all VimOutliner features are produced by the Vim engine, it makes perfect sense to admit that VimOutliner is an add-on to Vim. Therefore VimOutliner now prides itself in being a Vim plugin. With the VimOutliner package installed, the Vim editor yields the VimOutliner feature set for files whose extensions are listed as vo_base types in $HOME/.vim/ftplugin/vo_base.vim. The Vim Plugin philosophy yields several benefits: Less reliance on Perl, bash and environment vars (upcoming) Portability between Linux, Windows and Mac (upcoming) Installation via Vim script ------------------------------------------------------------------------- RUNNING VIMOUTLINER *vo-running* Vim knowledge is a prerequisite Overview You needn't be a Vim expert to use VimOutliner. If you know the basics -- inserting and deleting linewise and characterwise, moving between command and insert modes, use of Visual Mode selections,and reformatting, you should be well equipped to use VimOutliner. VimOutliner is a set of Vim scripts and configurations. Its features all come from the Vim editor's engine. If you do not know Vim, you'll need to learn the Vim basics before using VimOutliner. Start by taking the Vim tutorial. The tutorial should take about 2 hours. VimOutliner is so fast, that if you often use outlining, you'll make up that time within a week. Taking the Vim tutorial Run vim or gvim Type the command, :help tutor Follow the instructions What are the comma comma commands *vo-command* Overview For maximum authoring speed, VimOutliner features are accessed through keyboard commands starting with 2 commas. The double comma followed by a character is incredibly fast to type. We expect to create more comma comma commands, so try not to create your own, as they may clash with later comma comma commands. If you have an exceptionally handy command, please report it to the VimOutliner list. Perhaps others could benefit from it. Command list ,,D all VimOutliner reserved command ,,H all reserved for manual de-hoisting (add-on) ,,h all reserved for hoisting (add-on) ,,1 all set foldlevel=0 ,,2 all set foldlevel=1 ,,3 all set foldlevel=2 ,,4 all set foldlevel=3 ,,5 all set foldlevel=4 ,,6 all set foldlevel=5 ,,7 all set foldlevel=6 ,,8 all set foldlevel=7 ,,9 all set foldlevel=8 ,,0 all set foldlevel=99999 ,,- all Draw dashed line ,,f normal Directory listing of the current directory ,,s normal Sort sub-tree under cursor ascending ,,S normal Sort sub-tree under cursor descending ,,t normal Append timestamp (HH:MM:SS) to heading ,,T normal Pre-pend timestamp (HH:MM:SS) to heading ,,T normal Pre-pend timestamp (HH:MM:SS) to heading ,,t insert Insert timestamp (HH:MM:SS) at cursor ,,d normal Append datestamp (YYYY-MM-DD) to heading ,,d insert Insert datestamp (YYYY-MM-DD) at cursor ,,D normal Pre-pend datestamp (YYYY-MM-DD) to heading ,,B normal Make body text start with a space ,,b normal Make body text start with a colon and space ,,w insert Save changes and return to insert mode ,,e normal Execute the executable tag line under cursor What are some other VimOutliner Commands Overview Naturally, almost all Vim commands work in VimOutliner. Additionally, VimOutliner adds a few extra commands besides the comma comma commands discussed previously. Command list: Ctrl+K Follow tag (Synonym for Ctrl+]) Ctrl+N Return from tag (Synonym for Ctrl+T) Q Reformat (Synonym for gq) How do you perform basic VimOutliner activities *vo-activities* How do I collapse a tree within command mode? zc (note: a full list of folding commands |fold-commands|) How do I expand a tree within command mode? To expand one level: zo To expand all the way down zO How do I demote a headline? In command mode, >> In insert mode at start of the line, press the Tab key In insert mode within the headline, Ctrl+T How do I promote a headline? In command mode, << In insert mode at start of the line, press the Backspace key In insert mode within the headline, Ctrl+D How do I promote or demote several consecutive headlines? Highlight the lines with the V command Press < to promote or > to demote. You can precede the < or > with a count to promote or demote several levels How do I promote or demote an entire tree? Collapse the tree Use << or >> as appropriate How do I collapse an entire outline? ,,1 How do I maximally expand an entire outline? ,,0 How do I expand an outline down to the third level? ,,3 How do I move a tree? Use Vim's visual cut and paste How do I create body text? Open a blank line below a headline Start the line with a colon followed by a space Continue to type. Your text will wrap How do I reformat body text? Highlight (Shift+V) the body text to be reformatted Use the gq command to reformat How do I reformat one paragraph of body text? The safest way is highlighting. DANGER! Other methods can reformat genuine headlines. How do I switch between colon based and space based body text? ,,b for colon based, ,,B for space based What if ,,b and ,,B don't work Change variable use_space_colon from 1 to 0 in $HOME/.vim/ftplugin/vo_base.vim How do I perform a wordcount? Use the command :w !wc The space before the exclamation point is a MUST. Menu *vo-menu* There is a simple menu included in Vim Outliner when running in GUI mode. Named 'VO', you can usually find it right next to the 'Help' menu. There are commands to change the fold level and select alternate color schemes. There is also entries for common tools. Currently there are only two entries for running the otl2html.py script included with VO. The first otl2html.py tool item executes the script with default options. The only control a user has it to modify the nnnnnn.css file. The second tool item calls a shell script, 'myotl2html.sh'. This script should be provided by the user and is not included in VO releases. A sample myotl2html.sh script might look like this: #!/bin/bash otl2html.py -S pjtstat.css $1 > $HOME/public_html/$1.html If you have several different types of reports you create regularly, you can create your own menu entries. Just add lines like these to your ~/.vimoutlinerrc file: amenu &VO.&Reports.&Big\ Project :!otl2html.py -S big.css % > %.html amenu &VO.&Reports.&Hot\ List :!otl2html.py -S todo.css % > %.html amenu &VO.&Reports.&Weekly :!otl2html.py -S weekly.css % > %.html I'm sure you get the idea. Vim Outliner Objects *vo-objects* There are several object/line types that VO supports. The most common on simple headings and body text. Simple headings are tab-indented line that start with any non-whitespace character except: : ; | < >. These characters specify other objects. Here is a list of each of the non-heading types: : body text (wrapping) ; preformatted body text (non-wrapping) | table > user-defined, text block (wrapping) < user-defined, preformatted text block (non-wrapping) The body text marker, :, is used to specify lines that are automatically wrapped and reformatted. VO and post-processors are free to wrap and reformat this text as well as use proportionally- spaced fonts. A post-processor will probably change the appearance of what you have written. If you are writing a book or other document, most of the information you enter will be body text. Here is an example: Kirby the Wonder Dog : Kirby is nine years old. He understand about 70-100 : English words. Kirby also understands 11 different hand : signals. He is affectionate, playful and attentive. : : His breeding is unknown. He appears to be a mix between : a german shepherd and a collie. When folded, body text looks something like this: Kirby the Wonder Dog [TEXT] -------------------------------- (6 lines) The preformatted text marker, ;, is used to mark text that should not be reformatted nor wrapped by VO or any post-processor. A post- processor would use a fixed-space font, like courier, to render these lines. A post-processor will probably not change the appearance of what you have written. This is useful for making text picture, program code or other format-dependent text. Here is an example: Output waveform ; _______ ______ ; _____/ \______________/ ; |-10us--|----35us------| When folded, preformatted body text looks something like this: Output waveform [TEXT BLOCK] -------------------------- (6 lines) The table marker, |, is used to create tables. This is an excellent way to show tabular data. The marker is used as if it were are real vertical line. A || (double-|) is optionally used to mark a table heading line. This is useful for post-processors. Here is an example: Pets || Name | Age | Animal | Inside/Outside | | Kirby | 9 | dog | both | | Hoover | 1 | dog | both | | Sophia | 9 | cat | inside | There is no automatic alignment of columns yet. It must be done manually. The post-processor, otl2thml.py, does have alignment functions. See its documentation for more information. When folded, a table looks something like this: Pets [TABLE] ------------------------------- (4 lines) User-defined text is similar to body text but more flexible and it's use is not pre-defined by Vim Outliner. The basic, user-defined text block marker, >, behaves just like body text. For example: Kirby the Wonder Dog > Kirby is nine years old. He understand about 70-100 > English words. Kirby also understands 11 different hand > signals. He is affectionate, playful and attentive. > > His breeding is unknown. He appears to be a mix between > a german shepherd and a collie. When folded, body text looks something like this: Kirby the Wonder Dog [USER] -------------------------------- (6 lines) But unlike body text, user-defined text can be expanded. You could have user-defined text types. If you were writing a book, in addition to body text for paragraphs you might need special paragraphs for tips and warnings. User-defined text blocks can accomplish this: >Tips > Don't forget to back up your computer daily. You don't > need to back up the entire computer. You just need to > backup up the files that have changed. >Warning >Never store you backup floppy disks on the side of you >file cabinets by adhering them with magnets. A post processor will know how to remove the style tags (Tips and Warning) and you want the text to be formatted. When folded, the above would appear as: [USER Tips] --------------------------- (4 lines) [USER Warning]------------------------- (3 lines) The user-defined, preformatted text block marker, <, behaves just like preformatted text. But like >, it leaves the functional definition up to the user. A simple user-defined, preformatted text block could be: Tux < _.._ < .-' `-. < : ; < ; ,_ _, ; < : \{" "}/ : < ,'.'"=..=''.'. < ; / \ / \ ; < .' ; '.__.' ; '. < .-' .' '. '-. < .' ; ; '. < / / \ \ < ; ; ; ; < ; `-._ _.-' ; < ; ""--. .--"" ; < '. _ ; ; _ .' < {""..' '._.-. .-._.' '..""} < \ ; ; / < : : : : < : :.__.: : < \ /"-..-"\ / fsc < '-.__.' '.__.-' When folded it would be: Tux [USER BLOCK] -------------------------- (6 lines) Like user-defined text, these blocks can be given user-defined styles. For example: