This page explains the basics of editing and selection in Opal.
As in any outliner, a distinction must be drawn between a topic and its content. When you move a topic within the outline, you are working with the topic as a whole. When you type a word, you are editing the content of some topic.
For this reason, you can specify whether you want to select a topic as a whole or its content.
To toggle between selecting a topic as a whole and selecting its content, press the Tab key. (To type a Tab character within a topic, press Option-Tab.) Alternatively, just click:
If you click on the triangle (or other symbol) at the left of a topic, you select the topic as a whole.
If you click within the topic’s text, you select in the content.
The illustrations below show the visual difference between selecting a topic, selecting part of a topic’s content, and selecting all of a topic’s content.
This distinction can make a difference as to what a command means. For example, if you select a word within a topic and then choose Edit > Cut, you cut that word; but if you select a topic as a whole and then choose Edit > Cut Topic, you cut that topic. Similarly, if you select a word within a topic and then choose Edit > Select > All, you select all of the content of that topic. But if you select a topic as a whole and then choose Edit > Select > All, you select all topics.
In general, however, Opal eases this distinction as much as possible and just does “the right thing.”
For example, if you select a topic as a whole and then start typing, Opal assumes you want to edit the text of the topic; it places the insertion point at the end of any existing content, and that’s where your typing goes. Similarly, if you select a topic as a whole and make a text formatting change (such as selecting a different font), Opal applies your change to the entire text of the topic.
And conversely, if you have selected a word inside the content of a topic and then you choose Topic > Move Up to change the position of that topic within the outline, Opal doesn’t complain that you are editing the content rather than the topic as a whole — it just does what you asked it to do (and preserves the selection).
Opal permits more than one topic to be selected at one time. When you perform an operation and there is a multiple topic selection, Opal tries to do “the right thing” wherever possible.
For example, if there is a multiple topic selection and you make a text formatting change (such as selecting a different font), Opal applies your change to the entire text of all the selected topics. Similarly, if there is a multiple topic selection and you choose Topic > Move Up to change the position of those topics within the outline, Opal moves up any of the selected topics that can be moved up. And if there is a multiple topic selection and you choose Edit > Cut, all the selected topics are cut.
Sometimes, however, you may perform an operation that makes sense only for one topic. For this reason, there is always a primary selected topic (called the current topic). This is the topic that is outlined (or, if you have the preferences set not to outline the current topic, it is marked at its right end).
For example, if there is a multiple topic selection and you start typing, Opal assumes you want to edit the text of the topic. But which topic? Clearly Opal has to pick one of the selected topics, so naturally it picks the current topic.
There are several ways to form a multiple topic selection:
⌘-click or Shift-click a topic’s triangle. This works like multiple selection in the Finder: ⌘-click to add this topic to, or remove it from, the multiple selection; Shift-click to select all topics between the originally selected topic and this one.
Click at the left of a triangle, and drag to indicate a rectangle that touches the triangles of any topics you want to select. See the illustration below for an example of this gesture. Notice the rectangle being drawn by the cursor. The gesture started at the top left of the rectangle and has ended up at the bottom right of it, touching three triangles and so selecting three topics.
If you add the Shift key to this gesture, you can add the selected topics to an existing topic selection.
Add the Shift key to any of the keyboard shortcuts that perform topic navigation. For example, ⌘-Down Arrow navigates down, so Shift-⌘-Down Arrow extends the selection downward.
Choose from the Edit > Select menu. (The meanings of the menu items are explained here.)