Wednesday September 29, 2021; 8:34 AM EDT
- I see that the outliner software Drummer keeps track of the expansionState of each line of the outline that has subordinate lines below it. Was line 5 expanded to reveal lines 6 and 7 or was it collapsed, not currently showing those lines at the moment when the outline was last saved or closed by the writer? Somewhere in the system Drummer keeps track, and when the writer returns, the software offers the outline as the writer left it, fully expanded, fully collapsed, or somewhere in between. A good feature.#
- Concerning outlines that will be read by others:#
- A writer can easily leave a public outline expanded, collapsed, or in between. The tools are there in the Outliner menu tab. But I imagine that most of the time a public outline--IF it is not being viewed in Drummer--should be fully expanded so a distant reader can actually read all of it. Especially if viewing it in a format that the distant reader cannot manipulate--can't expand or collapse.#
- If so, then for a writer to avoid needing to check the outline at the end of each work session to confirm that it's been fully opened up for non-Drummer readers to use, I'm imagining an attribute the writer can set: expansionState=all.#
- It has not escaped my notice that this might open the door to some of the coolest features of the World Outline concept from years past, IF included outlines would be, could be populated with their content as part of this process. I have no idea whether that is possible or not.#
- In my memory, the central insight of the World Outline was curating and including in a single outline the quality outlines of others, building through collaboration a more substantial body of quality material on a shared topic than one person alone could build.#
- I do have a public outline that is currently displaying two included outlines in what I believe is a demo reader format that Dave Winer shared as part of the beta process a while back. It was a little persnickety to get both outlines to display--I have a theory why, but maybe that's not important for this posting.#