Getting Started

Bike: Structured Focused Writing

Bike is an outliner.

Indent to create a structured outline. Fold this outline to hide details. Focus your outline to see specifics. Use your outline to track ideas, projects, writing, to-do lists.

To create a row

• Press the Return key to create a row

To change a row's indentation level

• Press the Tab key to indent a row

• Press Shift-Tab key to unindent a row

To show and hide detail in your outline

• Click a row's triangle handle to collapse the row, hiding its contained rows

• Click that same handle to expand the row, showing its contained rows

To focus into a specific part of your outline, hiding everything else

• Click the focus button to the right of a row's text.

• Click that same focus button to unfocus an already focused row.

• Use Go > Focus Heading… Command-P to focus any heading in your outline.

To format text in your outline

• Show the formatting popover with Command-E

• Select formatting options from the popover with your mouse or with the single letter keyboard shortcuts displayed on the panel.

That's it, just a few commands. Internalize these commands. Learn the keyboard shortcuts. Once you've done that Bike will be a great place for you to think.

Next I suggest you read:

• Text Editing
• Text Formatting
• Row Types
• Outline Editing
• Keyboard Shortcuts