Using the Choice Palette
Last updated
Last updated
Quickly find and select items in long lists. Bike's choice palette is used by the "Go > Focus Heading" and "Format > Add Link to Row" commands. In the future I expect the choice palette to show up in other places too.
Use up/down arrow keys (or mouse) to select an item
Press Return key to select choice and close the palette
Press Escape key to close the palette without selecting an item
Filtering is really fast, even in big outlines!
Start typing to filter the list
Filtering is "fuzzy". Matches must have all searched letters, but they can also have unmatched letters between.
Results are ordered by how well they match, this can be configured in the palettes settings.
Acronym filtering (first letter of each word) works well when looking for shorter "topic" rows.
Filter method can be customized with special characters:
Insert ! at the start to invert the matching
Insert ' at the start to use substring matching
Insert ^ at the start to use prefix matching
Insert $ at the end to use suffix matching
When you filter your list the containing parent items of each match are always included in the results, even if those containing items don't match.
To the right of the filter field is the settings button. Each choice palette has its own settings. The settings for "Focus Heading" can be different then the settings for "Add Link to Row".
When checked the best matches are shown first. Otherwise the outline is only filtered, leaving items in natural order.
When the above sorting option is selected you might see duplicate containing parent items in your filter results.
Unfiltered list
Filtered list, matches sorted.
Notice how item "one" shows up in the list twice. This is because the results are ordered and item "two > a" shows up after item "one > a", but before item "one > ba".
This view is nice because you see all top matches at the top of your list. The drawback is that you may see duplicate containing items, sibling matches are not always listed together.
Filtered list, matches sorted, duplicates removed.
Notice that now the list contains no duplicates.
This view is nice because the sibling items "one > a" and "one > ba" are next to each other and there are no duplicates. The drawback is that while the item "two > a" is the second best match, it is shown in the third position.
Use the "outline path" setting to specify the rows that you'll see and filter.
For example the "Focus Heading" commands shows "heading" type and top level rows by default. If you would like to see different rows when you "Focus Heading" you can do that by customizing the outline path.
