Release Notes:

OmniOutliner for Mac

What's New, Updated, or Fixed in This Release

Welcome to OmniOutliner 5.

OmniOutliner 5 brings structured writing to a wider audience with the introduction of OmniOutliner Essentials and adds highly-anticipated features to OmniOutliner Pro.

OmniOutliner Essentials

OmniOutliner Standard has been replaced with OmniOutliner Essentials: A svelte, focused, and extremely affordable outlining app that puts the focus on your content and whatever task you’re working on—not on the tool you’re using.

  • Filters — Use the search field in the toolbar to do a quick keyword filter.
  • Document Stats — Row, word, and character count of the view are displayed in the bottom status bar.
  • Distraction-Free Mode — Automatically hide the toolbar when switching to full screen mode.
  • Side Margins — In full-screen mode, drag the margin borders to set the width of your outline independent of your display width.
  • Cell Highlight — The cell currently being edited is indicated by a highlight on the left edge to give you more context of where and how big the cell is.
  • Resource Searching — Use the search field in the Resource Browser to quickly locate a template or recent document.
  • Touch Bar — Use and customize the Touch Bar for quick access to features.
  • Dark Mode — OmniOutliner’s UI adapts to match your document theme’s background color.
  • Bottom Padding — You’ll no longer be stuck typing at the bottom of the window with the extra padding added below outlines.
  • Typewriter Mode — Keep your eye line constant by automatically keeping the active row in the middle of the screen.
  • Sharing — Add the Share button to your toolbar to easily a send plain-text representation of your selection to other apps.
  • New File Format — OmniOutliner 5 uses a new .ooutline format: a flat (zipped) file that is more compatible with third-party cloud sync platforms.
  • Pro Document Compatibility — Documents containing Pro features are fully viewable in Essentials, along with an option to import a copy that removes all Pro content.
  • HTML Export — Visibility of notes can be toggled in the HTML (Dynamic) format and a number of minor improvements have been made to both HTML export formats.
  • OPML Mode — When editing OPML files, features not supported by the file format are hidden or disabled.

OmniOutliner Pro

OmniOutliner 5 Pro includes all of Essentials’ great new features, everything good from OmniOutliner 4 Pro, plus all this:

  • Filters — Create and save complex filters based on status, column data, and boolean operations.
  • Password Encryption — Add a password to your documents to secure them with AES-256 encryption.
  • Keyboard Shortcuts — Easily customize keyboard shortcuts to your own liking within the app.
  • Distraction-Free Mode — Automatically hide the toolbar and any open sidebars when switching to full screen mode.
  • Smarter Paste — To avoid bringing in extra styles when copying data from outside sources, Paste now removes styles but retain links and images. Use the new Paste with Original Style to retain the styles from your source content.
  • New File Format — While .ooutline files are zipped by default, package files are still available for scenarios where that makes more sense, like for version control. Note— The previous .oo3 format can still be opened and edited but features requiring the new format will be disabled.
  • Inspector Sidebar — The inspectors are now contained in a sidebar, allowing you to show or hide them on a per-document basis.
  • Style View — When selecting a style in the Styles sidebar, rows that are affected by that style appear highlighted in the outline.
  • Side Margins — Lock the outline column to a specific width and keep your outline centered in the window with side margins. Customize the color of the margins per-document.
  • Specify Column Widths — The Column Inspector now has an editable field for the column width. The outline column can also be set to automatically resize with the window or be set to a specific width.
  • Resize Column to Fit — Select a column and have OmniOutliner adjust the width to fit your content for you with the Resize to fit button in the Column Type Inspector.
  • Column Resizing — Columns can be resized by dragging anywhere on their right edges. Dragging the left-most edge also resizes the outline column.
  • Style Preview — A preview of the style you are inspecting is shown at the top of the Selection Style Inspector.
  • Slide-in Sidebars — In full screen mode, moving the mouse cursor to either edge of the screen makes the corresponding sidebar appear temporarily.
  • Multiple-Row Focus — Focus on multiple selections by command-clicking them in the sidebar section list.
  • Focus Indicator — When focused, a focus bar appears to remind you that content is hidden and provide easy access to unfocus.
  • Excel Export — Export to the Excel (xlsx) format.
  • PowerPoint Export — PowerPoint export now places embedded images on corresponding slides. You’ll need to manually re-position them, though.
  • OPML Mode — Edit metadata for OPML files and set text encoding in the Document inspector.