Traverse is designed for fast navigation through structured outlines, especially when outlines become too large for a simple flat list.
Column view
Column view presents each level of the outline in its own column. Selecting a node opens its children in the next column, making it easy to follow one path through a deep outline.
Outline view
Outline view shows a traditional indented list. It is useful for scanning a whole section, editing quickly, and collapsing branches you do not need right now.
Auto and Manual column navigation
- Auto: Selecting a node opens its children in the next column and keeps the selected path visible.
- Manual: You can expand and collapse multiple branches at once. Filtering in Column view uses Manual mode so matches can be revealed together.
Create structure
- Return: Add a sibling at the same level.
- Tab: Add or move into a child level.
- Command-]: Indent the selected node.
- Command-[: Outdent the selected node.
- Shift-Up / Shift-Down: Move sibling nodes.
- Drag and drop: Move nodes before, after, or inside another node.
Collapse and expand
Collapse branches when you want to reduce visual noise. Collapse works in Outline view and Column Manual mode. You can also expand or collapse all nodes from the app menu.
Node links
Traverse can copy a link to the selected node using its traverse:// URL scheme. These links can reopen a saved library document at a specific node, which is useful from notes, calendars, task managers, and project documents.
URL fields
If a node has a URL attribute, you can open that link directly from the Inspector or with the relevant command. This is useful for source material, tickets, briefs, web pages, and related documents.
Back and Forward
Traverse keeps recent node and document locations for the current app session. Use Back and Forward to retrace your work across nodes and documents. Missing documents and deleted nodes are skipped.
