Document Outline
About Document Outline
Designed for use during the early stages of writing, the Document Outline notation is a graphical alternative to text-oriented "idea processors" or "outliners." A simple "concept mapping" notation (sometimes called a "spider diagram"), topics are represented by circles and are connected to subtopics.
Topic contents reside in the Description property for each circle (node). When you're finished, you can generate a "starter document" using DoME's Document Generator.
The Document Outline Editor
The DoME Document Outline editor is equipped with the four common tools (Select/Move, Add Bend, Remove Bend, Note) included with most model editors, as well as a
specialized setContents.03 of nodes, connectors, and tools.Drawing Toolbar
Creating & Generating a Document Outline
Your document outlines will start in the middle with a central, unifying theme and work radially outward. The theme is linked to a set of topics, and each topic can be split into subtopics. This refinement can go on indefinitely, as far as DoME is concerned.
Each topic or subtopic is represented as a circle (Topic node) whose label is the topic, often stated as a question. Topic Link connectors connect a topic to its subtopics. (The central theme has no incoming connectors.)
In larger documents, outlines can suffer from "urban sprawl," so DoME allows you to take a subtopic down into a subdiagram for refinement. In doing so, the subtopic of the parent object becomes the central theme of the subdiagram and you can proceed in exactly the same manner as you did for the parent diagram.
Topic Order
A topic is linked to its subtopics in clockwise order. The subtopic that DoME considers to be "first" is connected with a thick line and the order proceeds clockwise from there.
Moving Topic Trees Around
When you move a topic that has been refined into subtopics, DoME maintains the radial layout of its subtopics (and their subtopics (and their subtopics (...))). Keep this in mind when you need to reorganize your outline.
Reorganizing the Outline
You can move a subtopic to a different parent topic by reconnecting it: Simply pick up the end of the Topic Link and drop it on top of the desired topic.
If the subtopic is refined into its own subtopics, you may wish to reorient the subtopic tree (see above) before reconnecting it.
Cross References
A special type of connector called a Cross Reference allows you to annotate your outline with forward and backward references. These connectors are not used in default documentation generation; they are visual cues only. If you choose to write your own plug-in function, however, you have full access to all objects in the document outline, including cross references.
Document Generation
DoME includes a document generator for document outlines.