The “Root Item”

In this section we examine the structure of an outline document, and how to create, edit, and remove its content. This overview begins with an examination of the “rootItem” of an OmniOutliner outline document.

In an OmniOutliner document, you create an outline by adding and organizing rows of data and information. As a matter of fact, the row count is displayed on the document summary bar at the bottom of the outline window:

However, in terms of Omni Automation, a “row” is referred to as an “item.” For example, in the outline shown in the illustration above, Omni Automation would say that the outline is composed of seven (7) items, not seven rows. The term “row” is only used in Omni Automation when referring to styling properties, such as: alternateRowColor

In an outline document, every item (row) is either a child, sibling, descendent, or ancestor of another item (row). Every item has a parent, even those at the top level of the outline.

The parent of the top-level outline items is an invisible item referenced as the “Root Item,” or in terms of Omni Automation, the inner-capped term: rootItem

All items (rows) in the outline are descended from the rootItem of the document.

Let’s prove the rootItem exists.

The console will display the result of the executed code, which is a reference to an item object, represented in the console as [object Item] meaning an instance of an object of the Item class.

We will address the rootItem of the outline to create and manipulate items (rows) in the open document, in the next topic.