Document Export

OmniOutliner supports the export of outlines to documents of various formats, such as to standard office, spreadsheet, text, and HTML formats.

This section examines how to create instances of the FileWrapper class in preparation for the export of documents and content.

Documentation regarding the other classes involved in the saving and export of OmniPlan documents can be found in FileTypes and FileSavers.

FileWrappers

If you think of an outline as a set of data, then it’s easy to understand that an outline’s data can be packaged in a variety of ways. Each “data package” has a set of parameters that determine how the outline data is stored or presented.

For example, one package may store the data as tabbed data, while another may store the outline data in XML format. Each of the supported file packaging formats has its own set of parameters. In terms of Omni Automation, these file packages are referred to as FileWrappers.

Each instance of the FileWrapper class has a unique type identifier that identifies that wrapper. To get a list of the export types supported by OmniOutliner, write a simple script to access the value of the writableTypes property of the Document class. The result will be an array of the identifiers for the FileWrappers supported in OmniOutliner.

NOTE: a complete list of all readable and writeable filetypes supported by OmniOutliner is available here.

A writable type is used when creating a new FileWrapper instance by using the makeFileWrapper(…) function of the Document class:

Instance Properties

Each FileWrapper instance has a set of supported properties, most of which have values that are read-only, with the exception of the preferredFilename property whose value can be set in a script.

• children (Array of FileWrapper r/o) • Returns an Array of child FileWrappers, if this represents a directory. Otherwise, an empty array is returned.

• contents (String or nil r/o Data) • Returns the regular file contents of the wrapper, if this represents a regular file. Otherwise, null is returned.

• destination (URL or nil r/o) • Returns the destination if this represents a symbolic link. Otherwise, null is returned.

• filename (String or nil) • Returns the actual file name that was last read for this file wrapper. Depending on the names of other sibling wrappers, this may not be what file name will be written.

• preferredFilename (String or nil) • Returns the preferred file name that should be used when writing the file wrapper if no other file in the same parent directory wrapper is in use.

• type (FileWrapper.Type r/o) • Returns the type of this FileWrapper

The value of the contents property is a representation of the outline data, which can be manipulated using class and instance functions from the Data class, such as the toBase64() function shown in the following example:

Class Functions

The class functions for the FileWrapper class:

• withContents(name:String or nil, contents:Data or nil) → (FileWrapper) • Returns a new FileWrapper instance that represents a flat file containing the given data.

It may be desired to perform multiple exports of a document to files in a variety of formats. The withChildren(…) class function can be used to create a folder containing one or more exported documents.

• withChildren(name:String or nil, contents:Data or nil) → (FileWrapper) • Returns a new FileWrapper instance that represents a directory with the given child file wrappers. Each child file wrapper must have a unique name specified.

Instance Functions

The instance functions for the FileWrapper class:

• filenameForChild(child:FileWrapper) → (String or nil) • Returns the unique file name that will be used for the given child FileWrapper, or null if this file wrapper is not a child of the receiver.

FileWrapper.Type

The class properties of a FileWrapper.Type:

• Directory --> (FileWrapper.Type r/o) • A FileWrapper that represents a directory with zero or more child wrappers.

• File --> (FileWrapper.Type r/o) • A FileWrapper that represents a regular file with data contents.

• Link --> (FileWrapper.Type r/o) • A FileWrapper that represents a symbolic link to another location.

As mentioned previously, here is a full explanation of the FileWrapper.Types supported by OmniOutliner:

Here are the various export formats with their corresponding FileWrapper.Type:

CSV

When exporting a multi-column outline as CSV, OmniOutliner saves the .csv file using standard comma-separated values (CSV) conventions (i.e., each column is separated by a comma, and text with spaces is placed within quotations).

com.omnigroup.OmniOutliner.CSVExport.CSV

Excel 2010 Format

Creates a .xlsx spreadsheet document capable of being read in Microsoft Excel 2010 (and other versions of Excel that support the format). This export option maps most closely to multi-column data outside OmniOutliner, and does its best to replicate styles between the two (within the limits of Excel).

com.microsoft.excel.openxml.document

HTML

Creates a like-named folder that contains an index.html file along with the necessary images and attachments that make up your OmniOutliner file. All of the styles you’ve used in OmniOutliner are converted to CSS and included in the index.html file.

com.omnigroup.OmniOutliner.SimpleHTMLExport.HTML

HTML (Dynamic)

This option gives you everything that comes with the basic HTML export, plus an added outliner.js file. This JavaScript file is what makes the file dynamic; you can open and close the sections of your document just as you would in OmniOutliner.

com.omnigroup.OmniOutliner.HTMLExport.HTMLDynamic

com.omnigroup.OmniOutliner.OO3HTMLExport.OO3HTMLDynamic

Microsoft Word (indented)

Creates a .docx file that opens in the default page layout view and retains the outline structure via indentation. This export option only includes the topic column, and is primarily useful for transitioning from an outline to a word processor (rather than duplicating OmniOutliner’s functionality in Word). Row level styles are converted to heading styles, and other styles are flattened and applied directly to text (Microsoft Word does not support OmniOutliner’s style model).

com.omnigroup.word.openxml.indented

Microsoft Word (outline)

Creates a .docx file that opens by default in Microsoft Word’s Outline view. Choose this option to export an outline that can be readily expanded upon in Word. This export option only includes the topic column.

com.omnigroup.word.openxml.outline

OmniOutliner Document

Exports a .ooutline file, the current default OmniOutliner file format (for OmniOutliner 5 and later).

com.omnigroup.omnioutliner.ooutline

com.omnigroup.omnioutliner.xmlooutline

com.omnigroup.omnioutliner.xmlooutline-package

OmniOutliner Template

Exports a .otemplate file which can be used as the base theme for other OmniOutliner outlines. This template format is not compatible with versions earlier than OmniOutliner 5.

com.omnigroup.omnioutliner.otemplate

com.omnigroup.omnioutliner.otemplate-package

OmniOutliner 3

Exports a .oo3 file which can be opened in either OmniOutliner 3 or 4 for Mac, and in OmniOutliner 1 for iPad and OmniOutliner 2 for iOS. These files are not compatible with OmniOutliner 2 for Mac and earlier. They can be opened in OmniOutliner 5, but must be updated to the newer .ooutline format before all editing features are available.

com.omnigroup.omnioutliner.oo3

com.omnigroup.omnioutliner.oo3-package

OmniOutliner 3 Template

Exports a .oo3template file which can be opened in either OmniOutliner 3 or 4. These files are not compatible with OmniOutliner 2 or earlier. They can be opened in OmniOutliner 5, but must be updated to the newer .otemplate format before they can be edited.

com.omnigroup.omnioutliner.oo3template

com.omnigroup.omnioutliner.oo3template-package

OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language)

Exports a .opml file, which retains the hierarchical structure of your outline. However, OPML files do not retain any of the styles or attachments you may have applied in OmniOutliner.

org.opml.opml

com.apple.news.opml

org.opml.opmltemplate

Plain Text (with tabs)

Exports a raw .txt file without any styles. Child rows and columns are aligned using tabs rather than spaces, making this type of export useful for importing into spreadsheet apps such as Numbers or Excel.

public.plain-text

PowerPoint 2012 Format (pptx)

OmniOutliner exports the contents of your outline in an XML format that PowerPoint 2012 can interpret and render. After exporting your outline as .pptx, you can then import the PowerPoint file into Apple’s Keynote app.

Each Level 1 row becomes a separate slide in the PowerPoint presentation, with its children listed on that slide, and notes become presenter notes. Very little styling is carried over from OmniOutliner (styles don’t match well between the two formats, so we err on the side of removing them).

Image attachments are placed on slides corresponding to their level in the hierarchy, but must be manually repositioned to the desired location on the slide.

org.openxmlformats.presentationml.presentation.PowerPoint 2012 Format (pptx)

RTF (Rich Text Format)

Exports a .rtf file, which retains all of the styles you’ve applied in OmniOutliner. RTF is a standard document format that most word processors, such as Word and macOS’s TextEdit app can open. Export to RTF if your Outliner document contains only text and numbers.

public.rtf

RTFD (Rich Text Format with Attachments)

Exports a .rtfd file, which retains all of the styles you’ve applied in OmniOutliner. What sets RTFD apart from RTF is that an RTFD file can contain attachments, such as any images, audio clips, or anything else you attach to your OmniOutliner file. Most word processors, such as Word, Pages, and macOS’s TextEdit can open .rtfd files.

com.apple.rtfd

Export Examples

Here are some examples of using FileWrappers to export OmniOutliner documents.

Here’s an Omni Automation script for creating a new task in OmniFocus with the current OmniOutliner document as an attachment. The script uses the integrated URL support in OmniFocus to create and run a URL link for creating tasks:

More information about implementing the previous script as an Omni Automation action can be found here.

The following example script utilize the built-in eMail support in OmniOutliner to add export copies of the current document to new outgoing mail messages:

You can use the contents property of the FileWrapper class to generate text content for an outgoing email message.

Here’s an action that uses the same export technique to send the current outline to the Drafts application as plain text:

Export to HTML

The following Omni Automation plug-in will export the current outline to disk as a folder containing an HTML file with supporting files.

This plug-in uses an action form to prompt the user to select the export parameters to use. In addition, the action displays a file saver dialog from which the user determines the name and location to be used for the exported HTML folder.

The action code incorporates three uses of the JavaScript Promise class: 1) for form creation and display; 2) for generating the export file wrapper; and 3) for displaying and responding to the file saver dialog.