Things
Indent, outdent, and reorder
Indenting nests a thing under the one above it. Reordering moves it up and down.
Why you'd care
Indenting is the cheapest structure in Twos. It costs one keystroke, needs no new object, and turns a flat list into something with shape.
The 60-second version
Web, Mac, Windows, and Linux
Press indentThing and outdentThing, or press the spacebar at the very front of a thing to indent it.
iPhone, iPad, and Android
Press the spacebar at the front of a thing, or use the indent buttons in the edit bar. A swipe action can also be bound to it.
The shortcuts
| Action | Mac | Windows and Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Move thing up | ⌘⌥↑ | Ctrl+Alt+↑ |
| Move thing down | ⌘⌥↓ | Ctrl+Alt+↓ |
| Move thing to top | ⌘⇧⌥↑ | Ctrl+Shift+Alt+↑ |
| Move thing to bottom | ⌘⇧⌥↓ | Ctrl+Shift+Alt+↓ |
| Indent (⇥) | not set | not set |
| Outdent (⇧⇥) | not set | not set |
Going further
Spacebar at the front is the one to learn. It is faster than any button and works everywhere, including on a phone. Most people never discover it.
Indentation and type are independent. A note can sit under a to-do and a to-do can sit under a note. Nesting says nothing about what a thing is. See thing types.
Moving a parent takes its children. Reordering or moving an indented block keeps the block together and keeps its internal order.
Indent, or make a sublist? Indent for two or three sub-items on the same page. Promote to a sublist when the detail deserves its own page. See sublists.
Indentation re-bases on move. Moving a deeply indented thing into another list normalises its indentation so it does not arrive floating four levels deep.
Tips
- Two levels is almost always enough. Four levels is a sublist that has not been made yet.
- Reordering a selection moves the whole run at once, which beats dragging rows past each other. See select many things at once.