Things
Indent and outdent
Indenting nests a thing under the one above it. Outdenting brings it back out.
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 Tab to indent and ⇧Tab to outdent, 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. See swipe actions.
The shortcuts
| Action | Mac | Windows and Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Indent (⇥) | Tab | Tab |
| Outdent (⇧⇥) | ⇧Tab | Shift+Tab |
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.
Indent a whole selection at once. Select several things and indent or outdent them together. See select many things at once.
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.
Indent, or make a sublist? Indent for two or three sub-items in the same list. Promote to a sublist when the detail deserves its own list. See sublists.
Indentation re-bases on move. Moving a deeply indented thing into another list normalizes 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.
- To move a parent together with everything under it, see reorder.