Using the Outliner

When you select a subject from the sidebar, the outliner opens in the content panel — a tree view that organizes everything hierarchically: subjects at the top, references and entries as branches, comments as leaves. It's designed for keyboard-driven navigation and quick editing.

Understanding the tree

Each row in the tree shows a node with its type icon, title, and status badges. Nodes with children show a chevron for expanding and collapsing. The depth of each row is indicated by indentation.

Common node types you'll see:

• Subject — top-level container for a study session or topic
• Reference — source material (articles, URLs, scriptures)
• Entry — a paragraph or section from your reference
• Comment — your prepared thought for delivery
• Concept, Topic, Person, Verse, Place — entity nodes extracted from your content

Navigation

The outliner is keyboard-first. Navigate with arrow keys:

Editing

Organizing

Toolbar

The toolbar at the top provides these controls:

• Collapse/Expand all — toggle between fully collapsed and fully expanded.
• Bodies — show or hide all body panels at once.
• Type filter — filter the tree to show only nodes of a specific type (Comments, References, etc.).
• Print (🖨) — open a branded prep sheet in a new tab for printing or saving as PDF.
• F1 — show a keyboard shortcut overlay.

Body panels

Click any node's title to open its body panel. Inside you'll find:

• Body text — the full content, truncated with "Show more" for long text.
• Language toggle — switch between EN and ES if a translation exists. A "stale" indicator appears if the source was edited after translation.
• Source URL bar — if the node has a URL, you can open it, copy it, or import content from it.
• Entity chips — linked concepts, people, verses, and topics shown as clickable chips.
• Artifacts — coaching results, word counts, and other tool outputs.

Compose overlay

For focused editing, the compose overlay opens a split-screen view:

• Left/top pane — shows your source material (the nearest ancestor with body text), giving you context while you write.
• Right/bottom pane — your comment editor with the optional question field and speaking-time indicator.

You can open the compose overlay by:

• Tapping the expand icon on the inline new-child input.
• Choosing Zoom from the tools menu.
• Tapping Edit on a comment node.

The overlay offers Save & Coach to immediately coach after saving, or just Save to save without coaching.

Compose overlay tools

The header bar gives you quick access to several quality-of-life features without leaving the overlay:

• Sibling navigation — when editing a comment that has siblings (other nodes under the same parent), arrow buttons and a counter (1 / 3) let you step through them one at a time. Changes are auto-saved before navigating.
• Language toggle — if a Spanish translation exists, an EN / ES / Side by Side toggle appears. The toggle works in both edit and read modes:
  • EN — your English comment in an editable textarea (or read-only in read mode).
  • ES — a read-only view of the Spanish translation.
  • Side by Side — both languages in columns. The English side remains editable so you can refine your comment while comparing it to the translation.
• Ref toggle — the Ref button shows or hides the source/reference panel on the left. Hide it when you want the comment to take the full width — useful for side-by-side bilingual editing or when you no longer need to see the source material.
• Read / Edit toggle — switch between the editing textarea and a clean read view with larger text. Use read mode to practice delivering your comment, or to review it without accidentally editing. The language toggle works in both modes.

Metrics bar

Below the editor, the metrics bar shows at a glance:

• Word count and speaking time — updates live as you type.
• Vocabulary diversity — rated as Varied, Good, Moderate, or Repetitive based on your word choices.
• Readiness score — if coaching has been run, a percentage score (weighted by your coaching context) shows how close the comment is to delivery-ready.

Coaching in the overlay

After you use Save & Coach, re-opening the compose overlay for that comment shows the coaching results inline:

• Score badges for Clarity, Conciseness, Depth, and Relevance (each out of 5).
• Categorized suggestions with an Apply button that replaces your comment text with the suggested improvement.

Node actions menu

Every node has a ⋮ (three-dot) button on the far right of its heading row. Tap it — or press . (period) — to open a centered action modal with everything you can do to that node.

Quick actions bar

At the top of the modal, a row of quick-access buttons adapts to the node type:

• Coach — ask Hoot for coaching feedback (comment nodes)
• Ready — mark a comment as finalized (comment nodes)
• Edit — open in the compose overlay (comment nodes)
• + Add — create a child node
• Zoom — fullscreen edit with source context
• Copy — copy the body text to your clipboard
• Generate — ask Hoot to generate comment ideas from source material (entry/reference nodes)

Categorized tools

Below the quick actions, tools are organized in a two-column grid (single column on mobile):

• Edit — Rename (F2), Edit body (F9), Delete (Ctrl+Del)
• Move — Move up/down, Un-nest, Nest deeper
• Content — Zoom, Copy, AI Translate, Paste translation
• AI Actions (comment nodes) — Refine, More Like This, AI Compare
• Share (comment nodes) — generate a shareable link
• Tools — Word Count, Extract Entities
• Tags — add, remove, and quick-pick tags (full width at bottom)

Search filter

The modal includes a filter input at the top. Start typing to narrow the list — for example, type "trans" to show only Translate actions. Power users can press . then immediately type to filter without touching the mouse.

Refine (non-destructive)

When you choose Refine, you'll see preset options that give the AI targeted instructions:

• Shorten — cut length while keeping the core message.
• Deepen — add more substance or personal angle.
• Simplify — use simpler, more natural language.
• Strengthen ending — make the conclusion land harder.
• Add example — work in a concrete illustration.

You can also type a custom instruction for targeted refinement.

Refine is non-destructive — your original comment stays untouched. The refined version appears as a child node below the original, so you can compare both, edit the refined version, or delete it if you prefer your original.

AI Compare

AI Compare generates fresh AI-written comments from the same source material and adds them as child nodes below your comment. This lets you see different angles and approaches side by side with your own writing — then keep the ideas you like and delete the rest.

Coaching feedback

After coaching, feedback appears inline below the comment with scores for Clarity, Conciseness, Depth, and Relevance. Each suggestion has an Apply button. When you're done reviewing, tap the × button in the feedback header to dismiss it.

Tags

Tags help you organize and find your work across subjects. Every node in the outliner — subjects, entries, references, and comments — can have tags.

Adding tags

• Tap + Tag on any node to open an inline input. Type a tag name and press Enter or , to add it.
• Open the ⋮ action modal and use the Tags section at the bottom to add or remove tags. Quick-pick suggestions show your existing unused tags.
• In the compose overlay (Zoom view), a Tags row appears at the bottom for editing tags on the current node.
• When composing a new comment, tags entered in the compose form are saved automatically — even if you don't press Enter before clicking Save.

Tag chips

Tags appear as colored chips below each node's title. Each tag gets an auto-assigned color from a 12-color palette — consistent across the app. Tap a chip to toggle the tag filter. Tap the × on a chip to remove it from that node.

Tag filter bar

When you have tags, a filter bar appears above the tree with pill buttons for each tag. Tap a tag pill to filter — nodes belonging to subjects without that tag fade to 20% opacity, keeping your spatial context. Tap All to clear the filter.

Label prefix

When you provide both a Label and a Subject name in the compose form, the subject title combines them as "Label: Subject" (e.g., "Daily: Thursday, August 20"). This makes it easy to categorize subjects at a glance.

Meeting prep export

Click the Print button (🖨) in the toolbar to open a branded prep sheet in a new tab. Your finalized comments are organized by paragraph with coaching scores and speaking times. Use your browser's Print or Save as PDF to create a clean document for your meeting.

State persistence

The outliner remembers your position. When you return to a subject, your collapse state, open body panels, hoist position, and focused node are restored exactly as you left them. This is saved per-subject in your browser.