In the process of writing a long document (hundreds of pages), I want to maintain deep outlines as a way of representing chapters, sections, sub-sections, titles and so on, with much more than one level of depth, more like ten or so, with the nodes of the tree having (a) the ability to contain their own text AND (b) the ability to have more children AND © the ability to easily break apart existing nodes into deeper levels AND (d) the ability to easily browse and peruse the structure (Imagine More 3, for those who have used it, without so many distracting bells-and-whistles).
How can I do that with Dt Pro?
USING GROUPS TO MIMIC THE TREE
- Are groups and sub-groups intended to support such need?
- If yes, are there ways to automatically create numbered-bulleted lists of sub-groups?
- It doesn’t support (a) above
- Since at some point I need to write a document, at that point © above is not supported either
USING DOCUMENTS TO MIMIC THE TREE
- As soon as I enter the document, all the structure from there on is (a) not “real” in the sense that I can not browse it, peruse it, collapse it, etc. and (b) excluded from view as soon as I have another document open
- This mechanism seems to support only one real level of depth
COMBINING GROUPS AND DOCUMENTS
- The problem is, this requires FULL a-priori understanding of the structure of the final product: a document MUST be a leaf, and if any errors are committed, going back and forth becomes a problem.
So, here are my questions:
- Am I missing gestures/Modus Operandi that could satisfy my requirements?
- How do other users use Dt to write, for example, a research-based book and preserve their ability to switch between sequential (document-text), associative (search-concept) and hierarchical (structure-tree)?
- Am I trying to fit the proverbial square peg? Is Dt ever going to be the right tool for that purpose? Is that a functional target for Product Management? If it’s not, it’d be a crime, because Dt already supports sequential mode adequately, and associative mode SUPERBLY… However, the creative process necesitates thge THREE modes, each of them at least minimally sufficient.
- Do you plan to create better documentation, which addresses SPECIFICALLY (not vaguely, as currently) real use scenarios for Dt Pro?