The term 'quick list' describes Tinderbox's ability to recognise certain characters—as the first characters in paragraphs—in $Text as indicating an HTML list when exported.
Making unordered (bullet) lists
Unordered, i.e. bulleted, HTML lists can be indicated using either an asterisk (*) or a bullet (•). Thus Tinderbox recognises as unordered lists paragraphs that begin with one or more asterisks or bullets:
* like this example
** use two or more asterisks to embed lists within lists
The above gives this sort of HTML output :
- like this example
- use two or more asterisks to embed lists within lists
- like this example
- use two or more asterisks to embed lists within lists
Making ordered (numbered) lists
Ordered, i.e. numbered, HTML lists can be indicated by using a hash symbol (#). So, those paragraphs that begin with one or more hash marks:
# like this example
## use two or more hashes to embed lists within lists
The above gives this sort of HTML output:
- like this example
- use two or more hashes to embed lists within lists.
List types can be mixed. For instance:
* like this example
## use hashes to get numbered lists
## numbered lists can be in bulleted lists
* and so on
That gives:
- like this example
- use hashes to get numbered lists
- numbered lists can be in bulleted lists
- and so on
Configuring quick lists
Tinderbox will indent whole paragraphs beginning with an asterisk or hash, by one tab-width per quick list symbol. A quick list item starting with 3 asterisks will show in TB as a paragraph indented 3 tab-widths.
Several attributes and preferences control quick list handling in note windows and at export:
- If the $HTMLListItemStart and $HTMLListItemEnd attributes are empty, all quick lists, as defined by lines starting with an * or a #, are disabled and content is exported verbatim (i.e. including the * or # markers).
- Outputting text using ^value($Text)^ ignores quick list markup at the source notes $Text is exported verbatim, without HTML processing.
- If $HTMLMarkupText is set to
false(the non-default setting), all list indenting is turned off and all mark-up for export, including quick lists, is disabled e.g. paragraph tags, HTML entities, etc. This choice is useful if exporting notes holding code (CS, JavaScript) which must be exported verbatim; the export template would still just use ^text^ but the note's $Text would be inserted into the output verbatim, without any modification.- Note that in Tinderbox v6+ there is rarely the need to alter $HTMLMarkupText given the possibility of ^value($Text)^ as described above
- If $IsTemplate is
true, the effect is the same as setting $HTMLMarkupText tofalse, effectively overwriting the latter's current setting to ensure templates perform as expected.
HTML export supports Quick Lists: paragraphs that start with an asterisk or bullet are exported as unordered lists.
Styling Quick Lists in $Text
From v10.0.0, Quick Lists are detected and auto indented within $Text. Note that this styling has not effect in display in the Preview or Export text panes, as they only control the style (layout) of $Text. For longtime users, this returns auto list indenting as seen in the original pre-v6 app.
Two system attributes control the degree of indentation (in pixels) applied to list items:
- $QuickListIndent is the desired indentation (in pixels) of quick lists.
- $QuickListHangingIndent is the additional indentation (in pixels) of the second and subsequent lines of a list entry.
Nested lists are supported, each level using the same indent, added to that of its parent list. Edits within lists (level change of item, adding/removing asterisks/hash markers, etc.) are auto-detected/updated. If in doubt that changes are reflected, click the tab label of the current tab as this forces the content of both panes to refresh.
Suppressing default quick list behaviour
To stop a quick list character at the start of a line from being interpreted as quick list markup, either:
- Place an Option+space character at the start of the line.
- Use the HTML encoded symbol for that character, e.g. replace '#' with '#', or '*' with '*' etc.
See also—notes linking to here: