PaSiCCNodes and the focus view
Everything in PaSiCC is a node. This page explains how nodes are connected and how the focus view shows them.
Nodes
A node has a title, an optional attributes line below it (see The attributes line) and an optional description. Click the title or the attributes line to edit them in place. The description is edited with Edit description: as formatted text with a toolbar ("Visual") or as raw Markdown ("Markdown"); which one opens first is a setting. Ctrl+Enter saves, Esc cancels. With changes, Esc asks before discarding them, in the title and the attributes line too.
A node has no fixed type. It is a task because of a task marker such as TODO; remove the marker and it is a plain
node again.
The focus view
The focus view shows one node in the middle and its surroundings:
| Where | What |
|---|---|
| above | its parents, and above them their ancestors up to the top level |
| below | its children |
| on the right | its siblings (other children of its parents) |
| on the left | its cross-links |
On a phone, the parents stay above the node, and three buttons below it show one of the other sections at a time: cross-links, children (shown first) and siblings, each with its count; tapping the shown one again hides it.
Click any of them to move the focus there. The footer shows the nodes you visited recently.
Top-level nodes
A node without a parent is a top-level node. Top level (at the top of the node view) lists them: type to filter them, or type a new title and choose Create new to create one.
Favorites
Mark a node you visit often with the star ☆ beside its menu (☰). Favorites, beside Top level, lists your favorites, one click to each; pointing at one shows its path from the top level. Drag an entry by its grip to move it (or press Alt+↑/↓ on the grip); × removes it. Your favorites are yours alone and the same on every device; a node you can no longer read leaves the list.
On a wide screen with a mouse, the pin after Favorites shows your favorites as a row below the buttons (for this browser tab); Favorites then hides the row again. To make a node a favorite, you can also drag the node itself — press on its chip or on the focused node's title and move — onto Favorites, or into the row at the place it should go; in the row, dragging a favorite moves it. Resting on Favorites while dragging opens the row. In the row, × removes a favorite after asking; a favorite dragged out of the row turns red and is removed when you let go.
Parents and children
A node can have several parents: it then sits in every context it belongs to, and changes show everywhere at once – it is one node, not copies. Under Children and Parents:
- + add opens a field: as you type, it offers Create "…" for a new node there (a child below, a parent above) and, below that, the nodes you already have whose titles match, to link one;
- Enter creates the new node: Create "…" stays highlighted; to link a match, choose it with ↑/↓ first. Ctrl+Enter always creates.
The hierarchy never runs in a circle: a node can't become its own ancestor.
Siblings
Siblings are the other children of a node's parents. With several parents they are shown merged (one list) or per parent (one group per parent); switch between them above the list. Top-level nodes have no siblings.
Cross-links
A cross-link connects two nodes independently of the hierarchy, e.g. a task and the person it is about. It shows on both nodes. A cross-link may have a label for each direction, e.g. "Tiles" bought at "Hardware store", and "Hardware store" sells "Tiles". + add works as for children; once the node is chosen, it asks for the link's name, which may stay empty. Pointing at a cross-linked node shows where it sits: its path from the top level.
Linking by dragging
With a mouse, a node shows a small handle when you point near its top, its bottom or its left edge (in the corners the left one). Drag it onto another node: from the top the other node becomes its parent, from the bottom its child, from the side a cross-link (its name is asked). The line shows where you are dragging; nodes that can't take the link are faded, the target shows the matching handle. With Shift held while dropping a new parent, the node moves there: it leaves every parent below the new one (a child of a parent moved to the grandparent goes up a level), otherwise the parent it was shown under or its only parent. Nodes already linked that way are faded too. While you hold Shift, the parent link that a move removes is drawn in red. With Shift, nodes already linked that way are targets where that link is shown (a parent among the parents, a cross-link among the cross-links), framed in red: dropping there removes the link (asking first when a node would be left without parents, or which one of several cross-links). Esc cancels.
Removing links
The × on a parent, child or cross-link removes that link after asking. Both nodes stay; a node left without parents moves to the top level. For a child you own, the dialog also offers to delete it instead. With a mouse you can also remove a link by dragging with Shift held (Linking by dragging).
Deleting
Delete… in the focused node's menu (☰ at its top right) deletes it. If it has children, you choose what happens to them: move them up to the node's parents, make them top-level nodes, or delete them too (keeping those that still have another parent, or all of them). The dialog names how many nodes each choice affects.
Search
The search (the magnifier after Favorites, or / or Ctrl+F) searches the titles of all your nodes. The letters
you type need not be adjacent: "pntdr" finds "Paint the door". Each result shows its path from the top level.
Keyboard shortcuts
In the node view, single keys act while you aren't typing in a field and no dialog or menu is open. ? (or the key cap at the bottom right of the node view) lists the ones that work at the moment. Buttons and menu items show their key.
- ↑ / ↓: the primary parent (on the longest path from the top level) / the first child
- ← / →: the previous / next sibling below the first parent, with Shift below the second (wrapping around)
- E or F2, A or F4, D or F6: edit the title, the attributes, the description
- Shift+X, X: a task or not (the task marker), done or not done
- + or !, −, *: one priority point more or less (− at
!removes it), the next energy level (after the highest: none) - Shift+F, S, Del: favorite on or off, share…, delete…
- N, Shift+N: add a child, a parent
- M, Shift+M: add a sibling below the first, the second parent
- C: add a cross-link
- T, G or Home, F, / or Ctrl+F: the task list, the top-level nodes, the favorites (↑/↓ choose, Enter opens), the search
Where a key's action isn't allowed (e.g. on a node shared with you for reading), a short notice says why.