TL;DR: Outlining is the core editing model in Taskade. It is hierarchical, indent-driven, and keyboard-friendly. Press
Tabto nest a task andShift+Tabto outdent it. PressEnterto add a task. Use markdown shortcuts to format the text. Nesting has no depth limit, and outlining works the same way in every project view.
Here is how an outline nests, with each parent task holding its own children.
Overview
Outlining turns a tangle of ideas into a clear, nested plan. Type a task, press Tab to nest a sub-task, and Taskade keeps the hierarchy tidy across every view. This guide covers the core moves: nesting, outdenting, and folding.
What Is Outlining?
Outlining is the process of creating hierarchies for whatever you are thinking or working on. Outlines break complex processes into smaller, more manageable parts.
The Benefits of Outlining
Writers use outlining for notes and document structure. A project outliner like Taskade does much more. It also works well for:
- 🪨 Breaking complex ideas/problems into smaller steps
- ✅ Managing all your tasks in an organized way.
- 👑 Visualizing all kinds of hierarchical systems.
- 👁 Planning and managing projects.
- 💬 Preparing a meeting agenda/talking points.
- 📍 Connecting the dots and visualizing links between ideas.
- 🔄 Creating reusable checklists, workflows, and templates.
Outlining Terminology
Taskade is a true outliner. That means it can "understand" relationships between outline elements (nodes). To better visualize those connections, outline elements are commonly referred to as Parents and Children.
🌳 Parents (Tasks)
You start an outline (Project) on Taskade by creating tasks.
A task is equivalent to a bullet point in the traditional sense.
A task occupies the highest level of an outline hierarchy.
🍃 Children ( Sub-Tasks)
Sub-tasks are the children of a parent task.
A sub-task is “nested” or indented under its parent task.
Every sub-task is also a task, so each sub-task can have its own sub-tasks.
Indent/Outdent
The easiest way to highlight the relationship between tasks and subtasks is to indent/nest lower-level elements in a hierarchy.
To indent, select a task and press the ⌨️ Tab Key.
You can create an unlimited number of sub-tasks in a hierarchy.
To outdent, use the ⌨️ Shift + Tab keyboard shortcut.
Fold / Unfold
Outlining lets you hide or show outline levels. Here is how it works:
- Select the top task in an outline level.
- Click the arrow ▽ to the left of the task to fold the level.
- Click the arrow again to unfold the level.
Note: Press Ctrl/⌘ + ⬆ to fold or Ctrl/⌘ + ⬇ to unfold outline levels.
