OmniOutliner URLs

[Ken Case]

On Feb 25, 2007, at 3:19 PM, Thom Brooks wrote:

> I created a multi-column outline in OOP (about the current state of  
> vendors who offer "Donate now, online!" type services, if anyone is  
> interested.) The report includes the URL for each company's website.
>
> I then realized I needed to share it with folks from my camp.  
> (http://www.specialdays.org/)

Have you considered exporting it as Dynamic HTML?  This will create a  
web page for you (and all of the links will be clickable links).

> In the meantime, can I just tell OOP to stop being so #$@%#$@%  
> 'clever' and just keep my URLs as text, so they'll export properly?  
> I tried changing the View -> attachments to be 'Inline', which  
> makes them _look_ normal, but I suspect they're still being stored  
> in that nifty way internally.

You can turn off "Automatically create attachments from typed URLs"  
in General Preferences.  This won't convert your existing URLs back  
into plain text, but it will prevent OmniOutliner from automatically  
creating new attachments for future URLs you type.

> More importantly, can I convert a bunch of existing URL objects ...  
> attachments... whatever... to be just basic text, like I typed in  
> the first place?!? (I know: how about a new column type: 'Poor  
> text'? Get it? ;)
>
> I also note that clicking on the column name (in 'select' mode, not  
> edit) appears to pick the entire column. Great! But the option to  
> 'Copy' the whole column to the clipboard is grayed out. (I had this  
> wacky idea that maybe I could copy and paste an OOP column into  
> Excel. Please stop laughing at me.)

I guess you could try selecting all the rows and copying those into  
Excel.  This copies over the plain text representation, which  
includes the full URL.  (To get the data into multiple columns in  
Excel, you'll need to click on the Paste Options note that appears  
and select "Use Text Import Wizard".  From there, you can change the  
import's "Original data type" to "Fixed width" and configure the  
columns to match your data.)

> (steam rising from forehead... I should have just started retyping  
> everything in Excel)

Sorry for the frustration here!  I see several improvements we could  
make in future releases:

	We should add an option to the Excel exporter to specify how URL  
attachments should be handled.  (Are they just skipped right now?  We  
should at least try to bring over the label.)

	We should make it easy to convert all URL attachments back into  
plain text.  (And perhaps to scan existing plain text for URL  
attachments, if you want to go the other way later.)

	We should copy tabular data to the clipboard so that pasting into  
Excel just works.

And, not specifically related to interacting with Excel, it would  
sure be nice if we let you copy and paste columns.  (We already have  
a general feature request for this.)

But returning to your specific problem:  will exporting as HTML meet  
your needs?  (And don't forget to turn off "Automatically create  
attachments from typed URLs" for future documents, assuming you don't  
want those URLs turned into attachments in general!)

Hope this helps,

				Ken