Un-indenting an item changes its order

[ladyWildfire]

When typing a list occasionally I need to change the indent level of a particular item but keep it in the same vertical order in the full list. Microsoft Office products (Word, Powerpoint, etc.), Google Drive docs, and many other applications allow for this behavior, but when I attempt to do the same in Dynalist it moves the item to the bottom of the list level. Dynalist should behave consistently with bullet lists in these other applications.

This has been reported as a bug but it does not look like it is being actively addressed:

Changing indent level changes order

I don't know whether this is a bug or a feature, but since it isn't the behavior I expect, I'm reporting it as a bug. Steps to reproduce Create a list with several levels of indentation, as in the example below: Example of level 1 Another example Now level 2 Level 2 item 2 Level 2 item 3 Promote "Level 2 item 2" to the next highest level (Shift+Tab) Expected result I expect to see the following: Example of level 1 Another example 1. Now level 2 Level 2 item 2 1. Level 2 ite…

This should be a vital feature to keep consistent with the standard behavior seen in other widely-used applications.

[Erica]

Hi @ladyWildfire,

Thanks for the post!

We’re considering adding an option for this, but we still don’t think this should be the default behavior. I understand the examples you used: Google Docs, Microsoft Word, etc. But those are text editor, not outliners.

Not sure if you read the previous post, but the key thing why we’re hesitant to change this is if we un-indent like in text editor, it’s actually doing more than un-indenting. It un-indents the said item AND move the items below it to be its children. That’s more than what the label says (i.e. “unindent”). It also means there’s no way to un-indent an item in the middle of its siblings without moving it to the edge first or dragging it.

An option to un-indent in-place is the most likely solution to this problem right now. It’s not actively addressed as we have some other priorities at hand right now, but as it comes up again and again, we shall address it soon enough.

[ladyWildfire]

I see your point, but there are times where I plan to use Dynalist as a way to sort items by tier and category, and times where I am using it as a simple list where the indentation only affects the visual organization. Having a global option or (even better) a per-document option for this indentation behavior would be greatly appreciated.

[Erica]

Update: added this option under Settings - Preferences - Control.