Expand/collapse level by level

I’m new to Dynalist and don’t see a way to do something I do all the time in Workflowy – which is progressively expand/collapse a list level by level.

In Workflowy, when zoomed in on a list, place the cursor on the list name at the top, and use Ctrl+down_arrow to progressively open the items in the list one level at at time. Reverse to progressively collapse one level at a time.

Is there a way to do this in Dynalist? I see how to expand/collapse all. But I don’t see how to progressively open/close all items in the list one level at a time.

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Hi @David_Goggin,

Unfortunately there’s no way to do that right now in Dynalist. Sorry!

I second @David_Goggin’s suggestion. It would be helpful when I’m looking at a three-level list – fold up the top level, then expand twice and I can see exactly the list I want. Currently I have to expand once and then click each sub-category to reveal their children.

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Maybe I should move this to the Features category then?

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I’d like it added to the feature request list. But I’ve no idea if there’s sufficient interest to warrant that.

Also, it might take some thought to come up with an available hot key that’s related to the existing expand/collapse hotkeys.

It’s not a show stopper for me. But it is handy once you get used to it being there.

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Yeah I agree.

We can leave it empty for customization – it’s an advanced hotkey anyway.

Well, you can post a topic in the Features category, at least. And in the topic you can ask people to like or comment if they want it too. That way we can measure interest a bit more easily. Right now it’s like a feature request buried inside a help inquiry.

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I second this request, it’s a feature I used to use a lot too!

I think it could by synced to something like CMD + DOWN and CMD + UP. I miss having expand and collapse mapped to two different arrow keys. When expand/collapse are mapped to two different arrow keys, you can basically do all your moving, sorting, zooming, expanding and collapsing all from the four arrow keys. Your right hand stays right on the arrow keys which are fast and intuitive to use (just tap the direction you want to go) and then your left hand holds the correct modifier key based on which one you want to do.

An example keyboard setup can be:

Hold CTRL and the arrow keys become:

UP = Collapse (level by level)
Down = Expand (level by level)
Left = Zoom Out
Right = Zoom In

So basically by holding CTRL your four arrow keys become an intuitive “view change” mode, where each arrow key corresponds to shifting the view in that “direction”.

Hold CTRL + SHIFT and the arrow keys become:

UP = Move the node up
DOWN = Move the node down
Left = Un-indent the node (e.g. move it left)
Right = Indent the node (e.g. move it right)

Like the above one this set of shortcuts is really intuitive. Hold the modifiers and use the arrows to move the node exactly in the direction you want it to go.

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This will be a very important feature for me in terms of upgrading.

It will allow me to easily export outlines, since export is done not with levels, but by visibility.

Would be happy to upgrade for this feature, since it looks like a fairly power use one.

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Okay…I added a post to the Features section requesting this feature – see Feature Request Expand-Collapse level-by-level

Hi Ming, do you mind elaborating on this? There’s an option that allows you to export everything regardless of visibility, does that help?

Thanks David, really appreciate it!

For example, i want to export the level one points as an outline, or level 2 points as a more detailed layout (for printing, emailing to colleagues as a summary, etc)

Exporting everything that is visible will require me to manually click on level one (or worse level 2) points to press them, which will be way too much of an hassle.

I see what you mean now, and I can see why this feature will be useful.

We’ll give it more consideration, thanks for the input!

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Moved to feature request so closing this post. Thanks!

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