2/17/2017 TreeSheetsTutorial

Tutorial&Featuredescription
Thereare3waystolearnhowTreeSheetsworks:

1.LiveInAppTutorial:
Tryoutfunctionalitylivewhilereadingaboutit,inthetutorialdocumentthat
loadsupwhenyoufirststarttheprogram(orpressF1).

2.Watchthisvideo:
WilliamRanvaudkindlymadeatutorialvideo:

3.Or,readaboutitonthispage:

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[Note:Thetext/imagesbelowareabitoutofdate,butshouldstillgiveyou
thegeneralidea.]

Startbycreatinganewgrid(menu File/New,or CTRL+N).Don'tworrytoo

muchaboutdimensions,inserting/deletingrowsandcolumnsistheeasiest
thing.

Toenterdata,simply LeftClickinsideacelltoselectit,andstarttyping:

Onceyoustarttypingonaselectedcell,athinnerborderwillindicatethatyou
areintexteditmode(similartospreadsheets).

Selectagridline(LeftClick):

Nowstarttypingtoinsertaroworcolumnatthatlocation.Thenewcontent
willendupatbetweenthecellsyouclickedat(thethickerpartoftheline
selection):

Similarly,wecandeleterowsorcolumnsbyselectingagridlineagain:

andthenusingthe BACKSPACEkey(fortherowabove,orthecolumnbefore)
orthe DELETEkey(fortherowbelow,orthecolumnafter)todelete:

Thisintuititivelyworksmuchlikeatexteditor,tryitout.Don'tworryabout
accidentaldeletions,there'sunlimitedundoonanyactions(Edit/Undoor

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CTRL+Z).
Saving(File/Saveor CTRL+S, File/SaveAs)andLoading(File/Open
or CTRL+O)workasyouexpectfromanyproductivityapplication.TreeSheets
automaticallyloadsthelastsaved .ctsfileonstartup.Use File/Export
AsXML/HTML/Textifyouneedtouseyourdataoutsideof
TreeSheets.

Thesearethebasicsofeditingasinglegrid,buttherealfunonlystartswhen
youstartorganizingyourdatawithgridsinsideothergrids.Simplyselecta
singlecell,anduse Edit/NewGridor INSERT:

>

Thecellyouhadselectednowhasa1x1subgrid.Editthiscell,andaddsome
additionalcellstothisnewgridtogetthehangofhowthisnewgridworksin
relationtoitsparent:

Youcanselectmultiplecellssimplybyusing LeftClick+Drag,muchlikein
spreadsheets.Thisevenworksacrossgridhierarchylevels,wherecrossing
boundarieswillautomaticallyselecttheentirechild:

or

Someoperationsworkonlyonsinglecells(suchasinsertingnewdataabove),
butmanyalsoworkontheselargerselections.Forexample,youcanuse
DELETEtoclear/removeanysubselectionofagrid,and
CTRL+LEFT|RIGHT|UP|DOWNtomoveaselectionaroundinsideagrid:

>

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Noticethatwitheveryeditingoperation,resizingtocontentisautomatic.
TreeSheetsmakesorganizingdataincomplexwaysreallyeasy,andthisway
youalwaysgetthemostcompactlayoutwiththeidealusageofspace.Youcan
influencehowmuchspaceanythingtakesupbyusing SHIFT+MouseWheel
withanyamountofcellsselected:

Thischangestherelativesizeofacell.Itisrelativetohowdeeplyitisnested
(asyousaw,anestedgridalreadyhadasmallerfont).Usingrelativesizeisa
greattooltomakecertainimportantthings(suchascaptions)standout,and
lessimportantdatastillreadable,butverysmallandthustakinguplessspace.
TreeSheetshasbeendesignedwiththephilosophythatforverylargeand
complexsetsofdatayoushouldsimplybeabletoshrinkdata(downtoasingle
pixelpercharacter!)ratherthanusingexcessiveamountsofspacethatwould
requirealotofscrollingaround.Butonceyoumakesomethingunreadably
small,howcanyoumakeitreadable/editableagain?ThisiswhereTreeSheets'
zoomingfeaturecomesin.Simplymakeanyselection,atanylevelofnesting,
andthenusethe CTRL+MouseWheel(forward):

EveryclickoftheMouseWheelwillzoomyouinonelevel,soevenverydeeply
nestedgridsareinstantlyreachablewithaquickflickoftheMouseWheel.And
sincetextsizesarerelative,therootofwhatiscurrentlydisplayedwillalways
bethedefaultfontsize,makingitreadableandeditable.Thissystemallows
youtocreateTreeSheetscontaininghugeamountsofdata,whereonlythe
overalstructureisvisibleattherootlevel,yeteverythingisquicklywithin
reach.

Zoomingoutbacktotherootiseveneasiersinceitdoesn'tevenrequirea
selection:justflickyourMouseWheelinthebackwardsdirection.

(AnyuseoftheMouseWheelcanbereplacedwith PageUp/PageDown,which
maybemoreconvenientonlaptops).

TreeSheetswillshowscrollbarswhenthecurrentdatadoesn'tfitonscreen,but
youareencouragedtofindouthowmucheasieritistoworkwithout
scrollbars,byshrinkingitemstilltheyfit.Youcanshrinkunimportanttextdown
tosinglepixels(!)whichisthenonlyreadablybyzoomingin.

AnothertooltoaffectthelayoutofyourTreeSheetsisthethecolumnwidth.
TreeSheetstreatseachcellasasinglelineoftextintermsofediting,butyou
canhavethatlinebeingwordwrappedacrossanynumberoflinesyouchoose.
Thisisusefultostoplonglinesfromstretchingthelayoutofyourdata.Simply
use ALT+ScrollWheeltoincreaseordecreasethecolumnwidth:

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originally:

smaller:

verysmall:

Cut(Edit/Cutor CTRL+X),Copy(Edit/Copyor CTRL+C)andPaste

(Edit/Pasteor CTRL+V)workasyouexpect,thoughthedestinationfor
Pasteisexpectedtobeasinglecell.CopyandPasteworkstooandfromother
applicationsaswell,withanyselectionbeingconvertedtolinesoftext,with
indentationindicatinghierarchylevels.Similarly,ifyouhaveanytextthatuses
indententionforhierarchy,pastingitintoTreeSheetswillreproducethat
structure.

Otherfunfunctionalitytotry:

Usethe cursorkeystomoveyourselectionaround,oreven Enter

tomovetothenextline

ImportfromXML,orcopypasteanyasciitextintoacellwithindentation
willcreateatreestructureaccordingtotheindentation

SetyourfavouritefonttoviewyourTreeSheetswith(View/Pick
DefaultFont)

Youcanaddimagestoanycell(Edit/Images...).Theimagewillbe
convenientlystoredaspartofthefile.Onceyouhaveloadedanimage
intoacellonce,youcancopypasteittoanynumberofcellswithinthe
sheet.Imagesarealwaysrenderedinfrontofanytextthatisalsopartof
thecell(andaboveanysubgrid),ifyouwantadifferentorientation,
simplyputtextandimagesinseperatecells.

TreeSheetshaslotsofstylingandlayoutoptions(checkoutthe
screenshotspageforsomeexamples)

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