A Practical Guide to Attributes in Traverse

The text and hierarchy of an outline tell you a great deal. They tell you what an item is called, where it belongs and what sits beneath it.

They do not always tell you who owns it, whether it is ready, when it is due, where its source lives or which category it belongs to. You can put all of that into the node text, but the outline soon becomes noisy and the information remains difficult to filter or export.

Attributes give those details a proper place.

In Traverse, an attribute is a field defined for the whole document and filled in only on the nodes that need it. A project outline might have Status, Owner and Due date. A research map might have Source, Reliability and Theme. A writing plan might use Stage, Audience and Needs fact-check.

This guide explains the built-in and custom options, then builds an editorial workflow from scratch.

Built-in and custom attributes

Traverse has six built-in attributes. Each has behaviour that goes beyond a generic field:

• Task adds a Not started, In progress or Done state and can record completion information.
• URL stores a link and provides a control for opening it.
• Mark adds one of six colours for quick visual grouping.
• Note gives each node a larger writing area for supporting detail.
• Type gives nodes document roles for structured Markdown export. Roles can be chosen from the node icon or Format menu, or applied with smart Markdown markers while typing.
• Fountain gives nodes screenplay roles for Fountain export, with the same icon, menu and smart-entry approaches.

Task, URL, Mark and Note can be added freely. Adding Type or Fountain requires Traverse Pro, although existing outlines that already use them remain editable. Type and Fountain are alternative structural systems and cannot both be enabled in one outline.

Traverse Pro also lets you create custom attributes in six field types:

• String for names, short descriptions or other free text.
• Number for estimates, scores, costs or quantities.
• Date for deadlines, review dates or publication dates.
• URL for sources, tickets, documents or related pages.
• Checkbox for a simple yes/no condition.
• Lookup for one or more reusable values such as status, topic, owner or priority.

A Lookup is multi-value. That makes it useful both for a single controlled status and for tag-like classification. Its default values appear first, and values introduced while editing nodes become available for reuse elsewhere in the document.

When attributes are worth using

An attribute earns its place when the same question applies to many nodes.

For example:

• “Who owns this?” suggests an Owner field.
• “What stage is it at?” suggests a Stage lookup.
• “Does this need approval?” suggests a checkbox.
• “When should we review this?” suggests a date.
• “Where did this claim come from?” suggests a URL.

If a detail applies once, a Note may be enough. If it recurs and you need to compare, filter, sort or export it, a custom attribute is usually better.

This distinction helps Traverse stay an outliner rather than turning every document into a form. Start with text and hierarchy. Add metadata when the work demonstrates that it needs metadata.

Tutorial: build an editorial pipeline

We will make an outline for a small set of articles and add fields that help move them from idea to publication.

Step 1: create the content outline

Create a blank outline called Editorial plan and add five top-level nodes:

Try it directly: Copy the example below and paste it into a blank Traverse outline. Each line becomes a separate node; when an example contains leading indentation, Traverse preserves it as parent-child hierarchy.

How to prepare for a research interview
Making better decisions with an outline
A practical Markdown workflow
What plain-text screenwriting gets right
Building a reusable project brief

These nodes are the actual pieces of work. The attributes we add next will describe them without forcing status, ownership or dates into their titles.

Step 2: open the attribute manager

Open the Inspector and click the + at its top. This opens the document’s Attributes sheet.

The sheet has three areas:

• Add Defaults lists built-in attributes not currently enabled.
• Document Attributes shows the fields already attached to the outline.
• Add Custom Attribute creates a new field.

Attribute definitions belong to this document. A field added here appears in the Inspector for every node, but an empty field does not need to store a value on every node.

Step 3: add the built-in fields

Under Add Defaults, add:

• Task
• URL
• Mark
• Note

The attribute manager keeps Note at the end and adds a divider when needed, giving its larger editor some separation from the compact fields above it.

You can change the order with the up and down controls. Order matters because it becomes the order shown in the Inspector and is also useful when reviewing exported tabular data.

Step 4: add a Stage lookup

Under Add Custom Attribute, enter:

• Label: Stage
• Key: stage
• Type: Lookup
• Default values: Idea, Drafting, Review, Ready, Published

Click Add.

The Label is what people see. The Key is the stable, OPML-friendly name used in the saved document and exports. Use a short, descriptive key beginning with a letter, and avoid repurposing it for a different meaning later.

Default lookup values provide a consistent vocabulary from the start. They are case-insensitively de-duplicated and remain in the order you define.

Step 5: add Owner, Due and Needs fact-check

Create three more custom attributes:

You could make Owner a Lookup if the same small group of names will recur. Use String when the values are open-ended; use Lookup when consistent reuse and filtering are more important.

Click Done when the definitions are complete.

Step 6: fill in one node

Select How to prepare for a research interview.

In the Inspector:

1. Set Task to In progress.
2. Add Drafting to Stage.
3. Enter an Owner.
4. Choose a Due date.
5. Turn on Needs fact-check.
6. Add a relevant source to URL.
7. Choose a Mark colour if you want a visual cue.
8. Use Note for a short brief or editorial context.

Lookup values appear as removable pills. You can type a new value or open the previous-values menu to reuse an existing one. Because Lookup accepts multiple values, you can add more than one when the field is being used for themes or categories. For a pipeline Stage, use one value at a time to keep its meaning clear.

The Date field uses a calendar control and can be cleared. URL fields include an open-link button when the value can be interpreted as a link. Number fields accept whole or decimal numeric text rather than arbitrary prose.

Step 7: apply values to several nodes at once

Suppose three articles begin in the Idea stage.

Select the first, then Command-click the other two. The Inspector changes to Batch Attributes.

Choose Idea from Stage. Traverse appends that lookup value to each selected node. You can also set or clear checkboxes, apply a date, fill text fields and change built-in attributes across the selection.

Batch changes apply immediately and can be undone as one action. For multi-value Lookup fields, remember that a batch choice is appended to existing values rather than replacing them silently.

Step 8: show attributes in the outline when useful

Enable Show Attributes in Nodes to display attribute context directly with the nodes. Marks and built-in indicators can make important distinctions visible without opening every item in the Inspector.

This display can be helpful during a review, but you do not have to leave it on. The attributes remain attached to the nodes when their previews are hidden.

Step 9: filter the working set

Use the filter menu beside the text filter.

With Traverse Pro, you can filter by:

• Task state
• Type or Fountain role when present
• Mark colour
• Custom Checkbox values
• Custom Lookup values

For example, choose Stage → Review and Needs fact-check → Yes to narrow the view to articles that are in review and still need verification. Text filtering can be combined with these criteria.

String, Number, Date and URL custom attributes are not offered as attribute filters. Use Lookup or Checkbox when filtering is an important part of the field’s purpose.

Clear individual criteria or use Clear Filters when you want the full outline back.

Step 10: sort a set of siblings

Select one of the five article nodes and open Sort Siblings in the toolbar or Outline menu.

Choose Sort by Due, set the direction, then sort. Traverse reorders that node and its siblings together, preserving every node’s children.

You can sort siblings by text, Task status or eligible attributes. Sorting changes the actual outline order, so use it when you want the structure to change—not merely as a temporary view. The operation is undoable.

Set useful defaults for future outlines

If you add the same built-in attributes to most new outlines, open Settings → Outline. The Default Attributes section can include Note, Task, URL and Mark in every new blank outline, plus Type or Fountain when Traverse Pro is active.

The same Settings tab chooses whether a new blank outline opens in Outline, Writer, Auto Columns or Manual Columns. This is an application default rather than a forced view: you can switch at any time, and the outline data remains the same.

Each document also stores its own Default view in Document Details. Templates preserve the view and attribute definitions saved in the Template source, so a screenplay Template can open in Writer with Fountain while a research Template opens in Manual Columns with its own metadata fields.

Defaults should remove repetitive setup, not load every outline with fields it may never use. Keep the global set modest and put specialised attribute systems into Templates.

Managing the attribute system

Return to the Attributes sheet whenever the document’s needs change.

You can:

• Reorder attributes with the arrow controls.
• Rename a custom attribute or change its key.
• Change the type of a custom attribute.
• Edit the default values for a Lookup.
• Add a Divider to group fields in the Inspector.
• Remove an attribute from the entire document.

Built-in attribute types are fixed because their type is part of their special behaviour. Custom attributes are more flexible.

Be deliberate when removing a field: the confirmation explains that removal deletes the attribute from every node in the document. If the values may still matter, export or duplicate the outline before removing the definition.

Getting attributes out of Traverse

Attributes are not trapped in the Inspector.

CSV

CSV export creates a row for each node and columns for its attributes, alongside identifiers and hierarchy information. This is the most direct choice when you want to analyse the outline in a spreadsheet or pass structured data into another process.

Markdown Document

In Settings → Export → Markdown Document, enable Include additional attributes when metadata should travel with the prose. Built-in structural roles still control the main document rendering.

OPML

Traverse stores attribute definitions and node values in the working OPML document. This preserves the outline and its metadata together. Clean OPML export can be configured separately when you need a more interoperable hand-off.

A useful rule of thumb

Use hierarchy for relationships and attributes for repeated questions.

“This evidence belongs beneath this claim” is hierarchy. “This evidence came from this URL and has medium reliability” is attributes. “These tasks make up this project phase” is hierarchy. “These three tasks are owned by the same person and due this week” is attributes.

Keeping that distinction clear produces outlines that remain pleasant to navigate while becoming much more useful to filter, sort and export.