10.4: Start lists in TextEdit via the keyboard

Dec 01, '05 06:35:00AM

Contributed by: magnamous

Tiger only hintPersonally, I usually don't like having the ruler visible in TextEdit -- it just bugs me. So if I want to add a list to my document, I have to make the ruler visible, and then select a list type from the list menu. Or I have to use the menu item if I want to create a customized list format. But what if I just want a plain old list, quick and easy?

Well, I just discovered that if you press Option-Tab at any point, the line which the cursor is currently on will turn into a dashed list item! Press Option-Tab again to indent the list item even further. Beyond that, it functions just like regular lists (hit return for another list item, double-return to decrease the indent, etc.).

The only problem I've had is that I don't know how to choose something other than dashed lists using the keyboard. Perhaps there's a hidden TextEdit preference setting for this...

[robg adds: This only works in 10.4, as TextEdit in 10.3 didn't support lists. And, of course, you must be in RTF mode, not Plain Text mode, to use this trick.]

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