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  • Leo: organize code and ideas your way
  • Documentation
    • Preliminaries
      • Technical introduction to Leo
      • What People are Saying about Leo
      • Acknowledgements
      • Leo’s MIT license
    • Getting Started
      • Installing Leo
      • Running Leo
    • Tutorials
      • Leo in 20 Minutes
      • Using Leo as a Personal Information Manager
      • Creating Documents from Outlines
      • Writing Leo scripts in Python
      • Useful Tips
    • Users Guide
      • Clickable links
      • Leo’s Markup Language
      • Customizing Leo
      • Plugins
      • Leo’s Commands Reference
      • Directives Reference
    • Leo and other programs
      • Using Leo with Jupyter Notebooks
      • Leo and Asciidoctor
      • Leo and Emacs, including org mode
      • Using Vim with Leo
      • Embedding Leo with the leoBridge module
      • Leo’s WebSocket Server
    • Advanced Topics
      • Writing Plugins
      • Debugging with Leo
      • A Miscellany of Leo Scripting
      • Exploring Leo’s Code Base
      • Vim Mode: Theory of Operation
      • The Leonine World
      • Leo University
    • Appendices
    • What's New
    • Release Notes
    • More links
      • FAQ
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      • Tutorial slides
        • Clones and views
        • Using external files
        • Leo’s Basics
        • Scripting Leo
        • Using the minibuffer
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      • History of Leo
      • Glossary
      • Still more links
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  • .html.txt

Leo’s Basics

Leo’s Basics#

This is a step-by-step introduction showing you how to use Leo outlines.

  • The workbook file
  • Editing headlines
  • Typing in a headline
  • The icon box
  • Switching focus
  • Saving your work
  • Inserting new nodes
  • <Return> ends headline editing
  • The blue square
  • Move a node right
  • Move a node left
  • Undo and redo
  • Add a to-do node
  • Add a to-do item
  • Move a node up
  • Hide child nodes
  • Changing focus
  • Left-Arrow: contract a node
  • Right-Arrow: expand a node
  • Summary: arrow keys
  • Shift-Ctrl-C: copy an outline
  • Shift-Ctrl-V: paste an outline
  • Copy works on entire trees
  • Summary

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Using @edit nodes

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The workbook file

© Copyright 1997-2026, Edward K. Ream.

Last updated on August 18, 2026.