The Headings panel displays with a click on the corresponding button at the top of the Control Board.
This panel displays the document structure as an outline according to the various document heading levels and captions:
For the Headings panel, some paragraphs in the document are "body text", and some are Headings. Only "headings" from the document are displayed in the Headings panel. So how the Headings panel knows which paragraphs are headings? For the Headings panel, a heading is a document paragraph that has a non-"Body text" Outline Level within its paragraph format. When you format a paragraph with a Heading style ("Heading 1" through "Heading 9"), a paragraph automatically gains a corresponding outline level ("Level 1" if you format this paragraph with the "Heading 1" style, "Level 2" if you format it with the "Heading 2" style, and so on). But you can also make a paragraph to be a "heading" of the required level even without applying a Heading style to it. For this select the desired paragraph(s) in your document, choose the "Format | Paragraph..." menu command, and specify the desired level in the "Outline level" box:
You can click a heading in the Headings panel to display the corresponding heading in the document window:
Also as you navigate through the document window, Atlantis detects the heading closest to the caret and automatically highlights the corresponding heading on the Control Board Headings panel. In this way, you always know where document navigation has taken you.
Various operations can be performed on the document headings after the corresponding headings have been selected in the Headings panel. Most of these commands are available from the dedicated toolbar located at the bottom of the Headings panel (see description of the commands of this toolbar below).
Multiple headings are selected in the Headings panel by holding the Ctrl or Shift key down and clicking the corresponding headings:
You can use Drag & Drop in the Headings panel to reorder the structure of the active document. As you drag headings up or down on the Headings panel and change their position, the corresponding headings and their associated text are moved accordingly up or down the document itself. The chapters of the active document can be reordered by dragging the relevant headings up or down in the Headings panel. Dragging the selected heading(s) in a horizontal direction instead of up or down promotes or demotes the corresponding heading(s) in the active document.
Notes. If you have a "collapsed" heading in the Headings panel (a small box with the "plus" sign is displayed to the left of such headings), all the commands available in the Headings panel apply not only to this "collapsed" heading but also to all its child headings (the headings of less meaningful levels) that follow this heading.
When the Mouse Hover Previews option is checked in the settings menu of the Control Board:
hovering the mouse over the headings in the panel temporarily highlights them in the document window:
The toolbar at the bottom of the Headings panel includes the following commands:
Command | Button | Description |
Promote heading(s) | ![]() |
The "Promote" and "Demote" are the basic operations applicable to headings. By promoting a heading in the Headings panel, you decrease its "Outline level" (you can view the "Outline level" of any paragraph in document by choosing the "Format | Paragraph..." menu command). In other words, you make this heading more meaningful (make it to belong to a higher level). Correspondingly, demotion means increasing the Outline Level for the selected heading. When you promote or demote a document heading formatted with a Heading style ("Heading 1" through "Heading 9"), Atlantis doesn't simply change the Outline Level for this document heading. The corresponding Heading style is applied to the document heading (to the document paragraph). For example, if you promote a document paragraph formatted with the "Heading 3" style, Atlantis would format this paragraph with the "Heading 2" style. When you promote or demote a paragraph which is not formatted with a Heading style, Atlantis checks whether the name of the style of this paragraph is terminated with a digit corresponding to the current Outline Level of this paragraph (for example, the "Level 2" style in case when the paragraph belongs to the Outline Level 2). Then Atlantis checks if the document includes a style with a similar name but with a different terminating digit corresponding to a new required Outline Level (for example, "Level 3" style in case you try to demote the "Level 2" paragraph). If such style exists, and this style includes the required Outline Level, Atlantis applies this style to the paragraph which you try to promote or demote. Otherwise Atlantis simply changes the Outline Level of the document paragraph within its paragraph format (can be viewed in the "Format | Paragraph..." dialog), ie. no new style is applied to the document paragraph. |
Demote heading(s) | ![]() |
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Delete heading(s) | ![]() |
The headings selected in the Headings panel, are entirely removed from the document. |
Delete heading(s) and associated body text | ![]() |
The headings selected in the Headings panel, are entirely removed from the document with any body text which follows each of these headings (the body text are paragraphs with the "Outline level" attribute set to "Body text"). Normally with this command you could delete entire chapters from your document. |
Convert heading(s) to body text | ![]() |
The headings selected in the Headings panel, are converted to body text. A heading in the document is converted to a "body text" paragraph in the following way:
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Select heading(s) in the document window | ![]() |
The headings selected in the Headings panel, are also selected in the document as a multiple selection. You could perform any desired operation on such a selection (copy to the clipboard, format in any required way, etc). |
Select heading(s) and associated body text in the document window | ![]() |
The headings selected in the Headings panel, are also selected in the document with any accompanying body text as a multiple selection (the body text are paragraphs with the "Outline level" attribute set to "Body text"). Normally with this command you could select entire chapters in your document. You could perform any desired operation on such a selection (copy to the clipboard, format in any required way, etc). |
You can also right-click the Headings panel for more commands. The right-click menu allows to expand or collapse all headings (to hide or show child headings), send the whole outline structure to the clipboard as a plain text, and finally you can choose the headings of which levels should be picked up by the Headings panel from the document.
See also...