Creating a solid outline is the perfect first step to writing a great paper. PERRLA Online gives you the tools to organize your thoughts and research before you start writing.
Where to find the Outline Editor
The Outline Editor lives inside each of your papers in PERRLA Online. You can find it by opening a paper, then selecting the Outline tab inside the paper.
Your outline is specific to each paper – it doesn't carry over between papers.
Adding Content to your Outline
The Outline Editor is a text editor, similar to the body of your paper. You can type directly into the outline, paste in text from other sources, or add your Research Notes.
Text in the Outline Editor starts as a numbered, outline-style list, but you can remove the numbering and organize it however you like.
If you keep the outline style, you can indent and outdent each line using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys on your keyboard. If you don't have a keyboard, you can use the Indent and Outdent icons in the ribbon.
If you add a Research Note to your outline, PERRLA automatically adds the note's text and any attached citations.
Using your Outline
Once you've created an outline, you can use it to write your paper's first draft (or draft version 1.5, since outlines are so helpful in writing a good paper).
If you want to print your outline, you can do that from the File menu in the Outline tab. Click File Print to open the print dialog box so you can have your outline in hand while you write.
You can also use your outline directly while you write in the Editor tab.
Open the Outline panel from the ribbon in the Editor tab. This panel breaks each paragraph or line in your outline into a separate card, indented slightly so you can still keep up with the outline's organization.
When you want to use an outline item in your paper, you can drag and drop the outline card directly into the paper or just click the + icon on the card. PERRLA adds the card's text and any citations it has directly into the body of your paper.
As you add Outline cards to your paper, they turn green – showing that you've used that part of your outline in the paper.
Finally, insert the entire outline in one click using the Insert entire outline button at the top of the Outline panel. This