Author visionOS
Author started as a word processor for Mac and expanded to include a Map where we can lay out your thoughts non-linearly to see how they connect and — importantly — how they might not connect, to help us see beyond what our brains present to us. The Map view is expanded into the depth dimension on Vision Pro, really expanding our workspace. This is what it is and how to use it. When you open a document in Author on Vision Pro you will have a Toolbar at the bottom with ‘Write’ , ‘Outline’ and ‘Map’ (same as on Mac).
Map View
If you use Author on your Mac, and you have defined concepts to view on the Map, you can see them here as well by tapping ‘Map’ and all the Defined Concepts you created on your Mac will appear in the space behind your document (as opposed to taking up the space of your document as it does on Mac).
If you don’t use Author on Mac you can Define Concepts from your document using the Context menu (choose Define Concept) and Ask AI (choose Define Concepts).
On the Map you can see and interact with a variety of Nodes:
Defined Concepts are core to what the Map in Author is, they are concepts (such as people, places, institutions etc.) which you yourself define. The default is for the Nodes to be ‘Closed’, showing only the term, or name of the concept, such as ‘Chocolate’. When you open them you will see the definition you made for this term.
When you have more than one Defined Concept on your Map and one of them includes the other it it’s definition, once you select it, a line will appear between them. This is much easier to see than describe so I encourage you to play.
To Edit a Defined Concept you need to select it, and Open it, then you will see a button to ‘Edit’ at the bottom.
Sections are based on the Headings in your document, allowing you to walk around in your document since you can easily arrange them horizontally or by depth.
To Edit a Section you need to select it, and Open it, then you will see a button ’ at the bottom. When you tap it the Node will close and the document in Write mode will scroll to that section, allowing you to edit it. When you exit and enter the Map again, the Section Node will have updated.
Notes are freeform text. That’s all there is to them. These are not yet implemented in visionOS, just on Mac so far.
Citations are documents you cite. These are not yet visible in visionOS, just on Mac so far.
Toolbar
Once you tap ‘Map’ in the toolbar under your document and the Nodes appear in your space, you will also get a Map Toolbar. It features the following commands:
Layout | Views [D] Select | Open | Show [A] Nodes | Focus
Layout where you can choose to configure the selected nodes spatially alphabetically or by time. Here you also have the command ‘Sections to Nodes’ which allows you to automatically use the Headings in your document to create Sections based on the Headings.
Views to Save and Load Layouts.
[D] to ‘Deselect’.
Select (pop-up menu) to select by category, such as ‘People’, ‘Events’ or ‘Sections’ which are based on the headings in your document. You can also select All, and Find documents in this menu.
Open opens any selected Nodes. This is handy in addition to the double-pinch gesture since you can open multiple Nodes at the same time and you don’t risk any slight accidental movement.
Show (pop-up menu) specify what to see, also by category.
[A] to show ‘All’ nodes.
Nodes produces a pop-up menu with the options for what types of Nodes you want to see, to allow you ease of access without being cluttered.
‘Full’ means as it is now (showing Sections and Defined Concept nodes)
'Sections’ will only show 'Sections’
'Concepts’ only Defined Concept nodes.
Focus hides any node not selected or connected to. This is very powerful to reduce visual complexity. Tap it again to move out of Focus mode.
Gestures
To Select a node, look at it and pinch like a tap or click.
To Open a node to see more information, look at it and double pinch like a tap or click.
To Move a node, look at it, pinch-and hold and move, then let go. Note that this does not select or deselect.
To Edit a node, look at it and long-hold-pinch. Note that the dialog to edit it appears on the toolbar, not on the node.
To Focus by hiding all nodes not selected or connected to, select node(s) and pinch both hands close together and move them apart, while still pinching. To un-Focus repeat gesture.
Edit Dialog
Hidden to un-Hide.
Liked to choose to see only Liked, only Not liked, select liked or only Not Liked nodes.
Settings
You can specify themes, font size (for Write view), and more.
Notes on ‘Context’
Context is an aspect we are experimenting with, allowing you to define concepts as a Context to your current work. This aspect of interactions in XR is currently ongoing and experimental.
Further Notes
The audio for the video introductions was made using AI (using suno.com). This is part of experimenting with music as another medium to think about text, something we have been using for summaries of our Open Office Hours at the Future Text Lab, which you are very welcome to listen to and also, should you like, to join in, any given Monday: futuretextlab.info.
Future Features
Speech. (this section to come)
You can use Author in Vision Pro as you do on macOS, and then expand into a Knowledge Space.
free Trial
Try the free version ‘Author | Basic’
It does not feature ‘Export’ but you can upgrade to full Author anytime.