Visibility cycling of plain lists?

[James Harkins <jamshark70@gmail.com>]

Is there a way to show the content of a node containing a plain list,
so that the plain list items are collapsed? Or, is there a function
that will automatically collapse all the items in the plain list?

For instance, if I have a tree like this:

* Top level I
** Subheading A
*** Further subheading 1
** Subheading B
* Top-level II

When I first visit the file, I see:

* Top level I...
* Top-level II

... and if I expand the first heading, I see:

* Top level I
** Subheading A...
** Subheading B
* Top-level II

But, if the tree has this structure instead:

* TODO Top level I [0/2]
  - [ ] List item A
    Comments on list item A
  - [ ] List item B
    Comments on list item B
* Top-level II

... expanding the first node expands the entire contents, including
the comments -- I see *everything*. It's more useful to me to see the
list items collapsed (comments hidden), and then I can use tab
visibility cycling to see the comments that I want to see.

I'm aware that I could use regular subheadings for these list items.
The problem is that they would all have to be TODOs (because I want
the parent node's progress cookie to update), but I don't need to
track them individually in my agenda views. The top-level here is a
homework assignment, and each list item is work received from one
student. In the agenda, I need to know only that I haven't graded
everything for that assignment yet, but I don't need to see a separate
TODO entry for every student. Lists with checkboxes are perfect for
this.

Also, if I used "real" TODOs, org-mobile-push would assign an org-id
to every one of them, grossly bloating my ~/.emacs.d/.org-id-locations
(and bloating the org file with hundreds of :PROPERTIES: drawers that
I don't really need). So it's really much more efficient for me to use
list items, except that I haven't found a way to use visibility
cycling on them that is as intelligent as it is for outline headings.

Thanks,
hjh


-- 
James Harkins /// dewdrop world
jamshark70@dewdrop-world.net
http://www.dewdrop-world.net

"Come said the Muse,
Sing me a song no poet has yet chanted,
Sing me the universal."  -- Whitman

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