If you set up an OutlineView in Interface Builder and connect your Controller as its dataSource and delegate (and provide the methods there accordingly), you will notice that - (id)outlineView:(NSOutlineView *)outlineView objectValueForTableColumn:(NSTableColumn *)tableColumn byItem:(id)item never get’s called. The reason might very simple: in Interface Builder, in the attributes inspector for your OutlineView, you can define the Content Mode as View Based or Cell Based. If you simply want ...