USER GUIDE Companion for using Version 10 of TheBrain. Posted July 2019 ©2019. TheBrain Technologies LP. All Rights Reserved. TheBrain, PersonalBrain, Brain, Thought, Thoughts, and Work the Way You Think are trademarks or registered trademarks of TheBrain Technologies LP. Other trademarks or service marks appearing herein are the property of their respective owners. Table of Contents Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 Thoughts are Information........................................................................................ 1 TheBrain’s Dynamic Graphical Interface ................................................................ 2 Cross Platform Accessibility ................................................................................... 2 About this Guide ..................................................................................................... 2 Note to macOS Users ............................................................................................. 3 Installing TheBrain and Creating an Account ......................................................... 8 Opening Older Brains ........................................................................................... 11 Suggestions for Transitioning to Your New Brain ................................................ 13 A Guided Tour of TheBrain ............................................................................................ 14 Part 1: Start Up and Explore the Brain Window ................................................... 14 Part 2: Create New Thoughts ............................................................................... 19 Part 3: Find, Add Attachments, Link, and Delete Thoughts ................................. 23 Understanding Thought Relationships ........................................................................ 32 Families of Thoughts............................................................................................. 36 Navigating Your Brain .................................................................................................... 38 Opening a Brain .................................................................................................... 39 Opening a Brain that Doesn’t Appear in the Brains Tab ...................................... 41 Managing Brains Using the Tabs ......................................................................... 41 Opening Content Associated with a Thought ....................................................... 42 Showing Thought Content on Hover .................................................................... 42 Previewing Thought Content ................................................................................ 42 Pins ....................................................................................................................... 43 Activating Recent Thoughts: The Past Thought List ............................................ 44 Searching Your Brain ............................................................................................ 47 Instant Activation ............................................................................................. 47 Searching within Attachments ........................................................................ 49 Additional Search Functionality ............................................................................ 49 Customizing Your Brain’s Environment ...................................................................... 51 TheBrain’s Default Settings .................................................................................. 51 Using Smart Splitter to Arrange TheBrain Window .............................................. 51 Moving Thoughts in the Plex ................................................................................ 52 Resizing the Thoughts in the Plex ........................................................................ 53 Customizing Your Brain’s Appearance ................................................................. 55 Selecting a Theme .......................................................................................... 55 Customizing a Theme’s Colors ....................................................................... 57 Defining and Selecting Additional Colors ....................................................... 58 TheBrain 10 User Guide i Table of Contents Selecting a Custom Image for the Plex .......................................................... 59 Changing the Default Text Font in the Plex ................................................... 61 Changing the Default Notes Style .................................................................. 62 Reverting to the Original Theme’s Default Settings ....................................... 64 Saving Themes ............................................................................................... 65 Renaming a Theme ........................................................................................ 66 Deleting a Theme ............................................................................................ 67 Importing and Exporting Themes ................................................................... 68 Dark Mode ............................................................................................................. 68 Setting Other Preferences .................................................................................... 69 Look & Feel Preferences ................................................................................ 71 Behavior Preferences ..................................................................................... 73 System Preferences........................................................................................ 75 Keyboard Preferences .................................................................................... 76 Creating Thoughts .......................................................................................................... 84 Creating a Single Thought .................................................................................... 84 Creating Multiple Thoughts at Once ..................................................................... 85 Creating Context-Sensitive Thought Names Using Commas .............................. 86 Creating Orphan Thoughts ................................................................................... 87 Changing the Display Order of Thoughts ............................................................. 88 Copying Thoughts Within and Between Brains .................................................... 89 Undoing and Redoing Actions .............................................................................. 92 Editing Thoughts and Links .......................................................................................... 93 Renaming Thoughts.............................................................................................. 93 Selecting Multiple Thoughts ................................................................................. 93 Other Selection Uses ...................................................................................... 96 Deleting and Forgetting Thoughts ........................................................................ 96 Unlinking Thoughts ............................................................................................. 100 Linking Existing Thoughts ................................................................................... 101 Link to Thoughts Visible in the Plex ............................................................. 101 Link by Dragging to a Pin.............................................................................. 101 Link by Dragging to the Past Thought List ................................................... 102 Link by Selecting a Thought in the Create Dialog Box................................. 102 Link Using the Selection Box ........................................................................ 103 Cancel Creation of a Link ............................................................................. 104 Changing Relationships Using Drag and Drop .................................................. 104 Customizing Thought and Link Properties ................................................................ 106 Changing the Properties of a Thought ............................................................... 106 Changing the Colors of a Thought ............................................................... 107 Adding a Label to a Thought ........................................................................ 109 TheBrain 10 User Guide ii Table of Contents Swapping a Thought’s Name with its Label ................................................. 109 Adding a Picture to a Thought ...................................................................... 110 Improved Properties Dialog .......................................................................... 114 Making Thoughts Private .............................................................................. 114 Using Thought URLs .................................................................................... 115 Thought Types and Tags .................................................................................... 117 Creating a Thought Type .............................................................................