USER GUIDE Companion for using Version 7 of TheBrain. Posted May, 2012 © 2012. 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 .................................................................................... 2 Dynamic Graphical Interface ............................................................................... 2 Operating Systems ............................................................................................. 2 About this Guide ................................................................................................. 2 Note to Macintosh Users ..................................................................................... 3 Opening Older Brains ......................................................................................... 7 Suggestions for Transitioning to Your New Brain ................................................ 9 A Guided Tour of TheBrain .........................................................................................10 Part 1: Explore the Brain Window ..................................................................... 10 Start Up ............................................................................................................ 11 Part 2: Create New Thoughts ............................................................................ 14 Part 3: Find, Add Attachments, Link, and Delete Thoughts ............................... 18 Understanding Thought Relationships ......................................................................27 Families of Thoughts ......................................................................................... 29 Navigating Your Brain .................................................................................................31 Opening a Brain ................................................................................................ 32 Opening Content ............................................................................................... 33 Previewing Thought Content ............................................................................. 33 Pins................................................................................................................... 33 Activating Recent Thoughts: The Past Thought List .......................................... 35 Instant Activation............................................................................................... 36 Customizing Your Brain’s Environment ....................................................................39 TheBrain’s Default Settings ............................................................................... 39 Customizing The Brain Window ........................................................................ 40 Using Your Brain in Transparent Mode ........................................................ 43 Switching to Mini-Mode ................................................................................ 44 Maximizing and Restoring the Plex ................................................................... 45 Moving and Resizing the Plex ........................................................................... 45 Customizing Your Brain’s Appearance .............................................................. 46 Themes ........................................................................................................ 46 Wallpaper ..................................................................................................... 49 TheBrain Toolbar ......................................................................................... 49 Setting Other Preferences ................................................................................. 51 General Preferences .................................................................................... 52 Look & Feel Preferences .............................................................................. 54 UI Preferences ............................................................................................. 57 TheBrain 7 User Guide i Table of Contents Views Preferences ....................................................................................... 60 Search Preferences ..................................................................................... 61 Color Preferences ........................................................................................ 63 Advanced Preferences ................................................................................. 65 Accelerators Preferences ............................................................................. 67 Creating Thoughts .......................................................................................................71 Creating a Single Thought ................................................................................ 71 Creating Multiple Thoughts at Once .................................................................. 72 Creating Context-Sensitive Thought Names Using Commas ............................ 73 Swapping a Thought’s Name with its Label ....................................................... 74 Copying Thoughts Within and Between Brains ................................................. 74 Undoing and Redoing Actions ........................................................................... 77 Editing Thoughts and Links........................................................................................78 Renaming Thoughts .......................................................................................... 78 Deleting and Forgetting Thoughts ..................................................................... 79 Selecting Multiple Thoughts .............................................................................. 82 Advanced Selection ..................................................................................... 83 Other Selection Uses ................................................................................... 84 Unlinking Thoughts ........................................................................................... 84 Linking Existing Thoughts ................................................................................. 85 Link to Thoughts Visible in the Plex .............................................................. 85 Link to Thoughts Not Visible in the Plex ....................................................... 85 Link by Dragging to a Pin ............................................................................. 86 Link by Dragging to the Past Thought List .................................................... 86 Link by Selecting a Thought in the Create Child Dialog Box ......................... 87 Link Using the Selection ............................................................................... 88 Cancel Creation of a Link ............................................................................. 88 Changing Relationships Using Drag and Drop .................................................. 88 Thought and Link Properties ......................................................................................90 Changing the Appearance of a Thought ............................................................ 90 Thought Drop Shadows and Backgrounds ................................................... 90 Changing the Size of Thought Text .............................................................. 91 Changing a Thought’s Text Color ................................................................. 92 Viewing a Thought’s Details ......................................................................... 94 Adding a Label to a Thought ............................................................................. 95 Attaching Images to Thoughts........................................................................... 96 Thought Types .................................................................................................. 99 Creating a Thought Type .............................................................................. 99 Visible Thought Types .................................................................................. 99 Managing Thought Types ........................................................................... 101 TheBrain 7 User Guide ii Table of Contents Assigning a Type During Thought Creation ................................................ 102 Capturing Pictures for a Thought Type ....................................................... 102 Super Types ............................................................................................... 103 Making Thoughts Private ................................................................................ 103 Thought URLs ................................................................................................. 103 Changing Link Properties ................................................................................ 105 Link Types ...................................................................................................... 107 Link Directionality ...........................................................................................