An in-depth TheBrain app-praisal !

Posted by donleone
Jul 11, 2014 at 12:55 PM

Dr Andus wrote:

>Is this Outline view in TheBrain just a visualisation tool or does it
>also allow you to restructure the hierarchy somehow?

you can do actual hierarchical changes by either:

a.) pulling a line out from a thought to any other in your view (the simple method)

or, which is far more powerful

b.) pull a line out of a thought into empty space, and then have a automatic search box appear,
in which you type a couple letters and have it instantly show all your ENTIRE DATABASE’s
matching thoughts to which you can thus link to, even if they and especially when they,
are exactly so far out and away from the visible view.

All this creates then a simple “line” relation in-between and also auto-pulls that previously “distant thought”
now right next to it into view as-well, that is unto the left corner side to it,
where these so called “jump thoughts” appear. (a “jump thought” being, a lateral relation to anything whatsoever)

you can do also unlimited re-visualizations of your data, without changing any hierarchy at all, by either:

c.) just clicking on any thought to make that the new center,
and have then all its relations re-arrange themselves around it (the simple method)

or, which is far more powerful

d.) just clicking on any tag/type/report (aka. saved search)
and have then the view itself instantly “re-hierarchi-ze” itself automatically
with the tag/type/report name now becoming the TOP parent of all
and the search results appearing below it but in still full retaining of their actual hierarchy they have

But let me make a JUMP THOUGHT on this point:

since exactly became interested in TheBrain because i like to have a lot of criss-cross connections,
i am actually starting to get tired of all these “lines” criss-crossing all over the place so much,
that is un-avoidable if you got (and love to make) a lot of side-connections,
so that it all becomes simply not effective in any sense anymore, to retain the lines.

For that purpose, i am experimenting with the “outline view” with NO lines showing at all,
since the lines can be disabled all together in the Options/Preferences/Look&Feel/Links > draw links = uncheck

and then to still know what belongs to what, using instead the option to PULL the Outline View maximumly tight together,
(again in the Option/Preferences/Views/Outline View/Distance+Intentation = pulling both to maximum near)

so that the whole thing actually starts almost to look like a tree in like 4 directions,
similar to the app “Tree” on the mac that can do both vertical & horizontal trees (see here http://www.topoftree.jp/en/tree/)
with the only real difference being that TheBrain is more flexible in pulling lateral content in via its “Jump thoughts”

and your eye can easily distinguish between the relations even without any lines whatsoever,
because all the different types of relations always appear in their same “corner”,
so that i found myself seemingly clearer thinking, knowing that all things are “related”,
but without having any need whatsoever, to have to ALWAYS see these lines all the time.

Finally, the ideal is achieved, with the great feature that even with the lines “turned off”,
whenever you hover over a relation, instantly ONLY THAT particular RELATIONAL LINE,
becomes visible and high-lighted, making it thus to me the best golden mean usage,
that helps you fully stay clear-minded (and not confused)
by only showing 1 particular line, only when you actually want it.