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An in-depth TheBrain app-praisal !
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Posted by donleone
Jul 6, 2014 at 01:14 AM
Yes, i know, theBrain (http://www.thebrain.com)
it looks so confusingly jumping & view-switching
and so very “too strange” all-together,
to be considered for any serious
information management.
And then on top of that the hefty price-tag of $219 for the Pro Version,
all just seems simply too much of an INITIAL “turn off”
that makes it just soo easy to simply reject & forget
theBrain all-together.
But after having myself for years
dismissed theBrain countless of times
and after having instead spend years
using & trying out a gazillion of other
outliners & mind-mapping tools,
i FINALLY found myself “concerned enough”
to re-examine once therefore theBrain for real,
so that after truly spending time to get to know theBrain
(like reading the 240 pages User Guide for a start!)
i finally began to SEE THE LIGHT, and to realize,
that theBrain is nothing short of simply one of THE
most powerful & flexible info-managers of all !
But before you think, i am just writing this
in the height of my sensational excitement,
allow me to present now the reasons for this,
of what amazing little hidden features theBrain has
that i wished someone had told to me years ago.
And to make this more profitable,
i have divided this app-praisal into:
1. THE BASIC benefits (for newcomers)
2. THE ADVANCED benefits (for the balanced ones)
3. THE EXTREME benefits (for info-maniacs)
so, here we go !!
___________________________
1 - THE BASIC benefits
___________________________
- TheBrain is available truly FULLY cross-platform
(Windows + Mac + Linux + iOS + Android !)
- there is a fully FREE VERSION available,
that has about 70% of all the PRO-features
and then there is of course the $219 PRO version
that offers all the extreme features mentioned below
and that also includes an online viewing & syncing ability
of your files as-well - but you can of course also use
the PRO version entirely OFFLINE ONLY if you so want.
see here the free vs. PRO feature comparison:
http://www.thebrain.com/store/version-details/
- Now, the whole idea of theBrain
is about creating a network of relations
between pieces of information,
which are referred to as “thoughts”,
so that from there on the software
ideally will help you see & discover
new “associations” that you didn’t think of
and wouldn’t have seen otherwise before.
- and each current “thought” that is being examined and fleshed out, is displayed in the center
(or top left or where ever you want it, depending on what view you choose)
with the thought’s 4 basic core-relations displayed around it:
1. its bigger category parent concept = that appears ABOVE it
2. its deeper into going child concept = that appears UNDER it
3. its same level category siblings = that appear to the RIGHT of it
4. its otherwise related from where-ever = that appears to the LEFT of it
- and with then a click on ANY of them, making then that info-piece
now the new focus & center of attention,
with once again all the new 4 basic levels shown around that one.
- while at the same time there are 7 side-panels available
that can be additionally populated with all kinds of relevant meta-information about that “thought”,
from simple “Rich Text Notes” to “Tags” to “Custom Properties” to “Filters”,
“Reports”, “Searches” and even a “Todo’s/Calender” pane there being as-well.
- additionally, the initially often disturbing “zooming out & in jumpy-ness” can be turned off,
and converted into a much more smoothened-out simple & calm up and down or left to right moving
via the Options/Preferences dialog.
___________________________
2 - THE ADVANCED benefits
___________________________
________ on the NAVIGATION
- exactly that which initially seems to be the biggest “turn off” of theBrain,
turns out to be exactly the greatest STRENGTH and BEAUTY of theBrain
in that it namely constantly is AUTO-HOISTING THE VIEW
into a pre-define-able custom range of 1-4 levels deep around it,
with at the same time fully automatically AUTO-CENTERING & AUTO-FOCUSING the view always
without any MANUAL SCROLLING and/or MANUAL ZOOMING and/or MANUAL CENTERING whatsoever at all.
and which is exaclty UN-LIKE every single other mind/concept-mapping software out there
(yes, even un-like the king of MindMaps, Mindjet Manager Pro that costs $349 dollars)
these all together have the fundamental core weakness and limitation,
in that they are really nothing much more than just a “static canvas” where you either constantly have to
SCROLL AROUND all the time, or where else when they let you so called “focus in”
it only works just 1 LEVEL DEEP (such as in MindJet, iMindMap, NovaMind etc.),
or else letting you focus-in to only 1 horizontal section view-able
(like a pre-defined view of jump-markers that are spread all over the map)
and even then WITHOUT ANY DYNAMICALLY RELATED INFO AUTO-PULLED IN right into the view,
(such as theBrain soo naturally does) but as said again, for the most part only
ends up displaying a bunch of dead “static” shapes, that is ordered in a mostly just
graphical hierarchy/tree/org-chart fashion only for the most part.
so that exactly this auto-hoisting & auto-focusing in (similar to GOALSCAPE)
but more COMBINED WITH the extra related-info pulled into the view as-well,
is again exactly the CORE benefit that sets theBrain apart
from virtually any other info-manager on the market.
- next, there is also a running auto-generated “infinite breadcrumps” running at the bottom,
to which one can quick-jump back & forth but also direct link-establish to & from to a thought
- and then there is also a custom manual “favorites pin-bar” at the top,
to which one can add the most important thoughts, as a kind of quick navigation
and also from & to which one can likewise relations establish.
- then there is even an “automatic wandering” feature, where you can let theBrain
at a custom defined speed (that is set in the Options) “wander” through your whole map,
(at a much slower speed, that the default setting is) so that you can simply look at it
and ponder the relations in a relaxed state of mind, in the hope to maybe thus see
a new and not noticed before connection and/or else simply for a presentation purpose.
- all elements that surround a thought can be automatically arranged
either “alphabetically”, or by their “type” or else by their “creation/modification date”
(with the ordering by TYPE being/offering the most flexibility)
________ of the NOTES PANEL
- the Notes panel is full HTML Rich-Text, including Images & Tables with many table options,
to even the insertion of fully-functional checkmark-boxes right into the text note itself.
- the entire notes panel is automatically structured by paragraph-breaks,
so that the note can be viewed in a auto-generated “paragraph outline view”
or as simply the regular content.
- then also advanced Text Formatting functions, such as a “Format Painter”,
a “Paste Special” command, a “Find & Replace” function,
a “Bookmark” function and a “Code View” are available too.
- And a “spelling checker” and “Word/Character count” are there as-well
________ of the SEARCH PANEL
- there are 2 search fields, one instant search field on the bottom left corner,
that is TRULY INSTANT with even thousands of results!
and then another more fully fledged “Advanced Search Panel” that can be fully customized
to search by any specific criteria / type / tag or whatever else of these COMBINED.
- the search results are color high-lighted and even sort-able after active / selected / relevance / date.
- boolean AND/OR searches are also fully supported having an extra search field just for that
- and there is even an extra search field for an “without these words” exclusion search as-well
- attachments are also indexed and searched as-well
________ on THE REST
- every meta-info pane can be detached and placed into a pane of its own,
or else all-together combined into a single one, and then by tabs divided.
- every meta-info pane also be moved where-ever one likes,
left / right / top / bottom, or all-together hidden
and only into-view triggered when one needs it,
and thus maximizing the screen space fully for the Brain map
- everything is auto-saved immediately, so that no saving whatsoever is needed
- and everything can be backed-up into a single file
- attachments can be linked or internally included
- thoughts can be set as “forgotten” (but not deleted)
which can be made visible again, or permanently “deleted”,
in which case of course they are really gone.
- and any view can be printed out, with even the option
to do a “multi-page poster printing” :-)
___________________________
3 - THE EXTREME Benefits
___________________________
________ on REPORTS
It is called a “report”, but it is exactly NOT a list of results.
Instead, a report in theBrain is a native view that but is TOTALLY custom attributes pulled-together
either by a combination of tags or types or any of these together combined
so that a “report” is more like a fully customizable search folder/filter
that can be SAVED into a one-click-button that with a single click can trigger that custom view again
and again not just a “view” but all this is totally dynamic and fresh-updated whenever you look at it.
and MORE than just a “filtered view”, because (and that is the KEY) it does NOT display the results into a “dead list” text pane
but instead:
1. shows the results DIRECTLY IN the native concept map itself
by either fading out all the thoughts except your filter,
or else showing everything BUT your filter (aka. an “inverse filter”)
2. but again MORE than just a filtering, because it actually COMBINES TOGETHER
from your entire database ALL the related information under a new single parent (your report name title),
while YET perfectly retaining the entire individual thought-maps structure and hierarchy
3. and giving you thus the flexibility to collapse/expand and explore the “live search results” (no duplicates)
in real-time in the map itself as they really are, and NOT in a dead row of text pressed-in results list.
- furthermore reports are not only able to search for “thoughts”
but amazingly also for “link types” that are THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN thoughts
(that is actually the LINES themselves, since you can type/tag/name even the lines/links as-well)
- then there are also numerous of special reports already pre-defined trigger-able, such as
“parentless-thoughts”, “orphaned-thoughts”, “thoughts with notes”, “broken URL thoughts” etc. !
________ on TYPES & TAGS
- types & tags on the other hand, are the more classically true filters,
that once assigned can then with a single click show & pull together
all the thoughts out, that belong to that same type and/tag or MULTIPLE tags or types.
- each type & tag can be pre-defined to have a custom colored text or background or icon associated,
that then of course gets assigned unto all the items that are classified with it.
- then there is even something called a “super type”, which enables one to create a hierarchy of types,
that is, to put them together under GROUPS of types, so that when you click a “super type group”
it will pull out the thoughts also of ALL its “under types” as-well.
________ on the IMPORT & EXPORT
- TheBrain offers also a most amazing flexible way to mass-import from so many “raw” sources,
and turn them all into brain-concepts with very little or no manual effort at all,
with even automatically for duplicates-checking right at the moment of the import itself.
It offers IMPORTING from:
Excel (either as a simple range selection and dragging over into it, or whole file import)
Word (either from a simple bullet points/outline copy & paste, or whole file import)
TXT file (either comma / tab / or line break separated)
Folder Files
Internet Explorer Favorites
MindManager file
OPML file (from other MindMapping apps, such as Freeplane etc.)
and even more…
and EXPORTING into:
HTML
XML
Images
or Folders
________ on the DATABASE
- the database is able to endure an “unlimited” amount of thoughts (at least 300’000-500’000 thoughts)
- everything is ULTRA-fast because it has not just a “Search Index” but even a “Website Index”
and even an “Instant Activation Index” (= their Quick Searches/Instant re-ordering function)
________ on the REST
- there is even an option to do a WEB SEARCH and a TWITTER SEARCH and to pull information out from that
- there is an ANALYZING MAP function that marks & ranks the “most connected” subjects
and puts a correspondingly sized circle according to their rank of importance around the thoughts’ titles
___________________________
Well, that’s about it.
Surely theBrain is one of a kind of a software,
that through its auto-hoisting uniqueness
(when smoothed out into a calmness)
clearly helps to increase focus & associative clarity,
without loosing any of the “big picture” of all the rest of the database,
as all these pieces too, no matter where they are hiding,
are being pulled-into together systematically into focus as-well,
through theBrain’s so many ways of tagging, filtering and reporting
- all once again, right on the actual live data as it is viewed natively.
greetings
donleone
Posted by Wayne K
Jul 6, 2014 at 02:19 AM
donleone,
Thank you so much. I know how much time it takes to do a write-up that detailed.
I’ve tried TheBrain a couple of times but didn’t get far with it. The “jumpiness” was an issue for me, too. More than that, I just didn’t like the idea of organizing information in a mind map. I could see how mind maps would be useful as infographic displays, a kind of cheat sheet to show a lot of information in a small space. But I could never see how it would be useful for organizing information in detail. It seemed to me like I’d get lost in a swarm of boxes and connecting lines.
I like to see things in lists, tables, and outlines…all of which seemed the opposite of a mind map.
You have me re-thinking that.
Wayne
Posted by Paul Korm
Jul 6, 2014 at 07:27 AM
Thank you, @donleone—an excellent review
A few of my favorite aspects of TheBrain
- attachments can be internal or external—they can be almost any kind of document, and new attachment types (new “templates”) can be added to extend TheBrain’s capabilities
- an external folder hierarchy can be added as “virtual thoughts”—similar to what DEVONthink does with indexed folders, the document contents of the folders appear inside these virtual thoughts, which are updated when the contents of the folders change in the filesystem
- calendar entries can be assigned to thoughts, and the calendar sync’ d with a Google calendar—I find this useful when working with TheBrain to keep a log of what I was doing
- there are numerous ways to add indicators to thoughts: Types, Tags, and Labels
- link lines can also have Types and custom labels
- TheBrain 8 Pro has a “clock face” that when clicked shows a list of all the thoughts in the current brain, grouped by last-modified date, in descending order
- TheBrain recognizes just about every custom URL scheme (I haven’t found one that it doesn’t recognize) such as evernote://, x-devonthink-item://, and so on —if you include Evernote URLs in a thought’s notes, then sync that brain and Evernote to your iPad, then TheBrain’s iOS app provides clickable links that will open that document in Evernote.
TheBrain is much more than a mind mapping software—the standard products in that category are highly limited when compared to TheBrain. I consider it more as knowledge management software, but even there I think TheBrain busts the category.
Posted by Paul Korm
Jul 6, 2014 at 07:32 AM
It’s also worth mentioning the extensive tutorials and use cases on TheBrain’s site—Shelley Hayduk and Matt Catan put up new very in-depth videos almost weekly. These explain all aspects of the product and are a great help for quick answers to how-to questions as well as for seeing how others use TheBrain.
Posted by Hugh
Jul 6, 2014 at 11:30 AM
I’ve long hesitated over The Brain. In fact I seem to recall owning a licence years ago, on Windows. In those days, the revolving of the animation at the centre of the view appeared to devour most of my computer’s resources!
Then there came a stage when The Brain seemed to concentrate on the corporate market, and went into hibernation for personal customers. Now it seems to have re-emerged, refreshed and much more powerful (and more expensive). But what does The Brain do that is better than any other personal software tool does, for the price?
As a mindmap/graphical outliner for articles, speeches, reports or the equivalent, there are other tools that will give you more than four “levels” in one view, and quickly deliver OPML output - neither of which as far as I can see The Brain can do.
Its strength seems to lie, as Paul Korm says, in knowledge management. But can it do more than DevonThink, say, with its “See also” functionality? I guess if you tend to visualise information, logical arguments and the relationships between ideas strictly in graphical terms, The Brain may be for you. But is a series of graphical links innately more powerful, memorable or expressive than, say, an indented list that also uses clones or replicants?