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An in-depth TheBrain app-praisal !
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Posted by OutlinerBill
Aug 17, 2014 at 12:07 AM
Thank you for this extensive review. I haven’t read the manual throughout, however I have been using TheBrain (AKA “Personal Brain”) on and off for quite some time. I do currently use the Pro version with the annual subscription. All together I access the tool from the web (webbrain), a windows machine and my iPad (through the app).
Unfortunately I do not use it to its full potential, for one simple reason: I don’t trust the software.
It is not difficult nor surprising to find software with extensive import capabilities, and certainly The Brain is predictable here. The true test of a software developer’s faith in the appeal and quality of their product, though, is its capability to export your information in a way that is easily usable elsewhere.
On this, The Brain fails completely.
Given the complexity of the software and the years of development behind it, providing users with export capabilities such as OPML, or even directly into other popular mindmapping / concept mapping / outlining tools would be a trivial job.. especially considering the enormous benefit that would arise in many, many use cases. I can only conclude that the reason for this is a conscious strategy and decision to lock-in their customers.
If I knew that I could easily export my “brain” into other products, up to the level of their capabilities, I would happily continue building my brain to the level of having it be my primary knowledge management system, knkw that I could, for example, export a tagged subset into, for example, Mind Manager, iThoughts, Omni Outliner, MS Word, or even Excel (providing some rules to direct the info flow according to my needs).
As it is, I don’t trust the program and it remains but a peripheral tool to my workflows.
Posted by Charlie
Aug 17, 2014 at 01:40 AM
Opps! I am just considering to get a licence based on the above appraisal.
It’s better to be able to export the part that we want to. But a second thought, if think of the Brain as not just a outlining or mind-mapping tool but an idiosyncratic data house, the exportation could be hard.
Posted by Hugh
Aug 17, 2014 at 08:25 AM
At the suggestion of Paul Korm and Steve Z., I’ve started using TheBrain as a “graphical file store and manager”. So far, it seems to me to be excellent in that role (except for its expense). I’ve had no problem whatsoever in getting files out of it that I’ve attached to it - for example, I’ve just used it to plan and temporarily hold the files for two trips (emails, boarding passes, hotel confirmations, etc etc). What’s more, whereas before I had to search through my emails and files to check that I had everything in place, now I can see at a glance, even on an iPhone, that all is well.
What I wouldn’t do, unless I had no other choice, is use it for traditional Freeplane-style mind-mapping - the kind that Dr A contrasts with the graphical file-store type higher up this thread. It seems go me that there are better - and usually much less expensive - tools for that purpose. Most particularly in this role it won’t export easily - as OutlinerBill says. Notably, it won’t easily export versions of its mind-map into useable outliner formats such as OPML.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Aug 18, 2014 at 11:02 AM
OutlinerBill wrote:
>Given the complexity of the software and the years of development behind
>it, providing users with export capabilities such as OPML, or even
>directly into other popular mindmapping / concept mapping / outlining
>tools would be a trivial job.. especially considering the enormous
>benefit that would arise in many, many use cases. I can only conclude
>that the reason for this is a conscious strategy and decision to lock-in
>their customers.
>
>If I knew that I could easily export my “brain” into other products, up
>to the level of their capabilities, I would happily continue building my
>brain to the level of having it be my primary knowledge management
>system, knkw that I could, for example, export a tagged subset into, for
>example, Mind Manager, iThoughts, Omni Outliner, MS Word, or even Excel
>(providing some rules to direct the info flow according to my needs).
>
>As it is, I don’t trust the program and it remains but a peripheral tool
>to my workflows.
>
It’s true that you cannot directly export a Brain as OPML, but I don’t want to leave people with the idea that the Brain uses some sort of proprietary database that locks your information in forever. You can export a Brain in a few different ways if you want to make sure your information is accessible to you should the Brain go away. For instance, you can export a Brain (or any part of one) into a folder system that reflects the hierarchy in the Brain, with each Thought being one folder in the export. Notes and links are included in the export as .html pages. Attachments are not technically exported, since they remain in their original format even when stored in the Brain, but they are included in the folders. You do lose your meta data in the form of tags, etc.
Likewise, you can export a Brain as a web site, which maintains the structure of your Brain.
You can also copy a Brain or any subset of a Brain as text with or without the notes, which can be pasted into a Freeplane or similar mind mapper. You don’t take all your meta data and attachments this way, but you can transfer the hierarchy.
Steve Z.
Posted by Paul Korm
Feb 21, 2015 at 02:10 PM
There are two ways to do this. Make something outside of TheBrain and import the file, or create a file from a template (Thought > Attachments > Add Attachment…). One can load up TheBrain with numerous templates—I have a couple of dozen different file types stored in TheBrain’s Template folder in its configuration space and regularly add more. So, for example, if I am working in a portion of a Brain and want to branch off into an external mind map or outline or diagram, from my existing inventory of templates I add a Mind Manager, or OO4 document, or Scapple diagram as an attachment to a Thought. I can click the attachment icon and open that document to edit, and later I can click the icon and use QuickLook (OS X version of TheBrain) to see a preview of that document in a floating window in TheBrain.
Hugh wrote:
At the suggestion of Paul Korm and Steve Z., I’ve started using TheBrain
>as a “graphical file store and manager”. So far, it seems to me to be
>excellent in that role (except for its expense). I’ve had no problem
>whatsoever in getting files out of it that I’ve attached to it - for
>example,