The Brain™
User Manual
(TEXT-ONLY VERSION)
A full version of this manual, including convenient screen shots, diagrams, and an index, is
available for free from the Natrificial™ web site - www.natrificial.com.
Version 1.02
February 25, 1998
Patents pending. © 1998 Natrificial LLC. All rights reserved.
The Brain, Natrificial, and the associated logos are trademarks of Natrificial LLC.
1. Introduction
Welcome to The Brain™, the first software package that enables you to use your computer the way
you use your mind - intuitively. The Brain's easy-to-use visual interface integrates information from
the Internet and all of your applications, allowing you the freedom to think less about your computer
and more about your work and interests. Your mind works in a way that is unique to you, and The
Brain allows you to organize your information in the same individual way, without limiting you any
pre-determined file structure.
The human mind is a container for a virtually limitless number of thoughts. The wonder of the mind,
and the source of human creativity, is the interconnectedness of all of these thoughts. Intelligence
comes from the mind's ability to think associatively - that is, to leap from thought to thought, building
webs of greater and greater complexity, until brand new ideas are built. Associations are our
inspirations.
The Brain uses a brand new concept, a data format called "thoughts." Thoughts can be just about any
type of information, including documents, spreadsheets, images, shortcuts, and web pages. By
allowing you to create links and associations between thoughts, The Brain expands to become a
visual interface that reflects the way you think.
With a simple click and drag interface you can create and navigate through networks of thoughts in a
conceptual space unique to you work habits. When you begin using The Brain, you will find that
your computer becomes easier to use, faster, more enjoyable, less frustrating, and that your time is
used more efficiently.
No more searching through files and folders, going to the Start Menu, or scrolling through long
bookmark lists. There is no longer any reason to organize your information around your computer's
generic storage systems. With The Brain, you organize your computer around your information, in
the way that makes the most sense to you, so you can concentrate on content instead of its container.
How does The Brain accomplish this? By allowing you to create a simple, dynamic graphical map in
which to create and navigate all your information. Your Brain starts with a single thought, with
several other thoughts linked to it visually. These thoughts have their own links to still other thoughts,
and, possibly, to each other. The Brain's flexible structure allows any two thoughts to be linked, so
that you are never more than a few steps away from the specific information you are looking for.
Connections between thoughts are simple to make and reproduce the mental steps that you make in
your mind.
Now that you've downloaded the software, you're ready to begin downloading your brain into your
computer.
2. Setup
System Requirements
The Brain will work on any computer running Windows 95, 98, or NT 4.0 or greater. We highly
recommend using a Pentium processor with at least 16Mb RAM and at least 4Mb of available space
on your hard drive.
Installing The Brain
The Brain is simple to install. Installation will not change your computer's configuration or
interfere with your existing files or operating system in any way.
From a CD-ROM
1. Insert The Brain's CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive.
2. If your computer supports Autoplay, skip to step 3. Otherwise, click the Start button, then select
Run. Type D:Setup (where D: indicates the letter of your CD-ROM drive) and press ENTER.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the software. When setup is complete, The Brain will
begin running.
From the Web
1. Double-click the file you downloaded, Brain101B.exe.
2. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the software. When setup is complete, The Brain will
begin running.
Purchasing The Brain
Your free trial version of The Brain will expire after 30 days. When it expires, you will not be able to
modify any Brains you have created, although you will still be able to access all the information you
have stored in them. You will also be unable to access web Brains.
Purchasing The Brain will allow you:
• Unlimited use of your Brains
• The ability to merge Brains
• Unlimited access to web Brains
• Enhanced technical support
To purchase The Brain, click on the Help Menu and choose Purchase or call 310-656-8491 between
the hours of 8am and 5pm, Pacific Time, Monday through Friday.
Getting Help
The Brain is equipped with a help system.
1. Click the Help Menu.
2. Choose Contents and Index.
Online Resources
Natrificial maintains an Online Tutorial, Online FAQ, and Online Reference area at
http://www.natrificial.com. All three of these resources can be accessed directly from the Help Menu
if you have established an Internet connection.
E-Mail Technical Support
If you still have a question after checking our online resources, you can e-mail our Technical Support
department at neurology@natrificial.com.
Phone Technical Support
Registered users of The Brain may call for Technical Support between the hours of 8am and 5pm,
Pacific Time, Monday through Friday. Click on the Help Menu and choose Technical Support for
more information.
3. Getting Started
You've installed The Brain and there it is, sitting on your screen. What now? Well, let's start creating
a Brain of your own.
1. Click the Brain Menu.
2. Choose New Brain.
3. When The Brain asks you to name your Brain, type in your first name.
4. If you're anxious to get started and happy with the way your files are organized, you can check
the box marked " Import Existing Folders" and select the folders and files you wish to import.
However, to take advantage of the full power of The Brain, do not choose this option; build your
Brain file by file (see Appendix A).
Congratulations! Your Brain is now sitting on the screen, awaiting information. Let's go through the
steps you will use to begin loading your Natrificial Brain with the ideas and knowledge that you have
stored in your mind.
What You See on Screen
The Brain is a collection of interconnected thoughts. As you create and move between thoughts, you
will be navigating the through the structure of your Brain. This is roughly akin to scrolling through
your folders, but, as you'll soon see, vastly more powerful.
A fully-developed Brain is far too large to be viewed in its entirety. The visible area of a Brain is
called the "plex," which is a collection of closely related thoughts. As you navigate between thoughts,
the plex updates to allow you to easily move around your Brain.
The Auto Hide Button
The Brain's default setting is to automatically hide when you begin working in another application.
When the Brain Window disappears, it will be replaced by the auto hide button, which is always on
top of other windows. It's an inconspicuous black square with The Brain's logo inside. When you
need to display the Brain Window again, click the auto hide button and it will re-appear.
In Section 12, we will explore the options you have for customizing your Brain, including how it
displays on your desktop.
If your web browser is at a Brain-Enabled web site, beneath the auto hide button will be the name of
the site (see Section 9).
What Are Thoughts?
Thoughts are the basic building blocks of The Brain. A thought can represent virtually anything: a
concept, a project, a person, a subject, a document, a web page, a spreadsheet, a file, a shortcut, a
game, an application... whatever you can think of. You decide what thoughts represent, how they are
related, and what they contain. Because The Brain is not a hierarchical structure, no thought is more
or less important than any other - except when it is the active thought.
The Active Thought
At the center of the plex is the "active thought," currently your name. The active thought is simply the
thought to which you have most recently moved, the one your are thinking about or working with at
the moment. It is the thought of immediate interest. All of the other thoughts related to the active
thought are displayed in different zones around it. We'll look at the different zones in a moment.
A thought is made active by clicking it when it is visible in the plex. Try clicking the thought called
"Natrificial." It is now the active thought and the plex regroups around it, showing its related
thoughts. Click your name again and it is activated. There are other ways to activate thoughts that
will be discussed in Section 5.
Before we create more thoughts, lets look at the different relationships between thoughts. These are
parent, child, and jump thoughts. Their names don't have anything to do with the type of information
each can contain, but simply describe their relationships to the active thought and to each other.
Parent Thought
A parent thought often represents a group with at least one thought beneath it. You can think of
parent thoughts as representing different categories of information. On the plex, a parent thought is
displayed in the parent zone, directly above the active thought.
Child Thought
It won't surprise you to find out that a child thought is a thought linked to a parent thought. There can
be any number of child thoughts of the same parent thought. Child thoughts are displayed below the
active thought, in the child zone.
When a parent thought has more than one child thought, the child thoughts are considered siblings of
each other. Generally, siblings are part of the group described by the parent thought. The active
thought's sibling thoughts appear in the sibling zone, to its right in the plex.
Jump Thought
Jump thoughts are used to create relationships without groups or between groups. A jump is a more
exclusive relationship than the others.
Jump thoughts are displayed in the jump zone, to the left of the active thought.
Gates
Thoughts are linked visually through the three circles around them. These circles are called "gates."
Look at your new Brain - your name is linked to "Natrificial" through a gate.
Gates are hollow if there is no link through it to another thought and solid if there is a link. The gates
can be used to create new thoughts, create new links to existing thoughts, or visually remind you of
the relationship between linked thoughts. In the next few minutes, we'll use all these methods to build
up your Brain.
Above the active thought is the parent gate. The active thought is a child thought to any thought
linked with it through its parent gate. Beneath the thought is the child gate. The active thought is the
parent thought of any thought linked through its child gate. To the left of the thought is the jump gate.
The active thought is a jump thought of any thought that is linked through its jump gate.
Don't worry if that seems like a lot of information. Now that we have it out of the way, we can look
at a sample Brain - you'll see how simple it is and you'll be building your own Brain in no time.
Sample Brain
The Brain comes with a sample Brain to demonstrate the power of links. Let's take a quick tour
through Lou Green's Brain. Lou is the editor of a Chicago Newspaper. Lou's Brain is available to
you to explore. To open it:
1. Click the Help Menu.
2. Choose Contents and Index.
3. Choose View and Navigate a Sample Brain.
4. At the bottom of the opening screen, click "Open Lou's Brain."
Lou has organized his Brain into three main thoughts: "Chicago News" (his workplace), "Family,"
and "Personal." Above the plex is an area for "pins." Pins are shortcuts to thoughts and stay there
wherever you are in the plex. Lou has created pins that will allow him to easily get back to "Lou
Green" (and from there to the three child thoughts), the thoughts related to "Advertisers," and one to
the thought "Annette," a writer working on a big story for the current issue. (For more information
about pins, see Section 5.)
Below the plex is Lou's "past thought list." As the name suggests, this is a list of thoughts Lou has
recently navigated to (see Section 5). We can tell from his past thought list that Lou has recently been
thinking about his two favorite sports, "Hockey," and "Golf." Let's probe more deeply, to see how he
has created links that will help him at work.
When Lou is thinking about "Stories," it's siblings "Advertisers," "On-line," and "Writers" are
displayed. Notice that the thought "Current" has as parent thoughts both "Stories" and "Writers."
This allows Lou to get to the stories in today's issue from either the "Stories" or "Writers" thought.
Additionally, the child thoughts of "Current" contain these articles, which are also linked to the
individual writers that are child thoughts to the "Writers" thought. (Note that you can tell which gates
lead to other thoughts by whether they are filled or hollow circles.)
The story "Big Crime" links not only with it's parent thoughts, the writer and the issue, but has as
child thoughts sources and notes to back it up. Some of these sources are web pages, and you'll note
that they are kept right alongside other types of data.
Since Lou always needs to keep in mind all of the stories he's working on, "Big Crime's" siblings are
displayed in the sibling zone to the right of the active thought.
We've now explored the big concepts behind The Brain. Wasn't that easy? Now we're ready to start
building your Brain.
Creating a Child Thought
In a new Brain, the first several thoughts you create will likely be subject headings that are child
thoughts of the Brain's name. At the moment, your name is the active thought. You can think of it for
now as the major subject heading of your Brain.
Let's create two child thoughts.
1. Your name is currently the active thought. Using your mouse, click the child gate and drag a line
to any empty spot beneath the active thought.
2. Now release the mouse button.
3. A window will appear asking you to "Create Child." For our example, type the word "Work."
4. Press ENTER or click the green check mark.
That's one down. Let's create the next child thought another way.
1. Above the plex, click the Thought Menu. (The Thought Menu can also be opened by right-
clicking the active thought.)
2. Choose Create Child.
3. The same "Create Child" window appears. For our example, type the word "Fun."
4. Press ENTER or click the green check mark.
Note that the new thought appears in the child zone without your having pointed it there - all child
thoughts automatically appear below the active thought.
Creating a new thought does not activate it. This helps you quickly create many relationships for a
thought without having to move back and forth. To activate a thought, simply click on it.
Creating a Child From a Child
You can create a new child thought even when its parent isn't the active thought. Notice that the gates
appear for the new thoughts you've already created. Let's make a child thought for "Work." (Of
course, if you're not following along with our example, you can start from any existing child thought
in your Brain.)
1. While "Work" is still in the child zone, drag down from its child gate.
2. For our example, call this new thought "Order."
3. Press ENTER or click the green check mark.
When you create a new thought from a non-active thought, the thought you link from becomes the
active thought. The Brain assumes that you are now thinking about this thought and responds
automatically, saving you time.
Creating Thought Content
Some thoughts can act as subject headings, like "Work" or "Hobbies." You can think of these as
similar to (though far more flexible than) file cabinets or folders. But thoughts that are members of
these categories will generally contain information, in the form of files or web pages.
Let's create some content.
1. Activate the thought for which you want to create content. For our example, activate "Order."
2. Click on the active thought once more. This launches the thought.
Launching a thought that has no pre-existing content brings up the Select Content Window. This
Window should list all of the applications on your computer that are capable of creating files.
In the future, you'll select your word processing application to write a letter. But we don't know what
application you use. One option that should appear no matter what is "Text Document" - so, for the
purpose of this example, we'll use Notepad to write our business letter.
1. Choose Text Document. Notepad will launch and open a new, blank document.
2. Type the following into the document: "Dear Customer, This is to inform you that we have
received your order and will ship it immediately."
Now that we've written our letter, we want to save it and exit Notepad.
1. Click the X on the upper right of the Notepad window. Notepad will ask if you want to save the
file. Choose Yes. The Brain gives the document a filename for you -- one less thing for you to
worry about.
2. Look at the thought in the plex. To the left of the name "Order" is an icon representing the
attached Notepad file.
Remember - we only used Notepad for this example because we're relatively certain that if you have
Windows you also have Notepad. In the future, you will select the word processor or application
your wish to use instead. All the same steps apply.
Launching a Thought's Content
If you have attached a file or web page to a thought, clicking on it when it is the active thought will
automatically launch the necessary application and load the file. You can also press ALT-ENTER.
Remember, a thought with content will display the icon of the file's type next to the name of the
thought. Because you no longer have to launch an application and then find a file, you no longer need
to create or remember filenames or folders - The Brain does that for you.
Creating a Thought with an Existing Files Attached
As you use The Brain, you'll no doubt want to attach existing files to thoughts. You can do this easily
by dragging the file from Windows to The Brain.
Drag File to Create Thought
1. Activate the thought you want the new thought and its file to be linked to.
2. Open Windows Explorer or My Computer. (You can also drag files from the Desktop.)
3. Find the file you wish to attach to the thought.
4. If The Brain is in Auto hide mode, click the auto hide button to display the Brain Window (or
simply drag the file over the button).
5. Drag the file to the plex. Do not drop the file yet.
Notice that depending upon which zone you drag the file over, a link extending from that zone's gate
will form between the active thought and your pointer.
1. Drop the file into the desired zone. A new thought, named after the file, takes its place among the
other thoughts in that zone and its icon appears next to the new thought's name.
Drag File to Existing Thought
1. Create a child thought and name it in a way that will identify the file it will contain. An
appropriate name will indicate the content of the file and need have nothing to do with the its
filename.
2. Activate the thought.
3. Open Windows Explorer or My Computer. (You can also drag files from the Desktop.)
4. Find the file you wish to attach to the thought.
5. If The Brain is in Auto hide mode, click the auto hide button to display the Brain Window (or
simply drag the file over the button).
6. Drag the file directly on top of the active thought, until an icon appears next to your pointer.
7. Drop the file. It will be attached to the thought and its icon will appear to the left of the thought's
name.
Drag a Folder to Create Multiple Thoughts
If prior to installing The Brain you kept a very organized set of folders, you may find it quick and
easy to move all the files in a particular folder into your Brain together. In order to maintain the
power of The Brain, these folders should be fairly small and all the files in it should be related in
some way.
To drag a folder into your Brain:
1. Activate the thought you wish the folder's files to be linked to.
2. Open Windows Explorer or My Computer.
3. Find the folder you wish to bring into The Brain.
4. If The Brain is in Auto hide, click the auto hide button to display the Brain Window (or simply
drag the folder over the button).
5. Drag the folder from its Windows folder to the plex. Do not drop it yet.
Notice that depending upon which zone you drag the folder over, a link extending from that zone's
gate will form between the active thought and your pointer.
1. Drop the folder into the desired zone. A new thought, named after the folder, takes its place
among the other thoughts in that zone.
If you activate the new thought, you will see that it has a child thought for every file and folder the
original folder contained.
To import multiple existing folders, your Window's 'My Documents', bookmarks, or favorites, click
the Options Menu and choose Import Existing Folders. See Section 12 for more details on this
function.
Icons
The icon that appears next to a thought's name indicates the type of content. This helps you to
remember what type of file is attached to the thought. For a web page, the icon would be that of your
web browser; if the icon has a small arrow at the lower left, it is a shortcut. Most Windows
applications have distinctive icons.
Different Types of Dragging
In the methods described above, dragging created shortcut files in your Brain pointed to the location
of the file in its folder. It didn't actually move the file into the Brain. You can tell that a shortcut has
been created by the small arrow in the lower left of the icon (see above).If you want to move the file
itself into your Brain, you have two options.
• If you hold down CTRL as you drop the file, you will leave the file in its folder and make an
exact copy in your Brain. This method uses the most disk space, since multiple copies of the
same file will be created.
• To move the file out of its folder and into your Brain, hold down the SHIFT key while dropping
the file into the plex.
The same applies for folders you drag into your Brain.
For more information on when and how you might use these different types of dragging, see
Appendix A.
Attach a Shortcut to a Thought
We just covered creating a shortcut to a file by dragging the existing file into a thought. You can also
attach a shortcut using the Select Content Window.
1. Bring up the Select Content Window by launching a thought that doesn't have content.
2. Click the Create Shortcut to File... button.
3. Find the file to which you wish to create the shortcut.
4. Click Open.
The shortcut icon appears to the left of the thought's name.
Attaching a Web Page to a Thought
Web pages can be attached to thoughts in much the same way as files. When a web page is attached
to a thought, clicking the thought when it is active will launch your web browser and bring up that
page. You will no longer have to keep separate, disorganized bookmarks.
Web pages can be attached in any of three ways: dragging, selecting content, and naming.
By Dragging
1. Activate the thought you want to attach the web page to. For our Brain-in-progress, activate
"Fun." (If "Fun" is not visible on the plex, navigate to it by retracing your thoughts.)
2. Open your Web Browser and go to a fun web site, for example http://www.desktoptoys.com.
3. From one of the active thought's gates, drag a link to anywhere on the web browser. The web
page's title will become the name of a new thought that has that page attached.
4. Once the page is attached, you can rename the thought to suit you (see Section 6).
By Selecting Content
If you want to attach a web page to an existing thought:
1. Activate that thought and click it once. This brings up the Select Content Window.
2. Click Attach Web Page.
3. If your browser is open, the current site is displayed in another Window and you will be asked
whether you wish to attach that web page to the active thought. If your browser is closed or you
wish to attach a different page, type in the address of the site you wish to attach. Note that in
either case your browser's icon appears to the left of the active thought's name.
By Naming
With or without your browser open, you can create a new thought with a web page attached.
1. Drag from a gate or choose Create Thought from the Thought Menu.
2. Name the thought the address of the page you want to attach.
3. After you have created the thought, you can rename it without losing the web address attached to
it (see Section 6).
If you accidentally type the wrong URL, you can revise it (see Section 6) or detach it (see Section 7).
Creating Jump Thoughts
There is no difference between the sort of information that a jump thought can contain and the
information that a parent or child thought can contain. It is just a different relationship. Activating a
jump thought will move you out of the "family" you're currently working in and so will cause a more
significant reconfiguration of the plex. As the name suggests, jump thoughts, which appear in the
zone to the left of the active thought, can link together far-flung groups of thoughts and/or exist on
their own without belonging to a group.
If a student of Mathematics also runs a small business, the two groups are not likely to be closely
related. However, she knows that when working on each she'll need to procrastinate, so she creates
jumps to the thought containing the Solitaire program.
Jump thoughts can also be used as a link to a thought that is related to the active thought but not to
its child thoughts. For example, a vending machine may have as child thoughts the names of all the
candies it sells, but the thought for the machine itself might be linked with a jump thought to an
agency that counts and rolls quarters.
Using a Thought to Launch an Application
If you need to open an application that creates files, you will usually do so by creating a thought and
choosing the appropriate application in the Select Content Window. But applications that do not
create files - such as games, e-mail applications, news readers, etc. - can also be launched from The
Brain.
Program files install and work best if left as part of Windows, so they are not moved into The Brain.
Following are two methods of creating shortcuts.
From the Desktop
If the application you want to add to your Brain has a shortcut already on the desktop, drag the
shortcut onto the plex, linking it to the active thought through the appropriate gate.
From the Start Menu
If there is not a shortcut on the desktop:
1. With the right mouse button, click the Start Menu on the Windows Taskbar.
2. Choose Open to bring up a list of all the programs installed on your computer.
3. Find the "Games" folder and locate the shortcut to Solitaire. (With the Windows default
installation, this can be found by clicking Programs, then Accessories, then Games.
4. Drag the Solitaire shortcut into the plex, linking it to the active thought through the desired gate.
And That's a Basic Brain
Congratulations! You now have built a small, simple Brain. As you add more and more thoughts,
your Brain will evolve into an ever more useful tool, ever more reflective of the way you think.
If you've followed along so far, the hard stuff is out of the way. Oh, it's not really as easy as that - it's
easier. In the rest of this manual, we'll look at some of the features and Tools that make navigating
and working with The Brain both simpler and more powerful.
4. Choosing the Relationships Between Thoughts
The only real difference between the different categories of thought is where they are displayed on the
plex. The categories describe thoughts' relationships to the active thought and to each other. All
thoughts are either directly or indirectly related to each other by virtue of being in the same Brain.
There are no rules governing the creation of relationships between thoughts - whatever makes sense
to you is the way your Brain ought to be organized.
However, you might find that the following examples will help you understand the variety of
relationships.
You are the owner of a company and you are reviewing your personnel files. Each
employee has a file. You decide it makes the most sense to organize your employees by
department. Your personal Brain is called "My Brain." From "My Brain," you create a
child thought called "My Company." "My Brain" is now "My Company's" parent thought.
You create four child thoughts from "My Company" - "Sales," "Customer Service,"
"Billing," and "Manufacturing." These departments are all sibling thoughts to each other.
Now you go to each department and create more child thoughts, one for each employee of
the department. If an employee splits time between Sales and Manufacturing, you can make
him a child thought of both departments - he'll appear in both and you won't have to
duplicate his file. In this example, "Bob" is a child thought of both "Manufacturing" and
"Sales." (This is one of the powerful features of The Brain - one thought can be under two
headings.)
If you own more than one company, but have one accountant for all of them, you might
wish to make a thought called "Accountant" and link it as a jump thought to each
company.
Now, imagine that you've just completed a merger between your "Other Company" and one
headed by a competitor named Joe. Since you are now partners, Joe's Company becomes a
new parent to the merged company.
Because Joe wants to avoid a conflict of interest, the merged company no longer uses the
same accountant. So it's jump gate is now hollow, while it's sibling's jump gate still
maintains that link (and so is filled in).
As you use The Brain, you will develop a sense of the types of relationships you like to make
between thoughts. It is always possible to change relationships later (see Section 6).
Families of Thoughts
It is tempting to view these relationships as families, and indeed these different sections of your Brain
are types of families, with their ancestry representative of subjects and categories. But unlike human
families, a child thought can be a parent to one of its siblings and a thought can have many more than
two parents.
The complex relationships you can form in The Brain are the source of it's power. Let's consider
sibling thoughts that also share a parent-child relationship.
Say you are studying philosophy. You might have a parent thought called "Philosophy."
Individual philosophers could be child thoughts; for example, "Plato" and "Aristotle."
Each of them may have child thoughts. But Aristotle was a student of Plato's, so you may
wish to have your "Aristotle" thought not only be a child of "Philosophy," but of "Plato" as
well, so when you're working with Aristotle, Plato is only one thought away.
Notice that while "Philosophy" and "Plato" are both in "Aristotle's" parent zone, their relationship
("Philosophy" a parent thought of "Plato") is described by the line linking the child gate of
"Philosophy" to the parent gate of "Plato."
Clearly, The Brain is a superior method of organizing files. No hierarchical organizational structure
can provide this much cross-referenced information at a glance. And this example is still pretty basic
- a fully-developed Brain can carry much more information.
5. Navigating Your Brain
All thoughts are related - directly or indirectly - simply by being part of the same Brain. Thoughts do
not exist on their own. You can always navigate from one to another by following links. Thoughts
that seem to have nothing to do with each other are related through a chain of links. Even, say, the
Queen of England and asparagus.
You have a thought called "Queen of England." One of it's child thoughts is "Prince of
Wales," which has a jump thought to the story of the "Frog Prince." The story, in turn, has
a parent thought called "Fairy Tales." A sibling of "Frog Prince" is "Jack and the
Beanstalk," which has child thoughts called "Giant" and "Jack." "Giant" has another
parent thought called "Famous Giants," which has a child thought called "The Jolly Green
Giant." Under this is a list of canned vegetable products, including a thought called
"Asparagus."
Depending on the relationships you create between them, thoughts may be closely or distantly related.
Thoughts are considered to be closely related when they are linked directly or are siblings. Close
thoughts of the active thought are always displayed on the plex. Distant thoughts are not (although
thoughts that are only one step farther away from the active thought can be displayed - see Section 12
to learn how to display distant thoughts).
As your Brain grows and becomes more complex, you may find navigating more efficient using pins,
the past thought list, and the instant activation box.
Pins
The part of the Brain Window just below the menu bar functions like a bulletin board onto which you
can place pins. Pins are like shortcuts to thoughts. No matter where you are in the plex, the pins
remain visible. In general, pins are created for frequently accessed thoughts.
Remember Lou Green's Brain and the way he used pins to move quickly to a few important thoughts.
Simply click the desired pin and the plex will immediately reconfigure to activate that pin's thought.
All pins are shown at once -- there is no list of pins to scroll through. If you have a large number of
pins, their names may not be fully displayed. You can move your mouse pointer to the list, and as it
moves from pin to pin, the current pin's name will be enlarged and highlighted.
Creating Pins
A pin can be created by dragging any thought visible on the plex or the past thought list (see below)
and dropping it just below the menu bar. If you wish to create a pin of the active thought, you can:
• Drag the thought there by releasing the mouse button just below the menu bar, or
• Click on the Thought Menu and choose Create Pin.
Remember, when you drag a thought to create a pin, you are not moving the thought - your are just
creating a reference to the thought. The thought stays in the plex.
Deleting Pins
If you wish to remove a pin, simply drag it into the menu bar or title bar.
Using Pins for Linking Thoughts
Pins can also be used to help create links between thoughts. See Section 6 for details.
The Past Thought List
You know the phrase "train of thought." The past thought list is the visual representation of that train
- a scrollable list of thoughts in the order in which you activated them. The past thought list displays
at the very bottom of the plex and can be turned on and off by clicking the red triangle at the lower
right corner (on) or the blue X (off).
When the list is on, you can scroll through it by clicking the green arrows on the right and left of the
list. The most recently activated thought (always the current active thought) is displayed on the right
hand side of the list and is indicated by a red arrow to its left. As with pins, holding your pointer over
the small name of a thought on this list will cause The Brain to enlarge and highlight the name for
easier reading. If a thought on the list has a file attached, the icon for the file's application appears to
its left.
If you wish to activate a thought on the past thought list, simply click it - the plex will reconfigure to
show that thought as the active thought, and the past thought list will update to show this as the
rightmost or most recent thought.
Even when the list is not displayed, it keeps track of the order of your thoughts, so that when you turn
it on your past thought list is completely up to date.
Using the Past Thought List to Create Links
The past thought list can also be used to help create links between thoughts. See Section 6 for details.
The Instant Activation Box
Whether or not a thought has a pin or appears on the past thought list, you can activate it from
anywhere in your Brain by using the instant activation box. To bring up the instant activation box:
1. Press F2 on your keyboard, or make sure the past thought list is displayed and click on the
rightmost thought (which also happens to be the active thought). You may have to scroll in order
to reach the rightmost thought.
2. When the box is displayed, type in the first few letters of the name of the thought you wish to
activate; The Brain fills in the rest.
3. Press ENTER. The plex will reconfigure to activate the thought.
4. The instant activation box can be closed by pressing ESC. The plex will remain as is.
If you have more than one thought of the same name in your Brain, using the instant activation box
will only activate the most recently created of them (see Section 6).
The Search List
You can use the Search Tool (see Section 8) to display a list of thoughts based on certain criteria.
Activate a thought in a Search List by clicking on that thought's name.
Navigating With the Keyboard
Another way to move from thought to thought is using your keyboard. Pressing ALT-arrows causes a
red highlight to appear around the thought you have moved to. To activate that thought, release the
ALT key.
To launch a thought, click it or press ALT-ENTER.
6. Expanding Your Brain
Links are the source of The Brain's power. Each Brain can hold over 65,000 thoughts. Any thought
can have as many as 128 child thoughts (though only 72 are displayed at once in the plex - the rest
can be accessed by scrolling). Each thought can link to 32 jump thoughts and have up to 32 parent
thoughts. You can see how powerful this makes The Brain when you consider that in Windows, a
folder can be related only to one other folder, and in strict hierarchy.
As you've seen in examples earlier in this manual, the plex can display a great deal of information
when thoughts are linked associatively by context. In a well-developed Brain, the active thought will
always be surrounded by other relevant information. Developing the power of your Brain depends
upon the relationships you create between thoughts. In this section, we'll look at some ways to create
those links and enhance the usefulness, efficiency, and power of your Brain.
The Brain Menu
The Brain Menu gives you several options for selecting the Brain you wish to work with.
• To begin building a new Brain, choose New Brain.
• To open an existing Brain, choose Open Brain.
• To rename a Brain, choose Rename Brain.
• To see a list of Brains that have been in use recently, choose Recent Brains.
• To load a Brain mapping a useful and interesting portion of the World Wide Web, choose
Natrificial Internet Guide.
When you choose New Brain, a window appears giving you the opportunity to name your new
Brain. You can give the Brain any name you like, but we suggest naming it as closely as possible to
the name of the person who will be using this Brain, in order to avoid confusion with others. We
suggest you create only one Brain for all your information, although you may want to create several
for networking purposes (see Section 11).
(Any new Brain you create will automatically have a jump thought called "Natrificial," which can
take you to our various online resources should you need or wish to visit. Use this link to take
advantage of our online help and support. However, if you wish to delete this link, we will cover the
method for doing so in Section 7.)
The Thought Menu
The Thought Menu is one of The Brain's smartest features. When you open it, you will see a list of
options available to you pertaining to the active thought. Depending on the status of the thought's
content and relationships, this context-sensitive menu will change, offering only the options available
to you - no more frustrating greyed-out options.
For example, if a thought contains a file, the Thought Menu might look like this:
Instead of viewing the Thought Menu from the menu bar, you can bring it up by right-clicking a
thought, active or otherwise. This has the advantage of displaying options applying to any thought in
the plex, not just the active thought.
Thought Names
The essence of The Brain is simplicity. To help you make meaningful associations between thoughts,
you'll probably want to keep their names as short and direct as possible. Also, the shorter a thought's
name, the likelier it is to appear in the plex in its entirety.
It is possible to create more than one thought with the same name. If you try to create a thought
whose name is in use, The Brain will ask if instead of creating a new thought with that name you
want to create a link to the existing thought. If you still want to create the new thought, you can.
However, the Brain will not be able to distinguish between these thoughts for purposes of the instant
activation box or for establishing links by name in the future, even though they may be in different
relationships or contain different content or Notes (to learn about Notes, see Section 8).
Renaming Thoughts
A thought's name can be changed at any time. Using the Thought Menu, choose Rename Thought
and give it a new name. You can also change the thought's name in the Properties Window (see
Section 8).
If you change the name of a thought, its pin and entry on the past thought list will change with it. All
the thought's links, Notes, and content will be unaffected.
Creating New Thoughts
To review what we learned in Section 3, you can create a new thought by:
• Dragging from a gate of a thought in the plex
• Dragging a file from Windows into the plex
• Using the Thought Menu to select the type of relationship you wish a new thought to have with
the active thought.
• Using keyboard commands to create a child (F10), parent (F11), or jump (F12) thought.
If the Brain Window is not visible, though, there is still a way to create a new thought, but the
existing thought you wish the new thought to link to must be the active thought.
Using the Auto Hide Button with Drag & Drop
When the Brain Window disappears, it is replaced by the auto hide button, a small black square with
the blue Brain logo inside it. To link a file to the active thought as a child, parent, or jump thought:
1. Start Windows Explorer.
2. Drag the file to the auto hide button. Keep in mind the different types of dragging (see Appendix
A). When your mouse pointer touches the auto hide button, the plex will appear.
3. Continue to drag the file into the proper zone or over the active thought (to attach the file to the
existing active thought). Note that as soon as your pointer moves into the a plex a line will form
between the file and the active thought's gate whose zone you are currently in; as you move
around the plex, the line will jump from gate to gate.
4. Drop the file when it is linked to the gate you wish or over the active thought.
To make dragging and dropping easier, you can prevent the Brain Window from disappearing by
turning off the Auto hide function (see Section 12).
Creating Several Thoughts at Once
If you wish to create several thoughts of the same relationship, you can save time by creating them
simultaneously. When The Brain asks you for the name of the thought you want to create, type all the
names, separated by semi-colons (;).
Attaching Files or Web Pages
A thought may only be associated with one file, web page, or shortcut. However, the Notes Tool
allows you to attach text, pictures, sound, and shortcuts in addition to the one piece of attached
content. See Section 8 for details on using the Notes Tool.
Creating Links Between Existing Thoughts
As has been said, links are power. Not only do links allow for the associations that group thoughts
conceptually, but they also allow information to be stored in and accessible from numerous places.
There are several ways to create links between existing thoughts.
To Thoughts Visible in the Plex
Simply drag from the appropriate gate of one thought to the other thought visible in the plex.
The thought you drag from does not have to be the active thought, but it must be closely related to the
active thought in order to have its gates displayed. If you drag from an inactive thought to create a
new thought, the thought you drag from will be activated. If you drag a link from an inactive thought,
the plex will not change.
You can drag to create a link between active or close thoughts and distant thoughts, as long as you
have elected to display distant thoughts (see Section 12). Distant thoughts do not have gates, so links
can be dragged to them, but not from them.
To Thoughts Not Visible in the Plex
You cannot drag to create a link directly to a thought so distant that it cannot be displayed in the
plex. But you still can make these links easily, in any of three ways. If the thought you can't see has a
pin or an entry on the past thought list, you can drag links to them. Or, you can link by naming.
Drag to a Pin
You can create a link to a thought that is not visible on the plex if it has a pin. Simply drag from the
appropriate gate to the pin. Pins can help you save time. When you have a thought that you know you
will want to link to a large number of other thoughts, create a pin for it and create links in this
manner.
You cannot link from a pin to a thought because pins do not have gates.
The relationship you establish by linking a thought to a pin is between the two thoughts - if you later
delete the pin, the link between thoughts will remain.
Drag to the Past Thought List
As with pins, you can link a thought visible in the plex to another thought by dragging a link from the
appropriate gate to another thought's entry in the past thought list. You cannot link from the past
thought list to another thought because the past thought list does not display gates.
Link by Naming
You can also link by creating a new thought with the name of the thought you want to link to.
1. Create a new thought, either by dragging or using the Thought Menu.
2. Check the "Link to existing thought" box.
3. Instead of typing a new name for the thought, type the first few letters of the name of the thought
you wish to link to. As with the instant activation box, The Brain will fill in the rest.
4. Press ENTER.
(If you didn't check the box, The Brain will ask you whether you wish to make the link or create a
new thought by that name. See above.)
Saving Thoughts
All information pertaining to your Brain itself is saved on-the-fly. There is never any need to save
your Brain. However, you must manually save files you create with your applications. You can do
this in either of two ways:
• Choose the Save icon or menu item in your application.
• Exit your application and answer Yes when the application asks you if you wish to save changes
before exiting.
Do Not Use "Save As" With The Brain
While you work with a file you have launched into its application, you should not use the Save As
command to change either the name or location of the file. Doing so will make its thought unable to
locate the file the next time you wish to launch it. If you do need to Save As to make a copy of the
original file, you will then have to drag the file back into your Brain and attach it to a thought all over
again. Instead, consider making templates for files used as the starting points for other files (see
Section 10) or use the Copy thought function (see Section 7).
Printing Thought Files
If you wish to print the file attached to the active thought
1. Open the Thought Menu.
2. Choose Print.
The Brain will launch the application used to create the file and automatically tell the application to
print it. If the thought's content is a web page, you will need to be sure that you have an open Internet
connection so that the page may be downloaded for printing. The application will not automatically
close after printing.
You can also launch the thought by making it the active thought and clicking on it. Then print from
the application's Print Menu. You would want to use this method if you require a specialized print
job, such as printing a specific page range rather than the whole document.
7. Editing Your Brain
Sometimes, as in your mind, information stored in the Brain needs to be put on the back burner. As
your use for and understanding of certain information evolves, you might find that the relationship
you thought it had with other thoughts needs to be adjusted. And just when you thought you didn't
need a piece of information anymore, you might find it valuable to have around. All these
circumstances are easily handled by The Brain.
Changing the Relationship Between Thoughts
Thoughts can exist in any relationship to each other, and the relationship can be changed at any time.
But two thoughts may only have one relationship with each other at a time. For example, you can
change a thought from a child thought to a jump thought, but doing so removes the link through the
child gate.
To change the relationship:
• Drag from a different gate. The plex will automatically reconfigure to show the thought in its
new zone. Or,
• Drag the thought around the active thought. Notice the link lines jumping from gate to gate
depending upon the zone to which you drag the thought.
Unlinking Thoughts
When you find that relationships between thoughts are no longer relevant, you can remove the link.
As long as there are other links remaining, the thought you unlink will still be in your Brain, but now
linked only to still-relevant thoughts. It is only when the last link to the Brain is severed that you risk
forgetting the thought (see below).
If you want to unlink the last remaining link between a thought and the active thought, but wish to
link the thought to another thought, establish the new link before removing the old one.
The unlinking procedure is simple:
1. Click the line connecting the thought to the thought you wish to unlink it from.
2. The Brain will ask you if you mean to unlink the two thoughts. Click Yes if you do.
If you unlink a thought that has remaining links, that thought and all the thoughts related to it will
still be part of your Brain. But you will have to navigate to it through the remaining links. You may
also still activate the thought by clicking its entry on the past thought list or pin, if applicable.
Forgetting and Remembering Thoughts
When a thought is no longer of immediate use, you may wish to forget it. Forgetting is not the same
thing as deleting. When you forget a thought, it remains in your Brain with all its related thoughts
intact - it simply will not appear in the plex unless you have chosen to display forgotten thoughts.
Forgotten thoughts can be remembered when the need arises. Since forgetting does not affect the
thought's content, you can think of forgetting as a way to remove clutter from the plex.
How to Forget
To forget a thought:
Click the line linking it to the active thought.
If the thought you wish to forget has no other links to the main body of the Brain, The Brain will ask
you if you intend to forget the thought and its relatives. If there are other links to the thought it will
not be forgotten but merely be unlinked from the other thought (see above) and its other links will
remain.
When you unlink the last remaining link to the plex, that thought is forgotten
When you forget a thought, you also forget any thoughts related only to it. If you click an active
thought's only link to the rest of your Brain, The Brain will assume that you want to forget everything
except the active thought. If you risk forgetting all thoughts except the active thought, The Brain will
ask you to confirm that this is your intent - to confirm you must type the name of the thought you
wish to keep, then click OK.
If you wish to forget a thought but not its relatives, instead of clicking the dotted line, right-click the
thought to open the Thought Menu and choose Forget Thought. The Brain will forget the thought
and automatically re-link its relatives to another thought. The Brain makes an intelligent guess as to
where to re-link these thoughts - if no obvious choice is available, The Brain will ask you to specify a
thought.
Activating a Forgotten Thought
You might wish to activate a forgotten thought in order to work on its attached file. You can activate
a forgotten thought by:
• Clicking its pin,
• Clicking its entry in the past thought list,
• Using the instant activation box, or
• Displaying forgotten thoughts and navigating to it.
Activating a forgotten thought does not cause it to be remembered.
Displaying Forgotten Thoughts in the Plex
Forgotten thoughts can be displayed. To toggle this feature on or off:
1. Click the Options Menu.
2. Choose Forgotten Thoughts.
All forgotten thoughts will be displayed in grey in the plex. Links to forgotten thoughts are displayed
as dotted lines.
Forgotten thoughts will still appear in the plex and on the past thought list, whether or not they are
displayed on the plex. Clicking these will both activate the forgotten thought and set The Brain to
display all other forgotten thoughts, but will not cause it to be remembered.
How to Remember
If later you need to bring a forgotten thought back into regular use, you can remember it.
To remember a thought:
1. Display forgotten thoughts.
2. Link or relink the forgotten thought to a thought that is not forgotten. You do not have to
reestablish the same link that existed originally, but if you establish a new link, the original link
will also be reestablished once the thought is remembered.
You can also remember a thought by relinking it with a thought that is not forgotten using the naming
method for creating links described in Section 6.
Deleting
Deleting Thoughts
Deleting a thought eliminates it from The Brain for good - you can never remember a deleted thought.
To delete a thought:
1. Forget the thought (see above).
2. Make sure forgotten thoughts are displayed (see above).
3. Click the dotted line linking it to the plex.
4. Confirm that you want to delete the thought.
Another method works just as well.
1. Forget the thought.
2. Make sure forgotten thoughts are displayed.
3. Click the Thought Menu.
4. Choose Delete Thought.
Whenever you delete a thought that has links to other thoughts, The Brain will tell you the total
number of thoughts you risk deleting.
To delete a thought without first forgetting it, hold down the SHIFT key as you click the link.
Deleting a thought also permanently deletes any file attached to it.
Deleting multiple files or thoughts can only be done by disconnecting the only remaining link between
the thought and the active thought. You must take care when deleting thoughts. If you delete an active
thought's only link to the rest of your Brain, The Brain will assume that you want to delete everything
except the active thought. If you risk deleting all thoughts except the active thought, The Brain will
ask you to confirm that this is your intent - to confirm you must type the name of the thought you
wish to keep, then click OK.
If you wish to delete a thought but not its relatives, instead of clicking the dotted line, right-click the
thought and choose Delete Thought. The Brain will delete the thought and automatically re-link its
relatives to another thought. The Brain makes an intelligent guess as to where to re-link these
thoughts - if no obvious choice is available, The Brain will ask you to specify a thought.
Deleting Files or Web Pages Attached to Thoughts
If you wish to delete the content of a thought, but not the thought itself:
1. Click the Thought Menu or open it by right-clicking the thought.
2. Choose Delete File, Delete Web Page, or Delete Shortcut, whichever applies. Note that only the
applicable option appears on the context-sensitive Thought Menu.
Undo/Redo
The Undo/Redo feature is found on the Options Menu. Undo allows you to step backwards through
a virtually unlimited number of actions since your Brain was started. However, Undo will stop at the
point at which you last performed the complete deletion of any thought or file, since there is no way
to undo a deletion.
Having used Undo to step backwards, you can use Redo to step forwards through your past actions.
When you reach the most recently performed action, there will be nothing left to Redo and the feature
will be disabled until you use Undo again. If you perform a new action while working "in the past,"
Redo will be disabled and you will not be able to continue stepping forward.
Moving Thoughts and Files
Thoughts
A thought's relationship to the Matrix can be changed by creating a new link to a different thought
and unlinking unwanted ones. This is not "moving," per se, but changing relationships accomplishes
the same goal.
Files
Files can be moved in and out of your Brain. This is done by clicking the context-sensitive
Thought Menu.
If you have a thought with an attached shortcut to a file that remains in a folder outside your Brain,
choose Move File Into Brain. The file will be deleted from the folder and the shortcut will be
replaced by the actual file.
If a thought has a file attached and you wish to move it to a folder (so others can work on it, for
example):
1. Choose Move File Out of Brain.
2. Select the folder into which the file is to be moved.
When you move a file out of the Brain, the thought it was attached to will still be associated with the
file by a shortcut. Clicking the thought will still launch the file
Copying Thoughts and Files
If you wish to copy the active thought, you can do so by choosing Copy Thought on the Thought
Menu. The copy will be linked as a child thought of the original and will be named "Copy of name of
active thought." All of the thought's content will be copied as well.
Moving and Copying Brains
You may wish to move your Brain from one drive to another or to another computer. You would
most likely copy a Brain to back it up or if you have a basic Brain built up and then wanted to create
different Brains with the original as a starting point. Before you copy a Brain, see Appendix A for
background on the way The Brain stores information.
1. Using Windows, go to the folder where The Brain is stored. If you accepted the default
installation, this will be c:\My Brains
2. Click the .brn file whose filename is the name of the Brain you wish to copy or move.
3. CTRL-click the folder whose filename is the name of the Brain you wish to copy followed by
_brn.
4. Click the Edit Menu.
5. Choose Copy (or Cut to move a Brain).
6. Navigate to the location to which you want to copy or move your Brain.
7. Choose Paste.
8. If desired, rename the new file and folder that will appear, taking care to give them identical
names and making sure that the file has a .brn extension and the folder ends with _brn.
The new Brain will now appear on the Open Brain list called up with the Brain Menu.
When a Brain is copied or moved from one computer to another, keep in mind the following:
• The .brn file may be too large to move easily, requiring this to be done via a direct serial cable
connection or removable hard disk drive.
• The second computer will need to have the same applications used to create the files in the _brn
folder.
• Shortcuts to files will not work unless the destination computer can access the files from the first
computer.
Importing Other Brains
If you work with more than one Brain, you may find at some point that you wish to put the two
Brains together. This is very easy to do.
1. In Windows, find the .brn file of the Brain you wish to import into the Brain that is currently
open.
2. Drag the .brn file into the open Brain's plex and create the relationship you wish with the active
thought.
3. The Brain will ask you if you wish to import the Brain. Click Yes. Clicking No will create a link
from the open Brain to the one dragged in.
When you import one Brain into another, the active thought of the open Brain is linked with the most
recent active thought of the imported Brain.
You cannot cut and paste pieces of two Brains together.
8. Tools
Below the plex, the Brain Window contains many useful Tools: Notes, Properties, Search, and
History. Click the appropriate button to use the tool you want in the Tools Window.
The order in which the buttons are displayed can be changed to suit your needs - simply drag the
buttons to the left or right to change their order. In addition, the Tools Window can be configured to
allow some or all of its components to be displayed simultaneously. On the upper right corner of the
Tools Window is a context-sensitive button. Until you become a registered user of The Brain, the
button will read Purchase and clicking it will bring up a window helping you purchase the software -
or, if you have already purchase the software, it will help you register it.
Once you have registered, the button will read Recent, and clicking it will bring up a list of recently
opened Brains.
If your web browser is at a Brain-Enabled web site (see Section 9), another button will appear,
allowing you to download that site's Natrificial Web Brain and navigate the site using its Brain.
When you are in a web Brain, one of the two buttons on the upper right of the Tools Window will
read Recent and the other will contain the name of the Brain you were in before opening the web
Brain.
Notes
While a thought can only be associated with one file, web page, or shortcut, it can also contain Notes.
Notes are visible whenever the thought is active, so no application need be launched to see them.
They are therefore extremely useful for annotating or expanding on the meaning of the thought.
The Notes section of the Tools Window is at once a simple word processor and a sophisticated one -
a note can contain text that you type or copy, an object like a picture or a sound, a shortcut, or any
combination of these.
Any application that supports Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) will let you drag and drop into
Notes. For example, if you see a picture on the Web that you'd like to have as a Note, go ahead and
drag it right into Notes. However, when dragging in a picture from the Web, there is one caveat: the
picture may not contain an address (hyperlink) - if it does, only the address will appear in Notes, not
the picture.
If an application does not support OLE, you can try to copy and paste into Notes.
Importing Web Images From Netscape
A known exception to the above procedures is the Netscape browser. To bring a web image into
notes from Netscape:
1. Right-click the picture.
2. Choose Save Image.
3. Select a folder in which to save the picture.
4. Drag the saved image from Windows into Notes.
Saving Notes
As with thoughts, Notes are saved automatically whenever you activate a new thought. You do not
need to manually save at any time, though you can by:
1. Click the File Menu.
2. Choose Save.
You can save a Note as a separate file in any folder.
1. Click the File Menu.
2. Choose Save a Copy.
3. Choose a folder in which to save the Note.
4. Click OK.
The Note will be saved in Rich Text Format (RTF), which is readable by any recent word processing
application compatible with Windows 95.
Adding More Content to a Thought
Good news! If you want to attach more than one file to a thought and didn't think you could, you'll be
happy to hear that you can create shortcut icons for additional files and drag the icons into Notes.
Clicking the icon in Notes will launch the file.
Using the Notes Word Processor
If you use any word processing application more sophisticated than Notepad, you will have no
trouble using the Notes processor.
Features like Font Selection and Size, Bold, Italics, Underline, Type Color (clicking the down arrow
brings down a list of colors), Justification, and even Bullets are available on the Button Bar at the top
of the Notes Window. Notes margins are always limited to the width of the Notes Window (see
Section 12 to learn how to resize). Additional features may be accessed by clicking Notes' File Menu
or Edit Menu.
Notes' File Menu
Import File
Notes can import files that are saved in either of two formats, ASCII or RTF. If you wish to import a
whole file to Notes, your best bet is usually to first open it in the application that you used to create it
and save or export it in RTF format, which retains much more formatting information and graphics
than does ASCII. When you've done this, you can drag the file into the Notes Window or choose
Import from the File Menu.
If you only want a piece of the file to appear in Notes:
1. Select the portion that you want and copy it.
2. With your cursor in Notes at the point you wish the imported text to appear, click the Edit
Menu.
3. Choose Paste to bring the text into Notes.
Save
You do not need to manually save Notes; they are saved automatically when the next thought is
activated. However, in certain circumstances you may wish to save manually. For example, if your
notes are lengthy, you may wish to save them every now and then as you work in order to guard
against losing information in the event of a power failure. After you have used it, Save will appear in
grey in the File Menu and will not be available to you until you make changes to the Notes.
Save a Copy
As mentioned above, you can save a Note as a separate file in any folder.
1. Click the File Menu.
2. Choose Save a Copy.
3. Choose a folder in which to save the Note.
4. Click OK.
The Note will be saved in Rich Text Format (RTF), which is readable by any recent word processing
application compatible with Windows 95.
To print your Note, choose the Print selection on the File Menu.
Print Preview
Because Notes does not allow you to work with margins and the way it wraps lines is dependent upon
the width of the Notes Window, Print Preview is a useful way of checking how your Note will appear
on the printed page. Several views are available, and you can look at the Note on a page-by-page
basis at several magnifications.
You cannot edit text on the Print Preview screen. To exit back to the editing screen:
• Click the Print button to send the document to the printer, or
• Click the Close button or press ESC to return without printing. (Note that buttons do not wrap,
so if your window is too narrow to display all the buttons you will not be able to click Close.
Resize the Brain Window in order to display the Close button.)
Abandon Changes
Choose Abandon Changes to cancel any changes you've made to the Note. If you have manually
saved the Note, this function will only cancel changes made since the last time the Note was saved.
Remember that activating a new thought also causes the Note to be saved and changes cannot be
abandoned when you return to the thought later.
Notes' Edit Menu
Cut and Copy
Cut and Copy perform the same functions in Notes as they do in other applications. If you have
selected all or some of the text in the Notes Window, choosing Cut will delete the selection and store
it in the clipboard while choosing Copy just stores the selection in the clipboard. You can move
portions of your Note into other applications using the Cut and Copy functions of Notes and the
Paste function of your application.
Paste
Paste moves information stored in the clipboard into Notes. This will allow you to move chunks of
information from one part of your Note to another or to transfer information that has been cut or
copied from another application into Notes.
Clear
The Clear function deletes any information that has been selected. Pressing the DELETE key will do
the same. Clear is different from Cut in that it does not store the information in the clipboard. The
only way to restore information removed using Clear or DELETE is to choose Undo (see below).
Select All
The Select All option simply selects every bit of information in the Note. You would do this, for
example, if you wish to copy and paste the entire contents of the Note into another application.
Find/Replace
These functions allow you to search for a specific word or phrase anywhere in the Note and, if you
desire, change it to another word or phrase.
Insert Object
If you wish to create or edit an object such as an image or sound before bringing it into Notes, you
would use the Insert Object function. Choosing it brings up a window asking you to select the type of
object to create and giving you the option to create a new object or create an object from an existing
file.
Also, you will be able to check a box to instruct Notes to display the object as an icon or as an
image.
When you click OK, The Brain will open the application you selected. As you work on the image, it
will be displayed in Notes. When you are finished, simply close the application and the image will be
stored in Notes. Some applications actually open within the Notes Window.
Undo
Whenever an operation has been performed that can be undone, the Undo option will appear at the
top of the Edit Menu.
Properties
The Properties Tool is a resource for information about the active thought and its content, if any.
The following shows the Properties of a thought called "Writers," which has a Microsoft Word
document called "Writers.doc" attached. You can rename the active thought by editing its name in
Properties.
If instead of a file, a web page was attached, the Properties Window would display the page's
Universal Resource Locator (URL).
Clicking the Details button provides information about the path and filename of the content. This is
helpful if you ever want to move the file out of your Brain. You can also change the file or URL
attached to the thought from the Details Window.
The item marked "Active" at the bottom of the Properties Window shows the total time you have
spent in this thought (not just in this session, but since its creation).
If there is no file or web page attached to the thought, there will be a button marked Select Content.
Click it to create a file. This produces a result equivalent to that which you would get if you launched
a file that had no content.
You can assign keywords to the thought that will be helpful in performing searches for thoughts
using the Query Search (see below). If you use more than one keyword, separate the words with a
space.
Search
The Search Tool is a great way to help you remember and activate specific thoughts immediately.
The Search Tool displays an alphabetical list of thoughts organized by category.
The default category is "All thoughts." This list shows every thought in your Brain by name. Other
categories include: Query, forgotten thoughts; parentless thoughts; thoughts with Files, Web Pages,
and/or Shortcuts attached; Related thoughts, and attached file types.
To activate a thought from the Search List, simply click it.
To see a list of other available categories, click the down arrow to the right of the category box.
Parentless Thoughts
Parentless thoughts are thoughts without parents. In the Brain you created in Section 3, your name
and "Natrificial" are parentless thoughts. Parentless thoughts tend to be major section headings.
Related thoughts
This category produces a list of thoughts related to the active thought. It helps you keep track of
which thoughts are nearby.
The Brain will ask you how many generations you would like to display. The smaller the number of
generations you select, the more closely the resulting thoughts will be related to the active thought. A
large and you may display every thought in the Brain.
The Related thoughts list updates automatically whenever you activate a thought.
Query
When you want to find a vary specific thought quickly, you would use the Query function. Choosing
Query brings up the Query Window, into which you can input various criteria for performing a
search of your Brain. Some of these criteria include thought name, keywords (which are assigned in
the Properties Window -- see above), types of files associated with thoughts (by application), or date
and time of creation, modification, or last access.
History
Selecting the History Tool displays an alphabetical list of thoughts created, modified, or activated
within the selected time frame, along with a bar chart showing the relative length of time the thoughts
were active.
This function will help you see what you've been doing recently. It comes in handy if you are
interrupted and lose your train of thought. It's also a great aid to project managers who need to watch
over productivity, professionals whose billing is based on time, and people who wish to manage their
time and work more efficiently. For example, if a lawyer has assigned each of his or her clients to a
thought, a quick look at the History list for the day will be helpful in filling out time sheets for billing.
On the other side of the coin, it also will show you just how much of your time has been devoted to
Solitaire.
Click the Update button to refresh the list.
9. The Brain and the Internet
The Web is a fantastic resource, with information and entertainment of virtually all types. It's
vastness is its value. One of the most powerful and useful features of the Web is the ability of pages
to link with other, related pages, somewhat like the way The Brain works with thoughts.
But where the Web is troublesome is the very source of its greatness - links. Links appear as
underlined, colorful bits of text or images, and there is no way to know exactly where a link will take
you. The problem is one of presentation - the Web's links are not represented in an easy visual way.
Web browsers have tried to relieve this navigation problem by creating bookmarks to help you get to
frequently visited sites. But bookmarks are generally not organized, and if you do take the time and
effort to organize them, the best you can do is organize them hierarchically. Further, they are
completely isolated within the browser, separate from your other related files.
The Brain solves all of these problems in a way that requires you to pay not more, not the same, but
far less attention than you did before. Attaching a web page to a thought is similar to creating a
bookmark, but the pages are effortlessly organized in the way that makes the most sense to you. Plus,
they are visually represented right alongside other thoughts you may have on similar subjects. With
The Brain, your travel itinerary is right alongside pages about the places you're traveling to, which is
right alongside your calculator for converting money, which is right alongside the address book in
which you keep your friends' addresses.
Brain-Enabled Web Sites
The Brain is a fantastic tool for navigating the World Wide Web. You can map whole sites to areas
of your Brain, or, even more helpfully, web sites can be "Brain-Enabled." A Brain-Enabled web site
is a site that has had a Brain constructed especially for it that you can download and use to navigate.
This is a much better and more intuitive way to move around a web site than following links you
can't anticipate or following a difficult and incomplete site map. You can navigate faster, see your
position within the site better, and skip pages at will. It's like having a remote control for the site.
If you have navigated to a site that is Brain-Enabled, a button will appear on your Tools Window
indicating that the current site has a web Brain Available. Click that button and the web Brain will be
downloaded and opened. When you are in a web Brain, a second button will appear bearing the name
of the Brain you were just working in, so you can get back to it quickly when you are done with the
site.
Web Brains are "read-only" - that is, you cannot add information to a web Brain. They are for
navigational purposes only.
Natrificial actively encourages web-masters Brain-enable their sites. For information, see our own
Brain-Enabled site at www.natrificial.com. Our site also includes links to other Brain-Enabled sites.
Searching the Web
The Brain has a convenient built-in web search tool in the Options Menu. Simply type in the topic
you want to find, select one of the pre-programmed search engines, and The Brain will search the
web for pages meeting your specifications.
This makes searching the Web quicker and easier, since you won't have to find the search windows
on the sites. And if one site doesn't turn up the information you want, simply choosing another site on
the menu launches a search, without your having to find a bookmark for another site or typing in a
cumbersome URL.
Creating Thoughts with Web Pages Attached
Once you find the pages you want, you can easily create thoughts of them by dragging them into the
plex, as described in Sections 3 and 6. If the page you want to attach to a new thought is currently on
your browser, you can drag directly from any gate to the browser to create a thought named after the
page's title.
You can create a thought for a web page even if The Brain is hidden. Drag the icon next to the URL
in your browser to the auto hide button.
You can also drag from a thought's gate to create a new thought. When The Brain asks you to name
the thought, enter the URL. The web address will automatically be attached to the thought so that
you can rename the thought immediately.
Attach a Web Page to an Existing Thought
To attach a web page to an existing thought:
1. Click Select Content in the Properties Window or launch the thought by clicking it when it is
active.
2. At the Select Content Window, click the Attach Web Page button.
3. You will be asked for the URL of the web page you wish to attach.
Thoughts Containing E-Mail
If you use a separate E-Mail application, The Brain can help you integrate the messages you want to
keep with other information on the same subject. You can devote a section of your Brain to your
favorite joke e-mails, or store e-mail from your business partner with other information relevant to
your business.
Creating Thoughts Containing E-Mail Messages
If you use any of the popular e-mail applications, you will most likely be able to create thoughts out
of e-mail messages by simply dragging the message into the plex and linking it in any relationship to
the active thought. The thought will be named based on the subject line of the mail. The e-mail will
be much easier to find in your Brain than when you had to scroll down a long list of mail saved only
in order of receipt, hoping to recognize the message you need.
When you have attached your e-mail to thoughts, you may go back into your e-mail application and
delete the message from the saved message list.
If your e-mail application does not support drag and drop, you can copy your messages to Notes. To
launch all of your e-mail, create a thought and attach a shortcut to the e-mail application.
Many popular online services, such as America Online, CompuServe, Prodigy, and The Microsoft
Network have mail readers built into their own software. Therefore, since none of them support drag
and drop and since the mail readers are not stand-alone applications, there is no way to access e-mail
in these services from The Brain.
Creating Thoughts Containing E-Mail Attachments
Attachments to e-mail messages will need to be dragged into their own thoughts, probably as child
thoughts of the thoughts containing messages. The text message will not indicate the existence of
content when you launch it from The Brain. E-mail saved in a thought retains any Internet addressing
information or hyperlinks that were contained in the message - you can jump directly from the
hyperlink to a web page, which is useful if you wish to link the web page to the message's thought.
The Natrificial Internet Guide
Want to see just how good The Brain is working with the web? We've mapped selected portions of
the web into a Brain you can access right from the Brain Menu. The Guide contains useful and
interesting web sites, and in the Brain format, you'll see all sorts of cool stuff arranged next to other
cool stuff in context.
10. The Brain and Your Applications
There are two basic types of applications: those that create files and those that do not. And The Brain
is a great too for managing both.
For applications that create files, an advantage of The Brain is that it removes all that time and
attention taken up by starting your applications, finding the file you want to work on, loading the file,
etc. All these tasks are performed automatically when you launch a thought that has content so you
can concentrate on your ideas. Also, when you create a file, choosing the proper application from the
Select Content Window, you will never have to worry about making up a filename or winding
through a series of folders to find a location in which to save the file.
For applications that don't create files, such as a Web browser, a game, a utility, a CD player, etc.,
you can attach a shortcut to a thought that will start the application when you launch the thought. By
grouping these kinds of applications under one parent thought, you can create a pin that will quickly
take you to them, saving you the time you'd otherwise spend moving through the Start Menu or
hunting for a shortcut.
Juggling Several Thoughts at Once
You may need to keep several thoughts open at the same time. For instance, when you are cutting and
pasting between files. It is easy to work on more than one thought at a time. If an application is open
and can handle more than one document or file at a time, you can:
• Drag additional thoughts from the plex into the application, or
• Activate other thoughts and launch the files into the open application by clicking the active
thought.
If you happen to drag in a thought whose file is already in use in that application, the results depend
on the application. For example:
• WordPerfect will accept the second instance of the file, but, like sharing files on a LAN, the
second instance will be "read-only" and you won't be able to save changes you make to it.
• Microsoft Word will ask you if you want to " revert" to the last saved copy of the file. If you
click Yes, you will lose any changes you've made since the last time you saved the file.
Keeping Multiple Versions of a File
Sometimes you will want to keep multiple versions of the same file. For example, if you are writing a
report that will go through multiple drafts, you may not want to delete earlier drafts as you rewrite.
The best way to work with multiple files is this:
1. Before you begin to work on the next draft, click the Thought Menu and choose Copy Thought.
2. Rename the copy to reflect the new draft.
3. Launch and edit the new thought.
Using Templates
You probably often find yourself working on a document that is very similar to other documents,
such as a form letter or an invoice. The Brain makes this easy by allowing you to select the basic file
when you are creating a thought's content.
A template is a file that is used as the foundation for creating other files. For example, a blank
invoice form to which you add the job and price information and save under its invoice number. A
template will never be an application, but a file created with an application.
To create a template:
1. Create the basic file. Give it a name that will indicate the type of file that will be created from it,
such as "Form Letter" or "Invoice Template."
2. Create a thought for which the template will be used.
3. When you reach the Select Content Window, click the button marked Add Template.
4. Find the file you wish to use as a template.
Notice that when you have selected the file, its filename appears in the Select Content Window. It
will stay there permanently and you will be able to select it whenever you need to create a file based
on it. If you find you no longer need the file, you can go to the Select Content Window and click
Remove Template.
One of the most helpful ways The Brain works with templates is in naming the files created from
them. If you've worked with template files before, you know that you always run the risk of
modifying them and forgetting to rename the new file before saving it, leaving you with the modified
version as your template. It's a lot of work to go back and remove the modifications to restore the
original, useful template. But since The Brain names files for you, you will never experience this
annoying mistake again.
11. The Brain and Networks
The Brain works particularly well in a network environment. Not only can you open your Brain from
any computer on the LAN, but you can share Brains with other users. The Brain will eliminate the
need for you to think about the network environment, and enable the network to function more
productively.
In a network environment, you might wish to create a Brain for each project in addition to your
personal Brain. This way, other members of the team with whom you'll need to share files will only
be able to access the files relevant to the project. (In order to maintain different access privileges for
different information, you will have to create separate Brains and set the access privileges for the
folder they are contained in according to your network software.)
Project Managers will be particularly interested in using the History Tool. It will show how much
total time has been spent working on any aspect of the project.
The same Brain can be opened simultaneously by several users. However, only the first user to open
that Brain will be able to modify it.
There are easy ways to share files with other users without sharing the same Brain. For example, it is
simple to move a file from The Brain into a network folder for others to use.
1. Open the Thought Menu.
2. Choose Move File Out of Brain.
3. Select the destination folder.
4. Click Save.
If you wish to give others access to a copy of a file, simply drag and drop it to Windows.
Multiple Brains on One Computer
You can create as many Brains as you like. For single users we recommend keeping all your thoughts
in one Brain, with your name or chosen title on it so that all your thoughts can be related to one
another, as in your own mind. However, there are some circumstances when it is desirable to create
multiple Brains.
You might want to create a different Brain for projects that you wish to keep separate from each
other or to pass on for others to assess. The ability to create multiple Brains is especially useful if
you share your computer with somebody else. Each user can create his or her own Brain to suit their
particular needs and way of computing.
12. Customizing The Brain
This section deals mainly with the way The Brain is displayed, both internally and in relation to other
applications. Each Brain has its own set of customizable preferences. When you create a new Brain,
it will be set up with default preferences. When you open an existing Brain, you will simultaneously
be loading its preferences.
The Brain's Window Menu
The Window menu allows you to set up the manner in which The Brain is displayed on the desktop.
Auto Hide
The Brain's default setting is Auto Hide. This means that whenever you click your mouse pointer in
another application, The Brain will conveniently disappear from the screen, replaced by the auto hide
button, a small black box with The Brain's logo inside. (The uses of the auto hide button in relation to
attaching files and web pages is discussed in Section 6.) This option allows you the most desktop
space for working in your other applications, but only works when the Brain Window is docked (see
below).
You can drag the auto hide button to any of the four sides of your monitor (see "Docking," below).
When Auto Hide is off, other applications will run next to the Brain Window. Even when maximized,
they will only be displayed in the area not taken up by the Brain Window. Since the Brain Window
will never be out of site, the auto hide button will never be displayed.
You may find this setting useful as you make the transition to The Brain, but after you've attached
your existing files to thoughts you will most likely want to free up screen space for working with
your applications.
Always On Top
With this selection, you can ensure that The Brain never is out of sight. The Brain Window will
always be displayed on top of other applications.
Docking
This portion of The Brain's Window Menu allows you to choose where on the desktop you wish the
Brain Window to display. Try each to see which feels best to you.
The Brain Window can also be docked by dragging the auto hide button to different parts of the
desktop. It will always hug the edge of the display, and its horizontal or vertical position is not
relevant - the only thing that matters is which side of the display the button is attached to.
Float
Selecting Float allows you to move it to any area on the screen and adjust both its height and width
(see below). The auto hide button will not work with this feature, as the Brain Window will always
be open but may be covered with another application. To display the Brain Window in this case, click
its entry on the Windows Taskbar.
In this mode, the Brain Window behaves just like a typical window.
With the Brain Window set to Float, you may also select Always on Top. Now, the Brain Window
will always be displayed, but you can move its location and change its size to suit the display of other
applications.
Resizing
The Brain Window
No matter what settings you select from the Window Menu, the Brain Window can be made any size
you like. However, with the Brain Window docked, it will always take up the full length or width of
the screen (depending upon whether you have elected to dock along the side or along the top or
bottom of the display) and you will only be able to expand it in the direction opposite the docked side.
To resize the Brain Window:
1. Move your pointer over its outer edge until the pointer changes to a double arrow.
2. Click and drag the side of the Brain Window to the desired size. You can drag it all the way to
the opposite end of the display, if you like, but if you've set the Brain Window to always be on
top, you will never be able to see your other applications if you do this.
When set to Float, a button will appear on the top right corner of the Brain Window that will allow
you to maximize it. If you only want to adjust its size, drag any side or a corner of the Brain Window
until it has reached the desired size.
The Plex and Tools Windows
You can also adjust the relative size and positioning of the plex and Tools Windows. If you have a
complex Brain and are displaying distant and forgotten thoughts, you may wish to make the plex
larger. On the other hand, if you work frequently with Notes, you may wish to make the Tools
Window larger. Simply drag the line between them to make them bigger or smaller.
Double-click the line to switch the positions of the Tools and plex Windows.
In the middle of the line between the plex and Tools Windows, there is a small notch called the
Splitter Button. Clicking the Splitter Button will change the orientation of the plex and Tools
Windows from the top and bottom of the Brain Window to the left and right.
The Plex Itself
The scale of the plex and its thoughts can be changed by dragging the re-sizing circle. This is the
circle that surrounds the active thought (not the animated active thought Indicator -- see below). If
you move your mouse pointer over the re-sizing circle, a message will appear telling you that you can
"drag to resize." You will want to experiment with this to arrive at a size that suits you.
The plex can be resized at any time - you might wish to enlarge it, for example, when you display
distant thoughts and reduce it when you turn distant thoughts off.
The Options Menu
The Options Menu can be brought up both by clicking its entry on the Menu Bar or by right-clicking
in an empty area of the plex. The Options Menu contains a number of important settings.
Importing Existing Folders
If you are happy with the organization of any of your existing folders you can move their contents
into your Brain at any time.
1. Check the Import Existing Folders entry.
2. In the Import Existing Folders dialog box, add the folders you wish to import.
3. Click OK.
The Brain will automatically create child thoughts named after the folders you have imported.
Their parent will be the active thought. Each of these thoughts will have their own child thoughts
named for and containing each file in the folder. If the same word appears in several filenames being
imported from a folder, The Brain will create a child thought named for that word and group all the
filenames containing the word under it. See Appendix A for advice on importing folders into a Brain.
Desktop
You can check this box and import all of the files and shortcuts located on your desktop. They will
be stored in a thought called "Desktop."
My Documents
You can check this box and import all of the files and shortcuts located in you "My Documents"
folder. They will be stored in a thought called "My Documents."
Explorer Favorites
Since The Brain replaces Internet Explorer's Favorites by allowing you to launch a web page from
within The Brain, you can check this box and import all of your current favorites. They will be stored
in a thought called "Favorites."
Netscape Bookmarks
Since The Brain replaces Netscape Navigator's Bookmarks by allowing you to launch a web page
from within The Brain, you can check this box and import all of your current bookmarks. They will
be stored in a thought called "Netscape Navigator Bookmarks."
Undo/Redo
As discussed in Section 7, you can step back and forth through your actions using Undo and Redo.
This is a context-sensitive setting and the next action to be undone or redone is noted next to the
command. Remember that the Undo history ends at the point of the last complete deletion of a file or
thought.
Search the Web
As discussed in Section 9, you can launch a Web search directly from The Brain by using this
feature, which can be set to use search engines such as Yahoo, Lycos, Excite, and others.
Auto Start The Brain
Selecting this option will cause The Brain to open every time you start Windows.
Wander
Just as many of your most creative moments come out of letting your mind wander, so can The Brain
be set to Wander. If you select this option, The Brain will randomly step through the Matrix,
possibly providing you with the opportunity to develop associations that you had not considered
before.
Forgotten Thoughts
This option toggles on and off the display of forgotten thoughts in the plex. As discussed in Section
5, forgotten thoughts must be visible in the plex to be deleted. If a forgotten thought is activated by a
pin or the past thought list, this option will automatically be set to display forgotten thoughts - if you
want to turn off their display, come back to the Options Menu and choose Forgotten Thoughts.
Auto Open Web Pages
When you turn the Auto Open Web Pages feature on, The Brain will launch your web browser and
load the page attached to any thought you activate that has a web page attached. In the Preferences
section, below, you can set a delay so that if you are merely stepping through a thought with web
content on the way to another thought, The Brain will not slow down to open the page before
allowing you to move on.
Preferences
You may make many more custom settings by choosing Preferences on the Options Menu.
General Preferences
Siblings
Checking the Siblings box will set the plex to display the active thought's siblings in the sibling zone
to the right of the active thought. Unchecked, siblings will not be displayed.
Distant Thoughts
Check this box if you wish to display the active thought's distant relationships. Distant thoughts are
only one step removed from close thoughts. They can be linked to but not from, because their gates
are not displayed. Distant thoughts may contribute to clutter in the plex, even though they are
displayed in very small type relative to close thoughts. Because the type is so small, you can move
your mouse pointer over a distant thought to highlight it and make it larger. Of course, if you resize
the plex, distant thoughts will become larger along with the rest of the thoughts in the plex.
Markers
There are three thought Markers that may appear to the right of a thought if this box is checked. A
red "A" indicates that the thought was active in the last 15 minutes. A yellow "C" indicates that the
thought was created in the last 30 minutes. And a yellow "M" indicates that the thought was modified
in the last 30 minutes. Using Markers is a great way to visually see what you have been working on.
Font
This drop-down menu allows you to select the typeface that will be used to display thoughts in the
plex. There is no setting for font size since that is adjusted using the re-sizing circle.
File Icons
File icons are displayed next to thoughts that have files, web pages, or shortcuts attached. The icons
let you know which application created the content. In this drop-down menu, you can select Normal
or Small icons or choose Hidden if you do not want the icons to be displayed. (Even if you set the
file icons to Hidden, the icon will appear in the Properties Window.
Order By
When this drop-down menu is set to Name, thoughts related to the active thought will appear in their
zones in alphabetical order. You can also set the plex to display them based on which was the last
thought in the zone to be active or based on the total length of time each thought was active.
Stop Pointer Flashing
Some older computers cause the pointer to flash in the plex. Check this box to make it stop.
However, if you select this option your pointer may respond more slowly.
Maximize Program Windows
You can have multiple applications running at the same time as The Brain. If you check this option,
The Brain will open them with their windows maximized. If the Brain Window is docked, the
windows of other programs will not cover the Brain Window. If it is floating, the other programs will
completely cover the Brain Window, unless Always On Top has been selected from the Window
Menu.
Allow Keyboard Navigation
Checking this box allows use of the ALT key as well as the Up, Down, Left and Right Arrow keys.
Check for Brain-Enabled Web Sites
Checking this box allows The Brain to request URL locations from your browser to locate any Brain-
enabled web sites.
Count X Minutes of Idle Time as Active
Use this setting to select the amount of time The Brain should consider a thought active despite being
able to detect no mouse or keyboard activity. This affects the History Tool and the Order By option,
as well as turning off the Brain's animation after the timer runs out.
This setting affects the accuracy of the History Tool. For greater accuracy, a shorter period of idle
time should be considered active. This is especially important if you are using the History Tool for
billing or project management purposes.
Reset All Preferences to Defaults
If you click this button, all the settings in Preferences will be reset to their default settings. This will
not affect options selected in other menus, but it will affect General, Color, Animation, and
Wallpaper preferences.
Colors
You can customize the look of The Brain by selecting custom colors for every element of the Brain
Window. For example, the color of the re-sizing circle, thought names and background can all be
changed to suit your individual sense of style.
Animation
Thought Movement
When thought Movement is enabled, the change from one active thought to another is animated. The
speed of the Animation can be set using the slide bar.
Auto Open Circle
If you have selected Auto Open Web Pages in the Options Menu, you will be able to use this slide
bar to set the delay between a thought's activation and the opening of its attached web page. The
delay can be set from between one and ten seconds. You should set this based on the speed with
which you navigate the plex, since you don't want The Brain to pause while it opens the web page for
a thought you are only stopping at briefly on the way to another thought.
Active Thought Indicator
The active thought appears in the center of the plex. Immediately around it is the re-sizing circle. And
outside that is the animated active thought Indicator.
With this slide bar you can set the speed of its rotation. Disabling the active thought Indicator
removes it from the plex and the active thought will still be distinguished by the re-sizing circle as
well as its central position in the plex. If you keep the active thought Indicator displayed, you can
change the nature of its motion from a constant clockwise rotation to a randomly shifting clockwise-
counterclockwise motion.
Wallpaper
The background of the plex can be changed to any wallpaper, just as you can select wallpaper for
your Windows desktop. If you wish to use your own wallpaper, click the Enabled box and use the
Browse button to find the wallpaper file you wish to use. Depending upon the wallpaper you choose,
you may wish to check the Fill thought Background box, which will put a flat background behind
the name of each thought to make it easier to read.
Appendix A - The Transition From Windows to The
Brain
The Brain models itself after the unique, complex, multi-dimensional mind of the individual user.
Other interfaces that claim to improve upon the Windows system of file organization are limited to
making Windows simpler or prettier or easier, but they all share the same hierarchical organizational
structure that Windows does.
Using The Brain, as time goes on you will go for long stretches without thinking about - or even
seeing - Windows. However, The Brain is not an operating system and so cannot replace Windows
entirely - you will find yourself interacting with Windows from time to time. Particularly when you
first begin using The Brain and have to move your existing files and shortcuts into thoughts. Also,
whenever you install new applications or upgrade existing ones, you will have to use the Windows
installation process.
Once you've become familiar with The Brain, you won't miss Windows. The Brain is much easier to
use and vastly more powerful. The Brain and Windows do share this: they both serve your file
management needs. They are the visual representations of the files on your hard disk and you use
them both to find and access the files you've created.
But The Brain uses as a starting point the very place where Windows ends. By doing away with the
hierarchical structure used by Windows and organizing your information associatively, your Brain
will make it far easier for you to find and work on the files you need. Because the files are no longer
organized from the top down by application, but by your own sense of what content belongs with
what other content, The Brain breaks down the distinction between applications, files on your hard
drive, and content on the Internet. Content is content, information is information, thoughts are
thoughts, and it is you, the thinker, that knows best how to place them together.
Use Windows to Move Files into The Brain
As we discussed earlier, when you wish to associate a thought with a particular file that you created
before your Brain, you will need to use Windows Explorer, My Computer, or the desktop to drag the
file into the plex. There are three ways of dragging files, each of which has implications for hard disk
space.
Dragging Files
Simply dragging a file from Windows into the plex will attach to the thought not the actual file, but a
shortcut to it. You would use this method, for example, if you're sharing the computer with someone
who needs to work on the same files you do. The important thing to remember about shortcuts is that
if the other user changes the file name or location of the file, the shortcut you've established in the
thought may no longer point to the file, and your Brain will not be able to launch it. Other users
should be discouraged from changing file names.
CTRL-dropping Files
CTRL-dropping makes an exact copy of the file and moves the copy into your Brain. There are two
things to consider with this method. First, while other users will still be able to work on the original
file, you will be working on a copy - changes you make will not be available to them, nor will their
changes be available to you. Second, this method causes a file to take up twice the hard disk space.
You should use this method if you only want to create a copy of the file.
SHIFT-dropping Files
SHIFT-dropping moves the file into The Brain (see below for information on how The Brain stores
files). No copy will exist in the file's original folder. Consequently, no other user will have access to
the file, unless they import it from your Brain (see Section 7). This method uses the least space on
your hard disk.
The Importance of File Name Extensions
When you move a file into The Brain, it is important that it have the correct filename extension.
Filename extensions follow periods. So, in the file name LETTER.DOC the extension is .DOC.
Extensions can have specific meanings. For example, the extension .EXE means that the file is a
program that can be run ("EXE" stands for "executable"). Different applications also use specific
extensions to identify the files it creates. For example, Microsoft Word identifies documents it creates
with the .DOC extension.
You can use Windows to associate certain of your own file extensions with specific applications in
Windows Explorer by Clicking the View Menu, then choosing Options and choosing the File Types
tab.
The Brain uses file name extensions to identify the applications into which it launches files you've
attached to thoughts. Any new thought content you create will automatically have the correct
extension and so The Brain will always launch it correctly. However, you may have created files
previous to installing The Brain that do not have the correct extensions. You would not necessarily
ever have noticed or thought about this before, especially with older files, if you opened files using
your applications' Open File Menu.
If you attach a file with an unregistered or incorrect extension to a thought, The Brain will not be
able to open it successfully. So it is important that before you attach a file to a thought you change
the file's extension to the one associated with that application. If a pre-existing file has an incorrect
extension, but you want to keep that extension because it carries meaning for you, Windows will
allow you to add a second extension. So you can identify the file LETTER.1 as a Microsoft Word file
by renaming it LETTER.1.DOC before you attach it to your thought.
1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Find the file you are going to move into The Brain and click it once.
3. If it does not have the correct filename extension, click the filename once more.
4. This puts Explorer in renaming mode. Press the END key.
5. The cursor is now at the end of the existing filename. Type a period (.), followed by the correct
three-letter extension to identify the file's application.
Finding the Correct Extension for Your Application
With just a bit of effort, it should be easy to discover the correct three-letter extensions for your
applications. We will describe a few possible ways here, but there is no 100% reliable universal way
of getting this information from each application.
• Check the application's manual. Generally, you should find an index item about extensions, or the
information may be in the section dealing with saving and retrieving files.
• Check the application's Save and Retrieve Files Windows. Often, there will be a box marked
Save As Type, giving you the option of saving in a variety of formats. The extension for your
application's format may appear in this box.
• Check the file types that have been registered in Windows. To do this:
1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Click the View Menu.
3. Choose Options.
4. Click the tab marked File Types.
5. This will bring you to a scrollable list of file types that have been registered in Windows. Find
your application and look in the details box below for the correct extension.
Some applications will have more than one registered extension - it is usually a good practice to use
the first one listed.
Because it is possible for a user to unwittingly register a file type, and because some applications
share the same extension, this is not a foolproof method, but it is fairly reliable if the first two
methods do not yield the correct extension.
How The Brain Stores Information
If you accept The Brain's default installation location, the program will be located in C:\Program
Files\The Brain. Files for each Brain created on your computer are stored in c:\My Brains. Files
containing Brain data are called brn files - that's their extension. The size of a .brn file depends upon
how many thoughts are in its Brain; thoughts each require 2Kb of space. Brain files are named as
follows: Brain Name.brn, where Brain Name is the name you've given to each Brain. You will need
to know this if you ever decide to import one Brain into another (see Section 7).
The files you attach to thoughts in each Brain are stored in separate folders named after the Brain
name with the characters _brn after the name. So for a Brain named "Lou Green," files attached to its
thoughts would be stored in the folder Lou Green_brn. You will need to look in your Brain's folder if
you ever want to move a file out of The Brain and back to Windows.
Advice for the Transition
The best way to make the transition to The Brain is on a file-by-file basis. However, for those who
have highly organized hard drives before installing The Brain, we have provided a quick method of
importing files into a new Brain (see Section 12).
Importing numerous files at once will turn your Brain into a highly efficient version of Windows
Explorer, but will reduce the power your Brain will have if you make the transition slowly and
thoughtfully, creating associations between thoughts as you go. If you choose to import folders, either
when creating a new Brain or later, it is best if these folders contain fewer files that are related to a
specific subject. In this way, the resulting Brain will be reasonably well organized, although you will
have to manually create relationships between thoughts to realize The Brain's full potential.
Avoid the temptation to move large folders into your Brain at the same time. The Brain can do this -
it will take all of the files you drag over and make them child thoughts of the thought to which you
drag them. These child thoughts will be named after the file names attached to them, so they will not
be organized conceptually the way they will be if you move files over as you use them. With this
wholesale approach, your Brain will be cluttered with thoughts you may not need; creating the proper
links between relevant thoughts become more of a chore.
Moving files and thoughts around once they are inside The Brain is not as straightforward as it is in
Windows. You can move thoughts around, by unlinking and relinking them, but on a large scale this
can be tedious. Your first instinct as to where to place a particular thought is usually your best (and
most easily remembered), and it is this philosophy that The Brain is designed to accommodate.
Remember that over time your Brain will evolve as links between thoughts grow more numerous and
more complex - this is a process that cannot be done quickly or haphazardly without sacrificing your
Brain's intelligence.
By making the transition on a file-by-file basis, the only files that will not eventually wind up in The
Brain are the ones you never need and every piece of information it contains will be useful.
Appendix B - Keyboard Shortcuts
Navigating
You can use ALT-arrow keys to navigate the plex. A red box around the thought indicates the
current position of the "pointer." Releasing the ALT key activates the highlighted thought.
ALT-ENTER Launch the active thought
F2 Open the instant activation box
Creating Thoughts
The following key combinations will let you create thoughts with one of the
following relationships to the active thought.
F10 Create child thought
F11 Create parent thought
F12 Create jump thought
Notes
The following key combinations will work when you are editing a Note.
CTRL-S Save Note
CTRL-P Print Note
CTRL-X Cut
CTRL-C Copy
CTRL-V Paste
DEL Clear
CTRL-A Select All
CTRL-F Find
F3 Search Web
CTRL-H Replace
Appendix C - The Illustrated Brain
A graphical version of this user manual is available as a free download from www.natrificial.com.
Appendix D - Troubleshooting
Below you will find solutions or explanations to some common problems.
I can access all my thoughts, but I can't create new ones or attach new files to existing thoughts.
Are you using a registered copy of The Brain? The demonstration copy you may have downloaded
from our web site will allow you to add to The Brain for 60 days. After 60 days, you can access all
your information, but to continue building your Brain you must register your software. To register,
click the Purchase button on the upper right of the Tools Window.
I can't drag objects from Netscape.
Netscape does not support OLE. You will be more successful using another browser, such as
Microsoft Internet Explorer.
I can't drag files from the Open Files Window of my application to a thought.
Applications that support drag and drop from Open Files will allow you to drag a file to a thought. If
your application does not support drag and drop from Open Files, you will have to drag the file to the
thought from Windows Explorer or My Computer.
Can I change the order in which thoughts are arranged?
Not on a thought-by-thought basis. You do have a choice of displaying the thoughts in alphabetical
order by name, by the order in which they were last activated, or by the total amount of time they
have been active.
I can't find the top or center of my Brain.
Brains do not have centers or tops. A Brain is not spatially organized.
I cannot attach a file, shortcut, or web page to a thought.
Make sure that the thought does not already have content. If it does, consider moving the additional
information into Notes.
I launch a thought containing a web page, and the browser opens but the page doesn't appear or I
get an error message.
You do not have an open Internet connection. There are two ways to fix this problem. Before you
launch the web page, open your Internet connection. Or, configure your browser to open your
Internet connection automatically when it opens. It is also possible that the link has become outdated.
Can a thought be a parent, child, jump, and sibling at the same time?
Yes. Any thought can have all these relationships with a large number of other thoughts. However,
two thoughts may only have one relationship with each other at a time.
I know I didn't delete a thought, but I can't see it.
You probably just Forgot the thought. Make sure that Forgotten Thoughts is checked in the
Options Menu.
How do I back up my Brain?
To back up your Brain itself, make a copy of the .brn file located in the Brain's folder. To back up all
the files associated with a Brain, copy the entire contents of the _brn folder associated with that
Brain.
What does it mean when The Brain asks me to compact it?
If you delete a significant number of thoughts, you will be asked if you want to compact your Brain.
This will save hard disk space.
Glossary
activate - To bring a thought to the center of the plex and make it the active thought. See active
thought
active thought - The thought you are working on right now. The active thought occupies the center
of the plex and is encircled by the re-sizing circle. It is the active thought whose details are described
by the Properties Tool and its Notes appear in the Notes Tool. Only the active thought can be
launched, by clicking it. A thought that is not active can be Activated by clicking it or its pin or entry
on the past thought list.
application - A program, such as a word processor, database, web browser, game, photo editor, etc.
attach - A thought may be associated with one file, shortcut, or web page. When such an association
exists, the thought and its file, shortcut, or web page are said to be "attached."
auto hide button - When the Brain Window is set to Auto hide, it will disappear when you begin
working in another application and will be replaced by the auto hide button, a small black square
with the blue Brain logo inside. Use the auto hide button to bring the Brain Window back to the
screen, or attach files by dragging them to it.
Brain - An associatively organized collection of thoughts, each containing information.
Brain-Enabled - A web site that has been mapped for The Brain and provides a downloadable Brain
for you to use in navigating the site.
child thought - A thought with at least one parent. Children of the active thought appear in the child
zone, below it. In turn, the active thought is a child of any thought that appears in the parent zone
above it.
close thought - A thought only one generation removed from the active thought. Close thoughts
appear on the plex.
delete - The complete removal of a thought or its content from a Brain. Deletion is permanent.
distant thought - A thought two or more generations removed from the active thought. Distant
thoughts no more than two generations removed from the active thought can be displayed on the plex.
dock - The Brain Window can be attached to any of the four sides of your screen.
forget - To remove a thought from the plex without deleting it, it's links, its content, or its Notes.
Forgotten thoughts can be remembered.
gate - The active thought and its close relatives have three circular "gates," each of which is used to
create a link with a specific type of relationship. Above a thought is the parent gate. Below it is the
child gate. To its left is the jump gate. A gate is hollow when there are no links through it and solid
when links exist.
history - The History Tool allows you to search for recently accessed, created, or modified thoughts
within a specified time range and allows you to see the total amount of time that has been spent on
any thought.
instant activation box - Used to activate a thought not visible in the plex but whose name you know,
the instant activation box is opened by clicking the rightmost thought in the past thought list.
jump thought - A jump thought is linked to another thought through the other thought's jump gate
and appears in the jump zone to the left of the active thought. Activating a jump thought produces a
more significant reconfiguration of the plex than activating other thoughts, because jump thoughts
are generally used to link exclusively related thoughts.
link - The line connecting two thoughts in the plex. Links can be created for each type of
relationship.
Natrificial Internet Guide - A Brain mapping many interesting and useful web sites that can be
called up from the Brain Menu.
navigate - To move from one point in the Matrix to another.
Notes - In addition to content, each thought can have Notes, which appear in the Tool Window when
the Notes button is clicked. Notes can be any combination of text, images, sound, or shortcuts. Notes
includes a simple word processor.
OLE - Object Linking and Embedding, a standard that allows images, text, and sound to be moved
easily from one application to another. Not all applications support OLE.
parent thought - A thought that has at least one child. A parent thought is linked to its child thoughts
through its child gate. The active thought is a parent of any thought displayed in its child zone, below
it. Parent thoughts of the active thought appear in the parent zone, above the active thought.
parentless thought - A thought without a parent thought. A parentless thought is usually a jump
thought or a thought representing a major subject heading in the Brain. Often, your Brain's name will
be a parentless thought.
past thought list - The scrollable list on the bottom of the plex showing the order in which you
activated thoughts. The most recently activated thought is on the right of the list.
pin - A shortcut to a thought not visible on the plex, pins can be created and displayed just below the
Menu Bar.
plex - The visible portion of the Matrix, including the active thought and its close relatives.
Properties - Appearing in the Tools Window when the Properties Button is clicked, Properties
provides a useful list of details about the active thought and its content. A thought can be renamed
from the Properties Window.
remember - A thought that has been removed from the plex by forgetting can be remembered by
creating a link from it to any normal thought.
Search - The section of the Tools Window that appears when the Search Button is clicked. Search
allows you to find and list alphabetically thoughts in a particular category.
shortcut - A small file and icon that points to a particular file, allowing that file to be opened from
the location of the shortcut rather than the location of the file.
siblings - Two or more thoughts with a common parent. When a thought with siblings is active, the
siblings are displayed in the sibling zone, to the active thought's right.
template - A file used as a starting point for creating other files. Template files can be added to the
Select Content Window.
thought - The basic unit of The Brain. Thoughts can contain files, shortcuts, web pages and notes; or
they can function as subject headings. They can represent any concept of the users' choice.
unlink - See Forget
URL - Universal Resource Locator, the address of a web site.
zones - Areas in the plex displaying thoughts bearing specific relationships to the active thought,
positioned beside the gate representing that relationship. The parent zone is above the active thought,
while the child zone is below it and the jump zone is to its left. In addition, the sibling zone is to the
active thought's right.