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Many thanks to Larry Turner for updating this document. Table of Contents Introduction Getting Started Concepts Minds Ideas Links Searches search tips Interface Main view Go/Browse dialog Preferences

1 Introduction The biggest disadvantage of the PalmTM organizer is that there is no way to link different peaces of information together.  That is not until ThoughStream. ThoughtStream is a fully integrated addition to your PalmPilotTM or PalmIIITM organizer that allows you to store information and organize it in the same way your mind works -- by associations or links between ideas. This intuitive and innovative approach to storing and retrieving data is the perfect complement to the convenience of the Palm organizers. 2 Getting Started When you run ThoughtStream for the first time, you must create a mind by writing a name in the field and tapping new. For the examples in this guide, the mind will be named "ThoughtStream Mind".   The mind will contain an idea whose name is the same as the name of the mind.  This idea (like all newly created ideas) contains a single note field. You may type something into this field if you wish, but you will probably want to use this default idea as a starting point for link to your own ideas. Ideas cannot exi st in isolation, so to create an idea, you must link to it from an existing idea. To do this, select "Link" from the "N"ew dropdown menu in the lower left corner of the screen. The direction options allow you to construct hierarchichal relationships (with Parent and Child), or Peer links which are unrelated to the hierarchy. If the "Both ways" box is checked, then a link back to the current idea will be created in the new idea. If you type a label, it will be shown as a part of the link (visible from both ends if "Both ways" is checked. If you would like to define a different label for the other end of the link, use a pipe ("|") to separate the two labels). Type a name for the new idea in the "Target" field. If you were linking to an existing idea, you could use the Browse button to choose it from a list. The Create New/Use Existing selection only applies if you type the name of an existing idea; the idea will always be created if it does not yet exist, so in most cases you want to use the existing idea. Creating a new idea with the same name as an existing idea is likely to cause problems in the current versions of ThoughtStream. Now, in addition to the note field, you will see a link to the idea you just created. Click on the text of the link to follow it. You can also create links from an idea to data stored in other programs on your PalmTM organizer. To do this, choose "Search" from the first popup list in the "New" dialog. Select an application from the second list, and type some text to search for in the empty field. For example, if you choose the Address application and type "Smith" in the field, this link will take you to someone named Smith in your address book (If there are multiple matches, a list of possible matches will be shown). This uses the same mechanism as the system Find command, so if you have any problems, make sure that you can find what you are looking for with the Find command. Not all programs support this function, and many implementations do not do what you expect (more details). 3 Concepts 3.1 Minds A mind is a collection of ideas stored in one place (i.e. a single file - could be on your hard drive or on a web site). In ThoughtStream 1.1, you can only have one mind, but in future versions, you will be able to have multiple minds and link ideas between them. 3.2 Ideas An idea is the basic unit of organization in ThoughtStream. Ideas can contain two basic things: content (in the form of searches and notes), and links to other ideas. Each idea must have a unique title. 3.3 Links A link connects two ideas. Links have types, such as Parent, Child, and Jump, which indicate the nature of the relationship between the ideas. 3.4 Searches Searches are connections from ThoughtStream to other applications. Searches consist of the application to link to and a string to search for. This uses the same mechanism as the system Find command, so if you have any problems, make sure that you can find what you are looking for with the Find command. Not all programs support this function, and many implementations do not do what you expect. If you create a search for an application without specifying a string to look for, then the resulting link will simply launch the application (regardless of its support or lack thereof for the Find command). 3.4.1 Search tips Many programs will only check a single field. For example, searching for "Joe Smith" in the standard Address Book will not work, since the words are contained in two separate fields. You can enter an entire word or the beginning of a word, but if you enter the middle or end of a word, many programs will not find it In some programs (such as TealDoc and JFile), you can search for any words contained in a document or database, but you cannot search for the title of the doc/db. In the Datebook, you can search for an event by words in the description of that event, but not by just entering a time or date. 4 Interface 4.1 Main view The main view shows a list of all the items in the current idea. The sort order of these items can be changed with the popup in the upper right. You select an item by tapping the icon in the left column; tapping on the body of and item will activate it. Buttons: New - pops up a list of items which can be added to the current idea. Note that some items on this list are not fully implemented - as of this writing, only link, note, and search are fully functional. Details - open a dialog which lets you edit the properties of the currently selected item Del - deletes the currently selected item. If the current item is the title of the idea, the entire idea will be deleted. H (Home) - takes you to your home idea. You must first set a home idea with the Record/Set home idea menu command 4.2 Go/Browse dialog NOT YET IMPLEMENTED This dialog is accessible from the Go button in the main view, or from the Browse button in other dialogs. The list of all ideas is not automatically sorted, but you can sort it with the Sort button in the upper right. Tap on an idea to select it, or start writing in the field in the lower left. As you write, the highlight will move through the list to the first match. You can tap OK to select the highlighted idea. 4.3 Preferences Currently, you can change the font used for the main view.

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