Idea Keeper is a free-form database, an outliner, a clipping and URL manager, and a sophisticated Idea Development environment (e.g., script or plot development tool), complete with the ability to create hyper-links between thousands of different documents.
Idea Keeper can do all of these things and it is still easy to learn to use!
This document was designed to provide you with the basic information you need to start productively using Idea Keeper.
To get started - Launch Idea Keeper!
When you open Idea Keeper, you will be presented with a window that has a few buttons:
1 Help Me Get Started (this is the default button)
2 Let Me Start Right Away!
3 I Want to Register
4 Enter Registration Code
Clicking Button 3 will take you to the Idea Keeper web site, where you can register Idea Keeper on-line. If you don’t have internet access, it will open the Register application which will provide you with information on how to register Idea Keeper. Once you have a registration code, clicking on button 4 will take you to the window inside Idea Keeper (also available from the Help menu) where you can enter your code and officially register your copy of Idea Keeper.
Clicking Button 2 will dismiss the window and let you start immediately using Idea Keeper.
Clicking Button 1 will open the “Getting Started” documentation for Idea Keeper. This documentation is displayed within Idea Keeper just as you might store information of your own. This is done for a number of reasons. (A) Idea Keeper is an excellent environment for viewing information. (B) All of the principles and examples discussed can be tested and used as you read the documentation. (C) Unlike any of the information you will store in Idea Keeper, the information in the “Getting Started“ documentation is write protected. None of the changes you make will be saved - allowing you to really interact with and therefore get the most out of the documentation.
If you have never used Idea Keeper before, or would like a brief tutorial for how to get started, read on!
And by the way - don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about Idea Keeper.
If you want some additional help or advice from other users - just join the Idea Keeper Mail List! All you need to do is send an email to ideakeeper-subscribe@eGroups.com
Tutorial 1. Adding your own Ideas.
A - Open Idea Keeper.
B - Click the “Let Me Start Right Away!” button
C - You will be presented with a window with 2 lists (this is the Organizer window).
C1 - The list on the left contains Topics. Each Topic is a set of ideas.
C2 - The list on the right contains the Ideas contained in the selected Topic.
C3 - When you first start using Idea Keeper - there will be a single empty Topic.
D - The first thing to do is to create a new Idea. To do this - press command-N.
E - Enter a name for your new Idea and press OK.
F - Now you have created an Idea - which is a window in which you can add text, pictures, URLs, and many other types of objects. But I get ahead of myself!!
G - Close your new Idea window. You will see the Organizer window again - now you will see your new Idea in the Idea list on the right.
H - Now let’s create a new Topic. Press the Shift-Command-N key combination, enter a new Topic Name, and press the OK button.
I - You will see your new Topic in the list on the left in the Organizer Window.
J - Now let’s create a new Idea in the new Topic. Press the Comman-N key combination.
K - In the window where you enter the new Idea’s name is a popup menu. Use this menu to select the Topic in which to place the new Idea. Press the OK button and...
L - You’ve now created new Topics and Ideas!!
Tutorial 2. Being a Drag Ain’t so Bad!
A - Open Idea Keeper
B - Click the “Help Me Get Started” button (we’re doing this so that you have lot’s of Ideas and Topics with content to play with).
C - Hold down the option key, and close the top-most window (It is called “Welcome/Getting Started”). Holding down option while closing an Idea window will close all Idea windows.
D - Click on the different Topics in the list on the left in the Organizer Window. You will see that the Idea List on the right changes as you change which Topic is selected.
E - You can change the order of Topics or Ideas by clicking and dragging them within the lists.
F - You can move Ideas between Topics by clicking and dragging them to the Topic list - just drop an Idea onto a different Topic to move it.
G - Dragging an Idea to the Desk Top will create an “Idea Link” file. When you open this file from the Desk Top, it will automatically open the Idea. Note: By clicking on the mask icon at the bottom-left of the Orgnizer Window you can change "drag mode" so that dragging an Idea to the Finder will export the selected Idea(s) to the Finder.
G - Grab a file on the Desk Top (it doesn’t matter what it is) and drag it into an Idea window. This will create an “alias” to that file. Double-clicking on the “alias” in your Idea window will launch that file.
H - Keep selecting and dragging things around. One of Idea Keeper’s great features is that it provides extensive support for drag-and-drop technology!
I - You may also want to try holding down the Control key while clicking in Idea Keeper’s windows. Idea Keeper also provides extensive support for Contextual Menus!
Want More?
Check out the "Getting Started" or “Reference” Documentation in Idea Keeper’s Help Menu.
