How it Works
The Idea Cruncher window has three main sections or "panes." The idea pane is where most of the organization work is done. You can enter new ideas simply by typing them in the input line at the top of this pane and hitting the enter key. Each time you do, you will see the new idea added to the tree below, as a "child" of the idea currently selected there. You can select ideas in the tree by clicking on them with the mouse. You can also move, copy, rename and delete ideas in the tree with simple commands.
Once an idea is in the tree, you can attach additional text to it by selecting the idea and typing in the notes pane. This additional text might be details that you want to remember with that idea or it might be a rough draft of the text you want to write to express that idea.
Finally, the draft pane at the bottom of the window is for writing projects. It has been included so that you can move from your outline in the idea pane and the rough notes in the notes pane to the first draft of your document. It is a miniature text editor. After you are satisfied with the text in the draft pane, you can copy it to your word processor for the usual word processing tasks and further editing. For a to-do list or other non-writing project, you can drag the top border of the draft pane to the bottom of the window to hide it and give you more room for the other two panes.
Entering Ideas
In the top left corner of the window, you will find an editing box marked "New Idea" and just below it, a tree control with a single item called "Title". Click on the "New Idea" box and type something.
When you hit enter, you will see your typing move into the tree below, under the "Title" item.
The New Idea box is empty again, waiting for your next idea. If you continue to type and hit enter, you will get a simple list under "Title."
Suppose you want to add another level of detail underneath one of the ideas you just entered. Just click on that idea, and it will light up the same way the "Title" idea was lit up to begin with. This indicates that new ideas will be inserted under this idea. Anything you type in the "New Idea" box will show up under this idea.
You can continue adding ideas and new levels of detail until you are satisfied.
Finally, change the "Title" idea to something meaningful. Select the Title idea then click on the text to rename it, the same way you would rename a file. Press enter when you're done. You can change the text on any idea this way.
The notes window to the right of the tree (with the notebook coil on top) holds notes for the currently selected idea. As you click on different ideas, the notes window changes to show what you've written about each idea you click. Of course, in our simple example of a grocery list, there won't be much in the way of notes, but for other types of projects, you might put rough drafts of text, website addresses to visit, details of a recipe, or anything else that might be required to express the idea.
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