Thank you for your thoughts @anon41602260. Glad I am thinking about this app correctly. I find Curio’s ability to keep original files in their place in the Finder very appealing.
Welcome, @BeckyS! 
I’m glad you’re here. Also, there are several PhD students (and profs) on the board.
If you want to keep the original file in its original location, then option-drag the file into Curio. If you merely drag a file into Curio it will leave the file in the original location, but also make a copy that is stored within the Curio project package (folder). There is an option in each project’s settings to store the dragged-in files, or files created within Curio, in a sidecar folder (“Asset Library”) alongside the Curio project package.
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Yes, you should 
and welcome!
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Curio is a bit like DEVONthink for me in that you can own the software for 10 years and still be learning new features.
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Another example… documenting how to do things. I’m learning to sew and need to modify a shirt and looked up instructions and was able to pull in images, blog posts, quotes, and videos. Curio works really well for this!
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Nice example and use case! Thanks
I like this example. When I’m putting together idea spaces like this it is helpful to use Curio’s Sleuth feature – the small browser-in-a-window that floats over an idea space. Find bits of things with Sleuth and drag them into the idea space.
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This is an excellent use of Curio. I keep my notes on Tinderbox in …Curio.
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I’m Curious… where have folks landed with Curio? I’m feeling like it’s a good piece of software for some things but I’m not gravitating towards it like I thought I would. Why is that?? I imagine this is exactly what happened before w/Curio.
I value it more, but am not using it much. I wonder what makes most sense given the various options for purchase. What are others leaning toward?
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I’m using it occasionally, mostly as a whiteboard. This overlaps with my use of Drafts to some extent, but Curio is great if you have to manipulate things in a more visual way (to show things side by side, for example).
Originally, I’d hoped Curio could be a visual note-taking alternative for Tinderbox. But Obsidian is scratching my note-taking itch again.
My problem is that Curio overlaps with a lot of software I already have: iThoughts, Flying Logic, Obsidian, LiquidText, Tinderbox (which I’m not really using). It’s hard to know when/whether to use it.
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Are you still using Tinderbox a lot, @beck. I can see that perhaps when it comes to in-depth working with notes, links, and metadata that Tinderbox is far more adept than Curio, and Curio would not come to mind as an option when starting a new project.
If I was just starting out on a Mac computer and I could only afford one piece of software: this would be it! Unfortunately for me I already have many other specialized software products. Curio does so many things well … but not as well, or as powerfully, as the more specialized products I use: e.g. iThoughts for mind mapping.
I purchased Curio many years ago and they offer an academic discount. I have their highest level (whatever that is called these days). At one point you could only get the SpreadPDF feature if you have the Pro version: and I absolutely needed that functionality. So that’s the “level” I decided on. Not sure you only get SpreadPDF with the highest version anymore. That’s worth a check.
For me I also use it as a whiteboard. That’s probably the best usage I have for it at the time being. But for folks who really have stuck with Curio and use if for lots of different things … it seems to be an absolute workhorse for them.
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I’ve uninstalled Curio. I think it’s a good app overall, but not for me because:
a) I prefer more specialized apps and Curio does too many things for my taste.
b) Curio’s handles are too small for my liking. Same problem as Keynote’s handles.
c) Don’t have a compelling use case for it; for mindmapping I often use and prefer Muse, Mermaid, or Scapple’s free trial for, and I can link to things from those apps for organizational purposes, which is pretty much all that I’ve realistically used Curio for. I know Curio’s capable of a lot of other things but honestly those don’t really matter to me as I don’t have much of a use case for them.
d) Price is not justifiable for me because of c)
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I’m using it for s set of household projects (installing lighting and power in a garage, building some outdoor structures and so on.) and it’s ideal. I have an idea space template with figures for Design, Materials, How-tos (lots of those!), Tools and Equipment and Products. I populate the figures as I research the info and then use them to develop a building plan, which might be simple (fix light to ceiling; connect to existing light fitting) or complex (specifying component sizes and shapes, cutting and forming to shape, making joints, assembly, installation finishing).
I could do all that in other apps, but Curio provides a great platform for organising and managing, not to mention tracking time and costs.
I used to use Curio for work as a project manager (pandemic put an end to work); it’s a great tool for collecting and collating project documents and extracting useful information. I didn’t use it for note taking - Tinderbox for that task - but I did use it as a central collection point for the notes
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How did you add the border and text within the border? Is it within a pinboard?
Did you download those car images and added them to the idea space within the border? The look cool!
Ok, now I’m interested. In the past I’ve struggled to figure out anything I could do in Curio that I couldn’t do in OmniGraffle and OmniFocus, but integrating the workflow like that has me intrigued.
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At the risk of opening up an older thread I wanted to say how useful I found the conversation here. As I mentioned in a different thread here I am doing a Post Grad in Systems thinking. Two things have emerged
- There is so much interconnected information that something like curio might help in visualistion and sorting it. I have downloaded it.
- Diagrammes. So many types of diagrammes, most with specific rules. So thank you to those that mentioned CMap. It is cracking. Does one type of diagramme really well. For others is it is mix of Excalidraw, Simple Mind - my mindmapper of choice, and a bit of scapple. For more complex stuff I may use Omnigraffle - but my heart sinks.
Oh and to @ibuys Your comments in my original thread are entirely accurate. 
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