OK, @Mathew_T_Mitchell here’s how I use Curio “idea graphs” / concept maps (same thing for the most part) in Curio. I start with a sketch of ideas and concept – just as you can do in Scapple, or OmniGraffle, and other apps.
Continuing along with that graph, once I have everything in place I clean it all up, add formatting, adjust the shapes and colors of figures, etc., and end up with this:
Again, I’ll stipulate this can all be done in other apps – particularly OmniGraffle, and maybe in Tinderbox – but all the other elements available in Curio are not in OG or Tbx, or (to my tastes) not as easy to use as they are in Curio. I can link figures on that graph to other figures, or add explanatory metadata or notes, or add a link to jump to another file, or make a connection with Hook from a selected figure to files or folders or websites, etc. Lots of possibilities that I find lacking anywhere else.
@anon41602260 Love this example! Thanks for providing it and I can easily see how it would be useful above and beyond regular mind maps. Now I’ll have to start playing around myself to create an initial example so the steps become second nature to me.
Again, I much appreciate you taking the extra time out of your day to provide this example.
I’ve used Curio off and on for years – the “off” being when work forced MS on me. But still use it in private life. I went through a lot of these questions as well.
Here’s what I found:
Curio is super powerful with many, many features
It is a great place to brainstorm
It is a great place to link things / integrate them together regardless of the source or app…
It easily integrates those unique applications or exports to them (for instance I prefer iThoughts)
The hardest thing for me when I began was I was migrating from One Note and was looking for a Mac alternative. Fell in love with Curio but had trouble figuring out how “best” to use it. Finally ended up just using it and adapting since it’s so flexible and has so much power. There was no “best” way for me, but many very good ways.
George Browning the developer is super-responsive!
A few ways I’ve used it:
Portfolio management (when I could use it at work) to manage a $MM portfolio of 100 projects. Keep track of status, all sorts of things.
Learning. Capture references, training materials, notes, brainstorming
Similar to one other reply – Data Analysis. Took an online course to boost my memory on the latest techniques, including greater use of R. Then created notebooks for data analytic problems to include references, notes, code, graphics, etc. Have done so for other courses too.
Mentorship - I mentored a high school robotics team for FIRST for a number of years. If you haven’t heard about it I encourage you to look it up. I collected all sorts of training material about the robots hardware, software, built strategies for competitions, integrated different analysis outputs, etc. Then during the annual competition, was able to create a notebook unique to that competition to capture rules, strategies the team developed for it, all sorts of things. Very useful.
As I near retirement, I have many plans that will use Curio when I can use it everyday.
I’ve taken notes and lectured in curio both. Invariably someone in the class sees me and comes up afterwards to learn more about it.
In summary, Curio does many things, very well, sometimes other apps are more spot-on, but you can integrate them. In fact I keep coming back to that. As a visual learning sort of person, it’s the ultimate place I’ve found to “integrate” all the things I want to put together for a project. I advise you to pick something and dive in. You can spend too much time trying out all the different options but eventually that became too much of a goose-chase for me for the “best” way to use it.
I think I’ve looked at Curio enough now to know it is not for me, however it sure could have been if I knew about it a few years ago.
The first 21st century software I used of this general type was OneNote on Windows. Wanting to work on a Mac I bought Circus Ponies Notebook which I used heavily for years until the company dissolved. At that point I was in a fairly terrible position for the then future. OneNote for Mac had come out but it was incompatible with the Windows version and frankly a poor alternative.
I ended up going two ways. Since I had started using Scrivener, I decided to move everything that was book and book research related into Scrivener as a “good enough” solution. Everything else I moved to Growly Notes, which bears a striking resemblance to OneNote. Growly Notes is now free but is supported (I found a “bug” and the author actually produced a new version with the bug fixed – Circus Ponies was always a battle to get bugs even recognized).
I have used Scapple since it first came out. I had hoped for better integration with Scrivener, but as far as I’m concerned there isn’t much there. It looks like there would be no benefit in using Curio combined with Scrivener either, so it would only be a question of replacing Growly Notes with Curio. That said I may go ahead and buy it and try it out the next time I would be creating a new Growly notebook. Curio is a much more polished program.
I just want to say I really enjoy reading the discussion and appreciate the very great contributions to this discussion from many people. I learned a lot.
also big thanks to @JohnAtl for leading this discussion and to @beck for starting this Software Club concept.
I noticed the similarity between the advertised features of those two, too. However, I have zero experience using DEVONagent, so I chose not to mention the potential similarity between them. Perhaps someone who has used both can share their thoughts?
The main common feature between Curio’s Sleuth and DEVONagent is that both of them focus the web search on specific websites or groups of websites. Which sites to search is configurable in both apps.
Narrowing search results
Curio Sleuth can optionally be configured to send search criteria to narrow the scope of search results for a given website using the search parameters supported by that site’s URL scheme. This is more advanced, and is not essential to using Sleuth.
DEVONagent does similarly, using “plugins” (search parameters) and “scanners” (what type of content should be returned – images, files, etc.), both of which refine the scope of search results. DEVONagent’s configuration of how this works is more technical – the plugins are in DEVONagent are defined either with either XML plists or Cocoa, for example. I’ve always found DEVONagent’s documentation in this area somewhat lacking, though the out-of-the-box configuration options are more than adequate for most purposes.
Viewing Search Results
Curio Sleuth displays search results in a browser window opened within Curio.
DEVONagent displays search results in the DEVONagent browser with options to view individual pages from the search results, or view a digest summarizing all the search results and scoring how closely the page matches the search criteria, as well as additional options to further refine the set of returned results.
Exporting search results
Curio Sleuth is used entirely within Curio, and results are not exported. You can select text or images from the Sleuth results and add the selection to a Curio idea space.
DEVONagent is a stand-alone app. It does nothing else but making searching the internet more sophisticated than just using Google or DDG, etc. Its results can be exported to DEVONthink – the normal use case – or saved as links, or exported to files, or printed.
Checking in to report that I spent a couple of hours tonight going through the tutorial that opens with a new install. I’m currently on “Collection Figures.” It’s a hefty intro, and I actually think I’ve gone through it before. 🤦
Reminds me of my initial experiences with Scrivener. I did the same… downloaded and went through a lengthy tutorial a couple of times. I didn’t warm up to Scrivener until I had a real use for it. I could see Curio having a similar arc. After I get through this tutorial, I’m going to need to pick something compelling and commit to using Curio with it to put it through its paces.
I like Curio for the most complex projects in my life. When something is going to be really difficult for me to understand (like a software project to design a kayak) I use Curio because it is able to do so much. If I need a list, I have a list. Of I have some explanatory text I can relate it to other things. I can create a drawing. Ultimately, it will never limit me.
The downside is it is “complicated” and I do not use it for simple things that need only simpler programs. Therefore, I more commonly use simple programs because simple things are more common in my life.
At the simplest level, it is an infinite whiteboard. Like a physical whiteboard that spread across a wall in my house. But this whiteboard has some magical qualities. I can type on it so the text is cleaner than my handwriting. I can make drawings on it with straight lines and clean shapes. It takes me longer than it would on a physical whiteboard with a bunch of colored markers, but I do not mind because I am trying to learn a complex topic. I can move things around etc.
I’m a keen Mind/Concept mapper, so interested to see what’s possible here. My requirements aren’t particularly complex- mostly academic note taking and writing, sermon planning and brainstorming.
Just a shout out for anyone on here with a copy of iThoughts lying around. It can do basic concept mapping, link to files and other nodes/maps and can create outlines.
I am also a keen mapper and I’ve been playing with Curio’s mind mapping tool and it matches my keyboarding instincts perfectly… tab/enter/arrows do what I think they’ll do. This is something that no other mind mapping software has been able to do and I’ve tried them all. I wonder if the creator used to use Cmap Tools…
You’ve tempted me to redownload There’s always a certain friction with mind mapping tools which it would be nice to avoid. Thank you!
I’ve tried Cmap before - it’s good functionally, but I struggle with the Java base and the impact that has on the UI. Again, I might retry - it’s been a while.
What were you trying to move around ?The closer the bubbles are to the main topic, the easier they are to hold and drag. A second layer topic only allows for change in hierarchy . Movement also depends on the style of mind map with radial offering the most movement.
In Curio you can manually position the top, main branches of a radial mind map. That is, those nodes directly under the central topic. However, Curio will automatically control the positioning of the nodes under each branch.
Select the topic figure at the top of a branch under the central topic and drag it.
As you drag the item around a target symbol will appear showing you where it will be manually positioned in the mind map. Other branches that remain as automatically positioned items will automatically adjust their placement to ensure no overlap occurs
Helpful! Thank you. I was using a “Right Map” and seems like you can’t really reposition at all, but when I switched to “Radial Map” I could (though I instantly made a mess!). ⌘Z ⌘Z!
Double-click on an Idea Space and type some text.
Hold Command and click somewhere - a new text is opened, with a directional line connecting the two.
Shift+Command-click for bidirectional line.
Option+Command-click for non-directional line.
Of course this is “full manual” layout, and requires reaching for the mouse or trackpad.
Another option is selecting a node in a mind map, hit Command-a to select all, then right-click Copy As | Parent Figure Only. Then click somewhere on the Idea Space, right-click Paste.
That gets you the unconnected items, which you can then connect using the line tool.
There’s always a certain friction with mind mapping tools which it would be nice to avoid. Thank you!