This post assumes you already know the basics of using BrainStormWFO. It gives some additional advanced tips.
Avoid “namesakes”
Namesakes are a confusing concept. You might call them clones. Personally, I think of them as “freelancers”.
Freelancers works for multiple companies. If you drew up each company’s extended org chart, the freelancer would appear in all of them. But he’s the same person.
A namesake is an entry that has multiple parents. It appears in multiple locations in your outline. Its text and children are identical across all locations.
Namesakes can be useful. BrainStormWFO automatically flags identical entries as namesakes. This lets you identify duplicate content. They can also permit lateral navigation through an outline. You can use the left and right arrow keys to cycle through all instances of a namesake in the outline.
Usually, namesakes are just an annoyance. If you create an entry that is identical to another entry in your outline, it automatically becomes a namesake.
There is currently no way to disable namesakes globally. Whenever an unwanted namesaking event occurs, hit Ctrl-n to disable it for that entry.
If the entry had children, those children will often vanish, because they have been reassigned to the other namesake. Use your undo button to get them back.
Here is what a namesaked entry looks like. Pay attention to the “<>” box on the far left of the namesaked entries. An “x” box means namesaking has been disabled.
Importing and exporting
BrainStormWFO offers multiple import and export options.
The basic copy-paste function is sufficient for most cases. If you want to change its behavior, you have several options.
- Smart-paste – gives additional control over the formatting and white space of text you’re pasting into your outline.
- Magic paste – automatically imports text from the clipboard to BrainStormWFO, for e.g. rapid web clipping.
- Write text file – the most powerful export option
- Write HTML file – exports the outline as a web page
All of these commands have special configuration options. Play with them or read the included “Help” file to learn more.