Frequently Asked Questions

• The Magic Rule of 7 – Moronic Myth or Useful Rule of Thumb?

  A reader supplied some links which contradict a portion of the BrainStorm sales page:

  From the presentation: “Note that BrainStorm “auto-hoists”. This means that you are always focused on just one layer of the outline. This helps your brain relax, since you can only think about 7 items simultaneously anyway.”
  

• How to Write Fiction with BrainStorm and Random Word Generator

  I’ve been having a recurring idle fancy of writing some fiction myself lately, but couldn’t seem to put pen to paper. Figured I might not have the talent.

• James Fallows Review – New York Times

  James Fallows, National Correspondent for The Atlantic, wrote the following about BrainStorm in the TECHNO FILES article, What Do TiVo and the Mac Mini Have in Common? Mr. Fallows has written and blogged about BrainStorm many times since this October 2005 article, noting that he uses BrainStorm on his MAC.

• Douglas Adams & BrainStorm

  Douglas Adams remarks about BrainStorm…

  I’m beginning to boggle at the scope of your programme. It’s quite extraordinary – and addictive.

• 38 years of BrainStorm

  BrainStorm is 38 years old!. And still selling.

• BrainStorm and Vista

  If BrainStorm ever crashes in Vista, right click the icon you use to activate it and select ‘Properties’. Then ‘Compatibility’ then the XP option.

• Picking the wheat from the chaff

  I’ve been using BrainStorm for 27 years and I’ve just discovered a new trick. I can’t believe it’s taken so long.

  I’ve just hoovered up masses of information from the internet using Magic paste.

  The result needs to be picked though to identify the important bits.

  It’s just occurred to me to make a new model – call it nuggets – and set Magic paste on there. Go back to the large file and just highlight and copy the interesting bits. These don’t have to be whole entries, they can be phrases from within an entry.

  End result: plenty of readable wheat and no chaff

• Someone with writing issues

  Recently, I was talking with someone who has trouble with writing. She’s great at talking and is very articulate. Somehow, when it comes to writing, she has issues. The words never come out as well as she speaks and the logical flow gets lost.

• Collecting all entries that contain certain text

  Long-standing BrainStorm user, Jack Rickards was struggling with trying to list the entries in BrainStorm that contained the same text. He could "find" and "find again" but that wasn’t enough.

  Here’s the email exchange that led to a solution that worked for him.