BrainBox Ultra: Getting Started

Creating a workflow

The BrainBox Ultra extension is designed to make it easy and quick to create a workflow for your unique process. Maybe you are just collecting random web pages of interest into your BrainBox for later review. You also have the option to bypass BrainBox and send your links all to a specific thought. Change the desired target location at any time. You can even archive portions of a web page's content directly into your notes and add your own modifications to that content. BrainBox Ultra can easily be customized to fit into your desired workflow.

Extension Popup Interface

By default, when you first click the BrainBox Ultra icon, you'll need to log into your account for TheBrain. A pop up box will appear for three seconds with details on what will happen with the web page you are looking at. Without further modifications, the URL of the web page that you currently have open will be sent to your BrainBox and you can organize it into any thought in any brain at a later date.

• Click on the blue Arrow button to close the pop up window faster and your content is immediately added to processed.
• You can click the Question Mark button which links to this help documentation.
• To modify BrainBox Ultra's settings, click on the Options button.

More Options Page

The More Options page is where you can make several modifications to how and where BrainBox Ultra saves your content.

More Options Page Display

At the top of the page is a checkbox where you can Hide these options next time. Making modifications below and checking this box changes the default settings for your extension. This means instead of sending a link directly to your BrainBox, you might be sending the link to a specific thought or as a new child thought of a specific thought as a default each time the extension is used. If you leave this box unchecked, you'll be navigating back to the More Options window whenever you click the browser extension button and will be able to modify the available options.

If you make modifications and check the Hide these options box, you'll still have the 3 second window to click the options button when using the extension.

Dropdown Modes

The dropdown options include Send to BrainBox, Create Child of, and Append to.

When “Send to BrainBox” is selected, the content will be delivered to your BrainBox list which can later be associated with a thought in any brain. This option preserves the web page's name and url.

When “Create Child of” is selected, you'll need to select which thought you'll be linking to. Click on Please choose a thought to bring up the search field. Search for the name of an existing thought in any of your synced brains.

Click to accept that brain and thought as your targeted parent thought. Once you have done this, the brain/thought selection is remembered for any subsequent “Create Child of” or “Append to” actions. Additionally, when a brain/thought target is selected, a new button will appear to review this thought in a new tab.

When “Append to” is selected, the same brain/thought will already be targeted. Click the existing thought if a new location is desired. Your content will be appended to the selected thought’s note. If the thought has existing content, new content will be separated by a horizontal rule, followed by Title text, label and notes.

Content Boxes

Both "Create Child of" and "Append to" will have options for preserving:

• Title
• Label
• URL
• Notes

The Title and Label are determined by the web page the same as when you drag a link directly into the Plex. These can be swapped, if desired, with the double arrow icon.

If you uncheck the Title, a YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss unique Thought name will be included for you. This could be useful for a Daily Thoughts where you want date-time stamped content to collect in one spot in one of your Brains or if you are more interested in preserving the date of the content being collected. You can add/modify the note as well.

If you uncheck the URL then it will not be included in your content, whether as an attachment (Child of) or as a hyperlink in the note itself (Append to).

Notes can also be modified using. Delete what you don't need, reformat or add your own, additional content using all the tools available in TheBrain web client.

Web Clipping

BrainBox Ultra allows you to convert HTML content from a live page in your browser (great for archiving) to a note in a thought. You can also edit or add your own comments to the content using the rich notes editor. Additionally, notes can be populated by selecting text in your browser before clicking the extension button.

• You can select some specific portion of the page, which will become the new note content, which you can then edit before adding to a brain. For example, you can use this to add a favorite quotation for inspiration or research.

• Or, if you select nothing, then the extension will automatically add the entire page for the content of your new note.

Toolbar buttons

At the top of the More Options page you will find a toolbar with a help button on the left (which links to this help document). On the right are two buttons:

• The “Add”, “Create” or “Append” button. This will change depending on the state of the dropdown selection. Clicking this button will deliver the desired content to the specified location and open that location in TheBrain web client in a new tab for review.
• The lightning bolt Quick Action button. Clicking this button will again deliver the desired content to the correct location, but will not open a preview. The More Options tab will close and you will return to the previous web page.