Introducing Curio
Curio provides an innovative, freeform, notebook-like environment with all the integrated tools you need to take notes, brainstorm ideas, collect research, and organize your tasks and documents.
Curio’s intuitive interface and tools encourage effective note gathering, research, and creative exploration. Its freeform, open environment encourages you to more easily visualize, associate, and recall information.
All of this within a single application so you can be more productive, more creative, and focus on getting things done.
Curio Editions
Curio is available in two different product editions to match your workflow needs.
Curio Standard
Curio Standard has an amazingly vast collection of branstorming and notetaking functionality to kickstart your productivity. View the complete feature details here on our website.
Note
If a feature is only available in Curio Standard then it will be marked in this documentation with .
Curio Professional
For our power-users, we proudly offer Curio Professional which includes everything in Standard plus our most advanced features for power-users and productivity gurus. View the complete feature details here on our website. This is, by far, our most popular edition of Curio.
Note
If a feature is only available in Curio Professional then it will be marked in this documentation with .
Curio Core (Deprecated)
In the past we offered Curio Core from our website as a starter version of Curio with a greatly simplified feature set. It was originally conceived of as an intro to Curio for customers that didn’t need many bells and whistles. However, in the end it sustained a very low and ever-decreasing percentage of overall sales.
It was discontinued at the end of 2022 which allows us to simplify our offerings, code, and documentation.
Existing Curio Core customers will continue to receive updates and new features during their year of free updates. After that time customers can elect to upgrade to Curio Standard or Pro with special discounted upgrade pricing.
Availability
Curio is available in two ways:
- From Zengobi’s website, using traditional license keys and optional periodic upgrade purchases.
- From Apple’s Mac App Store, as a monthly or yearly subscription.
Curio From the Zengobi Website
Curio traditional licenses are available from the Zengobi website. Clicking the download link will cause your browser to download the Curio application to your Downloads folder.
Important
The Zengobi website version of Curio only works with traditional license keys, not subscriptions.
License Agreement / Privacy Policy
Curio purchased from the Zengobi website is covered by this License Agreement.
Our Privacy Policy details what personal information we collect, why we collect it, and how we use it.
Frequently Asked Questions
We invite you to check out our Curio Traditional Licenses FAQ to learn everything about traditional licenses.
Installing
Once downloaded, drag the Curio application from your browser’s Downloads folder to your Mac’s Applications folder to install. Optionally, to create a shortcut on your Dock, drag Curio from your Applications folder to the Dock to create the shortcut.
Important
You must use the Finder to drag Curio from Downloads to Applications, as only the Finder can clear the macOS Gatekeeper check.
You can’t use another utility to move the application (or move the .zip file into Applications then unzip) as macOS wants to see you drag the application into Applications to ensure a user-initiated install.
Otherwise, macOS will launch Curio from a randomized, read-only location created on-the-fly, which will prevent Curio from being able to update itself if updates are available.
Trials and Purchasing
Curio initially launches as a 2-week, fully functioning trial with all Professional features enabled. On the very first launch, the bundled Welcome to Curio project will automatically open with a guided tour and sample gallery showing off Curio’s amazing features.
At any time before or after the trial expires, you can purchase a license key from our online store to activate your installation using Curio’s License dialog, discussed below.
Once the trial expires, if you decide not to purchase a license, you can continue to use Curio with the Standard feature set to explore the bundled Welcome to Curio project and to create and edit your own projects each with up to 5 idea spaces. Larger projects are opened read-only for viewing, exporting, and printing.
At any time you can still purchase and enter a Professional or Standard license key to re-enable the appropriate functionality.
Sharing With Friends
It’s worth noting that this functionality means you can easily share Curio projects with friends and colleagues that don’t own Curio, as they can simply download Curio for free from our website or the Mac App Store and view your projects in read-only mode.
Updates
When you purchase a license, you get one free year of app updates including major and minor features, fixes, and updates for macOS compatibility. Curio will notice the available update and download and install the new release automatically.
At the end of this period, your Curio app continues working normally – it does not expire or deactivate – however, you will no longer receive app updates. Whenever you wish, you can purchase an upgrade license to update to the latest version and receive another year of app updates.
Learn more about the year of free updates in our Curio Traditional Licenses FAQ.
Note
In the future when you decide to purchase an upgrade, Curio will notice your existing license has been extended and update itself to the latest release if necessary. There’s no need to download or install anything or even type in a new license key. It will all happen automatically.
License Dialog
The License dialog (via the Curio > License menu):
- Shows your current trial state (if in a trial),
- Allows you to enter or paste a purchased license key to activate your installation,
- Shows your current license details.
Entering Your License Key
After entering your license key, Curio’s features and functionality may change as appropriate for the entered key. For example if you purchase a Curio Standard license then Professional features will be removed from the interface. Likewise, entering a Curio Core license will remove Standard and Professional functionality. As a note, you can always purchase a crossgrade license if you wish to upgrade your Curio edition.
License Details
If a licensed installation, the License dialog shows your current license details including the last date for free updates and the number of installations using your license (plus the ability to deactivate those installations and retrieve an updated license if something seems amiss).
Available Free Updates
The License dialog will let you know if your license allows you to freely update to a newer version of Curio on your current macOS or even on a newer macOS.
Available Updates If You Upgrade
And, if you’re beyond your free updates end date, it will report what Curio versions are available, both on your current macOS and on a more recent macOS, if you were to purchase an upgrade to extend your license.
Activating
When you enter a license key into Curio, or click the instant activation link on the purchase page, Curio activates your installation by confirming your license with Zengobi’s server and retrieves the properties associated with your license such as edition (e.g. Pro vs Standard) and free updates end date. It will also send you an email letting you know that a new installation was activated with this license.
On every launch, in the background, Curio tries to check in again with the Zengobi server to see if new updates to Curio are available or if your license has been updated, perhaps giving you access to a different edition of Curio or extending your date for free updates if you’ve recently purchased an upgrade. If it can’t reach the server, it simply uses the results from the last successful query.
Curio From the Mac App Store
You can install Curio from the Mac App Store and use it with a monthly or yearly subscription handled by Apple.
Important
The Mac App Store version of Curio only works with subscriptions, not traditional license keys.
License Agreement / Privacy Policy
Curio purchased from the Mac App Store is covered by Apple’s standard License Agreement.
Apple’s Privacy Policy details what personal information they collect, why they collect it, and how they use it. You may also want to read Zengobi’s Privacy Policy which details what personal information we collect, why we collect it, and how we use it.
Frequently Asked Questions
We invite you to check out our Curio Subscriptions FAQ to learn everything about subscriptions.
Trials and Purchasing
Curio can be used without a subbscription with the Standard feature set to explore the bundled Welcome to Curio project and to create and edit your own projects each with up to 5 idea spaces. Larger projects are opened read-only for viewing, exporting, and printing.
When you’re ready to dive in and create larger projects or work with Professional’s features, start a 2 week free trial by subscribing to a Standard or Professional monthly or yearly plan from within Curio, which instantly unlocks the appropriate features.
Once the trial expires, if you decide not to purchase a subscription, you can continue to use Curio with the Standard feature set to explore the bundled Welcome to Curio project and to create and edit your own projects each with up to 5 idea spaces. Larger projects are opened read-only for viewing, exporting, and printing.
Updates
The Mac App Store app will make sure the Curio application is always up to date, even if you don’t subscribe, automatically downloading and installing major and minor updates silently in the background.
Sharing With Friends
It’s worth noting that this functionality means you can easily share Curio projects with friends and colleagues that don’t own Curio, as they can simply download Curio for free from our website or the Mac App Store and view your projects in read-only mode.
Curio Sustainers
Curio sustainers are those that have a purchased a traditional Curio license and are still within their period of free updates, or those that have an active Mac App Store subscription to Curio. These customers and their ongoing payments help support and sustain Curio’s development with a reliable revenue stream that we can use to plan releases and development cycles.
If you purchased Curio from our website and your year of free updates has ended then please renew your license via the License dialog to continue sustaining Curio’s development.
We sincerely thank all sustainers for their ongoing support! 🙌
Getting Help
The Help menu in Curio provides one-click access to more information:
What’s New in Curio
See what’s new in the current major version release of Curio.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Choose the Help > Curio Keyboard Shortcuts menu item to see all of Curio’s shortcuts.
Zengobi’s Blog
Choose the Help > Zengobi Blog menu item or visit blog.zengobi.com to read the latest news from Zengobi.
Zengobi’s Forums
Choose the Help > Zengobi Forums menu item or visit forums.zengobi.com to chat and share with other Curio customers.
Zengobi on Twitter
Choose the Help > Zengobi on Twitter menu item or visit www.twitter.com/zengobi to check us out on Twitter.
Contacting Zengobi
Lastly, at the end of the Help menu you can send Zengobi feedback or ask us a question. We’ll write back as quickly as possible!
You may also want to visit www.zengobi.com/support for more information.
Curiota
Curiota is a free companion app, available via the Mac App Store, that opens up even more productivity with Curio. Curiota runs silently in the background, consumes very little memory, and has a minimal user interface: you just see a simple icon up in the menu bar. Click on that icon to create quick notes, or drag files and links to the icon to quickly add files.
The most important thing is that Curiota uses an open system for storing notes and files. There’s no proprietary file format or database that could be corrupted. It’s your data and you will be always able to access it, even outside of Curiota, for decades to come.
Curiota also supports print services (so you can “print” to Curiota), works as an macOS Share extension, is accessible via your Services menu, and is easily scriptable. All of the submitted notes and files are accessible and searchable using Curio’s Local library shelf, discussed below. More information about Curiota can be found at www.zengobi.com/curiota.
Visit our website to learn more about Curiota.