Collection Figures

As mentioned above, a collection figure is a special type of figure that contains, manages, and positions figures within it. Curio includes several bundled collection figures such as list, mind map, table, index card, pinboard, and album collections.

While a collection figure can contain other figures in general it cannot contain another collection. For example, you can’t place a table into a mind map or an index card into a list.

However, certain collection types, the first being Curio’s composition collection, are special in that they can accept other collection figures. You can read more about composition collections below.

Default Styling

Items created, dropped, or pasted within or into a collection will adopt the style appropriate for destination as determined by the collection figure. For example, a table style’s information will include the style associated with body cells vs header cells. Likewise, a mind map style will include stylings for the various hierarchical levels in the mind map. If you drag an item from one location in the mind map to another location, then it will adopt the styling appropriate for that location.

However, if you want the items to keep their existing styling then hold Shift while dropping or pasting.

See the Help > Curio Advanced Settings if you’d like to change this default styling logic. For example, you can make it so dragging within a table keeps existing styling but dragging items into a table, from elsewhere, will adopt the appropriate styling.

Compositions

Composition

Collections, like lists and mind maps, generally can’t contain other collections within themselves. So you can’t stick a table into a list or an index card into a mind map, for example.

However, Curio’s composition collection is specifically designed to contain and organize all sorts of figures including collections. It’s essentially an über collection!

This means you can arrange text, images, and asset files plus lists, mind maps, stacks, tables, and more in a single composition collection.

A composition is made up of 3 component types:

  1. It starts with one or more independent rows.
  2. Each row is made up of one or more columns.
  3. Each column is made up of one or more stacked figures.

So the most basic composition is a single row, with a single column, with a single figure.

Sample Use Cases

  • Use a composition with just a single column in each row. As you edit, insert, or delete contained items, the composition will neatly and automatically spread them out or pull them back in. Essentially turning itself into a very smart auto spaced column.

  • Use a componsition to take notes or collect research. Dragging text, images, and collections alongside into additional columns as needed to create more complex column arrangements more like a newspaper or journal article. Remember each row independently manages its number of columns and their sizing so you can have one row with a single column while another might have 5 columns.

Create a Composition

  • Use the Insert popover to create a composition via its style and stencil gallery, or use the Insert menu.

Dragging into an Empty Composition

As you drag figures over the empty collection, a red bar will appear so you know how your dropped items will be arranged:

  • Thin Red Horizontal Bar with Circles means that a single new row will be created and all figures will be added as stacked siblings within single new column in that row.
  • Thin Red Vertical Bar with Circles means that a single new row will be created and all figures will be added each as within its own column within that row.
  • Thick Red Horizontal Bar means that new rows will be created for each dropped figure.

Working with Rows

A row spans the entire width of the composition.

The rows of a composition are separated from each other by a vertical “row gap” which can be set in the composition inspector.

Dragging into a New Row

If you drag a figure into a composition and hover between rows, a thick red bar spanning the width of the row indicates a drop will insert the figures into a new row.

Using the Row Grabber

If you hover over the left side of a row a grabber will appear which you can click to select all the figures in the row or drag-and-drop to rearrange rows. If you hold Command (⌘) when clicking you can select disparate rows or hold Shift (⇧) when clicking to select a range of rows.

Working with Columns

A row can have one or more columns. Each row is independent, so one row could have 3 columns, another 2, and another just 1.

The columns within a row are separated from each other by a horizontal “column gap” which can be set in the composition inspector.

Dragging into a New Column

If you drag a figure into a composition and hover to the left or right of a column, a thin red bar with circles spanning the height of the column indicates a drop will insert the figure into a new column.

Working with Figures

Each column can have one or more contained figures, which are neatly stacked within the column. The stack is always top-aligned, the figures cannot be sized to span the height of the row, or aligned to the center or bottom.

The figures within a column are separated from each other by a vertical “figure gap” which can be set in the composition inspector.

Dragging into a Figure Column

If you drag a figure into a composition and hover above or below a figure, a thin red bar with circles spanning the width of the column indicates a drop will insert the figure into the column figure stack.

Inserting New Text

If you have an empty composition, double-click anywhere to create a text figure (in a new column and row).

Otherwise, select or edit an existing figure within the composition and use the menu items at the very top of the Insert menu or their corresponding shortcuts:

  • Inesrt Text After Selected (⌘⏎)
  • Inesrt Text Before Selected (⇧⌘⏎)
  • Inesrt Text In New Row (⌥⌘⏎)
  • Inesrt Text In New Column (⌥⇧⌘⏎)

When editing a text figure, pressing Return (⏎) inserts an actual return into the text figure allowing you to easily create figures with multiple paragraphs. If you want to create a new sibling figure use ⌘⏎ or one of the other shortcuts mentioned above to insert the new text figure.

You can optionally tell Curio to make it so Return creates a new figure instead. In that case you could still be able to insert a return into the text figure by pressing Option-Return (⌥⏎).

Inserting New Figures

Select a figure in the composition and use the Insert menu, the Insert toolbar button and gallery, or a specific collection’s toolbar button (like the List toolbar button), to insert the figure after the currently selected figure as a sibling within the same column.

Tip

If you hold the Option (⌥) key when when you click to insert the item it will be added as a new row under the current row.

Note the trick with using the Shift key on a collection toolbar button, like the List toolbar button, to create an instant default styled collection bypassing the gallery also works with the composition. For example, click Shift-List to get an instant list in the same column, and click Option-Shift-List to get the list in a new row.

Collect a Selection of Figures into a Composition

  1. Select one or more unlocked figures.
  2. Choose Arrange > Collect Into > Composition.
  3. A new composition figure containing the selected figures, one row per figure, will be created and centered in the visible portion of the idea space.

Rearranging Items Via Keyboard

  1. Select one or more figures.
  2. Press ⌃⇧↑ or ⌃⇧↓ to move the figures.
  3. If you have a row of figures selected then the row will be moved up or down. If all the figures within a column are selected then the columns will be moved left and right. If figures within a column are selected then they will move up and down within the column.

Context Menu

Right-click an item in a composition to select all figures in that same column or row.

You can use arrow keys to navigate between items in the columns and rows. Hold Shift to create selected ranges.

Composition Inspector

When a composition figure is selected, the inspector shelf will reveal a new Composition tab:

Composition

Certain properties are used for the entire composition.

Row Gap

Set the vertical gap between rows, in points.

Column Gap

Set the horizontal gap between columns, in points.

Figure Gap

Set the vertical gap between figures within a column, in points.

Selected Rows

Certain properties can be set for selected rows.

Separator

Choose a separator to be drawn after the current row, unless it’s the last row.

Selected Columns

Certain properties can be set for selected columns.

Column Width

Specify a width for the selected columns.

The default is auto where Curio proportionally distributes the available space between the columns. Alternatively you can specify an exact width for a column, in points.

When using the inspector to set a column size, if you use the spinner control it normally increases or decreases the width by 1 point. You can hold Shift when clicking for ±10 points, or hold Option for ±100 points.

At least once column must be auto so it can act as a flexible filler to maintain the width of the row. If no auto column is found then the last column will be auto.

If a column contains a figure with a minimum width, like a mind map, wider than the specified column width then that value will be used instead.

  1. The layout algorithm will first determine specified column widths, overriding with a contained figure’s minimum width if found.
  2. Next it will iteratively distribute available space between all auto width columns, borrowing space from some that can contribute to another if it contains a figure with a minimum width requirement.
  3. This iterative process ends once all available space has been distributed to each auto column and they all collectively fill the entire row’s width.

Lists

Making to-do lists and outlining ideas is a natural part of brainstorming. Curio’s List tool makes it a breeze to generate lists and outlines of any kind right on an idea space. And Curio’s lists can contain more than just text; you can add images, documents, movies, sound clips, and any other type of figure that Curio supports.

Context Menu

Right-clicking on a list or a list item will show a context menu with lots of frequent operations so be sure to check it out!

Create a List

  • Use the Insert popover to create a list via its style and stencil gallery, or use the Insert menu.

Insert a New Text Figure as a Next Sibling

  1. Select a list item.
  2. Insert a next sibling by choosing the Insert > Text Next Sibling menu item or typing ⌘Return. However, following a convention used in other outliners, if the selected item has a child then this will actually create a new first child.
  3. As a shortcut, if you are current editing a list item, you can simply type Return to create a new next sibling. If you want to actually insert a carriage return within the edited text figure, then type ⌥Return.

Insert a New Text Figure as a Previous Sibling

  1. Select a list item.
  2. Insert a previous sibling by choosing the Insert > Text Previous Sibling menu item or typing ⌘⇧Return.
  3. As above, you can simply type ⇧Return to create a new previous sibling.

Insert a New Text Figure as a Child

  1. Select a list item.
  2. Insert a new first child by choosing the Insert > Text Child menu item or typing ⌘⌥Return.

Remove List Items

  1. Select the list items you wish to remove.
  2. Press the Delete or Backspace key or choose the Edit > Delete menu item.
  3. Any children will automatically be removed as well.

Indenting List Items Via Keyboard

  1. Select one or more list figures.
  2. Press the Tab key to indent the figures one level.
  3. To move a set of figures contained by a list figure to a higher level in the hierarchy, follow the same steps listed above but press ⇧Tab on the keyboard.
  4. If you want to actually insert a tab within an edited text figure, then type ⌥Tab.

Rearranging List Items Via Keyboard

  1. Select or edit an item.
  2. Press ⌃⇧↑ or ⌃⇧↓ to move the item up or down through its siblings.

Rearranging List Items Via Drag-And-Drop

  1. Select one or more list figures and begin to drag them.
  2. As you drag the items around, a line will appear showing you where they will be placed in the list, including their hierarchical level. Notice that rearranging an item with children also moves the children.
  3. Release the mouse button to drop the items into the list. If the Option key was held down during the drag then a copy of the selected figures will be created.

Sort List Items

  1. By default, you can manually rearrange the child nodes of a list parent via drag-and-drop as described above.
  2. However, you can also tell Curio to keep those children automatically sorted by title, creation date, modification date, due date, start date, start date or end date if already started, percent completed, priority, or rating, in either ascending or descending order. You can specify a secondary sort as well. Make a change to a figure and instantly the figures rearrange based on the sorting rule.
  3. Select one or more sibling items in a list then use the list inspector to select a primary and secondary sort option.

Select Multiple Figures Within the List

  • Either use the Shift or Command click to click on individual items, or hold Shift or Command and select a range of figures by clicking and holding on the background of the list and dragging a rubber band selection region around figures.

Collapse or Expand a List

  1. Select the list itself or a branch in the list.
  2. Do a quick tap of the spacebar to collapse or expand the list. Alternatively, for branches, you can also click the little expand/collapse widget.

List Import/Export

Add New Items to a List Via Drag-And-Drop

  1. Select figures from elsewhere in Curio, the Finder, or another application and drag them into Curio onto the list figure.
  2. As you drag the items around a line will appear showing you where they will be placed in the list, including their hierarchical level.
  3. Release the mouse button to drop the items into the list. If the drag began within Curio, and the Option key was held down during the drag, then a copy of the selected figures will be created.
  4. List figures also support cut, copy, paste, and duplicate for adding and removing figures.

Collect a Selection of Figures into a List

  1. Select one or more unlocked figures.
  2. Choose Arrange > Collect Into > List.
  3. A new list figure containing the selected figures will be created and centered in the visible portion of the idea space.

Convert a Mind Map into a List

  1. Select the list figure.
  2. Choose Arrange > Convert Into > List.

Prune off a Branch in the List into a Brand New Linked-To List

  1. Right-click on a figure in the list and choose Prune To Linked Collection.
  2. Curio will then create a new list, of the same style as the current list, where the selected parent becomes the title of the new list and all of its children will be hierarchically arranged underneath.
  3. The children of the original parent are then removed and the original parent itself becomes a jump action which, when clicked, will zip you to the new collection. The new collection can remain on the current idea space or it can be cut and pasted onto a different idea space, and the jump action will still track it down. The root of the new collection will automatically gain a jump action to jump you back to the parent collection when clicked.

Import a Markdown File as a Curio List

  1. If you drag in a markdown file containing only a markdown list into your Curio idea space and Curio will ask if it should be converted into a native list or mind map figure.
  2. Choose Insert > File, or drag-and-drop a .md or .markdown file from the Finder into Curio.
  3. Curio will ask you if you which to convert the file into a list figure. Click the “Convert to List” button; otherwise Curio will simply treat the file as a normal document asset.

Import an OPML File as a Curio List

  1. If you are working with a 3rd party outlining application, such as OmniOutliner, you can bring a list into Curio as a list collection via OPML import.
  2. Choose Insert > File, or drag-and-drop an OPML file from the Finder into Curio.
  3. Curio will ask you if you which to convert the file into a list figure. Click the “Convert to List” button; otherwise Curio will simply treat the file as a normal document asset.

Paste a Text List from the Clipboard as a Curio List

  1. Within the 3rd party application, select one or more lines of text and choose Edit > Copy.
  2. Within Curio, choose the Edit > Paste As > List menu item. When parsing the list Curio will assume carriage-returns separate items and tabs indent items.

Export a Curio List as an OPML, Mind Map Format, Text, or Rich Text File

  1. Make sure the list figure itself is selected, not a figure within the list.
  2. Use the Share toolbar button and choose to export the selected figure as OPML, one of several supported 3rd party mind mapping formats, text, or RTF. For text and RTF Curio will use carriage-returns and tabs to separate and indent items.

Copy a Curio List as Carriage Return Delimited, Tab-Indented Text

  1. Make sure the list figure itself is selected, not a figure within the list.
  2. Choose the Edit > Copy As > Text menu item. Both RTF and plain text versions of the text are placed onto the clipboard.

List Inspector Bar

When a list is selected, the inspector bar will reveal new controls so you can customize the look of your list.

  • List
    Click this button to display the list inspector popover. The same panels are available in the List tab in the inspector shelf.
  • Insert Child
    Click this button to insert a child text figure under the current figure.
  • Insert Sibling
    Click this button to insert a next sibling after the current figure. Note if you hold the Option key down the button will change subtly to indicate that clicking will insert a previous sibling before the current figure.

List Inspector

When a list figure is selected, the inspector shelf will reveal a new List tab:

Layout

Lists can be bulleted, numbered, or with no prefixes whatsoever.

Format

Set the bullets & numbering format for the list and the indented children it contains. By specifying this single property, Curio can neatly enumerate all the items within your list, regardless of hierarchical level.

Query

Specify a Search-style query and the list will turn into a smart collection, where the contents of the collection will be determined by the query itself.

For example, entering a simple query of due < 2w will fill the list with all figures in the project that are due within 2 weeks or a query of #active will show all items tagged with active.

Here’s a more complex query:

group:prioriy sort:start scope:section progress < 100 and ((start > 1w due < 1m) or #active or @george)

That query will create a list with results hierarchically grouped by priority and sorted by start date filled with all task figures in the current section that aren’t done that start more than a week from now and due within the next month or figures that are tagged with active or that are assigned to George.

Choosing a Saved Quick Find Query

Via the actions button next to the query field you can choose a saved Quick Find query. The title of the list will change to the title of the Quick Find query, if it has one. Note that this isn’t a live connection to the query. If you later change the Quick Find query and re-save it, this doesn’t impact any existing query-based lists.

Working with Query Collections

The list will be filled with synced figure instances that are connected to the original figures located elsewhere in the project. This way you can change a result item’s text or the meta attributes, such as due dates and progress, and the changes will be pushed to the original and any other instances of that original. You can also right-click on the instance and jump to the original figure if you’d like.

You can’t delete or rearrange the ordering of the items as they are both determined by the query itself.

Sorting and Grouping

By default Curio will automatically sort in the most logical method.

For example, if the query is based on due date then it will sort by due date. However, you can specify a sort if you wish, like due < 2w sort:priority.

Unless you specify a grouping in the query your result will be a flat list. You can specify a grouping, like due < 2w group:due and the result will be a 2-level hierarchical list with parent grouping nodes.

Refreshing Query Results

The results automatically refresh when the idea space is loaded. You can also right-click and choose Refresh Content, or click the actions button next to the query in the inspector and choose Refresh Results.

The results will not refresh as you are working with them. This way they don’t suddenly disappear if you change a meta value. Instead they will wait until the idea space is re-loaded or you force a refresh via right-click or actions button.

Results Limit

There is a safety limit of 100 just so you don’t have a collection explode with hundreds or thousands of items, but this can be overridden.

Level

The current level of the currently selected items is based on how many steps away it is from the root. Immediate children of the central node is at level 1, their children are at level 2. You can specify certain options of all items that exist at a hierarchical level.

Line Spacing

You can increase or decrease the line spacing between siblings. Note that if the list itself is selected then spacing changes impacts all items in the list. If, however, you have an item within the list selected then the spacing changes will only impact list items at that hierarchical level.

Custom Numbering/Bullet Format

You can enable a custom number or bullet format for a specific level if you wish. This will override the default. You can enter an optional prefix character, like a left-parenthesis or bracket, then choose the bullet or number element, then enter a suffix character, like a right-parenthesis, bracket, or period.

Options

Title

The title for the list is displayed by default but you can turn this off if you wish.

Expanding/Collapsing

Child hierarchical levels can normally be expanded or collapsed via handle disclosure triangles. Those can be disabled as well whereby the list is always displayed fully expanded.

List Siblings

Styling

Select an item within the list then you can copy that selected figure’s style to all of its siblings under the same parent. You can also perform this action via the right-click context menu on a list item.

Alternatively you can specify that the selected figure’s style should be applied to all figures at this hierarchical level (meaning the selected figure’s siblings and cousins). This means all items at the same hierarchical level will instantly have the same style. You can also perform this action via the right-click context menu on a node.

As a note, if you wish to manually style the list items don’t forget about the very handy Format > Copy Style and Format > Paste Style menu items. This is a quick way to selectively apply a style to one or more figures.

Start Number

Select one or more siblings and you can then specify the number that should start these nodes under the current parent.

Sorting

You can specify that siblings should be sorted by title, creation date, modification date, due date, start date, start date or end date if already started, done date, added date, percent completed, priority, or rating.

You can optionally specify a secondary sort criteria, as well.

If you check the “recursively” checkbox then children of the children will sort themselves with the same sort criteria.

Note, however, if any figure uses a Start Date calculation based on a sibling then sorting will not occur with those children. Why? If, based on sorting rules, figures jumped around based on title or priority, then at could have an unintended consequence on all your figure dates! Basically, we’re assuming you placed those figures in specific precedence ordering — buy groceries then make dinner — and we don’t want an automatic sorting to spontaneously ruin that ordering.

Note

Query-based lists are automatically sorted based on the query so these sorting popups aren’t available if you have a query specified.

List Children

Colors

Select an item within the list then you can copy that selected figure’s colorings to all of its children. This means the rest of the child’s style, like the shape borders and font size, will all stay the same but the border color, fill color, and font color will all be replaced with the colors of its parent. This is a wonderfully quick way to make an entire branch of nodes all have the same color.

You can mark a child item so that it will automatically update its colors if its parent changes at any time. So, unlike the manual color copying above, this will happen automatically if the parent changes.

Alternatively, if you have a parent selected, you can click a checkbox to make it so children of the selected parent automatically inherit the colors of their parent. Basically the same effect as #2 above but instead of marking a specific child you can instantly mark all children, and future children that you add to that parent. Uncheck this option to disable this functionality. You can also perform this action via the right-click context menu on a list item.

Spread Color Palette

Curio can instantly spread a color palette across all main branches, so that each branch has its own color. Curio includes several palettes of colors to make it fun to experiment with various palettes. See more notes below regarding branch coloring.

You can also use the actions menu to import and manage color palette files such as Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ase) swatch files from Adobe Color or ColourLovers.

While Adobe Color requires a free Adobe account, once you’ve created the account you can use their site to create, manage, and download color swatches.

You’ll need to register with ColourLovers, as well, if you’d like to downloaded created color palettes from their site.

The color swatches popup also supports a Curio Color Swatch (.curioColorSwatch) file with a carriage-return delimited list of hex color values (like #aa22ff) that you can create if you’d like.

Branch

A branch is the current node and all of its children, grandchildren, etc.

Apply Default Style to Selected Branch

Re-apply the default style information to the selected figure and to all of its children with just a single click. Useful if a branch has a mix of styles and formatting.

A Note about Branch Coloring

Your saved list styles can include branch coloring!

If you apply branch colors to the top branches (the main branches under the title) of your list using the list inspector’s automatic child coloring controls, for example perhaps you spread a color palette, then that branch information will now be stored as a part of the collection’s style.

After creating new list styles which include branch colors, you can then apply those styles to your existing lists or to new lists and the top branches will be colored appropriately.

When branch coloring is part of the style, the order of the branch coloring is maintained as you insert or delete top branches. So if the branches should be red, green, blue, and orange — in that order — then those colors will be enforced as you modify the number and ordering of branches under the central topic.

Mind Maps

Mind mapping is a wonderful technique for discovering connections between words and ideas, and encourages an easy brainstorming approach starting with just one idea. This one idea — be it a word, phrase, or image — is expanded upon by adding associated ideas in a radial fashion around the central idea. You then take each of those associated phrases and list ideas associated with them.

A mind map’s central figure is called the central topic. This is the main idea or focus of the mind map.

Surrounding the central topic, are the main branches. These are your initial, primary topics or ideas that come to mind when thinking about the central topic. For example, if the central topic is “Apple” then the branches surrounding it might include “Mac”, “iPad”, and “iPhone”.

In general, you want to have only a few main branches under the central topic. If you have over a dozen main branches then consolidating them into 4 to 10 branches would make the resulting mind map much more readable and organized and allow Curio to optimize the mind map’s layout.

Subtopics can have subtopics, and those can have subtopics, etc, so your resulting branches can be quite large.

Topics and subtopics within Curio can be almost anything, not simply text. For example: images, videos, files, web links, audio recordings, Mail messages, and more! And, like any figure within Curio, each figure within a mind map can include one or more tags and other meta data information.

Context Menu

Right-clicking on a mind map or a mind map item will show a context menu with lots of frequent operations so be sure to check it out!

To Create a Mind Map:

  • Use the Insert popover to create a mind map via its style and stencil gallery, or use the Insert menu.

To Insert a New Text Figure as a Next Sibling:

  1. Select a list item.
  2. Insert a next sibling by choosing the Insert > Text Next Sibling menu item or typing ⌘Return. However, following a convention used in other outliners, if the selected item has a child then this will actually create a new first child.
  3. As a shortcut, if you are current editing a list item, you can simply type Return to create a new next sibling. If you want to actually insert a carriage return within the edited text figure, then type ⌥Return.

To Insert a New Text Figure as a Previous Sibling:

  1. Select an item in the mind map.
  2. Insert a previous sibling by choosing the Insert > Text Previous Sibling menu item or by typing ⌘⇧Return.
  3. As above, you can simply type ⇧Return to create a new previous sibling.

To Insert a New Text Figure as a Child:

  1. Select an item in the mind map.
  2. Insert a new last child by choosing the Insert > Text Child menu item or by typing ⌘⌥Return.

To Add New Sibling Items to a Mind Map Via Keyboard:

  1. Select an item in the mind map.
  2. Press the ⌘Return key to create a new next sibling or ⌘⇧Return to create a previous sibling of the selected figure. If you are currently editing an existing figure then you can just press Return or ⇧Return.

To Add New Child Items to a Mind Map Via Keyboard:

  1. Select an item in the mind map.
  2. Press the Tab key to create a new child of the selected figure.

To Add New Items to a Mind Map Via Drag-And-Drop:

  1. Select figures from elsewhere in Curio, the Finder, or another application and drag them into Curio onto the mind map figure.
  2. As you drag the items around the guides described above will appear showing you where they will be placed in the mind map.
  3. Release the mouse button to drop the items into the mind map. If the drag began within Curio, and the Option key was held down during the drag, then a copy of the selected figures will be created.
  4. Mind Map figures also support cut, copy, paste, and duplicate for adding and removing figures.

To Remove Mind Map Items:

  1. Select the mind map items you wish to remove.
  2. Press the Delete or Backspace key or choose Edit > Delete.
  3. Any children will automatically be removed as well.

To Select Multiple Figures Within the Mind Map:

  • Either use the Shift or Command click to click on individual items, or hold Shift or Command and select a range of figures by clicking and holding on the background of the mind map and dragging a rubber band selection region around figures.

Rearranging Mind Map Items Via Keyboard

  1. Select or edit an item.
  2. Press ⌃⇧↑ or ⌃⇧↓ to move the item up or down through its siblings.

Rearranging Mind Map Items Via Drag-And-Drop:

  1. Select one or more mind map figures and begin to drag them.
  2. As you drag the items around, and hover over an existing figure, guides will help you determine where they (and their children) will be placed.
    • If you hover the mouse near the top of an existing figure, any red line will appear indicating that, if you drop the items, they will be inserted as previous siblings to this figure.
    • If you hover the mouse near the bottom of an existing figure, a red line will appear indicating that, if you drop the items, they will be inserted as next siblings to this figure.
    • If you hover over the middle of an existing figure, it will glow to indicate that, if you drop the items, they will be added as new children to this figure.
  3. Release the mouse button to drop the items into the mind map. If the Option key was held down during the drag then a copy of the selected figures will be created.
  4. As mentioned in the collection figures overview, when moving figures around they will adopt the styling appropriate for that location by the collection figure’s style information. If you wish to keep a figure’s existing styling then hold Shift before dropping the figure.

Working with Transparent Mind Maps

  1. If your mind map has no fill color, Curio supports a kind of transparent selection so you can directly manipulate the mind map nodes more easily.
  2. If either the mind map is unselected or if a node within the mind map is selected, then you can now directly click and drag on the background of the mind map to “rubber band-select” a range of nodes.
  3. If you click and release within the mind map figure but not on a node, then the mind map figure itself will be selected. Once selected you can then change its inspector properties, or copy it, or drag it, etc.
  4. You can now directly click and drag on a node, even if the mind map itself was not already selected, and just start dragging to immediately move it to a new location.
  5. Another way to move the entire mind map is to click and drag the central topic node.

Rearranging List Items Via Keyboard

  1. Select or edit an item.
  2. Press ⌃⇧↑ or ⌃⇧↓ to move the item up or down through its siblings.

Sort Mind Map Items

  1. By default, you can manually rearrange the child nodes of a mind map parent via drag-and-drop as described above.
  2. However, you can also tell Curio to keep those children automatically sorted by title, creation date, modification date, due date, start date, start date or end date if already started, percent completed, priority, or rating, in either ascending or descending order. You can specify a secondary sort as well. Make a change to a figure and instantly the figures rearrange based on the sorting rule.
  3. Select one or more sibling items in a mind map then use the mind map inspector to select a primary and secondary sort option.

Manually Positioning Branches Via Drag-And-Drop:

  1. 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.
  2. Select the topic figure at the top of a branch under the central topic and drag it.
  3. 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.

To Add an Attachment to an Existing Mind Map Text Figure:

  1. Right-click on a text figure within your mind map and choose Attach File then choose a file from anywhere on your hard disk in the dialog that appears. This file can be copied or moved into the project as an embedded asset or referenced as an alias.
  2. More information can be found in the Text Figure Attachments section.

To Add a Caption to an Existing Mind Map Image or Asset Figure:

  1. Right-click on an asset figure displayed as a preview within your mind map and choose Show Caption.
  2. More information can be found in the Display panel of the figure shape inspector section.

To Show a Relationship Line Between Two Different Figures in the Mind Map:

  1. Select a figure in the mind map then press ⌘ (Command) and select a second figure in the mind map.
  2. Right-click and choose Add Relationship Line, or click the Add Relationship Line button in the mind map popover.
  3. A new line — a true Curio line figure in fact — will connect the two figures. This line will be set with a handy midpoint and have a curved line style so you can grab that midpoint and move it around to bend it any way you wish. As a real line figure you can completely customize its style using the inspectors.
  4. Once you have styled the relationship line the way you like you can create a saved style for it by right-clicking on the line and choosing Save As Line Style. You can also make this the default relationship line style via the Format > Save as Default Style for Relationship Line Figure menu item.
  5. You can also double-click the line to give it a line label. Don’t forget, the easiest and most accurate way to move a relationship line label is using the arrow keys on your keyboard. Hold Shift with the arrow keys to move in greater steps.

Mind Map Import/Export

Curio supports several mind mapping file formats for easy import/export.

Note that formatting and layout information such as fonts, shapes, coloring, and positions are not imported or exported. Instead a default Curio mind map style is applied and the mind map is automatically laid out.

iThoughts

iThoughts is available for both iOS and macOS and Curio supports its .itmz file format. Curio supports many iThoughts properties including title, note, flags (at least the ones that map to Curio flags), checkmark, percent complete, priority, start date, due date, and hyperlinks. Curio will also import or export images or other files attached to mind map nodes. Currently, Curio doesn’t support iThoughts floating topics.

After exporting from Curio into iThoughts, you may need to force a re-layout by tapping the Gear icon > Map Layout then tapping Vertical then Horizontal.

Mindjet MindManager

Mindjet MindManager’s .mmap format is one of the most popular mind mapping formats and supported by most 3rd party mind mapping apps on macOS, iOS, and Windows. Curio supports MindManager properties including title, link, note, flags (at least the ones that map to Curio flags), checkmark, percent complete, priority, start date, due date, and duration. Currently Curio doesn’t import or export asset files (aka attachments).

MindNode

MindNode is available for both iOS and macOS and Curio supports its .mindnode file format. As of this writing, the MindNode file format only includes the title of the nodes which Curio can import and export. Currently Curio doesn’t import or export images or other asset files (aka attachments).

After exporting from Curio into MindNode, you will need to force a re-layout by selecting the central topic node and clicking the Fold toolbar button then the Unfold button.

iMindMap

iMindMap is available for both iOS and macOS and Curio supports its .imx file format. Curio can import iMindMap title, start/due date, percent complete, and priority information. Curio can export title, start/due date, and a handful of flags. Currently Curio doesn’t import or export images or other asset files (aka attachments).

After exporting from Curio into iMindMap, you will need to force a re-layout by clicking the Clean Up button in the toolbar.

MindMeister and FreeMind

While these formats are not supported directly, there are some techniques you can use discussed below to import and export into those applications.

Markdown

You can drag a .md or .markdown file containing only a markdown list into your Curio idea space and Curio will ask if it should be converted into a native list or mind map figure.

OPML

Most 3rd party outlining applications, such as OmniOutliner, can export to the simple OPML format. Curio’s import process can retrieve the title, note, and checkmark.

Import a Mind Map File as a Curio Mind Map

  1. Choose Insert > File, or drag-and-drop a supported mind map or outlining file format from the Finder into Curio.
  2. Curio will ask you if you which to convert the file into a mind map figure. Click the “Convert to Mind Map” button; otherwise Curio will simply treat the file as a normal document asset.

Import a Carriage-Return Separated and Tab-Indented List from the Clipboard as a Curio Mind Map

  1. Within the 3rd party application, select one or more lines of text and choose Edit > Copy.
  2. Within Curio, choose the Edit > Paste As > Mind Map menu item.

Export a Curio Mind Map

  1. Make sure the mind map figure itself is selected, not a figure within the mind map.
  2. Use the Share toolbar button and choose to export the selected figure as OPML, Mindjet MindManager, iThoughts, MindNode, iMindMap, text, or RTF. For text and RTF Curio will use carriage-returns and tabs to separate and indent items.

Collect a Selection of Figures into a Mind Map

  1. Select one or more unlocked figures.
  2. Choose the Arrange > Collect into Mind Map menu item.
  3. A new mind map figure containing the selected figures will be created and centered in the visible portion of the idea space.
  4. If only one figure was selected, then the new mind map will use that figure as the central topic. If more than one figure was selected, then the new mind map will have a placeholder text figure as the central topic, and all selected figures will be added as children to that central figure.

Convert a List into a Mind Map

  1. Select the mind map figure.
  2. Choose the Arrange > Convert Into > Mind Map menu item.

Prune off a Branch in the Mind Map into a New Mind Map

  1. Right-click on a figure in the mind map and choose Prune To Linked Collection.
  2. Curio will then create a new mind map, of the same style as the current mind map, where the selected parent becomes the central topic of the new mind map and all of its children will be hierarchically arranged underneath.
  3. The children of the original parent are then removed and the original parent itself becomes a jump action which, when clicked, will zip you to the new collection. The new collection can remain on the current idea space or it can be cut and pasted onto a different idea space, and the jump action will still track it down. The root of the new collection will automatically gain a jump action to jump you back to the parent collection when clicked.

Import a MindMeister Mind Map

  1. In MindMeister, right-click on a node and choose the Copy As > Text menu item then select the text outline that appears in the popup dialog then use the Edit > Copy menu item to copy it into the clipboard.
  2. In Curio, use the the Edit > Paste As > Mind Map or Edit > Paste As > List menu item to paste in a new mind map or list, respectively. Note that you can select a node in an existing collection and use this same technique to paste the outline as a new branch.

Export a Curio Mind Map or List into MindMeister

  1. In Curio, use the Share toolbar to export a text file containing the selected collection.
  2. In MindMeister, click the Import on the main screen and choose the file you created on your hard disk.

Import a FreeMind Mind Map

  1. In FreeMind, click on a node and choose Edit > Copy which will place a text outline of the branch hierarchy into the clipboard.
  2. In Curio, use the Edit > Paste As > Mind Map or Edit > Paste As > List menu item to paste in a new mind map or list, respectively. Note that you can select a node in an existing collection and use this same technique to paste the outline as a new branch.

Export a Curio Mind Map or List into FreeMind

  1. In Curio, use the Edit > Copy As > Text menu item to copy a mind map or list hierarchy into the clipboard as a text outline.
  2. In FreeMind, click on a node and choose the Edit > Paste menu item which will paste the hierarchy as a new branch in your FreeMind mind map.

Mind Map Inspector Bar

When a mind map is selected, the inspector bar will reveal new controls so you can customize the look of your mind map.

  • Mind Map
    Click this button to display the mind map inspector popover. The same panels are available in the Mind Map tab in the inspector shelf.
  • Insert Child
    Click this button to insert a child text figure under the current figure.
  • Insert Sibling
    Click this button to insert a next sibling after the current figure. Note if you hold the Option key down the button will change subtly to indicate that clicking will insert a previous sibling before the current figure.

Mind Map Inspector

When a mind map figure is selected, the inspector shelf will reveal a new Mind Map tab:

Layout

Curio mind maps can have very different arrangement and line styles.

Arrangement

Set the arrangement of the mind map. Curio currently supports radial maps, right maps, left maps, bottom-up, top-down, and org charts. You can also switch the arrangement by right-clicking on the mind map.

Lines

Choose how the lines should be drawn between nodes: straight, curved, elbow, or rounded elbow.

Query

Specify a Search-style query and the mind map will turn into a smart collection, where the contents of the collection will be determined by the query itself.

For example, entering a simple query of due < 2w will fill the mind map with all figures in the project that are due within 2 weeks or a query of #active will show all items tagged with active.

Full details can be found above.

Add Relationship Line

Click the Add Relationship Line button to create a line pointing from a first selected figure to a second selected figure.

Reset Layout

Click the Reset Layout button to reset the entire layout in case you’ve dragged branch nodes around into odd locations.

Mind Map Siblings

Styling

Select an item within the mind map then you can copy that selected figure’s style to all of its siblings under the same parent. You can also perform this action via the right-click context menu on a mind map item.

Alternatively you can specify that the selected figure’s style should be applied to all figures at this hierarchical level (meaning the selected figure’s siblings and cousins). This means all items at the same hierarchical level will instantly have the same style. You can also perform this action via the right-click context menu on a mind map item.

As a note, if you wish to manually style the mind map items don’t forget about the very handy Format > Copy Style and Format > Paste Style menu items. This is a quick way to selectively apply a style to one or more figures.

Sorting

You can specify that children should be sorted by title, creation date, modification date, due date, start date, start date or end date if already started, done date, added date, percent completed, priority, or rating.

You can optionally specify a secondary sort criteria, as well.

If you check the “recursively” checkbox then children of the children will sort themselves with the same sort criteria.

Note, however, if any child figure uses a Start Date calculation based on a sibling then sorting will not occur with those children. Why? If, based on sorting rules, figures jumped around based on title or priority, then at could have an unintended consequence on all your figure dates! Basically, we’re assuming you placed those figures in specific precedence ordering — buy groceries then make dinner — and we don’t want an automatic sorting to spontaneously ruin that ordering.

Note

Query-based mind maps are automatically sorted based on the query so these sorting popups aren’t available if you have a query specified.

Mind Map Children

Colors

Select an item within the mind map then you can copy that selected figure’s colorings to all of its children. This means the rest of the child’s style, like the shape borders and font size, will all stay the same but the border color, fill color, and font color will all be replaced with the colors of its parent. This is a wonderfully quick way to make an entire branch of nodes all have the same color.

You can mark a child item so that it will automatically update its colors if its parent changes at any time. So, unlike the manual color copying above, this will happen automatically if the parent changes.

Alternatively, if you have a parent selected, you can click a checkbox to make it so children of the selected parent automatically inherit the colors of their parent. Basically the same effect as #2 above but instead of marking a specific child you can instantly mark all children, and future children that you add to that parent. Uncheck this option to disable this functionality. You can also perform this action via the right-click context menu on a node.

Spread Color Palette

Curio can instantly spread a color palette across all main branches, so that each branch has its own color. Curio includes several palettes of colors to make it fun to experiment with various palettes. See more notes below regarding branch coloring.

You can also use the actions menu to import and manage color palette files such as Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ase) swatch files from Adobe Color or ColourLovers.

While Adobe Color requires a free Adobe account, once you’ve created the account you can use their site to create, manage, and download color swatches.

You’ll need to register with ColourLovers, as well, if you’d like to downloaded created color palettes from their site.

The color swatches popup also supports a Curio Color Swatch (.curioColorSwatch) file with a carriage-return delimited list of hex color values (like #aa22ff) that you can create if you’d like.

Branch

A branch is the current node and all of its children, grandchildren, etc.

Branch Boundary

You can enable a boundary region to be drawn around the selected mind map parent and around its children. A boundary is a wonderful way to highlight a particular branch or sub-branch of your mind map. The color of the boundary is automatically determined based on the color of the parent figure itself.

Note that boundaries can contain other boundaries if you wish.

Apply Default Style to Selected Branch

Re-apply the default style information to the selected figure and to all of its children with just a single click. Useful if a branch has a mix of styles and formatting.

A Note about Branch Coloring

You can create mind map styles that include branch coloring!

If you apply branch colors to the top branches (the main branches under the central topic) of your mind map using the mind map inspector’s automatic child coloring controls, for example perhaps you spread a color palette, then that branch information will now be stored as a part of the collection’s style.

After creating new mind map styles which include branch colors, you can then apply those styles to your existing mind maps or to new mind maps and the top branches will be colored appropriately.

When branch coloring is part of the style, the order of the branch coloring is maintained as you insert or delete top branches. So if the branches should be red, green, blue, and orange — in that order — then those colors will be enforced as you modify the number and ordering of branches under the central topic.

Tables

Curio’s table feature is an excellent way to show a grid or matrix of data. The data could be several text figures, numbers, or even complex figures such as images and movies. When you need to show tabular data, tables are the answer.

Context Menu

Right-clicking on a table or a table cell will show a context menu with lots of frequent operations so be sure to check it out!

Create a Table

  • Use the Insert popover to create a table via its style and stencil gallery, or use the Insert menu.

Edit a Figure Cell

  • Double-click the cell or select it and press the Return key.

Move Between Figure Cells

  • Press Tab or ⇧Tab or move forwards or backwards. You can also use the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate around the cells.

Select Specific Figure Cells

  1. Select the first cell then hold Shift while clicking the last cell and all the cells within the rectangular region defined by those two cells will be selected.
  2. Or, click on the first cell, then hold Command while clicking other cells to select a disjointed number of cells.

Select Specific Rows or Columns

  1. Select the figure cells in the rows or columns you wish to select.
  2. Right-click and choose Select Row or Select Column, as appropriate.

Resize Rows or Columns

  1. Select the table — or specific rows and columns — and enter values into the Column Width and Row Height fields in the table Inspector if you want all row and columns to have the same sizing. You can also use the Fit and Distribute to fit or distribute sizes for selected rows or columns, or for the entire table.
  2. Or, hover the mouse over the row and column separating lines such that the mouse pointer becomes a resize pointer. Then click and drag to resize that row or column. When you resize a row or column using the mouse by default the table itself is resized as well. However, if you hold the Option key down while dragging any divider, with the exception of the last row or column, the table will maintain its size and just the individual row or column will be resized. (When drag resizing the last row or column the table always itself resizes to to accommodate the new column or row size.)
  3. Or, click on the table then drag one of its resize handles. While the table resizes all rows and columns will resize proportionally. Note that certain cells may have minimum sizes due to the display of adornments such as checkboxes and tags.

Fit and Distribute

  1. Use the Fit buttons to size the row height or column width to the minimum necessary to show the content on that row or column.
  2. Use the Distribute buttons to make all rows heights or column widths the same.
  3. Check the automatically adjust row heights checkbox if you’d like Curio to adjust row heights as necessary to avoid clipping cell content

Add Rows or Columns

  1. Select the table.
  2. Use the table inspector to change the number or rows or columns in a table. By default Curio will maintain the table’s current size. However, if you hold the Shift key while clicking the steppers to change the number of rows or columns, Curio will allow the table to grow or shrink as needed

Insert Rows or Columns

  1. Select the figure cells in the rows or columns you wish the insert to occur.
  2. Right-click and choose Add Row Above, Add Row Below, Add Column Before, or Add Column After, as appropriate.
  3. As a note, you can also use the ⌥ArrowKey to insert rows and columns if a cell is selected (although not being actively edited), where ArrowKey is the up, down, left, or right arrow keys on your keyboard. Hold the Shift key as well to modify the table size during the insertion, as described above.

Delete the Contents of Figure Cells

  1. Select the figure cells you wish to clear.
  2. Press the Delete or Backspace key or choose Edit > Delete.

Delete Specific Rows or Columns

  1. Select the figure cells in the rows or columns you wish to delete.
  2. Right-click and choose Delete Row or Delete Column, as appropriate.
  3. When the deletion occurs the remaining row/columns will increase in size to fill the existing table dimensions. However, if you hold down the Shift while when choosing the context menu option then Curio will shrink the table figure itself instead.

Table Import/Export

Add New Items to a Table or Rearranging Table Items Via Drag-And-Drop

  1. Select figures from elsewhere in Curio, the Finder, or another application and drag them into Curio onto the table figure.
  2. As you drag the items around the table, the current cell you are hovering over will highlight so you know where the dropped items will be placed. Note you will be replacing the contents of the hovered-over item with the dropped figures or data.
  3. Release the mouse button to drop the items into the table. If the drag started from this table or another table then the added items will retain their same row and column separation from each other, and Curio will automatically increase the number or rows or columns as necessary to fit the newly placed items.
  4. If the drag started from figures selected on the idea space or from the Finder, then Curio will ask if the items should be filled into a single column (adding rows as needed), a single row (adding columns as needed), or spread across and then down (adding rows as needed).
  5. Table figure cells also support cut, copy, paste, and duplicate for adding and removing figures.
  6. As mentioned in the collection figures overview, when moving figures around they will adopt the styling appropriate for that location by the collection figure’s style information. For tables this means moving items will adopt the appropriate default cell style based on the cell type: body, header, etc. If you wish to keep a figure’s existing styling then hold Shift before dropping the figure.

Drag a Figure out of the Table

  • Simply drag the figure out of the table and you can drop it on the idea space or directly into another collection such as a list or mind map. The table cell is cleared and replaced with a boilerplate text figure unless Option is held down in which a copy was generated.

Import a CSV File as a Curio Table

  1. You can import tabular data from Apple Numbers, Microsoft Excel, or many other 3rd party applications, directly into Curio as a table collection.
  2. Just use that application’s export to CSV (Comma Separated Value) functionality to create an export file, which Curio can import.
  3. Choose Insert > File, or drag-and-drop a CSV file from the Finder into Curio.
  4. Curio will ask you if you which to convert the file into a table figure. Click the “Convert to Table” button; otherwise Curio will simply treat the file as a normal document asset.

Paste a Tab Delimited Information from the Clipboard into a Curio Table

  1. Within the 3rd party application, select a range of rows and columns and choose Edit > Copy.
  2. Within Curio, choose the Edit > Paste As > Table menu item to paste into the currently selected table or it can automatically create a new table.

Export a Curio Table

  1. Make sure the table figure itself is selected, not a figure within the table.
  2. Click the Share toolbar button then, under Share Selected Figure, choose the export format you wish to use, such as text or CSV.

Copy a Curio Table as Tab Delimited Text

  1. Make sure the table figure itself is selected, or a range of cells within the table is selected.
  2. Choose the Edit > Copy menu item.

Table Inspector Bar

When a table is selected, the inspector bar will reveal new controls so you can customize the look of your table.

  • Table
    Click this button to display the table inspector popover. The same panels are available in the Table tab in the inspector shelf.
  • Insert Row
    Click this button to insert a row above the current row, keeping the table size as-is. Press ⇧Click to insert above and grow the table size as necessary. Press ⌥Click to insert below the current row. Press ⌥⇧Click to insert below and grow the table size as necessary.
  • Insert Column
    Click this button to insert a column before the current column, keeping the table size as-is. Press ⇧Click to insert above and grow the table size as necessary. Press ⌥Click to insert below the current column. Press ⌥⇧Click to insert below and grow the table size as necessary.
  • Delete Row
    Click this button to delete the current row.
  • Delete Column
    Click this button to delete the current column.

Table Inspector

When a table figure is selected, the inspector shelf will reveal a new Table tab:

Dimensions

Change the number of rows and columns in the current table, keeping the size-as is. If you hold Shift when making the change then the table will grow as needed.

Sizing

Set the size of the selected rows or columns.

Click Fit to resize the selected rows (or columns) so their heights (widths) match the cell with the tallest (widest) content.

Click Distribute to distribute the selected row heights (or column widths) so each has the same height (width).

Click the Automatic adjust row height checkbox if you’d like the rows to automatically and dynamically update their heights based on their content.

Table Headers & Footers

Click on the appropriate buttons to toggle the visibity of optional header and footer rows and columns.

Table Cells

Select a table cell which has the style you’d like to replicate, then click the appropriate button to replicate that style to certain types of cells, like all body cells or all header row cells.

This styling information is then saved as part of the table’s overall style definition, thus will be recorded if you save the table style in your personal style repository.

Index Cards

Curio’s index cards are a fantastic new way to create snippets of ideas, thoughts, and notes. You can even place images and other asset figures on an index card.

Note that an index card is resizable but not scrollable. This means any text that grows past its bounds will be automatically clipped when it’s not being edited.

This was done on purpose in the design of the index card feature. The strength of the real-world index card is its static size, in contrast to a multipage notebook. It forces you to make brief notes and think concisely, then to review and arrange your thoughts with the resulting stack of cards.

Create an Index Card

  • Use the Insert popover to create a index card via its style and stencil gallery, or use the Insert menu.

Convert a Selection of Figures into Index Cards

  1. Select one or more non-collection figures on the idea space.
  2. Choose the Arrange > Convert Into > Index Card menu item.

The figures will be transformed into index cards, one card per selected figure.

If the converted figure is an asset figure (such as a file-backed text figure or image figure) then the default title for the index card is the underlying asset’s file name at the time of the conversion. An advanced setting allows you to change the format of the title to include path info if you wish.

Edit an Index Card Title or Body Figure

  • Double-click the figure within the index card. You can press tab to jump between the title and body areas.

Replace the Contents of an Index Card

  • You can drag-and-drop or paste another figure into the body area of an index card. Using this technique an index card can contain images or any other type of asset figure.

Collapse or Expand an Index Card

  1. Select the index card figure.
  2. Do a quick tap of the spacebar to collapse or expand the index card.

Export a Curio Index Card

  1. Make sure the index card figure itself is selected, not a figure within the index card.
  2. Click the Share toolbar button then, under Share Selected Figure, choose the export format you wish to use.

Copy a Curio Index Card as Text

  1. Make sure the index card figure itself is selected, not a figure within the index card.
  2. Choose the Edit > Copy As > Text menu item.

Index Card Inspector Bar

When a index card is selected, the inspector bar will reveal new controls so you can customize the look of your index card.

  • Index Card
    Click this button to display the index card inspector popover. The same panels are available in the Index Card tab in the inspector shelf.

Index Card Inspector

When a index card figure is selected, the inspector shelf will reveal a new Index Card tab:

Automatic Resize

You could enable automatic resizing of the index card so it automatically grows and shrinks as necessary to hold its content.

Line Coloring

Set the color of the line drawn under the index card title. If you set a none color in the popup color palette then no title line will be drawn.

Set the color of the lines drawn in the body area of the index card. If you set a none color in the popup color palette then no body lines will be drawn.

Note you can set other properties such as fonts, font colors, fill colors, etc, using the other inspectors. The index card is made up of two distinct figures which you can style using the various inspectors: a title figure and a body figure.

Albums

Curio’s albums are a great way to create flexible collections of image figures and other asset figures displayed as previews, such as PDF’s. With the new preview caption feature mentioned above your images can have notes and other annotations directly under the image or preview feature is an excellent way to show a grid or matrix of data.

An album lays out all contained items in fixed-width columns. Unlike a table which has fixed-height rows, albums simply stack items within the columns based on the height of each item. The number of columns is based on the overall width of the album collection figure. As you resize the album figure, the number of columns will be dynamically changed and items will wrap accordingly.

Create an Album

  • Use the Insert popover to create an album via its style and stencil gallery, or use the Insert menu.

Convert a Selection of Figures into an Album

  1. Select one or more figures on the idea space.
  2. Choose Arrange > Collect Into > Album.

Edit a Figure Within an Album

  • Double-click the figure or select it and press the Return key.

Move Between Figures Within an Album

  • Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate around the album.

Add New Items to an Album or Rearranging Items Via Drag-And-Drop

  1. Select figures from elsewhere in Curio, the Finder, or another application and drag them into Curio onto the album figure.
  2. As you drag the items around the album, a red drop indicator will indicate whether the items will be placed before or after the current item.
  3. Release the mouse button to drop the items into the album.
  4. Items within albums also support cut, copy, paste, and duplicate for adding and removing figures.

Drag a Figure out of the Album

  • Simply drag the figure out of the album and you can drop it on the idea space or directly into another collection such as a list or mind map.

Change the Number of Columns

  • Simply resize the album figure itself and the number of columns will dynamically change to accommodate the new width of the album.

Delete the Items Within an Album

  1. Select the figures you wish to delete.
  2. Press the Delete or Backspace key or choose Edit > Delete.

Toggle the Display of an Album Title

  • Select the album — or an item within the album — and use the album Inspector to turn on or off the album title.

Change the Column Size or Spacing

  • Select the album — or an item within the album — and use the album Inspector to modify those properties.

Album Inspector Bar

When an album is selected, the inspector bar will reveal new controls so you can customize the look of your album.

  • Album
    Click this button to display the album inspector popover. The same panels are available in the Album tab in the inspector shelf.

Album Inspector

Album Arrangement

Choose either:

  1. Columns: a packed columns of images. You specify a column width and the contained figures are proportionally sized to that width then arranged into a packed layout, similar to Pinterest’s.
  2. Columns (unpacked): Unpacked columns of images. Like Columns you specify a column width, but instead of packing the contained figures, each row’s height is based on the tallest item in that row. The result is more like a matrix of images in tidy columns and rows.
  3. Rows: Packed rows of images. This arrangement only works with image figures. You specify a row height and the contained figures are proportionally sized to that height then arranged into a packed layout, similar to Flickr’s. This works very well with uncaptioned images, but can be a bit finicky with captioned images as text wrapping can jump items between sizes, although Curio attempts to counter this via iterative refinement.

Column Width

Set the width of the pinboard columns. Curio will then flow the contents as needed.

Gaps

Set the horizontal and vertical gap spacing between items within the album.

Show Title

Toggle the visibility of the album title.

Copy This Figure Style to All

Select an item in the album, then click this button to copy that figure’s style to all other figures contained within the album.

Pinboards

Think of a pinboard as a container of figures where no layout or style is imposed on the figures within the collection. You can place items anywhere within the collection and the collection itself will automatically grow, if necessary, to handle dropped or pasted figures. It’s almost like a free-floating mini idea space in terms of flexibility. And it’s more flexible than a group figure since you can move and resize the contained figures freely and the collection will simply resize to hold the new items.

Pinboards really shine when used during brainstorming sessions. You and your team will quickly produce dozens of ideas, perhaps created using Curio’s sticky note figure styles. Afterwards, or during breaks, collect common ideas together in pinboard collections to quickly organize and visualize the results of your brainstorm. You can even add ratings, tags, and priorities or use color coding to quickly identify key ideas.

A pinboard is a collection figure, like a list, mind map, or table collection figure. It’s important to remember that a collection cannot contain another collection.

Create a Pinboard

  • Use the Insert popover to create a pinboard via its style and stencil gallery, or use the Insert menu.

Convert a Selection of Figures into a Pinboard

  1. Select one or more figures on the idea space.
  2. Choose Arrange > Collect Into > Pinboard.

Edit a Figure Within a Pinboard

  • Double-click the figure or select it and press the Return key.

Create a Text Figure Within a Pinboard

  • Double-click the background of the pinboard.

Add New Items to a Pinboard or Rearranging Items Via Drag-And-Drop

  1. Select figures from elsewhere in Curio, the Finder, or another application and drag them into Curio onto the pinboard figure.
  2. As you drag the items around the pinboard, you can see exactly where the items will be placed.
  3. Release the mouse button to drop the items into the pinboard.
  4. Items within pinboard also support cut, copy, paste, and duplicate for adding and removing figures.
  5. The pinboard will automatically expand if necessary to accommodate the added items, unless you disable this feature in the inspector.

Select Multiple Figures Within the Pinboard

  • Either use the Shift or Command click to click on individual items, or hold Shift or Command and select a range of figures by clicking and holding on the background of the pinboard and dragging a rubber band selection region around figures.

Insert a New Figure into a Pinboard

  • Use the Insert toolbar button to insert a new figure such as a Styled Shape directly into the pinboard. Note, like all collection figures, a collection figure cannot contain another collection figure. So you can’t add a list to a pinboard, for example.

Drag a Figure out of the Pinboard

  • Simply drag the figure out of the pinboard and you can drop it on the idea space or directly into another collection such as a list or mind map.

Delete the Items Within a Pinboard

  1. Select the figures you wish to delete.
  2. Press the Delete or Backspace key or choose Edit > Delete.

Collapse or Expand a Pinboard

  1. Select the pinboard figure.
  2. Do a quick tap of the spacebar to collapse or expand the pinboard. Note that the pinboard has to have a title to be able to collapse it.

Toggle the Display of a Pinboard Title

  • Select the pinboard — or an item within the pinboard — and use the pinboard Inspector to turn on or off the pinboard title.

Toggle the Pinboard Auto Resize

  • Select the pinboard — or an item within the pinboard — and use the pinboard Inspector to toggle pinboard automatic resize.

Pinboard Inspector Bar

When a pinboard is selected, the inspector bar will reveal new controls so you can customize the look of your pinboard.

  • Pinboard
    Click this button to display the pinboard inspector popover. The same panels are available in the Pinboard tab in the inspector shelf.

Pinboard Inspector

When a pinboard figure is selected, the inspector shelf will reveal a new Pinboard tab:

Show Title

Toggle the visibility of the pinboard title.

Automatic Resize

You could enable automatic resizing of the pinboard so it automatically grows and shrinks as necessary to hold its content.

Copy This Figure Style to All

Select an item in the pinboard, then click this button to copy that figure’s style to all other figures contained within the pinboard.

Stacks

A stack collection collects all of its contained figures in a neat, vertical stack which is perfect for organizing tasks in a visual manner.

The widths of all contained figures will be increased to the width of the stack, appropriately sizing images proportionally. If you resize the stack, the widths of all figures within will resize as well.

Stacks are best suited for organizing text, image, and file asset figures.

Smart Tag Inheritance on Search and Status

Stacks have two special, very important characteristics when tasks are viewed on the Search and Status shelf:

  1. Curio will ignore stack titles in the Status shelf (when grouping by tag) or on the Search shelf (when searching for tags).
  2. On both the Status and Search shelves, items within the stack will automatically inherit the title’s tags.

This means you can construct a series of stacks, where the title of the stack has an associated tag, and simply drag-and-drop items from one stack to another. Those items will instantly inherit the title’s tag and appear in the Status shelf with the correct associations.

Create a Stack

  • Use the Insert popover to create a stack via its style and stencil gallery, or use the Insert menu.

Convert a Selection of Figures into a Stack

  1. Select one or more figures on the idea space.
  2. Choose Arrange > Collect Into > Stack.

Edit a Figure Within a Stack

  • Double-click the figure or select it and press the Return key.

Create a Text Figure Within a Stack

  • Double-click the background of the stack or select an existing figure and press ⌘Return to create a next sibling or ⇧⌘Return to create a previous sibling.

Move Between Figures Within a Stack

  • Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate around the stack.

Add New Items to a Stack or Rearranging Items Via Drag-And-Drop

  1. Select figures from elsewhere in Curio, the Finder, or another application and drag them into Curio onto the stack figure.
  2. As you drag the items around the stack, you can see exactly where the items will be placed. Note that if the stack is sorted, see below, then you won’t be able to place an item precisely in the stack as it will be automatically sorted into place once you release the mouse.
  3. Release the mouse button to drop the items into the stack.
  4. Items within stack also support cut, copy, paste, and duplicate for adding and removing figures.
  5. The stack will automatically expand if necessary to accommodate the added items.

Select Multiple Figures Within the Stack

  • Either use the Shift or Command click to click on individual items, or hold Shift or Command and select a range of figures by clicking and holding on the background of the stack and dragging a rubber band selection region around figures.

Insert a New Figure into a Stack

  • Use the Insert toolbar button to insert a new figure such as a Styled Shape directly into the stack. Note, like all collection figures, a collection figure cannot contain another collection figure. So you can’t add a list to a stack, for example.

Drag a Figure out of the Stack

  • Simply drag the figure out of the stack and you can drop it on the idea space or directly into another collection such as a list or mind map.

Delete the Items Within a Stack

  1. Select the figures you wish to delete.
  2. Press the Delete or Backspace key or choose Edit > Delete.

Collapse or Expand a Stack

  1. Select the stack figure.
  2. Do a quick tap of the spacebar to collapse or expand the stack. Note that the stack has to have a title to be able to collapse it.

Toggle the Display of a Stack Title

  • Select the stack — or an item within the stack — and use the stack Inspector to turn on or off the stack title.

Change the Stack Sorting

  1. By default, you can manually rearrange items in the stack. Just drag items up and down the stack to arrange them in any order you wish.
  2. However, you can also tell Curio to keep the stack automatically sorted by title, creation date, modification date, due date, start date, start date or end date if already started, percent completed, priority, or rating, in either ascending or descending order. You can specify a secondary sort as well. Make a change to a figure and instantly the figures rearrange based on the sorting rule.
  3. Select the stack — or an item within the stack — then use the stack Inspector to select a primary and secondary sort option.

Export a Curio Stack

  1. Make sure the stack figure itself is selected, not a figure within the stack.
  2. Click the Share toolbar button then, under Share Selected Figure, choose the export format you wish to use, such as text, OPML, or a mind map format.

Stack Inspector Bar

When a stack is selected, the inspector bar will reveal new controls so you can customize the look of your stack.

  • Stack
    Click this button to display the stack inspector popover. The same panels are available in the Stack tab in the inspector shelf.

Stack Inspector

When a stack figure is selected, the inspector shelf will reveal a new Stack tab:

Show Title

Toggle the visibility of the stack title.

Automatically Size

The stack will automatically grow as you add new items, but via this option it can automatically shrink as items are removed.

Query

Specify a Search-style query and the stack will turn into a smart collection, where the contents of the collection will be determined by the query itself.

For example, entering a simple query of due < 2w will fill the stack with all figures in the project that are due within 2 weeks or a query of #active will show all items tagged with active.

Full details can be found above. Note that since Stacks can’t show hierarchy you can’t group your results, like you can with lists and mind maps.

Sorting

Change the automatic sort ordering. By default, you can manually rearrange items in the stack. Just drag items up and down the stack to arrange them in any order you wish.

However, you can also tell Curio to keep the stack automatically sorted by title, creation date, modification date, due date, start date, start date or end date if already started, done date, added date, percent completed, priority, or rating. You can specify a secondary sort as well.

Note

Query-based stacks are automatically sorted based on the query so these sorting popups aren’t available if you have a query specified.

Copy This Figure Style to All

Select an item in the stack, then click this button to copy that figure’s style to all other figures contained within the stack.