Glossary

Term	Definition
Activate	To bring a thought to the center of the plex and make it the active thought.
Active thought	The thought you are working on right now. The active thought occupies the center of the plex. The active thought's details are described in the Thought tab. A thought that is not active can be activated by clicking it, its pin, or its name in a list and pressing Enter.
Application	A program such as a word processor, web browser, game, or photo editor.
Backlinks	Thoughts whose notes link to the active thought. Backlinks appear in the content area in a footer under the notes.
Brain	A collection of associated thoughts each of which can have content. TheBrain can create multiple brains.
Child thought	A thought with at least one parent. Children of the active thought appear in the child zone, below the active thought. In turn, the active thought is a child of any thought that appears above it in the parent zone.
Content Area	The content area shows content attached to the active thought or a moused-over thought, depending on the current preference settings. Content can include notes, attachments, links, and web pages that display in the content area's built-in browser. The content area also automatically displays an area showing Mapped Links, Backlinks, and Unlinked Mentions—related content that has commonalities with the active thought.
Delete	The complete removal of a thought and/or its content from a brain. Deletion is permanent.
Drag and drop	To use this feature, select the item you want to drag, click the mouse button and drag the item to where you want it to appear.
Forget	To remove a thought from TheBrain without deleting it, its links, its content, or its note. Forgotten thoughts can be "remembered."
Forgotten thought	A thought that is removed from TheBrain without deleting it, its links, its content, or its note. Forgotten thoughts can be "remembered."
Gate	The active thought and its close relatives have three circular "gates," each of which is used to link to a specific relation: The parent gate is above a thought; the child gate is below it; and the jump gate is beside it. A gate is hollow when there are no links through it, and solid when links exist.
Home thought	The Home thought is the main or top thought of your brain. It is the thought that is activated when you click the Home button in the Brain toolbar.
Jump thought	A jump thought is linked to another thought through its jump gate and appears in the jump zone to the left of the active thought. Activating a jump thought produces a more significant reconfiguration of the plex than activating a child thought or parent thought. This is because jump thoughts of the active thought are related exclusively to the active thought and not to other thoughts in the plex.
Link	The act of connecting thoughts thereby establishing close relations. Also, the line connecting two thoughts in the plex.
Link Type	A category of links that allows you to distinguish how thoughts are related visually. For example, you could have a Link Type called "writes" set so that links between authors and books display brown with the label "writes."
Mapped Links	Thoughts that are connected in the plex as parents, children, jumps, or siblings (but do not necessarily have text in common). Mapped links appear in the content area in a footer under the notes.
Navigate	To move from thought to thought by activating thoughts.
Notes	Every thought can have notes, which are displayed in the content area. Notes can hold any combination of text, images, sound, or shortcuts. The Notes editor includes a word processor.
Parent thought	A thought that has at least one child. A parent thought is linked to its child thoughts through its child gate. The active thought is a parent of any thought displayed in its child zone, below it. Parent thoughts of the active thought appear in the parent zone, above the active thought.
Parentless thought	A thought without a parent thought. A parentless thought is often a jump thought or a thought representing a subject heading or organizer. Usually, the first thought in a brain (generally named after the user) is a parentless thought.
Past Thought list	The scrollable list of thoughts at the bottom of the plex, arranged in the order activated. The most recently activated thought is the rightmost thought in the list.
Pin	An entry point to a brain. Click a pin to activate its thought. A pin is created by dragging a thought to the area immediately below the menu bar. The pin stays there until it is removed by being dragged into the menu bar or title bar. You can also create a pin of the active thought from the thought menu.
Plex	The visible portion of your brain; it includes the active thought, its close relations, and the links between them. It also includes the Search box, the Past Thought List, and navigation tools.
Remember	A thought that has been removed from the plex by "forgetting" can be remembered by selecting Showing Forgotten Thoughts on the Options menu, right-clicking the thought, then selecting Remember thought name on the context menu.
Search box	The field in the top-right area of the plex. Type text in this field to perform an Instant Activation search.
Siblings	Two or more thoughts with a common parent. When a thought that has siblings is active, its siblings are displayed in the sibling zone, to the right of the active thought.
Template	A file used as the basis for creating other files. Template files can be added to the window of the Add Attachment dialog box.
Thought	The basic unit of a brain. A thought can represent anything the user wants it to. A thought can have content in the form of a file, shortcut, or web page, or it can be devoid of content and simply act as a subject heading or organizer.
Thought Type	A way to categorize thoughts and give them distinct colors. For example, you can have a "Person" thought type so that all thoughts that are people display as green.
Timeline	The Timeline is the visual tool for using TheBrain's built-in calendar. Use it to create, edit, and view events which can be associated with specific thoughts.
Unlinked Mentions	Thoughts whose notes contain the name of the active thought⎯even if not explicitly linked. Unlinked mentions appear in the content area in a footer under the notes.
Styles	Notes may be formatted using any of TheBrain's built-in Styles, which are combinations of font, color, and size. By default, notes appear in a style called "Modern."
Unlink	Unlink thoughts that you no longer want to be related to any other thought in your brain, or when you want to remove a superfluous link. You cannot unlink a thought's only Link to the active thought.
URL	Universal Resource Locator; the address of a web site.
Wander	The option to step randomly through TheBrain, to let you see thought associations.
Zones	Areas in the plex devoted to specific relations of the active thought. There are four zones: the parent zone above the active thought, the child zone below it, the jump zone to its left, and the sibling zone to its right.