SplashNotes for Mac OS - User Guide   Table of Contents Introduction  • Features What is Outlining?  • Brainstorming  • Organizing  • Analyzing  • Finishing SplashNotes on iPhone/iPod touch  • Outline List  • Outline Info  • Outline Editor  • Notes and Images SplashNotes Desktop  • Outline List  • Outline Editor  • Line Numbering Synchronization    • Creating an Ad hoc Network Ideas for What to Do with SplashNotes

Introduction

Welcome to SplashNotes for iPhone, an easy to use, versatile outliner for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Palm OS. SplashNotes can help you create plans, organize thoughts, make task lists, write speeches, and lots more. SplashNotes is also a great tool for communicating your projects and plans to your colleagues.

This manual will teach you the basics of how to get started using SplashNotes. SplashNotes is an organizational tool that is only limited by your own creativity. While reading through the manual, think of all the areas of your life where SplashNotes could benefit you and help you get organized.

If you are new to outlining, be sure to read the section titled "What is Outlining?" to get the most out of the concepts that inspired SplashNotes.

Features

Organizational Features

• Desktop Templates - Outlines that you can save and reuse over and over
  
• Sorting and Columns - Outlines can be sorted alphabetically by title or category.
• Hiding and Deleting Checked Items - You can hide checked items or delete them to focus only on the parts of an outline or project that have not yet been completed.
• Notes and Images - You can attach a note or image to an individual item in an outline.
  

Easy to Use

• Revolutionary interface for an iPhone application - type on a single screen and just tap Next to go to the next bullet. No clumsy "back-n-forth" screens.
• Outlining toolbar at the top of the window puts all of the needed tools at your fingertips

What is Outlining?

Outlining is a multi-step process that helps you take raw ideas, organize them, and turn them into a final product. The steps of outlining are:

1. Brainstorming
2. Organizing
   
3. Analyzing
   
4. Finishing

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is the process of capturing your ideas about a subject, the raw material for your project. Brainstorming can be done individually, but is even more powerful when done in a group. Members of the group say out loud their ideas about something, and one person attempts to write them all down.

While brainstorming, no ideas should be ruled out. Anything goes. Brainstorming at its best is quite fun. Often times it can even be hilarious, with people shouting out the most ridiculous things. All ideas should be written down no matter how far out. If you are brainstorming on your own, try to stretch your mind to look for all angles to a problem or subject.

By keeping all ideas open during the brainstorming phase, without judging them. Participants will feel more free to include them. Also, ideas that may eventually be ruled out might trigger other ideas that might be the best ones. By ruling out the ridiculous too early, you may never get to the good ideas that follow them.

SplashNotes can help you capture ideas during the brainstorming phase. Simply enter one thought per line. Enter a return when starting a new thought, and a new item will be created. You can quickly create a very large list of ideas.

Organizing

During the Organizing phase, you attempt to group the ideas together under logical headings. These groupings can then be further broken down into sub-groups.

This process will help you break a large project down into smaller projects, and those into smaller still. Your goal here is break the project down into small enough groups that they are understandable and manageable.

One problem with brainstorming on paper is that when you get to the organizing phase, you must rewrite all the ideas into some structure. Some people advocate writing all the ideas onto paper and cutting them up so they can be easily rearranged. However, if you want to contrast different arrangements at this phase, you must make multiple copies. It can be a nightmare.

SplashNotes's drag and drop editing makes this stage of outlining quite easy. To reorganize ideas, simply drag them and drop them where you want. You can group ideas together by indenting them under larger concepts. If you want to contrast different ways of organizing an outlining, you can save an outline as a template and create as many copies as you need.

Analyzing

During the analyzing phase, you narrow the focus of your project to manageable goals, and you delete any ideas that you wrote down, but that you have decided not to use in this project. At this phase, you may discover parts of your outline which are incomplete, which may require you to go back to the Brainstorming and Organizing phases to fill out all areas of your outline.

SplashNotes helps you analyze your ideas by allowing you to temporarily hide items that you think you may not need. You can then try out different scenarios of what your final outline will look like, without losing information. Once you have decided on a final list, you can permanently delete all the items that you do not want to include.

Finishing

Once you have your outline complete, it is time to finish your project. Depending on what you are working on, this may require different approaches. For example, if you are creating an outline of a report you are writing, you will want to use the outline as a guide to write your report in Word.

Or, keeping the outline in SplashNotes may be your finishing step. For example, many teachers use SplashNotes to create curriculum and lesson notes. While teaching a class, they check off items they have completed. They can then always know what progress they have made in a particular course. By saving an outline as a template, a teacher can reuse the course outline the next time the course is taught.

Or perhaps your outline represents a project plan. SplashNotes's checklist feature can then be used to check off items in a project as they are completed.

SplashNotes on the iPhone/iPod touch

Outline List

The first screen you see when you launch SplashNotes on the iPhone is the Outline List. This is a list of any outlines you have created in addition to included samples. To create a new outline, tap the New Outline button. If you tap the Edit button, the list will go into Edit mode, enabling you to tap the right edge and drag to rearrange the order of the list, or tap the minus button to delete an outline. Tap on the Outline Name to open the Outline Info dialog, where you can edit the name, icon and style of the outline. Tap Done when you are finished editing the list. Tap the Sync to initiate a sync.

Outline Info

When you tap on on outline in Edit mode from the Outline List in SplashNotes on the iPhone, you will access the Outline Info screen. Here you can set the Outline Name, the bullet style, and the Icon. There are 3 bullet styles: Bullets, no checkboxes Bullets with checkboxes, checked items displayed Bullets with Checkboxes, checked items hidden

Outline Editor

When you create a new outline or tap on an existing outline, you will enter the Outline Editor screen. It's easy to use - just start typing out your ideas or taking notes. When you are done with a bullet point, tap the Next button to go to the next bullet point and keep on typing. To format the outline, use the buttons on the toolbar. From left to right, they are: Keyboard Down/New Bullet - when the keyboard is up, this will hide it, when the keyboard is down, this will be a plus button to add a new line Move Left - Promotes the bullet point, which may put it further down the page Move Right - Demotes the bullet point, making it a child of the bullet above Move up - Moves the bullet point above the bullet above it Move up - Moves the bullet point below the bullet below it

Notes and Images

If you wish to add or view additional notes or an image to a bullet point, tap the arrow button on the right edge of the bullet. You can type in additional notes in the Notes field, or tap the Image field to add a image either from your photo library or use your camera to capture a new one. Tap the Save button when you are done to return to the Outline Editor.

SplashNotes Desktop Application

The SplashNotes desktop application is composed of 2 main panels - the Outline List and the Outline Editor. The Outline List (left) is a list of outlines and templates you have saved and their categories.

Outline List

The outline list gives you easy access to your SplashNotes outlines and lets you move outlines to and from your handheld device. To show an outline, simply click on it and the outline will appear to the right of the list.
You can hide the outline list by selecting Hide Outline List from the Window menu. This will give you more room on your screen to edit outlines. To show the outline list again, choose Show Outline List from the Window menu.

There are 3 buttons below the Outline List - Add Outline, Delete Outline, and Save Outline.

The Outline List is organized into 2 folders that represent different parts of your hard disk, and have different functions, as follows:

> Outlines

These are the outlines you have created and saved, and they can be sorted alphabetically by either Title or Category by clicking the column header.

The handheld outlines are located on your hard disk in your ~/Documents/SplashNotes/SplashNotesDocs/ directory, and have a ".sno" extension.

> Templates

Templates allow you to easily make a copy of an outline to start a new outline. For example, perhaps you have created an outline that helps you plan workshops. You can drag an outline to the Templates section to save it as a Template, so that you can easily create multiple outlines from it. To create a new outline from a template, drag the template from the Templates section to the Outlines section. The outline will be become a new outline in that section.

Templates are located on your hard disk in your ~/Documents/SplashNotes/SplashNotesDocs/ directory, and have a ".snt" extension.

> Conflicts

If both the desktop outline and handheld outline were changed, the outline is copied to the Conflicts section.

When a file appears in the Conflict section, it means that the SplashNotes conduit software was not able to synchronize your file. You will need to reenter the changes you made to the outline.

Outline Editor

The Outline Editor is where you work on the body of your outlines. Start a new outline by clicking the Add Outlining button at the lower left, or press Cmd-N.

Now start creating your outline. Type the first bullet point and hit enter to go to the next bullet point.

Use the editing toolbar to format your outline:

The buttons have tips if you mouse over them to let you know what they do, but here are their descriptions (with keyboard shortcuts, if any):

• Edit
  • Add - Adds a new bullet below where your cursor is (Enter)
  • Duplicate - Makes a copy of the currently selected bullet
  • Delete - Deletes the currently selected bullet
  • Note - Opens the Note Editor where you can add additional text related to the bullet point
  • Image - Opens the Image Editor where you can add an image related to the bullet point
  • Insert Date - Inserts the current date, after you select the format
  • Insert Time - Inserts the current time, after you select the format
• Move
  • Move Left - Promotes the bullet point, which may put it further down the page (Cmd-1)
  • Move Right - Demotes the bullet point, making it a child of the bullet above (Cmd-2)
  • Move up - Moves the bullet point above the bullet above it (Cmd-3)
  • Move up - Moves the bullet point below the bullet below it (Cmd-4)
• Type
  • Hide Checkboxes - This displays bullets only - no checkboxes
  • Show Checkboxes - This displays bullets with checkboxes, and checked items are displayed
  • Hide Checked Items - This displays bullets with checkboxes, but only unchecked items are displayed

Line Numbering

Choose Line Numbering from the Format menu if you want SplashNotes to automatically number the lines of the outline. A number of pre-selected numbering schemes are included in the Numbering list, including Legal, Roman, Numeric, Alphabetic, and a mixture. When you select a numbering scheme, a small arrow will appear to the right. Tap that arrow to select the number suffix that will appear after the number.

Synchronization

Items may be created or edited on the Handheld or Desktop and the changes can be synchronized over your local WiFi network.

By default information is synchronized in both directions, but you can adjust the settings, in iPhone Sync settings which can be opened from the File menu.

In most cases, you will wish to leave the Default setting (on the right) set to Synchronize. This means that after changing it to Desktop Overwrites Handheld and doing a sync, it will revert back to Synchronize for the next sync so you don't have to go back in and change the setting back manually.

Here are the possible sync settings and the results they will bring about:

• Synchronize -- Changes made on the Handheld or the Desktop will be synchronized. If an outline is edited on both sides between syncs, both versions of the outline will be kept so you can manually compare which one you want to keep. You will find these in the Conflicts folder of the Outline List on the desktop application.
• Desktop overwrites handheld -- All data on the Desktop is copied to the handheld. Any data on the Handheld will be replaced.
• Handheld overwrites Desktop -- All data on the Handheld is copied to the Desktop. Any data on the Desktop will be replaced.

In order to synchronize, you must do the following:

1. Select the same network that your computer is on for your handheld to join
2. Open the SplashNotes desktop
3. Select the correct user from the User menu in the SplashNotes desktop to match the device name
4. Adjust the iPhone Sync settings in File > iPhone Sync if you wish
5. Start the Sync on the handheld:

1. Tap Sync on Outline List screen

2. Select your desktop computer

3. Tap "Start Sync"

Creating an Ad Hoc Network

If you have trouble connecting your handheld and desktop SplashNotes, or if you want to make your sync connection with the handheld more private, you can set up an Ad hoc network (aka Computer-to-Computer network), and then perform your sync with both devices on that network. Here's how:

Mac OS

1. Click the Airport icon in the menu bar, and select Create Network.
2. Select options for the network such as name and if you wish to password protect it.
3. On the handheld, join the new network from the list in Settings > Wi-Fi.
4. Now open SplashNotes on both the handheld and desktop and proceed with the Synchronization.

Windows Vista

1. Open Connect to a Network by clicking the Start button , and then clicking Connect to
2. Click Set up a connection or network.
   
3. Click Set up an ad hoc (computer-to-computer) network, click Next, and then follow the steps in the wizard.
4. On the handheld, join the new network from the list in Settings > Wi-Fi.
5. Now open SplashNotes on both the handheld and desktop and proceed with the Synchronization.

This Vista setup information was gathered from this documentation Here you can find information on setting up an Ad hoc Network in Windows XP.

Ideas for What to Do with SplashNotes

Creating Handheld References

If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, get the iPhone version of SplashNotes on the App Store. SplashNotes is ideal for reference information. Because it is hierarchical, you can quickly drill down to the information you need. Examples include: dictionaries, encyclopedias, catalogs, field guides, travel information, parts lists, web site lists, and more. You can even attach images to the items to enhance the effectiveness of the reference.

Brainstorming

A brainstorming session is more helpful when the ideas are then organized, categorized, and prioritized. To use SplashNotes for this, jot down an idea for each item, then create categories under which the ideas belong.
For example, for a brainstorm session on marketing strategies, the categories that would emerge might be: Internet marketing, TV, Mailings, Trade Shows, Magazines, etc. Underneath each of these would be other sub-categories, and so on.

Task Lists

Use SplashNotes to create more complicated and hierarchical lists than the simple lists that come with your handheld. For example you may have tasks in different areas of your life: Work (which may have many sub-headings as well), house projects, travel, hobbies, health, food, volunteer work, movies to rent, raising the kids, web sites to remember, etc.

Project Management

Keep track of a project by first listing the major tasks of a project, then adding subordinate tasks to each major task to list the steps required to complete that task. As a task is completed, check it off. When all the subordinate tasks are checked, the parent task is automatically checked.

Assign tasks to individuals by listing their name on the task. You can then search for which tasks are assigned to that person using the Find command.

Education

> Assessment

Teachers can easily move around the classroom to assess students while they are learning. For example, you can take a list of educational standards and turn into a checklist. You can create this list for each student and even add special notes to various items. You can also keep track of the mountains of homework data and other information. There are many different ways to create student files and to use rubrics and checklists for individualized and authentic assessments. Many examples of rubrics, checklists, and assessment ideas are included in SplashNotes for Teachers.

> Lesson Plans

Teachers can create lesson plans and use ideas for activities right there on the handheld. You can create your own lesson plan templates (or use the ones provided). Wherever you are (e.g., boring faculty meetings), you can develop lesson plans. You can refer to other resource outlines in SplashNotes for Teachers, such as Lesson Plan Creating, Lesson Plan Template, Before Reading Activities, etc.

> Organizing Tasks & Ideas

Teachers' "To Do" lists are so long and chaotic (& often lost) that things don't get done and you get further stressed by keeping it all in your heads. SplashNotes eases the mental burden by grouping ideas and tasks in logical ways. Examples include lists & priorities, parent contacts, materials & supplies, curriculum and instruction ideas

> Note Taking & Research

Students can take notes and create outlines as they listen learn. They can take notes on research materials or textbooks. They can use the Research Paper Template and other outlines.

Product Testing and QA

SplashNotes is perfect for creating test plans. As you think about the product you are testing, you can continuously add ideas and areas of the product you want to explore. Once all the portions of a product are mapped out, you can save the outline as a template, and then create copies of the outline for each type of test you want to perform (usability, stress, automated testing, functional, unit, etc.). Keep track of which tests you have completed by checking off the tested items.

Medical Care

The multi-level outline format is ideal for the complex data organizing that is involved in many areas of medicine and patient care. Medical professionals can create and share outlines to be used in patient diagnosis, administering medicines, keeping updated on medical practices, etc.