When you open the programme you are presented with a ‘whiteboard’ area on a white background. Across the top on the upper bar are the tools to begin your thought process. The graphic Shapes and Tools you need. the familiar tools; File save, Print, are accessible by clicking on the icon at the top left of the window.
Use is made of both single and double left clicks of the mouse to trigger menus and actions in the modelling environment. The keyboard commands enable many shortcuts to be taken, so speeding up your thinking processes.
- Default Options
Before we go further you may like to change the appearance of your models. Firstly you might think about how your first effort looked and maybe. To vary you can add emphasis by use of diferent colour for shapes, clusters or text.
The most popular shapes are already entered on the shapes toolbar ready for use. Yyou can use these shapes as you wish.
To erase all you need is to select the object to delete and click on the ribbon on the Delete button. The undo function enables you to go back a step if you delete something accidentally – more serious deletions may be retrievable by going to the saved version of the model.
- Writing Text on Objects
You can write whatever you like in objects given only the constraint of text size in relation to object size. However there are some skills of composition which will contribute to the quality of your final outcome. This is something that comes with practice like any other kind of writing. Some simple guidelines will help;
It is a good idea to avoid being too brief. One-worders provide a convenient code at the time but will tend to lose their meaning when associated with other ideas. It is better to ensure you have made a complete statement. E.g. where you may have written "no overtime" , when you ask yourself to be more specific, you might find you actually want to say "Good planning ensures work gets done in the time available". At the same time you cannot say too much. Just capture the whole of your idea in precise language.
You should also avoid using relative statements – more of, greater than etc. Again be as precise as possible even stating exact amounts. E.g. "I will spend at least 24 hours per week with my children" instead of "more time off". In cases where the idea requires amplification there is provision for entering copious notes - but more of that later.
- Notes and Notemarks
There may be occasions when you want to say more than can be written in a single hexagon or you may want to add notes to remind you what you had in mind. If you are writing a report or article, you may want to write a paragraph or two that illustrate the idea your shape is refering to. When you first click left on the object to write text into it there is, in the dialogue box, an option for Notes. When you select this you have a pad on which you can write extensive notes in normal word-processing mode. This enables you to model your ideas without obscuring your thoughts with details.
When you print out your model in text mode your notes will appear as sub-paragraphs to your object title.
- Creating a Model
Put the cursor on one of the hexagon shapes in the top ribbon and click the left button. You will have armed the cursor with that shape and as you click left on the whiteboard space you will create objects. To disarm the cursor click on selection tool (the arrow shape) at the top of the ribbon. Now if you click and hold on an object the cursor changes to a hand and you will find you can move the object wherever you want,dropping it by releasing your finger.
So far your objects have no content, so to make them represent ideas you need to enter text. Double click on an object type in your thought about a topic and Return. The text now appears in your shape – you have created a thought object! Notice now, that when the cursor is over an object, a text line appears in the bottom toolbar – for an empty hexagon it simply tells you it is a hexagon object. If you have entered text you can read your text here even when the original shape is too small to allow you to read it on the whiteboard.
Enter a few more thoughts on your chosen topic – indeed write thoughts until you exhaust the topic and you generate sufficient material to work with. Now try arranging your thought objects in relation to each other in a way that makes sense to you. You may find that some thoughts are very closely related and others are more remote. It is likely that when you are done you have a number of clusters of thoughts and one or two isolated ideas.
Scrolling enables you to view that part of the model upon which you are currently working. This can be done by using the conventional scroll bars bottom and right of the screen.
This function lets you get close so you can read easily or draw back to get an overview. From the drop down menu under Zoom in the top toolbar. You need to get the feel of the various ways of manipulating your view. This is a combination of model size – Larger or Smaller from the Model menu control the overall size of the whiteboard on which you are working. The various Zoom options alter the magnification at which you are viewing your model.
>Colour can be very meaningful and will, in time, be valuable to help you express priorities are different kinds of thought. Try not to overcomplicate your work until you become fluent so to begin with it will not go amiss to use a single colour. You can select the colour of your objects by clicking on the Colour Box in the top toolbar. Select any colour you want and click OK. If you want to change the colour of an object, left click on that object to select it and click on the colour box in the top toolbar.
The association of ideas is one of the most important ways in which we create meaning. When clustering, allow your mind to associate freely. Try to avoid pre-determining the cluster titles as you will tend to recreate habitual interpretions of reality. In modelling we are often striving to allow new meanings to emerge so we try to let associations form without prejudice. When we have created a cluster of ideas it is to the whole cluster that we assign meaning even though there may sometimes be contradictions or other anomolies.
The clustering tools in Cognify are designed to make all this easier. A much quicker way of creating clusters of thoughts is to depress the Alt button and Left Click on ideas that seem to be associated with one another. As you do so you will see that each is highlighted. Now take your finger off the Shift button and select Cluster in the top toolbar. and all the objects you highlighted will be grouped together. A text box will invite you to name this cluster. Cluster titles can, if you wish, be a single word that captures the essence of the contents. You will find now that you can move your cluster as a whole as well as still being able to move its contents independently.
Continue creating clusters with the objects you have written. If you have spare objects left over delete them by clicking on the red Eraser symbol in the top toolbar – a Left Click with this will remove an object. If you erase something accidentally select Undo in the Edit menu.
When all your thoughts have been clustered, move the clusters around so that their position makes sense for you. Is there a connection between one cluster and another? Perhaps one comes before another in time or else you can see a causal connection between some clusters. You can represent this connection with an arrow. Arm the curser by clicking on the arrow in the right of the top toolbar and click on the cluster to be connected and drag to the target cluster.
As you build up the arrows you may find that you need to re-arrange some of your clusters to avoid collisions and improve legibility. You have now created a model!
- Brainstorm Mode
Instead of creating objects and then writing in them you can move rapidly by selecting the Brainstorming mode from the Model menu on the top toolbar. You will find you have a text box in which you can enter your ideas as they occur to you, ending each with Return (or Enter). When you select Finish your ideas will appear as objects on your whiteboard. You can then group them as you like. Alternatively you can select Create Cluster as soon as you have written a series of associated ideas and you save an intermediate step. This latter method is particularly useful if you are copying a model that already exists.
- Auto-clustering
We looked at how to create clusters direct from a brainstorm list and how to make clusters from ideas you have highlighted using Alt and a mouse click. You will notice that the software always gathers your ideas into a compact cluster, making it easier to grasp all the ideas as a single concept. Now if you move an idea in or out of a cluster, the software will re-group the ideas neatly as before. Your attention is not needed for the graphical work as you can simply dump ideas together and let Re-organise cluster do the rest for you.
Sometimes you may want to cluster clusters and you can treat them largely as if they were primary objects. This can be especially useful if you need to structure something very complex, in which case, after your intitial clustering, selecting Simplify from the Model menu gives you a view without the content of the cluster. Now you have your clusters described only by their titles and you can model these in turn, creating clusters to contain them if you wish. Note that clusters will be contained but not re-organised so you will need to position your clusters with care. Selecting Develop from the Model menu will re-draw the contents of the clusters.
To finish the process lets print out the model so you can use it for communication. Check first that you are happy with how it looks by selecting the preview icon or Print Preview in the File menu. If you are not pleased with the size or the layout, exit the preview and make the changes you wish. When you are ready select Print.