Here is what I would do, with the stipulation that use of this program is highly idiosyncratic and personalized, which is the strength of the software.
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I would create a prototype for each of the ideas or notes you want to enter into the program. Let’s call that prototype Entries (or Notes or Ideas or whatever). [See note below]
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I would create a couple of User attributes – and make them “Key Attributes” for that prototype. (So that the entries you create will all have those attributes.) For instance: Source, if there are variety of sources you want to keep track of. (Like: “Smith interview” “Bailyn book” “Atlantic article” etc. ) And Theme – the ideas by which you want to classify each of the notes or entries. (Like, “We are all doomed,” or “Doom, chances of” or “Actually there’s hope” and so on. These can be single words or phrases. I’ll save for later the diff between making these “Set” or “String” attributes. Important to note that you can assign multiple values to any one item.) Or Section – like “Intro,” “Conclusion,” “Part One,” “TBD” etc. Or Heat Factor – “Hot,” “Medium,” “Marginal,” etc.
It’s important to realize that these are just about infinitely adjustable. You can add an attribute if you think it might be useful; delete it if it’s not; change its phrasing and values; and so on. -
I would go to Outline view, and use Add Columns. Then, as you enter each note, you can see, spreadsheet style, ways to add these various categorizing details.
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Then – the real payoff from my POV – I would go to the Attribute Browser, and be able to see the information grouped by any of the criteria you’ve entered. There is a long string you can read, here, with lots of screen shots of what this looks like.
There are people who use Map view to organize / link ideas and views. I use the Map view occasionally, for large-scale planning – but for categorizing ideas and laying out articles and books, I find the Attribute Browser a complete godsend,
Next steps, over to you!
[Note about prototypes: I’d create a container/ top-level outline entry called something like “Ideas” or “Entries” or “Data”. Then I would create an “Action” for that container, to make sure that every new item that you create there will have the desired prototype. Eg, the Action would be something like $Prototype="Ideas" ]