Overview
Each board is a single-screen workspace. Arrange your layout freely. Thoughtogram will not auto-jiggle your cards.
There is no scrolling and no zooming. What you can see is the whole board, which is the point: everything stays readable at a glance and nothing gets buried.
Your Home Board
Your Home Board is your base. You will see this first each time you log in. You can also always get back to it by the bread crumb link or from the Boards + button.
This is a great place to place some of your favourite website links. It is handy to create board links here so you can build your boards from a central location for easy navigation.
You can add your favourite quotes and affirmations if you want.
You can also jot down ideas and quick notes and arrange them how you want along with quick to do lists.
Creating a Board
Click the Boards + button in the toolbar. You will then see the Create Board form.
Easily create another board by typing a [ and a ] in a card. For example: [Hobby]
When you click out of the card the [Hobby] for example will become a board link to that board if it already exists or it will automatically create a new board with that title.
There is no limit on how many boards you can have.
Editing a Board Title
Click the Boards + button. Click the Edit button corresponding to the Board Title that you want to edit.
Use the input box to edit the title and then click the Save button. (There is a 20 Character Limit for Board Titles)
Any Board Link to that Board will change to reflect your new change.
Styling a Board
Background
Change the background wallpaper of your current board by clicking on the Backgrounds button and selecting the background you want.
Toolbar Colour
Drag a colour from the colour bar and drop it onto the top toolbar itself. The toolbar takes that colour for this board only, so each board can have its own look and you can tell at a glance which one you are on.
The text and icons switch between light and dark automatically depending on how bright the colour you chose is.
Board Addresses
Every board has its own web address. As you move between boards, the address bar updates to match, for example thoughtogram.com/think.php?board=hobby
That means you can bookmark a board you use a lot and open it straight from your browser, and the back button walks back through the boards you have visited.
Deleting a Board
Click the Boards + button. Click the delete X button corresponding to the board you want to delete. A confirmation warning will come up.
Deleting a board also turns any links to that board back into plain text.
Recently Deleted Boards
A deleted board is not gone straight away. At the foot of the boards list there is a Recently Deleted Boards link showing how many are waiting there.
You can restore any of them for 30 days, after which they are permanently removed. Restoring brings the board back with its cards.
Deleted cards are a different matter. The trashcan is immediate and there is no undo for a card, so it is worth being surer about a card than about a board.
Creating a Card
Click or Drag the + New Card button.
You can also: Shift + double click anywhere on the board where you want a new card and it will appear there.
You can drag a border of an existing card. A line will come out from the border. If you drop in an empty space then a new card connected to the original card will appear.
Styling a Card
To change the colour of the card background drag a colour from the colour bar and drop it onto the card.
To change the colour of the card border: drag a colour from the colour bar and drop it onto the card border.
Resizing a Card
Card Height resizes automatically based on the content in the card.
Drag the bottom left corner of the card to adjust the width and height in focus or out of focus card mode.
Expanding a Card
Cards are meant to stay small and glanceable, but sometimes you want to write properly. Hover over a card and a small expand arrow ⤢ appears. Click it.
The card opens as a large editor filling the screen, with plenty of room for long notes, a whole article, or anything else that would swamp a card.
Inside the expanded view you can also:
- Copy as Markdown, to paste the card into Obsidian, Notion or anywhere else.
- Download as Markdown, to save the card as a file.
Close it and the card goes back to its normal size on the board. The content is all still there, just not taking up the room.
Connecting Cards
If you drag a card border a connecting line will appear. Drop it onto another card to connect the 2 cards.
To change the colour of a connecting line, drag a colour from the colour bar and drop it onto the line.
Delete a Connecting Line
Drag the trashcan symbol 🗑 from the toolbar to the connecting line that you want to delete and drop it.
Deleting a Card
Drag the trashcan symbol 🗑 from the toolbar to the card you want to delete and drop it. (This will also delete any connecting lines attached to the card.)
This is immediate and permanent, so there is no recycle bin for cards.
Select Mode
Tidying a busy board one card at a time is slow. Select Mode lets you deal with several at once.
Click the Select button in the toolbar to turn it on. Then either:
- Click cards to tick them one by one, or
- Drag a box across an area of the board to select everything inside it.
A bar appears showing how many cards you have selected, with buttons to:
- Delete all of them in one go.
- Move them to another board.
- Copy them to another board, leaving the originals where they are.
Click Done to leave Select Mode and go back to normal editing.
Clone, Move & Copy Cards
Clone a Card
Drag the clone symbol 🧬 from the toolbar onto a card to create an exact duplicate of it on the same board.
Move a Card to Another Board
Drag the truck symbol 🚚 onto a card. A list of your boards will appear. Select the destination board and the card will be moved there (removed from the current board).
Copy a Card to Another Board
Drag the clipboard symbol 📋 onto a card. A list of your boards will appear. Select the destination board and a copy of the card will be created there (the original stays on the current board).
There is a tick box on that list to follow the card to its destination board, or stay where you are and carry on.
Creating a Link to a Website
In a card type: https:// and then the domain etc of the website. When you click away from the card the link will be created with a favicon.
Or click the Web Link button in the toolbar and the https:// will be typed in for you.
Or copy and paste a web link into the card. Make sure the https:// is included.
Board Links
Type square brackets around a word in a card, like [Hobby], and it becomes a link to that board. If no board of that name exists yet, one is created.
You can also highlight a word you have already typed and click the Board Link button in the toolbar, which puts the brackets around it for you.
Any board can link to any other board, in any direction. There is no hierarchy and no folders, so your boards can grow into a network shaped like the way you actually think about the subject.
Images & Videos
Adding Images
Drag an image URL from another website and drop it onto your board. Thoughtogram will automatically display the image inside a new card.
Click on an image to select it. When selected, a size slider will appear in the toolbar. Use it to resize the image. You can also rotate the image using the rotate button ↻.
Adding YouTube Videos
Drag a YouTube link from your browser and drop it onto your board. The video will be embedded and playable directly on your board.
Click on the video once to start playing. The video will pause automatically when you move your mouse away.
Toggle Video Display
If you prefer a compact link instead of an embedded video, drag the video toggle symbol ▶️ from the toolbar onto the video. It will convert to a simple link with favicon.
To convert a YouTube link back to an embedded video, drag the ▶️ symbol onto the link.
Icons
Click the Icons button in the toolbar to open the icon library with over 5000 icons.
Use the search box to find icons by name (e.g., "heart", "star", "home").
Click on an icon to place it on your board. You can then drag it to position it wherever you like.
Styling Icons
Click on an icon to select it. When selected:
Use the size slider in the toolbar to resize the icon.
Use the rotate button ↻ to rotate the icon by 45 degrees.
Drag a colour from the colour bar onto the icon to change its colour.
Text Formatting
You can easily add emphasis to your text. When you click to edit a card, the toolbar will change to show formatting options.
Bold & Italic
Simply highlight the text you want to change and click the B for Bold or I for Italic button.
Text Alignment
Click the Center button to center your text. Click it again to return to left alignment.
Text Size
Highlight the text you want to resize. Use the size slider in the toolbar to make the text larger or smaller (from 16px to 120px).
Text Colour
When editing a card, the colour bar switches to text mode. Highlight the text you want to colour, then click on a colour in the colour bar to apply it to your selected text.
Exporting Your Notes
Nothing here is locked in. There are three ways to get your writing out:
- A single card: expand it and use Copy as Markdown or Download as Markdown.
- A whole board: open the boards list and use the Export link.
- Everything: the same export view covers all your boards.
Markdown is plain text, so it opens in Obsidian, Notion, a text editor, or anything else that reads files.
Clipping & Capture
Two optional extras come with Thoughtogram, and neither is required.
Web Clipper
A Chrome extension that sends pages, highlighted passages, links and notes straight to a board while you are reading. Right click any page to save it to Home, or use the toolbar button to pick which board it lands on.
From your phone
Open thoughtogram.com on your phone and log in for quick capture. Type a thought and it goes to a board, ready for you next time you sit down. You can read your boards there too, one card at a time.
Arranging is a desktop job. A board is sized to a proper screen, so the phone is for catching things and reading them back.
See the extensions help page for more on both.
Contact Support
If you have questions, comments, suggestions and bug reports please email: support@thoughtogram.com