Shelf

The Curio shelf is a popup area located on the right side of the Curio window. Curio includes several shelf modules that run within that area to help you while you’re working on your project such as the Search shelf to find information.

Inspector

Accessing the Inspector Shelf

You can access the inspector shelf by clicking on the Inspector toolbar button. Go ahead and do it now so you can look at it while we go over some things.

Context Sensitive

The inspector shelf shows properties of the selected figure or idea space. The inspector panels that appear within the shelf are context sensitive so, based on what’s selected, the available panels and tabs may change.

For instance, select a text figure and you will see certain tabs at the top of the inspector shelf. Click on a list and a tab titled “List” will appear with more options. Click on the background of the idea space so no figures are selected and the inspector content will change to show properties of the idea space, such as background color and dimensions.

Inspector Popovers

As mentioned earlier in this document, you can access many of the same panels via buttons on the inspector bar. In many cases, those buttons will reveal popovers that appear so you can make property changes, then dismiss the popover when you’re done. Sometimes popovers are more convenient than the inspector shelf, especially for small laptop screens, because they only take up room temporarily.

Detachable Popovers

Inspector popovers can also be detached by clicking and dragging on their background to “tear” them off the inspector bar and turn them into free floating windows. You can drag these small windows anywhere on the screen, or even to a separate screen attached to your Mac.

Relaunching Curio will automatically restore those same detached popovers.

Search

The Search shelf is discussed in great detail in Search and Quick Find.

Library

You can access the search shelf by clicking on the Library toolbar button. Go ahead and do it now so you can look at it while we go over some things.

Library Modules

Based on the edition of Curio you own, you will find several installed library modules listed with tabs at the top of the library shelf.

Let’s begin our tour of the available library modules…

Project

Every project has an internal asset library which manages all aliased and embedded files dragged into Curio.

Generally you use the project library to see what assets are in your library and re-use existing assets. When you use the same asset more than once in your project it is actually only stored as a single underlying file in the asset library.

To use an asset simply drag-and-drop it out of the library and drop it onto the idea space. This will create an appropriate asset figure to be associated with the dragged asset. Again, you can use this technique to create numerous asset figures of the same asset and Curio will efficiently use the same single underlying asset file.

If you select and delete an asset using the Delete key the file will be removed and any asset figure instances of it on any idea spaces will be removed from your project. You have to confirm the removal of an asset since this cannot be undone.

Show the Project Library

1. Click the Library shelf toolbar button, then click the Project tab at the top of the shelf.
2. You can also right-click on an asset figure on an idea space and choose Reveal in Library to see the associated asset in the project library.

Add New Files to the Project Library

• Drag-and-drop one or more files from the Finder to the Project Library view. By default a copy of each file will be embedded in your project asset library. If Command is held during the drag then the files will be moved to the library. If Option is held then an alias to each file will be added to the library.

Search the Project Library

• Enter a search phrase in the Search field and press Return.

Filter the Results by Scope

1. Click the Scope popup to change the search scope: the entire project, the current section, the current section tree (meaning this section and any child sections), the current idea space, the current idea space tree (meaning any child items as well), the project Archive, the project Trash, only unused (orphaned) assets that aren’t in use in any idea space.
2. Note that the Archive and Trash are only searched if that scope item is selected.

Filter the Results by File Type

• Click the Kind popup to see only certain types of files. These can include general types such as document, images, or movies, or specific types such as PDF or Adobe Photoshop files.

Filter the Results by Last Modified Date

• Click the Modified popup to filter the results based on when they were last modified.

Change the Sort Order

• Click the Sort By popup to change the sort: title, last modified, date added to Curio, file size.

Duplicate an Asset

• Select the asset and choose Edit > Duplicate. The new asset will be selected and the word “copy” will be appended to the end of its name.

Rename an Asset

• You can click-click on an asset in the Library to rename it. If the asset is embedded within the project, the underlying asset file is renamed as well.

Context Menu

Right-click on an asset to perform one of these actions:

• Open
  Launch the asset file using the Finder.
• Open With
  Choose a specific application to open the asset file.
• Open Link in Browser
  If a link is associated with the asset then it will be opened in the default browser such as Safari.
• Reveal in Finder
  Reveal the asset file within a Finder window.
• Reveal in Idea Space
  Show where the asset is instantiated in one or more idea spaces.
• Embed within Project
  Replace an alias to a file into an embedded copy of that file.
• Copy to Curiota
  Copy the asset file to the Curiota companion app.
• Copy to Desktop
  Copy the asset file to the Desktop.
• Mail as Attachment
  Create a new mail message with the selected file as an attachment. If more than one asset is selected then a zip of all the selected assets will be added as a single attachment.
• Duplicate
  Create a copy of the asset and store it in the project library.

Local

The Local library allows you to browse or search for files on your local hard disk.

You can explore everywhere or only within certain folders that you can specify, which can be useful when collecting data and files created in other applications.

The Local library can utilize Spotlight’s query service to quickly find files on your hard disk using a number of criteria including text, tags, modification date, and kind of file. When searching for text Curio can search just file titles or also include the actual content of the files. For example, use Local to find all images modified in the past 2 weeks. Or all files with a Finder tag School created in the past month.

Show the Local Library

• Click the Library shelf toolbar button, then click the Local tab at the top of the shelf.

Browse vs Search

The Local library allows you to either casually browse the folders and files on your hard disk, or perform a Spotlight search to quickly see a list of files that match that query.

• When the Browse tab is selected, the search field and popups like Scope and Kind are used to filter the displayed files as you browse the directory hierarchies.

• When the Search tab is selected, they are used to create a Spotlight search query and the results of the query are displayed as a list.

Browse Columns

If a Finder color has been assigned to a file or folder then that item will have a slight colored tint around it for fast recognition. If multiple colors are assigned only one will be used.

You can resize the first column and that will be the default column width for new columns, even between launches of Curio.

Optional Preview Column

This column view is very similar to the Finder’s column view. However, in the Finder’s column view, when you select a file a special preview column is displayed with more details about that file. The Local library doesn’t normally display a preview column for a selected file, however you can enable the preview column, if you wish. Note in that preview column that the file size is not displayed for folders or packages.

Search Field

When you enter a search term it is used as a filter when browsing or a Spotlight query when using search.

Searches are case insensitive and are used for partial word matches, so searching for mac will match files named MacBook Air and Global Diplomacy.

Finder Tags

If the search phrase begins with a # prefix, such as #Personal, then you’re searching for Finder tags. Remember, this is case insensitive so #Personal or #personal are the same.

Multi-Word Tags

If the Finder tag has multiple words you can use the underscore in place of spaces, such as #Vacation_Plans. This character can be replaced with a different character, if necessary.

Finder Color Tags

Helpfully, the Finder automatically maps label colors to tags so a search for #red will find items with the red color label.

Combo Queries

Note your search can contain text and tag items, like campaign results #work #projects, which are AND’ed together in the resulting query.

Search Options

Click the magnifying glass icon within the search field to toggle special options:

• Search Content: Enable searching within the file contents for the entered search term. This only works when performing Spotlight searching.
• Include Subfolders: Enable searching the specified scope folder and recursively into subfolders, as well. This may be force enabled automatically based on the selected scope.

Scope Filter

The scope popup is used to define the “root” of the browsing hierarchy or the Spotlight search query’s scope restriction.

A few folders are included in the scope popup by default including Home for your home directory hierarchy and This Mac which includes all volumes and all mounted drives connected to your Mac. For non-sandboxed Curio downloaded from the Zengobi website the popup is automatially filled with additional folders, as well.

Of course Curio can only display files and folders that are within volumes and folders the user has access to. You wouldn’t have access to files for another user on the same machine, for example.

Also note the Include Subfolders search option mentioned above.

Custom Scope Folders

Via the scope popup you can also add your own scope folders. For example, you might add an iCloud Drive notes folder, your Dropbox folder, an Obsidian vault, and a special project folder that you use a personal “inbox” for files and snippets to peruse later.

Kind Filter

Use the Kind popup to see only certain types of files. These can include general types such as document, images, or movies, or specific types such as PDF or Adobe Photoshop files.

Modified Date Filter

Use the Modified popup to filter the results based on when they were last modified. This is handy if you want to only see files modified in the past month, for example.

Sort Options

The resulting files can be sorted by file title, last modified date, creation date, or file size.

(When browsing, folders are always listed at the top of the results alphabetically so you can drill down into a subfolder to view the resulting files in that folder.)

Drag and Drop

To use a file simply drag-and-drop it out of the Local library and drop it onto the idea space. Doing this will embed a copy of the file into your project.

Hold Option while dragging the file to create an alias to the original file, or hold Command to move the file into your project (therefore removing it from its original location).

If you select and delete a file from Local using the Delete key the file will be moved to the Trash.

Double-Click to Open

You can double-click a file in Local results to open it.

If the file is within a Curiota collection folder, an Obsidian vault, or a DEVONthink database, then it will be opened in its respective app, as described below.

Quick Look Preview

Press Spacebar to get a Quick Look preview.

Context Menu

Right-click on an asset to perform one of these actions:

• Open — will open the file as described above.
• Open With — where you can choose a specific application to open the file.
• Reveal in Finder — will reveal the file within a Finder window.

Using Local with Other Apps

Curiota Collections

If you’ve installed Curiota, Curio’s handy companion app, the Local scope popup will also list your Curiota Inbox and any Curiota collections you’ve created within a separated section giving you easy access to those notes and files.

Obsidian Vaults

You can add Obsidian vaults to the scope popup and they are displayed within a separated section within the popup and with a special icon. You can then search your Obsidian documents for strings and #tags from within the Local shelf.

Double-clicking a markdown file in the vault hierarchy will open the file within Obsidian.

DEVONthink

Many Curio customers use the popular DEVONthink application to manage vast collections of notes and links.

You can use the Local library’s Spotlight search support to search your DEVONthink data through a clever trick.

While Spotlight is unable to index the large DEVONthink database directly, DEVONthink replicates the metadata information for every entry in the database into individual, uniquely-named metadata files (ex: E6BF05E4-82E9-4824-AE0B-6E38A01BDF6F.dt3) located in a special app support folder (~/Library/Metadata/com.devon-technologies.think3/) which Spotlight is able to index.

When Local uses Spotlight to search for DEVONthink files those uniquely named files are returned and Curio shows the results with friendly titles.

Additional Notes:

• Narrow your search specifically to DEVONthink files by choosing “DEVONthink” from the Kind popup.
• Double-clicking one of those results will launch the metadata file which, in turn, launches DEVONthink, and opens the appropriate entry in its database.
• Press Spacebar and a Quick Look preview will appear for the selected item, thanks to DEVONthink’s Spotlight plugin.
• If you drag a result from Local into your idea space, the DEVONthink metadata file will be added as an asset figure, and given a nice title (instead of its messy unique number filename).

Stencils

Of course, you can use the Insert toolbar button to bring up the Figure Styles and Stencils gallery and click to insert a stencil. However, if you use a lot of stencils, having a shelf where you can very easily drag-and-drop stencils from the shelf to your idea space is invaluable.

Note that, like the Insert popover’s stencil gallery, the stencil library shelf will display both simple and complex stencils, for single figure and multiple figure stencils, respectively. The title of the complex stencil will show the number of contained figures within in parentheses. You can either drag the entire complex stencil into your idea space or double-click to drill into the complex stencil and drag figures within the complex stencil out.

Context Menu

Right-click on an asset to perform one of these actions:

• tag name
  Choose a checked or unchecked tag name to toggle the tags associated with this stencil.
• Edit Stencil
  To edit the stencil.
• Send to Friend
  To email the stencil to a friend.
• Send to Zengobi
  To email the stencil to Zengobi if you’d like us to be able to share it with others.

Show the Stencils Library

• Click the Library shelf toolbar button, then click the Stencils tab at the top of the shelf.

Filter the Results by Repository

• Click the Repository popup to change where to find Stencils. By default Curio will look at bundled figure stencils but you can choose personal stencils or a stencils in an external repository specified in Curio’s settings. Curio Professional users can choose to see Master stencils, as well.

Filter the Results by Tag

• Click the Tag popup to see only those figure stencils associated with specific tags. You can use the actions menu next to this popup to create new stencil tags. Then right-click on the stencils themselves to associate them with one or more tags. Note that tags can only be created within your Personal repository.

Change the Sort Order

• Click the Sort By popup to change the sort: title, most recently used, or date added to the repository

Add a Stencil Via the Stencils Library

1. You can drag-and-drop an idea space from the Organizer directly to the Stencils shelf to save the entire contents of the idea space as a figure stencil.
2. This is in addition to the other methods of creating a stencil such as by right-clicking on a figure and choosing Save as Figure Stencil.

Delete a Personal or Master Stencil from the Stencils Library

• Select the stencil then press the Delete key.

Sleuth

The Sleuth shelf provides quick access to Sleuth’s research tools right from the sidebar, so you can search and drag results to your idea space without leaving your project.

Show the Sleuth Library

1. Click the Library shelf toolbar button, then click the Sleuth tab at the top of the shelf.
2. Or, ⇧Click on the Sleuth toolbar button or choose Edit > Search in Sleuth Shelf.
   • The shelf will open if necessary and the Sleuth library will immediately become active.
   • Any text that was selected or if a selected figure contains text will immediately become the search phrase for the Sleuth library and the search will begin.
   • This is an incredibly fast way to search for phrases on the internet.

Status

You can access the status shelf by clicking on the Status toolbar button. Go ahead and do it now so you can look at it while we go over some things.

Curio’s Status shelf view packs a lot of information into a compact display.

Getting Things Done (GTD)

“Getting Things Done” is a popular method of task management in use today. Using Curio’s built-in GTD tags, you can very easily implement the “Getting Things Done” methodology within your Curio projects.

For example, you may have several days of meeting notes spread over multiple idea spaces within a project. At each meeting, you made a list of action items and tagged them appropriately. Some you may have tagged as active, others nextAction, and still others waitingOn.

Using the Search shelf view, you can easily find a list of all the items you tagged active. But even better, you can use the Status shelf view and group your tasks by the GTD tag set. In a single list, you’ll see all the items you tagged with GTD tags, broken down into each category appropriately. You’ll instantly know what your current active items are, what your next actions are, and what items are on hold, waiting for input from an external source.

You can use Curio’s tagging system, Search shelf, and Status shelf to implement a wide variety of task management methodologies.

Projects Panel

The top panel of the Status shelf shows your projects grouped in to the same categories that you created either in the Open Project Gallery described earlier or by using the Add New Category action menu selection.

Under each project title in the top pane, you will see a count of a subset of your tasks in the project. The subset is defined as tasks that have a start date and you have not yet started or that have a due date and have you have not yet completed. When you start a task (by setting or completing it to a certain percent) or complete a task, it is not counted in this list. When no tasks are yet to be started or due on a project, Curio will indicate in the top panel by a statement that No tasks to start or due. The count of tasks in the top panel is therefore different than what you will see in the bottom pane, where tasks can appear regardless of whether they have start or due dates and regardless of whether they have been started.

Finally, a color coded jewel to the left of the project title indicates the status of each project. Red indicates tasks are late to begin or are overdue, magenta indicates a task is starting or due today, purple indicates a task is starting tomorrow, brown indicates a task is starting or is due within a week, blue indicates a task is starting or is due within a month and green indicates either no tasks or a task is starting or is due beyond a month.

Tasks Panel

At the bottom you’ll find all the tasks due in either the current project or a category of projects. These tasks can be grouped by start/due dates, priority, rating, or even a tag set such as flag or GTD state. Each task is displayed with a color-coded status jewel and a checkmark indicating its current completion date.

Note that a task, as currently defined, is a figure with either (a) a checkbox, (b) a start or due date, or (c) an assigned tag. A tagged item is considered a task primarily for GTD or Kanban task tracking workflows.

Toolbar Icon

The Status shelf icon displayed on the toolbar has a color-coded indicator dot as well showing the status of the current project. If green then all’s well, but other colors would alert you so you can click the button to display the Status shelf and see what task needs your attention.

Projects Panel

How to use the projects panel area of the Status shelf.

Change the Scope

• Use the Projects In popup to determine what projects to display either based on a smart category or custom category. See the Open Project Gallery section described earlier for more details regarding project sections.

Change the Sorting

• Use the Sort By popup to change how the projects are listed: by status, title, last modified date, or date created.

Adding Projects

1. Drag a project from the Finder into the list to add it to the current custom category.
2. Note this only works with custom categories as the projects listed within smart categories, such as “Recently Opened Projects”, are determined automatically.

Deleting Projects

• Select a project and press the Delete key to remove a project from a category. Curio can also send the project to the Trash if you wish.

Ignoring Projects

1. You may want to ignore tasks in specific projects that are either on hold or simply no longer actively used. You don’t want to remove those projects from their respective categories but you really don’t want tasks from those projects cluttering up your Status shelf results or live exports.
2. Right-click on the project in the projects list at the top of the Status shelf and toggle the Ignore Tasks In Project setting.
3. An ignored project’s tasks will no longer appear in the Status task results area or in live exports.
4. You can control whether ignored projects are displayed in the projects list at the top of Status using the Projects In actions menu’s filtering options.

Assigning Categories to Projects

1. Right-click on a project to associate or disassociate categories with the selected project.
2. Or, use the action button menu to add the current project or a specified project to the current category.

Creating, Modifying, and Deleting Categories

• Use the actions menu to create, rename, or remove project categories.

Switching to a Project

• Click on the project to load it within the current window.

Opening a Project in a New Window

• ⌥-Click on a project to open it in a new window.

Finder Tags

1. As mentioned above in the overview of the Project Gallery, any project categories you associate with your projects will also have corresponding project category Finder tags as well.
2. For instance, if you associate a project with the categories Active and Personal, then Curio will create “Curio Active” and “Curio Personal” Finder tags and associate them with the projects.
3. With category Finder tags, you can now search for categories of projects in the Finder, outside of Curio.
4. Just enter the search tag, such as Curio Active in a Finder window search field and you’ll find all projects associated with that category.
5. Click the Save button in the Finder window to save the search and even add it to your sidebar for one-click access to those projects.

Tasks Panel

How to use the tasks panel area of the Status shelf.

Change the Scope

• Use the Tasks In popup to determine what projects should be searched for tasks. Or you can choose the current project or the current project’s selected section, section tree, Organizer item, or Organizer item tree.

Changing the Grouping

Choose the desired task grouping from the Group By popup:

• Date. You can group tasks by “Action Items” (tasks with a start and/or due date assigned to them, or items that have a checkbox next to them), by “Start Date”, or by “Due Date”.
• Rating
• Priority
• Local Project Resources. Only available if Tasks In is set to Only This Project.
• Project Keyword Tags. Only available if Tasks In is set to Only This Project.
• Global Keyword Tags. Used to group items based on your global, global keyword tags.
• Tag Set. For example, you might choose to group tasks by the GTD (“Getting Things Done”) tag set, in which case any tasks that have been tagged with one or more of the GTD tags will appear under the appropriate tags.

Changing the Sorting

Choose the desired task sorting from the Sort By popup:

• Action Date
• Start Date
• Due Date
• Title
• Percent Complete
• Rating
• Priority
• Tag Set (sorted by the ordering of the tags in the specified tag set)
• Project Name (if a project category or All Categorized Projects is selected)

Jump to a Task

1. Click on a task to jump to its location in the project. If the task is from a different project, Curio will automatically switch to that project.
2. Hold down the Option key while clicking on the task if you want Curio to open the project in a separate window.

Changing Task Properties (For Tasks in the Opened Project Only)

1. Right-click on the task in the Status shelf and change the item’s associated tags, its percent complete value, its rating, and its priority.
2. If you’re grouping your tasks by rating, priority, resource, or global/local tag set then you can drag-and-drop tasks between groups. With resources and tags, Curio will disassociate the figure from the task’s prior grouping and associate it with its new grouping

Action Button Menu Options

1. Copy all the displayed tasks as text or to export the tasks as an RTF document to disk. This is a very easy way to share assignments with other team members.
2. Export all task information as markdown for display in a markdown-compatible viewing app.
3. Export all raw task information as CSV file perfect for importing into Apple Numbers or Microsoft Excel. The following fields are exported: Task Title, Project, Section, Idea Space, Start Date, Due Date, Duration, Duration Units, Percent Complete, Priority, Rating, Tags, Resources. Duration units are specified using a numeric code: seconds=0, minutes=1, hours=2, days=3, weeks=4, months=5, years=6.
4. By default, Curio will include items with checkmarks (aka to-do items) which are unchecked but have no start or due dates. If you want to only include to-do items that have start or due dates then uncheck the “Include items with no start or due dates” item in the actions menu.
5. By default, Curio will alert you of tasks that have a start date associated with them and it is currently past the start date and the completion percentage of the task is zero percent. If you don’t want to be warned in this event then uncheck the “Include items late in starting that are 0% done” item in the actions menu.
6. By default, Curio doesn’t include untagged tasks when you group by tag set or local tags. However, you can enable this by checking the “Include grouping for untagged tasks” item in the actions menu.

Live Export

Curio can export task reports in real time as you change data within the project.

Setting up Live Export

1. Use the Status shelf’s Tasks In actions menu to manage live export.
   1. Enable live export by specifying the folder where the live export reports should be saved.
   2. Click the menu again to enable each type of live export you wish to produce. RTF and HTML exports are enabled by default.
   3. Use the same menu to specify the category of projects to export and how they should be grouped.
2. In the background, the Status shelf will keep those live export files automatically up-to-date as tasks and projects are changed. The export files created in the specified live export folder are named Curio Status.rtf, Curio Status.csv, and Curio Status.html. If you specify a synced folder, like Dropbox, or a network folder, then those updates will be available to everyone with access to that folder.

Customizing the HTML Export

1. The resulting HTML is standard, compact, cross-platform, self-contained… and generated using a bundled template file which you can customize!
2. You can find the template in /Applications/Curio.app/Contents/Resources/Repository/Status Templates/Status Board.html.
3. The template includes placeholder variables which filled out with figure data and the result is then dynamically constructed and rendered with Javascript.
4. You can create your own Status Board.html at ~/Library/Application Support/Curio/Version XX/Repository/Status Templates/ to completely change the look of the report and Curio will use that instead.