ThinkIt guide
How to use ThinkIt
Everything ThinkIt can do, one feature at a time, on the phone and on the computer. New here? Start with Getting started.
Getting started
ThinkIt keeps everything on your device, and saves as you type: there is no Save button. You don’t need an account to use it.
- On the phone, tap the Create button on the home screen and choose New page. When ThinkIt is empty, the home screen also offers New page, Create a collection and Create the Guide page, a sample page that walks you through the basics inside the app.
- On the computer, click + at the top of the sidebar, or press ⌘N / Ctrl+N.
A new page opens with the cursor on its title. Type the title, press Enter, and start writing. To find your way back later, use the home screen (phone), the sidebar (computer) or search.
About shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts in this guide are written as Mac / Windows and Linux, for example ⌘N / Ctrl+N. ⌘ is Command, ⌥ is Option, ⇧ is Shift and ⌃ is Control. A phone with a physical keyboard understands some of them too.
Pages
A page is where you write. Pages can live inside other pages, so you can build your own structure: a page per project, with its notes inside it.
Pages inside pages
A page inside another is a subpage. To create one:
- Phone: on the page, tap Add and then Add subpage, or type “/” and choose Subpage.
- Computer: open the page’s ⋮ menu and choose New Subpage, press ⌥⌘N / Ctrl+Alt+N, or hover over a page in the sidebar and click its +.
The subpages of a page are listed at its bottom, under Subpages. The path of the page you are on (the pages it sits inside) is shown at the top; tap or click it to go up.
Pin, move, duplicate
These actions are in the page’s ⋮ menu. On the phone you can also press and hold a page on the home screen; on the computer, right-click it in the sidebar.
- Pin
- Puts the page under Pinned, at the top of the home screen or the sidebar. Unpin takes it off. On the computer: ⇧⌘P / Ctrl+Shift+P.
- Move to…
- Places the page inside another page, or back at the top level. You can undo it right after. A page can’t go inside itself or inside a collection.
- Duplicate
- Makes a copy, with its subpages, right below the original and named “(copy)”.
- Reorder
- On the phone, use Reorder pages, Reorder subpages or Reorder pinned. On the computer, use Move Up and Move Down in the sidebar’s right-click menu.
Icon and cover
Give a page an icon, from ThinkIt’s icons or any emoji, and a cover, an image or a color across the top.
- Phone: tap Add on the page, then Add icon or Add cover. To change them later, tap the icon or the cover.
- Computer: hover over the top of the page and click Add icon or Add cover.
For a cover image, you can drag (and pinch or scroll) to choose which part shows. A cover color can be picked from a palette or typed as a code, and you can keep favorite colors.
Archive and Trash
- Archive
- Takes a page out of the way (the home screen, search and the Map) without deleting it. Find it again under Archived, where Unarchive brings it back. Archived pages are kept for as long as you want.
- Move to Trash
- Deletes a page. It stays in the Trash for 30 days, then it is removed for good. In the Trash you can Open a page to read it, Restore it, Delete forever or Empty the whole Trash.
On the phone, Archived and Trash are in Settings, under Data. On the computer, they are at the bottom of the sidebar.
Info, mentions and links to a page
- Info shows when the page was created and edited, and how many words, characters and blocks it has, and how many pages mention it. On the computer it is always at hand in the right panel.
- Mentions lists the pages that link to this one: at the bottom of the page on the phone, in the right panel on the computer.
- Copy link copies a link to the page. Paste it into another page and it becomes a link there; on a device with ThinkIt, opening it opens the page.
- Export as Markdown saves the page as a Markdown file (a plain text format many apps read).
Full width
On a wide screen, a page keeps a comfortable reading width. Full width, in the ⋮ menu, lets a page use the whole window instead, which helps with wide tables of text. It only makes a difference on a computer, a tablet or a phone turned sideways, and the choice follows the page to your other devices.
Table of contents (computer only)
In the ⋮ menu, Table of contents adds small marks on the right of a page, one for each heading. Hover over them to see the list of headings; click one to jump to it. This choice is kept on that computer only.
Very long pages
A page can be as long as you like. From about 1,000 blocks, ThinkIt suggests splitting it into subpages, which keeps everything fast; nothing is ever refused.
Writing with blocks
Each paragraph, heading, list item or image on a page is a block. You can write normally and let ThinkIt handle the blocks, or choose them yourself.
Typing shortcuts
If you know Markdown, the plain-text formatting many apps use, it works here. Type these at the start of a block:
| Type | To get |
|---|---|
# ## ### and a space | Heading 1, 2 or 3 |
- or * and a space | Bulleted list |
1. and a space | Numbered list |
[] and a space | To-do |
> and a space | Quote |
``` | Code |
--- | Divider |
Inside a line, **bold**, *italic*, ~~strikethrough~~ and `code` format the text, and web addresses become links by themselves. Pasting Markdown text turns it into blocks. If you’d rather type these characters as they are, turn off Markdown shortcuts in Settings, under Editor.
Formatting text
Select some text to format it: Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Code, Highlight (a background color) and Link (a web or email address).
- Phone: use the bar above the keyboard. It also has buttons for a page mention, a to-do, indenting, moving a block up or down, undo and redo.
- Computer: a small bar appears over the selection; the Format menu and shortcuts work too: bold ⌘B / Ctrl+B, italic ⌘I / Ctrl+I, underline ⌘U / Ctrl+U, strikethrough ⇧⌘S / Ctrl+Shift+S, code ⌘E / Ctrl+E, highlight ⇧⌘H / Ctrl+Shift+H, link ⇧⌘L / Ctrl+Shift+L.
To-dos
Tap or click the box of a to-do to check it off; on the computer, ⌘↩ / Ctrl+Enter does the same. If the boxes feel too small or too big, change Checkbox size in Settings, under Editor.
Moving and changing blocks
- Phone: use the buttons on the keyboard bar to move a block up or down and to indent or outdent it. To turn a block into another kind, use a typing shortcut at its start.
- Computer: hover over a block to see its handle (⋮⋮) on the left. Drag the handle to move the block. Click it for Block options: Turn Into another kind, Move Up, Move Down, Duplicate Block and Delete Block. For a callout you can also pick its Color; for code, its Language and whether to Wrap lines.
On the computer, ⇧⌘↑ / Ctrl+Shift+↑ and ⇧⌘↓ / Ctrl+Shift+↓ move a block, ⌘D / Ctrl+D duplicates it and ⌘/ / Ctrl+/ opens Turn Into.
Images and files
Add an image or a file with the Image and File blocks. On the phone, pick from your gallery or take a photo. On the computer, you can also paste a screenshot, or drag files from your folders onto the page. Each file can be up to 100 MB.
Links between pages
Links are what make ThinkIt more than a pile of notes: a page about a book can point to the page about its author, and the author’s page will know.
- Add a link: type
[[and start typing the name of a page. Pick it from the list, or choose Create page to make a new page with that name, or Create as subpage to make it inside the current page. The “/” menu has Page mention too. - Preview a link: press and hold it (phone) or hover over it (computer) to see the page, with Open, Copy link and Remove link.
- See who links here: every page lists its Mentions, the pages that link to it.
- Renaming is safe: links always show the page’s current title. If a linked page is deleted for good, the link shows “Deleted page”.
Collections
A collection gathers things of the same kind: tasks, books, meetings, recipes. Each item is an entry, a full page with properties at the top, such as a status, a date or a rating. You can then see the entries as a table or a list, and filter, sort and group them.
Creating a collection
Choose New collection (the Create button on the phone; ⇧⌘N / Ctrl+Shift+N on the computer) or Collection in the “/” menu. Start Blank, or From an example, ready to use:
- Tasks, with a status, a due date and a priority, and the views By status and Due today.
- Projects and tasks, two collections linked to each other.
- Reading list, with the type (book, article, video, podcast), want to read, reading or read, a rating and a link.
- Meetings, with the date, the attendees and a template for meeting notes.
Properties
A collection can have these kinds of properties:
| Property | Holds |
|---|---|
| Text | A short text. |
| Number | A number, an integer, a percentage or an amount of money, with the decimals you choose. |
| Select, Multi-select | One option, or several, from a list you make. Each option has a color. |
| Status | Options grouped as To do, In progress and Done. |
| Date | A date, optionally with a time and an end date. |
| Checkbox | Yes or no. |
| URL | A web address. |
| Relation | Entries of another collection (see below). |
| Created time, Edited time | Filled in by ThinkIt. |
If you change a property’s kind, values that don’t fit the new kind are kept aside rather than lost. A deleted property keeps its values for 30 days.
Entries
Add an entry with New entry. Open an entry to write in it like any other page; its properties sit at the top, and Hide empty ones keeps the page tidy. On the computer, the Table works like a spreadsheet: double-click a cell (or press Enter) to edit it in place, and drag the column edges to resize them.
Views: Table and List
A view is a way of looking at the same entries. A collection can have several, each with its own filters, sorting and grouping. There are two kinds: Table and List.
- New view adds one; you can also Rename, Duplicate view, Change type or Delete view.
- Visible properties chooses which properties appear; in a Table, Wrap text shows long values in full.
- Filter shows only the entries that match all your conditions, for example “Status is In progress” and “Due date is within this week”.
- Sort orders entries by up to three properties. Without a sort, you can drag entries into your own order.
- Group splits a view by a Select, Status or Checkbox property, for example one group per status. Hide empty groups leaves out the empty ones.
- Search in collection finds entries by their title and text.
Relations
A Relation property links entries of two collections, for example each task to its project. Choose the other collection when you create the property; with Both ways, the project also lists its tasks. To fill it in, search for an entry or create a new one on the spot.
Entry templates
If your entries often start the same way, like meeting notes with Agenda, Decisions and Next steps, make an entry template: Entry templates, then New template, or Save as template from an existing entry. Use as default applies it to every new entry. A date in a template can be set to “Today, when the entry is created”.
Exporting a collection
Export CSV, in the collection’s ⋮ menu, saves the entries as a spreadsheet file that Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets can open. Importing a CSV file is not available.
Search
Search looks for your words in titles, text and properties. Accents don’t matter: “cafe” finds “café”.
- Phone: tap the magnifying glass on the home screen.
- Computer: press ⌘K / Ctrl+K or click the magnifying glass. The same box also runs actions, such as New page, Map, Trash or Settings.
Narrow the results by Type (pages, entries or collections), by Collection, by when they were Edited, and choose whether to Include archived pages. Opening a result takes you to the block where the words are, briefly highlighted. Before you type, you see your recent searches and pages. If nothing matches, you can create a page with that name right away.
The Map
The Map draws your pages as dots and the links between them as lines. Pages with many links stand out; pages with none float apart, which is a good way to find forgotten notes.
- Phone: tap Map on the home screen. Drag to move, pinch to zoom, and turn with two fingers. Tap a dot to preview the page.
- Computer: click Map in the sidebar or press ⇧⌘M / Ctrl+Shift+M. Scroll to zoom where the pointer is, click a dot to preview the page, double-click to open it.
Filters can add collection entries, show relations and the page-inside-page structure as lines, show only unconnected pages, or limit the Map to one collection or to recent edits. View as list shows the same pages as a list.
The map of one page
To see just the neighborhood of a page, open its ⋮ menu and choose Map (phone) or Page Map (computer; it is also in the right panel, as Local Map). Choose 1 or 2 steps to see the pages linked to it, and the pages linked to those.
Sync with your Minifull account
Sync is optional and free. With it, your pages stay in step between your phone and your computer, and come back if you change devices. Without it, nothing leaves your device.
Turning it on
- Phone: Settings, then Account. Sign in with Google, or with Apple on an iPhone.
- Computer: click Sign in at the bottom of the sidebar. Google works on Mac, Windows and Linux; Apple on a Mac. On Windows and Linux, if you use Apple on your phone, sign in there with a Google account of the same email address.
What syncs
Pages, collections, entries, their properties and views, attachments, and your settings (only between your ThinkIt devices). Some things stay on each device: the lock, the backup reminder, recent pages and searches, and on the computer the open tabs and the window layout.
When two devices disagree
If you changed the same block on two devices before they synced, ThinkIt keeps the newer text and puts the other one right below it, in a note titled “Version from (device) at (time)”. Keep what you want and delete the rest.
Your account
The Account screen shows the devices connected to your account (you can disconnect one from there), and offers Sync now, Sign out of this device and Delete account. Signing out removes the pages from that device; they stay in your account. Deleting the account removes your Minifull Cloud account for all Minifull apps, while what is on your devices stays there.
Privacy
Synced pages are kept in Minifull Cloud in a form our server can read. They are not end-to-end encrypted, which is also what lets you connect an assistant such as Claude to them. If you prefer that nothing leaves your device, keep sync off and use backups instead.
Locking ThinkIt
The lock asks for your face, fingerprint or device code (on a computer: Touch ID or your password on a Mac, Windows Hello on Windows) before showing your pages.
- Phone: Settings, App lock. Choose Lock after: immediately, or after 1, 5 or 15 minutes away. The lock also protects backups and exports, and hides your pages in the list of recent apps.
- Computer: Settings, Privacy. ThinkIt can lock as soon as you leave the window, or after 1, 5, 15 or 30 minutes without use. The lock is not available on Linux.
The lock protects the whole app on that device; there are no individually private pages. Each device has its own lock setting.
Backup, restore and export
On the phone these are in Settings, Backup and data; on the computer, in Settings, Backup and data, or in the File menu.
Making a backup
Back up saves everything, pages, collections and attachments, in one file ending in .thinkit. ThinkIt asks whether to protect it with a password. With a password, the file is encrypted: no one can open it without the password, not even us, so keep it somewhere safe.
Turn on the Backup reminder and ThinkIt will remind you when your last backup is more than 30 days old. Backups are not made automatically. On an iPhone, the phone’s own iCloud backup also includes ThinkIt.
Restoring a backup
Restore backup shows what the file contains (its date, number of pages and size) before doing anything. A backup from the phone can be restored on the computer and the other way around.
Before you restore
Restoring replaces everything that is in ThinkIt now. ThinkIt first makes an automatic backup of the current state, and Undo last restore brings it back if you change your mind.
Exporting to Markdown and CSV
Export saves all your pages as Markdown files, collections as CSV spreadsheets, and the attachments, in one .zip file that other apps can read. Links can be written as [[Wikilinks]], like in Obsidian, or as standard Markdown links. Some details don’t survive the trip, such as highlight colors.
Storage and erasing everything
Storage used shows how much space ThinkIt takes. Erase everything deletes all your pages from the device, after you type ERASE to confirm. If you use sync, your account will send them back.
Settings
Open Settings from the menu on the phone’s home screen, or with ⌘, / Ctrl+, on the computer. Changes take effect when you press Update; if you leave with changes, ThinkIt asks before discarding them.
| Group | Options |
|---|---|
| Presentation (Appearance on the computer) | Theme: light, dark, the device’s, or automatic by time of day, each with color variants such as Ocean, Sage or Lavender. Language. Font: Noto Sans, IBM Plex Sans or Manrope. On the phone, hiding the floating buttons and the navigation bar while you scroll; on the computer, whether the sidebar shows Recent. |
| Home screen (phone) | Whether to show Recent, and which buttons the navigation bar has (Search, Map) and in what order. |
| Editor | Text size (small, normal, large), Checkbox size, Markdown shortcuts, and Reopen where I left off. |
| Privacy | The lock and when it kicks in. |
| Data | Backup and data, Backup reminder, Trash and Archived. |
| Account | Sync with your Minifull account. |
| More | Release notes, credits, licenses, and ways to contact us or report a problem. |
On the computer
ThinkIt for Mac, Windows and Linux is made for long sessions with a keyboard. Everything above works there; this is what the computer adds.
The window
- The sidebar, on the left, holds search and +, then Pinned, Pages (a tree you can fold) and Recent, then Map, Trash, Archived and Settings, and your account at the bottom. Hide it with ⌘\ / Ctrl+\.
- The right panel shows details of what is open: Info, Mentions and Local Map for a page; Info and Properties for a collection; Preview and Filters for the Map. Toggle it with ⌥⌘\ / Ctrl+Alt+\.
- Menus: on a Mac in the menu bar at the top of the screen, on Windows and Linux inside the window. Help, Keyboard Shortcuts lists every shortcut.
- Closing the window quits ThinkIt; if something hasn’t been saved yet, it asks first.
Tabs
Pages open in tabs, like in a web browser, and your tabs are back when you reopen ThinkIt. Open a page in a new tab with ⌘-click / Ctrl+click or Open in New Tab.
- New tab ⌘T / Ctrl+T, close it ⌘W / Ctrl+W, reopen the last closed ⇧⌘T / Ctrl+Shift+T.
- Next and previous tab ⌃Tab / Ctrl+Tab and ⌃⇧Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab; a given tab ⌘1–8 / Ctrl+1–8; the last one ⌘9 / Ctrl+9.
- Back and forward within a tab ⌘[ / Alt+← and ⌘] / Alt+→, or the side buttons of your mouse.
- Drag tabs to reorder them; right-click a tab to close the others or those to its right.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Action | Mac | Windows and Linux |
|---|---|---|
| New page | ⌘N | Ctrl+N |
| New subpage | ⌥⌘N | Ctrl+Alt+N |
| New collection | ⇧⌘N | Ctrl+Shift+N |
| Search and actions | ⌘K | Ctrl+K |
| Settings | ⌘, | Ctrl+, |
| Map | ⇧⌘M | Ctrl+Shift+M |
| Pin or unpin the page | ⇧⌘P | Ctrl+Shift+P |
| Copy link to the page | ⇧⌘C | Ctrl+Shift+C |
| Sync now | ⇧⌘R | Ctrl+Shift+R |
| Turn a block into… | ⌘/ | Ctrl+/ |
| Text, Heading 1–3, lists, To-do, Toggle, Quote, Callout | ⌥⌘0 to ⌥⌘9 | Ctrl+Shift+0 to 9 |
| Move block up or down | ⇧⌘↑ ⇧⌘↓ | Ctrl+Shift+↑ ↓ |
| Duplicate block | ⌘D | Ctrl+D |
| Delete block | ⇧⌘⌫ | Ctrl+Shift+Backspace |
| Check or uncheck a to-do | ⌘↩ | Ctrl+Enter |
| Undo, redo | ⌘Z, ⇧⌘Z | Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Y |
| Zoom in, out, actual size | ⌘+, ⌘−, ⌘0 | Ctrl++, Ctrl+−, Ctrl+0 |
| Full screen | ⌃⌘F | F11 |
| Quit | ⌘Q | Ctrl+Q |
On the phone
- The home screen shows Pinned, Recent and your Pages, each section foldable. A bar floating at the bottom gives you Search, Map and the menu. With sync on, pull down to sync.
- On a page, the Add button adds an icon, a cover or a subpage, and the bar above the keyboard holds the formatting buttons.
- Make the bar yours: press and hold the ⋮ button of a page, a collection or the Map, then choose Customize the bar to decide which actions sit on the bar and which stay in the menu.
Phone and computer: what differs
The two apps share the same pages and almost every feature. The differences:
| Feature | Phone | Computer |
|---|---|---|
| Tabs, sidebar, right panel | — | Yes |
| Table of contents on a page | — | Yes |
| Drag blocks with the mouse | Move with buttons | Yes |
| Callout color, code language | — | Yes |
| Paste screenshots, drag in files | Gallery or camera | Yes |
| Keyboard shortcuts | With a physical keyboard, some | All |
| Customizable action bar | Yes | — |
| Sign in with Apple | iPhone | Mac |
| Lock | Face, fingerprint or code | Mac and Windows; not Linux |