Fundamental Elements

Note

Concept and Use Case

• Think of a note as a home for your thoughts and information. You’ll find all of your notes neatly organize in the Library Section.

• When you start learning about something new, you might jot down quickly, short notes (we call these fleeting notes) for each key idea. But as you dig deeper, your notes will grow. They'll get longer and more detailed, turning into something like mini articles or in-depth studies (these are your literature notes).
• This journey from brief fleeting notes to rich literature notes, and finally to comprehensive permanent notes (like in-depth master notes or research papers), is what the Modus Methodology is all about, inspired by The Zettelkasten Method.
• In Modus, your notes can reference each other, creating a web of knowledge. You can see all these connections in the note’s info section. As you link your notes together, they form canvas, building up a powerful network of knowledge.

Basic Operations

• You can type / in the notes editor to add any types of blocks you want: headings, lists, to-dos, toggles, tables, images, audio, videos, files, PDFs, code snippets, math equations, and dates.

• You’ll find all of your notes neatly organize in the Library.
• When you start learning about something new, you might jot down quickly, short notes (we call these fleeting notes) for each key idea. But as you dig deeper, your notes will grow. They'll get longer and more detailed, turning into something like mini articles or in-depth studies (these are your literature notes).
• This journey from brief fleeting notes to rich literature notes, and finally to comprehensive permanent notes (like in-depth master notes or research papers), is what the Modus Methodology is all about, inspired by The Zettelkasten Method .
• In Modus, your notes can reference each other, creating a web of knowledge. You can see all these connections in the note’s info section. As you link your notes together, they form canvas, building up a powerful network of knowledge.

Canvas

Concept and Use Case

• Think of Canvas as personal thinking areas, helping you gather, organize, and explore topics that matter to you. Each canvas serves as a dedicated space for researching and synthesizing information, allowing you to focus on specific subjects. You can create multiple canvas for different topics, and within each canvas, you can create sub-canvas to dive deeper into sub-topics.
• These canvas are all housed in the Canvas section, offering a flexible, visual way to manage your knowledge. What sets Modus AI apart is its dynamic note management. All notes are stored in a central Library, and you can import notes from the Library into any canvas to fit the current theme you're working on.

• Notes are not confined to a single canvas; they can belong to multiple canvas simultaneously, mirroring how ideas in the brain connect across different contexts. For example, a note about 'Artificial Intelligence' could appear in both the 'Technology' and 'Ethics' canvas. This flexibility makes it easier to explore topics from different angles without duplicating effort.
• When you view a note within a canvas, the note’s Info section shows you all the canvas it belongs to. You can easily navigate between these canvas, helping you recall why you added a note and the context in which you were thinking.

• Modus AI supports advanced canvas functionality. You can nest canvas within other canvas to create a more structured approach to complex subjects. As the platform evolves, more features will be added to enhance your learning and organizational process, helping you make deeper connections and improve your productivity.

Basic Operations

• You can right-click in the blank space of the canvas to create different types of objects to help you think. These include: creating notes to record ideas and knowledge; creating text to capture fleeting thoughts; creating mind maps to quickly brainstorm and clarify your thinking; creating journals to plan for the next week; creating sections to group canvas objects; and creating sub-canvas to organize knowledge into sub-topics.

• You can click the 3-dot button top right on canvas objects to select the advanced operations you want to perform on them. These include changing color, removing from the canvas, adding tags, moving to other canvas, opening in the workspace, etc.

Tag

Concept and Use Case

• Tags in Modus AI act like labels or themes, helping you categorize and connect your notes based on common characteristics. For example, while reading a book like Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, you can tag your notes with themes like “Wisdom,” “Stoicism,” or “Leadership.” This allows you to organize your thoughts in a clear, structured way, linking ideas and material across different contexts.

• Tags are especially useful for grouping notes that share similar properties. For instance, if you regularly take meeting notes, you can use the tag #meeting to categorize all related notes. Tags are stored in the Tag Section, which you can access via the left sidebar. You can create new tags by clicking the “New Tag” button and even color-code them, making it easier to visually connect related ideas and topics. For added organization, you can group tags (e.g., #meetings and #work-reports under #Work).
• When deciding whether to use tags or canvas, think about how you want to organize your notes. Tags work well for specific characteristics or types, such as #stoicism for philosophical notes or #research for detailed studies. In contrast, canvas are better suited for grouping notes around broader topics or subjects like "Philosophical Theories" or "Tech Innovations."
• For instance, you might use tags like #scientists (Newton, Curie), #scientific-theories (gravity, evolution), and #historical-events (Moon landing, discovery of penicillin) to categorize notes. These tags can then be visualized within a canvas like "Scientific Breakthroughs," allowing you to see how various themes interconnect. This approach helps you understand the bigger picture while retaining the details, ensuring that Modus remains accessible and efficient for users at all levels.

Basic Operations

• All tags are stored in the Tag Section. You can access the Tag App from the left sidebar to view all your tags. Click on the “New Tag” button to add a new tag.

• In addition to adding new tags, you can also click the “New Group” button to create groups for organizing your tags. For example, you can put the tags #meetings and #work-reports into the “#Work” group, and the tags #blog-articles and #tax-returns into the “Life” group.

• If you want to add a tag to an existing note, simply use the shortcut Cmd/Ctrl + T.