/BrainTool

A better way to manage Tabs, Links and Notes

Primary LanguageJavaScriptMIT LicenseMIT

The Information Manager for your Online Life

Now with Bookmark Exchange and improved Tree editing!

Praise from users and the press:

  • "Bring your bookmarks into the 21st century"
  • "Every Google Chrome user should try this"
  • "As a current Tabs Outliner user, my first reaction is that BrainTool, even in its pre-1.0 release, is far more polished."
  • "I've used Session Buddy and OneTab. This is far superior."
  • "Behind the simplicity is a lot of power."
  • "Gave bookmarks the performance and usability boost that I'd been waiting for all these years"



Increasingly all the things you need to keep track of have a URL and you access them inside a browser. That's why you always have five windows open with 23 tabs each - they're so small you can't even tell them apart!

With BrainTool you can save and link all your online information sources (web sites, Google docs, gmails, files, photos, Slack channels, social media groups, code repos, wiki pages, task backlogs, Jupyter notebooks, etc etc etc) and then see them organized in the BrainTool SidePanel, along with your annotations and notes.

The BrainTool side panel shows your nested Topic hierarchy. A topic is a category that groups web pages you want to organize and remember. On the screenshot right you can see open tabs and Chrome windows are shown highlighted and TODO items are indicated in bold. In this example I have an open Chrome window showing the 'Kitchen Project' topic, it has the Crown Point Cabinetry site open. I also have Personal TODO to try a meditation practice thats linked but not open in a window anywhere. BrainTool sidepanel
Here's a couple of videos showing more details:
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K6PhRJAAdRg" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8NZ6q5Y4Q0s?origin=https://braintool.org" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Autocomplete tags To save a page just takes three or four keystrokes with built-in auto-complete. Click the BrainTool icon, or use Option-b, and just start typing.
Optionally add short or detailed notes to give context, aid recall or capture why the page is of interest; or just hit Enter to tear off the tab and save it with its topic-mates.

Pop (pull torn-off tab and its window to the top), Hide (don't pop) and Close, support different organizational workflows.
Notes Entry

Open, Close and Control all pages by tag with a single click in the side panel. Great for switching between tasks and projects and keeping your work-space clean!

Drag and drop to reorder the hierarchy at will. Mark pages as TODO/DONE, ToRead or create your own tags and process.

edit buttons


All your data is stored on your Google Drive in a plain text file that can be separately edited, backed-up or shared. Everything is kept securely within your Google ecosystem and nowhere else. Your BrainTool file is structured as an [org-mode](http://orgmode.org) file. If you are an orgmode user, or just a plain text note taker, the file is fully editable and can be synced with the extension. The BrainTool panel in Chrome uses the org-mode tree structure but concentrates on the links within your notes thus unifying two primary ways to capture information.

emacs org-mode

Install from the Chrome Web Store

Check it out on the Chrome Web Store or ping me at braintool.extension@gmail.com .

There's more info in the Overview and the required official privacy policy is here. Let me know if you have any thoughts, comments, or feedback: braintool.extension@gmail.com.

Tony