Anonymous, Graduate Student

I love your program.

I used to use it a lot for drafting my paper. (I am a graduate student) Even after I have moved on to writing, I would sometimes import it back to brainstorm to reorganize it.

I cannot use it anymore since I have switched to Mac last year, and not being able to use brainstorm is a big loss. Mac has a similar program called omnioutliner, which is fine, but it does not import and export seamlessly to the word processor as brainstorm does.

Anyways, thanks for the great program. Maybe I will use it again, when I buy another PC. I wish you would make it workable on Mac, sometime.

College Professor, New York

I appreciate the faster loading time for large models (since I've got a number of those).

Brainstorm is my all-purpose tool for drafting, storing, and finding text, and organizing ideas.

I use Brainstorm to draft academic talks and papers, lecture notes, and administrative letters; I use it to keep my journal; I type or copy random scraps of information in a catch-all file; and more. I've used lots of programs that overlap Brainstorm's functionality, but have found nothing else with such a useful blend of simplicity and power.

(I've been a Brainstorm user since 2001 - I realize that makes me a relative newcomer. Congratulations on the program's 24th anniversary!)

Thierry Lalinne, Analyst-Programmer, Webmaster and Network Administrator

Thank to both of you for your inexhaustible dedication to improve an already fantastic program and make it greater years after years without bloating it with hundred of useless features.

I like BS because it helps me plan and structure or quickly record ideas according to my mood without ever imposing me a preconceived structure.

All the tools are there if and only if I need them, they are there to help me structure my thoughts. But, when I want to quickly dump my brain, I can do it as quickly as possible without BS ever getting in the way. I don't even need to grab my mouse as the keyboard shortcuts are so well thought-out. It's a great tool !

A couple of days ago, I stumbled upon a very nice and entertaining video on Google. It was from a presentation about the Vim Outliner presented by Steve Litt, a well known American programmer and author. In his presentation he summarized so well the philosophy of outlining that I just thought : "That's exactly the philosophy on which BrainStorm is built!" His motto during all the duration of the presentation was : "Plan your work. Work your plan."

I think that's what Brainstorm is all about and it helps me accomplish this with brio.

Alexander, Online MBA student

I use Brainstorm to organise my online course materials. I dump everything in it with Magic Paste, from lectures, to PowerPoint slides, to web links and article citations. This way I work on my assignments while having all the related material just one click away.

Namesakes, in particular, are great for tracking the citations' sources. Brainstorm also helps me revise for the end of the week. I'd be lost without it

Steve, NHS laboratory IT manager

I have been using Brainstorm since its days on the old Amstrad PCW! I have used it for planning the implementation of a full pathology laboratory system and then replacing it eleven years later, and it has proved absolutely invaluable. I am now involved in yet another implementation and it is being used for that as well.

The namesake function in particular has saved me a lot of typing!

Kevin, Tri Coach

I use it for writing. I'm a tri coach and write a reasonable amount to give my athletes background info on the physiological or motor learning reasons why we do things.

One thing I like about Brainstorm vs other programs is that I can see both the current topic and the entire article so that the current paragraph is set in its own context.

To do this I open two windows one a normal window and another the bird's eye view window. One thing I WOULD like to see is word wrapping in the bird's eye view window so that I can see the whole thing on the screen.

Jeff, Engineering Manager

I use BrainStorm exclusively for personal matters. My BrainStorm is exclusively installed and run from my USB memory stick. I have a bunch of models called "interesting articles #X" where I store items of interest from online sources, mostly NYTimes.

Others:

1. "Quotes and Musings" Wherein I revel in my own perspicacity - and that of others

2. "Escapes" - at list of places I'd like to visit and articles about each one

3. "Treatments" - Outlines of books I'm never going to write

4. "Goals" - Life Goals

5. "Shakespeare" - quotes from the bard

6. "Things you can't change and should stop worrying about" - a repository of stuff that really bugs me" (It feels better to put them away somewhere)

I like Brainstorm primarily because it runs from the USB and has proven stable and un-buggy. It is also delightfully limited in function in a time when most software is infuriatingly feature laden.

One concern is that I've invested quite a lot of time in these files and I sometimes wonder if "Brainstorm" will always be with us. I've already lost many diaries and journals to obsolescence of the files.

Bob, Associate Professor

I am a FANATICAL user of Brainstorm. And would be pleased to help in any way I can. You folks have a great product. But, like Windows, WinZip, and a dozen or more other programs that we all use all the time, it becomes part of the scenery. Why? Well, simply because it quietly does its job and doesn't make a fuss!

Now, I'm just a little above the J. Fred Muggs-level of technological competence [ask your American friends who watched morning TV in the early 1950s and know who Dave Garoway was] which is as low as you can go without having flavor-distinguished keyboards. So I'm not much use to you as a tester.

But I did have to thank you folks for your work.

Matt, History Graduate Student

I love BrainStorm.

I use it mostly for preparing for courses that I teach.

I type themes, questions, and activities into a file and then put them into some kind of logical order before class. I also use it to plan the course as a whole, working through the elements of my syllabus before sending it to Word to format and distribute. I also use it as a brainstorming tool sometimes when I write, but not always.

Thanks for developing such a fantastically useful program.