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Thoughts
Understand the individual ideas, decisions, and actions within a Memory.
One Memory can hold several Thoughts
A Memory is something you've saved. A Thought is an individual piece of meaning within it: an observation, an idea, a decision, a question, or another kind of thing you want to remember.
For example, you might save this note after a conversation:
We decided to take the train to Florence. I need to check the timetable. Anna suggested staying near the station.
The note is one Memory. It holds a decision, a to-do, and an idea. Recognizing those Thoughts can make the note easier to read and work with while keeping the original account together.
A Memory can also hold just one Thought. Length doesn't determine the number: a long explanation of one idea may belong together, while a short note may contain several separate things.
Read the whole Memory or its Thoughts
When a Memory has several Thoughts available to read, its card shows a count such as 3 Thoughts. Choose the count to see each Thought's text and type, in the order they appeared in the original.
If some Thoughts are hidden, choose the button below the list, such as Show 3 more Thoughts, to reveal the rest. Choose Expand Thought on a long Thought to read its full text. Back to Memory returns to the whole note.
Reading Thoughts changes what you're looking at. It doesn't split the Memory or create anything new.
A type label is different from a Thought count
You may see a label such as To-do +1 more before separate Thoughts are available. That label describes the kinds of thoughts Memory Currents believes the note contains. It doesn't mean there are exactly two Thoughts, and it doesn't open the Thought reader.
A Memory with one available Thought shows its type without offering a separate view of several Thoughts.
Thoughts and splitting
You can turn on Find Memory splits and Thoughts automatically in Preferences. Memory Currents will identify the individual Thoughts within your Memories, including ones you saved before turning it on, and suggest ways to turn them into separate Memories, while keeping the original intact. You review the suggestions unless you also enable Save split Memories automatically, in which case proposed splits are automatically accepted on your behalf. This includes splits that you initiated. Suggestions already waiting still need your review.
Under Save split Memories automatically, Archive the original Memory starts checked, so automatic saves archive the original. Uncheck it to keep the original active. You can change it while Save split Memories automatically is checked.
When you check a setting or change that choice, a Configure Split Memories card opens beneath them. Choose All Currents, which includes new Currents added later and Memories that aren't in a Current, or Chosen Currents with at least one Current checked. Choose Save Split configuration to turn the settings on and save your archive choice; with automatic saving checked, that save is your approval for automatic saves. Checking a setting alone saves nothing. Cancel puts back what you last saved. Get suggestions explains the rest.
To‑Dos use the Thoughts Split Memories finds. If you choose only some Currents, Memories outside them have those Thoughts found only when you split them yourself. Streams are built from whole Memories and need no split. A Memory waiting on a split, whether it's about to be split, being split, or waiting for your review, isn't added to Streams until the split is decided; then Streams can use the Memories the split leaves.
Split Memories looks for Thoughts that could be useful in smaller Memories. It may keep related Thoughts together in one suggested Memory; each Thought doesn't have to become a Memory of its own.
Thoughts remain available to read whether or not you create smaller Memories from them. You can read them from the original and from the smaller Memories they belong to, without asking for another split. Correcting Thought text isn't available yet.
A to-do Thought can also appear in To-Dos when you enable it. Completing a to-do records its outcome without rewriting the Thought or its source Memory.
When a holding Memory is archived
Archiving a Memory doesn't remove its Thoughts. You can still read them in the archived Memory.
If a Thought belongs to several Memories, its to-do remains visible while at least one of those Memories is active. Archiving the last active Memory hides the to-do. Unarchiving any Memory holding that Thought makes it visible again with its previous status and history. Completed to-dos stay completed, and separately archived to-dos remain archived.
The same rules apply to original Memories archived after splitting. If an active smaller Memory holds a Thought, its to-do remains visible. Unarchiving the original doesn't extract its Thoughts again or start another split.
See Split Memories for the choices you make when splitting, or Memories for the types and tags that describe what you've saved.