If you have Personal Brain 3

Please refer to Topicscape's Help system or this page in the online Help.

If you have Personal Brain 4 or 5

Assumptions:
1. That you have the latest version of 3D Topicscape Pro - v.1.5 or above is required to import from Personal Brain 4 or 5.
2. That, if you have PB3 files that you want to import into Topicscape, you have already converted them to PB5. If not please use the above-mentioned method for PB3.
3. That you have the full Pro version of Personal Brain, as this is the only one that provides the necessary export function. Open PB and check the File menu under Export. If the item "Export to BrainEKP XML" (or "XML for BrainEKP" or "BrainEKP XML") is active, then select this to export the Brain for import into Topicscape. If that menu item is grayed out, you do not have a full version and cannot export. Topicscape requires the ".pba" files that the export process produces.

SAVE YOURSELF TIME: If you are about to import a large Brain, and you use any indexing software like Windows Desktop Search, or Google Desktop, please turn it off or even unload it from memory until the export from Brain and the import to Topicscape is complete. With a big Brain, any such service will spend a lot of time indexing intermediate files that are shortly going to disappear, taking up memory, disk capacity and processor power, and generally wasting your time. You can restart the indexer when the Topicscape has been made and the indexes will then be limited to useful material. Please also be aware of this: If for security or privacy your PB files or Topicscapes are held in encrypted directories, that will add a lot to export and import times, and the extra time taken is further compounded if indexing is active.

Actions:
Step 1. Open Personal Brain 5 (or 4). Choose menu items as follows: File | Export | Export to BrainEKP XML (or XML for BrainEKP or BrainEKP XML) export the .pba file to a suitable location - for the description below, we assume you save it in a new folder on the desktop called "Topicscape import".

IMPORTANT You should wait a few minutes after the export appears to have finished before closing Personal Brain: Some work to put all of the results into one .pba file continues long after the progress message in the top right of the window suggests that the export has finished. If you are exporting a Brain with many files, it is easy to think it's done when in fact it has not.

A count of thoughts exported shows at the top of the PersonalBrain window, but when that shows that all thoughts have been exported, the export process still has to compress and store all the files from the PB in the .pba file that it is producing.

This often takes much longer than the 'thoughts' export. One reliable way of ensuring that it has finished is to right-click on the PBA file, select Properties and note the file size. Wait a minute, and do the same again. If the file sizes are the same on both occasions, the exported PBA file is ready.

Step 2. Close PersonalBrain.

Step 3. Open 3D Topicscape Pro.

Step 4. Be sure that you are in Mode: User's (or Expert) - there is a drop down near the left-hand end of the toolbar that controls this. If in User's Mode, make sure that Enhance Main Menu functions is on as follows: Tools | Options | User Preferences tab | Enhanced Menus heading | Enhance Main Menu functions checkbox is checked. Otherwise you will not see the PB import function.

Step 5. Then start the import. Choose menu items as follows: File | Import. . .

Step 6. On the Import panel, select the 'Other products' radio button and choose PersonalBrain (.xml, .pba) from the drop-down beside it.

Step 7. Leave the radio button "New Topicscape" selected. (For the other option, Floating topic in this Topicscape, please see * Note below.)

Step 8. At this point decide whether you want to do a simple PB import or an extended one. An extended one will open the PB database and extract Labels, Tags and Types, because these are not exported by the Personal Brain Pro's export process. Select the appropriate radio button.

Step 9. In the "File name" text box, please navigate to the "Topicscape import" folder on your desktop and choose the .pba file just exported from PB and press Open. For this example, we will assume the Brain you are importing is called "Reference".

Step 10. If you chose an extended PB import, navigate using the Matching Brain File text box, navigate to the Brain file that corresponds to the .pba file earlier exported.

Step 11. Press OK in the Import panel.

Step 12. Choose a name for the Topicscape - it will default to the name passed by Personal Brain: In this example "Reference".

Step 13. Choose a destination for the Topicscape (My Topicscapes is the recommended location). Topicscape will make a folder there with the same name as the one you chose for the Topicscape - in this example "Reference".

Step 14. Press OK.

Step 15. Topicscape will unpack the .pba file (this takes a minute or so with a large Brain), make the folder called "Reference" at the specified destination and build your new Topicscape from the exported data.

Step 16. It may be that files referred to in Personal Brain have been moved since they were stored in PB. Topicscape will show a report of such files, if so. In this case, you will have the option to write a list of these files to a .csv file that can be opened with a spreadsheet program. Then you can either specify the folder that files are in now, or "Use this Topicscape's folder". If you select the latter button, you can later drop the files into the new Topicscape's folder ("Reference") and the links will be restored.

Step 17. Topicscape will then physically copy the files to the folder "Reference".

Step 18. Once Topicscape starts to build the 3D structure from the Brain data, you will see progress bars for four stages. This will usually take less time than the file unpacking and copying.

Step 19. When the Topicscape appears, the original first Thought of your Personal Brain will be the Topicscape's Home topic. To center that (i.e. make it into the Current Topic), please use the Favorites menu - Topics> and choose the Home: entry.

* Note: Importing as a floating topic
You can also choose to import an entire Brain into the present Topicscape instead of making a new one if you wish. In that case, in the import panel, please select the radio button captioned "Floating topic in this Topicscape", select the pba file as above, and press OK. Then you will see the Create New Topic dialog. Choose a name for the topic and press Add. This will be the top of the topic hierarchy that represents the Brain being imported. Drop the red cone on the topic to be the parent of the new hierarchy that you are importing.