Topics

Organize your work into topics

Each entry in the outline is a Topic: one idea, one question, one category — as wide or as narrow as you need, so the same subject can be one Topic or twenty.

You decide how big or small a Topic is. Content is never stored inside a Topic — items stay their own things, connected to the Topics they belong to.

An outline that fits your work

Nothing about the tree is prescribed. Arrange it the way the work actually runs:

• A pathway. A class following a syllabus reads top to bottom, a Topic per week, and you work your way down it.
• A flat set. Separate subjects sit side by side with nothing nested at all.
• A deep tree. A broad Topic splits into parts, and those parts split again, as deep as the work earns.

Your topic outline can change as your work grows. Start small, split what grows too broad, flatten what stops earning its depth. Rearrange it by hand, or ask Mesh — “Split Algebra into a Topic per unit” — and it adds, renames, moves, and reorders Topics for you. Only removing a Topic stays yours, from the Topics panel.

The Active Topic

One Topic can be Active — the marker that tells the Workspace and Mesh where you are working right now. Mesh gives it extra attention and can still help with work elsewhere in the Workspace.

You do not need an Active Topic — plenty of work is about the whole Workspace. When one is active, Go to Active Topic in the top bar jumps back to it; Topics covers setting it, clearing it, and what moves it.

The Topics panel

Open Topics from the left rail and the whole tree is in front of you. This one is live — try it:

• Every row is a Topic. Tap the arrow to show the Topics nested inside; tap the row to open that Topic's page. The markers, counts, and times on a row are explained on Topics.
• Set or clear the Active Topic from any row. Tap the quiet :crosshair: target to work there; tap the green Active badge to clear it.
• Expand all opens every branch at once; it becomes Collapse all when they are open.

Edit Topics

Edit in the panel header turns the tree into a draft — try it in the panel above. Rename by tapping a title, add from a row's menu or Add topic at the bottom, delete from its menu, and drag rows to rearrange — a gap opens where the row will land and names its level, and a row takes its nested Topics along. Save keeps the draft; Cancel throws it away.

Topic settings

Settings in the Topics header opens settings: Context, and the two switches that decide how your Active Topic follows your work. Both switches are on by default.

Context

A note to Mesh that always applies here — what the work is for, constraints and deadlines, how you like to be helped. Write it yourself or ask Mesh to keep it; it saves when you tap away.

Auto-switch Active Topic

Start actually working somewhere else — editing a Topic's page or adding to it, not just looking — and the Active Topic moves with you. A Stay in ... button appears each time, so putting it back is one tap.

Auto-add new items

Anything you or Mesh make — a Note, a Library source, an Image, a Video, or a Board flag — connects to the Active Topic as it arrives. Turn it off and new material stays unconnected until you add it yourself.

If you switch the Active Topic while Mesh is mid-response, the switch waits for that response to finish — a notice with Stay in ... appears first.