Frequently asked questions
1. Where can I get help with using Thortspace?
The Support and Feedback page lists lots of options for getting support, engaging with the Thortspace community, and providing feedback on the product:
Or if you want to get stuck in to the masses of documentation and articles go straight to:
2. Is thortspace FREE ?
At thortspace we are committed to giving software users the very best possible value products and services.
Thortspace is:
- FREE to install the Thortspace App on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and Linux
- FREE to register a Thortspace account at https://thort.space
- FREE to create and publish public spheres to the web
- FREE to collaborate in real-time on public spheres
- FREE to sync public spheres between your devices and desktop computers
- FREE to participate (eg. enter and edit thorts, apply categories, insert paths) on private spheres shared with you by Premium Account holders (owners of spheres may have placed restrictions on what you can do on any given sphere)
It is only if you want to be the owner of private spheres that you will need to buy a subscription to the Thortspace Premium.
The Thortspace Free and Premium services are sometimes referred to as “thort.cloud”.
You must have registered a Thortspace account before you can become a subscriber to Thortspace Premium. You can register a Thortspace account (1) via the “My Account” dialog inside the Thortspace App or (2) at Thort.space public sphere portal click here.
3. Is it possible to take someone on a TS “journey”, without them needing to do a complete software install?
Yes. Here’s an example:
Swot analysis of Humanity
And here’s a couple of articles about how to do that.
How to … Present and Publish the thinking you’ve created in thortspace (Part 1)
How to … Present and Publish the thinking you’ve created in thortspace (Part 2)
4. How do I stop auto-renewal on my subscription to “Thortspace Premium Service”?
Go to your “My Account” page. If you don’t turn it back on within 24 hours, you will receive an email confirming that you have cancelled auto-renew on your Thortspace account.
5. Is it possible to alter text size and colour within Thorts?
In respect of text colour:
The settings for “Categories” include: (1) Text colour (2) Hash tag colour (3) Background colour
So to change the text colour or hashtag colour you need to set the text and hashtag colour for a category and apply it to the thort (or you could use an existing category).
The TS software does not support ways of applying text colour or hash tag colour independently of categories. More explication of this to follow below.
In respect of text size:
TS software tries to manage text size for users in a very deliberate way, and works this way as a fundamental aspect of why a user might use thortspace rather than some other software.
The strategy is to present the user with as many words as possible while ensuring that font sizes are big enough to be readable.
So when you zoom in on thorts you get more words, and when you zoom out you get fewer words (because thorts have become smaller so cannot fit so many words in them in a way that font size is maintained).
Thortspace implements clever algorithms that identify “keywords” within any given thort, and as you zoom out, it progressively drops more words that are not keywords.
If you stick a “hash” # in front of a word it becomes a user-assigned keyword (see hash tag colour above). User-assigned keywords are given precedence over other words that might be determined as keywords by the software.
So what is the point of all this?
Firstly with colours being applicable only via categories we are encouraging users to use text and background colours in ways that are meaningful and not merely decorative. By mediating the application of text and background colour via categories, any such application can at least potentially have a meaning assigned to it. This methodology also provides a convenient way of changing colour assignments en masse … you can think of categories as being like “styles” in MS Word… change the style and everywhere it is applied gets updated.
Secondly with the automatic text sizing we aim to have views of sphere content at all scales provide useful and different perspectives. As the user zooms out from a sphere, you see progressively more summarized views of the sphere content, and any such view provides an insight into the context inside which other information is being considered.
