Ideas

An idea doesn't wait for a good moment. The Ideas box keeps the line you thought of on the bus, a title, an image, or a melody you hummed into your phone, until it finds its song. Then one click starts a new song with it, or adds it to a song you're writing.

#Where to find it

• Home has an Ideas card: how many ideas are waiting, the newest three, and a field to write one down at once. All ideas opens the Ideas page.
• The Ideas page has three tabs: Ideas (the ones waiting), Used (the ones you put into a song) and Recently deleted.
• Ideas you catch with the InnerHook app on your iPhone (not out yet) land here too, marked From the app.

#Step by step

#Catch an idea

1. On Home, type it into the Ideas card's field and press Save. Or open the Ideas page, write in the field at the top and press Save idea (⌘ ↵, Ctrl+Enter on Windows and Linux).
2. It's at the top of the list, with the time you had it.

An idea can be several lines. A voice idea plays with ▶.

#Start a song with it

1. Press Start a song beside the idea.
2. The New song dialog opens with the idea's words as the song's starting lines. Answer its questions as for any new song, then press Start writing (see Your first song).
3. The song opens with the idea in it, and the idea moves to Used.

#Add it to a song

1. Press Add to song… and pick the song (type a part of its title to find it).
2. The idea's words go to the end of the song as a new section. Anyone writing in the song sees them appear at once (see Live co-writing).
3. "Added to “…”." appears, with Open the song. The idea moves to Used.

You can add an idea to your own songs and to songs shared with you where you Can edit.

#A voice idea

When an idea has a recording, adding it to a song also keeps the recording with the song, on the new section, like a recording you made there. Because everyone who can open the song can hear and download its recordings, InnerHook asks the first time: I understand, keep it, or Only the words.

Before anything goes into the song, InnerHook checks that the recording can be kept there. If it can't (you can only comment on or read that song, or it already holds as many recordings as it can), it tells you why with Only the words or Cancel, so you never end up with half an idea in a song.

If the words made it into the song but the recording didn't, the idea stays in your list and says so: "The words are in “…”, the voice memo was not added: …". Finish adding to “…” tries again and adds the recording (the words aren't added a second time); Finish without the voice memo marks it used as it is — and if the recording did reach the song after all, it's kept and InnerHook tells you: "The voice memo was already added to “…”". You can delete it from the song's recordings like any other. When InnerHook already knows the recording is in the song, the idea says so up front — "The voice memo is in “…” already" — and offers Finish (the voice memo is already in “…”) instead of the choice without it. If the idea actually made it all the way in (only the confirmation was lost), it simply leaves your list and InnerHook says where it went. If InnerHook can't check the idea right then, it says "Couldn't check this idea" and offers Try again before any other choice. The same happens after Start a song: the new song is made, you stay on the Ideas page, and Finish adding to “…” finishes the idea in that song.

InnerHook remembers where an idea was going, so this works even if you close the tab or the connection drops halfway: the next time you open Ideas, the idea says "This idea is on its way into “…” but was not finished." with Finish adding to “…”. While it waits, Start a song and Add to song… are hidden, so a second song isn't made by accident. Dismiss forgets the unfinished song and gives you the usual buttons back (anything already in the song stays there). An unfinished idea is offered for 7 days, and only while you can still open that song.

#Delete and restore

Delete takes an idea away at once, with Undo for a moment. Deleted ideas wait in Recently deleted for 30 days, where Restore brings one back.

#Tips

• Write it down even if it's half a line. A title alone is often enough to start a song later.
• Used keeps every idea you put into a song, with a link to the song: handy when you wonder where a line came from.

#Limits