Welcome to MindPad!
Here we will try to explain how MindPad works. This might not be a complete guide, but our intention is to describe the components of the app and how it all hangs together. The app is in active development and is changing quite rapidly. If you believe that something is missing and should be on this page, please let us know by sending us an email (hello@mindpad.io) or writing to us on Facebook!
MinPad offers a unique mix of productivity tools, which let you manage your time in a variety of ways. In general, the app design goals were to make fast and convenient software with smooth graphics. We also give you our promise to keep your data safe, so you can trust MindPad as your digital companion.
Contents
Side Menu
Workspaces, Categories and Pads
Types of Pads
Notes
Diary
Todo
Goals
Reminders
Profile and Account
Cloud Sync
Side Menu to top ^
The side menu is accessible through the top-left hamburger button, or by swiping towards the center of the screen from the left edge of the phone.
There are a few distinct areas on the side menu which let us perform different actions. Firstly, on the top right we can access our profile, app settings and contact the app developers with questions or comments.
There is a section which lets us add new categories and pads, and reorder those. Reordering pads also lets you move a pad between different categories - we can just drag it from one category to another.
The main area in the side menu contains the categories and pads in the current workspace.
The categories can be collapsed and expanded. Pads can also be added to the categories from the plus button after their name. Both pads and categories can be edited by tapping on the gear icon on the right.
Pads can be selected by tapping on their name. They do not include other options and only their settings are accessible from the side menu.
The side menu has one more level, which can be accessed by swiping left on it, or by tapping on the MindPad text on the top left or the name of the current workspace under it. Doing this opens the Workspaces screen of the menu. The workspaces section of the side menu is very similar to the categories and pads but lets you manage your workspaces.
Workspaces, Categories and Pads to top ^
In MindPad notes and other items are organized around pads, categories and workspaces. These three form a ladder with workspaces being on top, categories under them and pads under categories.
The workspaces and categories are purely for organizing pads. The workspaces are useful to completely separate your items in different areas, while the categories help with placing similar pads in the same category. Pads, however, can be of certain types. Currently MindPad includes pads which can contain notes, to-do lists, goals and diary entries.
When you select a pad, the view in MindPad changes to show you the contents of the pad. The pads are organized as chat conversations where you add messages to yourself. To add an item to a pad, you can enter some text at the bottom and tap Add.
When you have a pad of a particular type, all items you add to the pad are of its type. For example, if you create a to-do list pad, and you enter something in it, that becomes a to-do list item. If the pad is one that can contain notes, then every new item added to it becomes a note. We can also move items between pads and they automatically change their type. This way, if you put a quick note to yourself to buy milk, and later you decide to make it a to-do item, you can move it to a to-do list pad. To copy or move a message from one pad to another, you can tap the 
icon on the message.
icon on the message.
Types of Pads to top ^
The different pads have different purposes. MindPad tries to integrate these so you can have all the tools you need to manage your time better. We are adding new pad types from time to time and we will be updating the following list when this happens.Notes to top ^
The notes pad is the simplest type of pad. It contains plain notes and its purpose is to allow the quick recording of notes. The notes can be in the form of text, images or audio. Adding a note is easy: we just type its contents on the bottom of the screen and tap Add. If we want to add an image or audio as a note, we use the buttons on the bottom left.
After adding a note, it appears in the view above. Notes have certain properties. You can star them, add a reminder, copy or move them, access their settings where you can delete them or change their color or icon, text or other attributes. You can also reorder notes by using the rightmost icon.
Diary to top ^
The diary pad contains notes ordered chronologically. All notes have the same properties as the notes in the Notes pad, but they can be browsed on a calendar and cannot be reordered. This ensures that a diary is always correctly displayed and that it is easy to find entries from the past.Todo to top ^
Todo pads contain lists of to-do notes. Each to-do note is like a normal note, but also has a status and a due date.
The pad design makes it easy to manage to-do list items. New to-do notes are placed in the Todo tab. When they are marked as done, by tapping on the empty box in front of them, they get moved to the Done tab.
To-do notes can also be put in the In Progress and Later tabs by tapping on their status above their title.
The to-do note can be due at a certain time. Adding a due date for it will show it on top if the list is ordered by due date. To add a due date to a to-do item, tap on "due date" above its title, or the date if one is displayed.
To change the ordering type, you can tap on the Order button in the top action bar. Please note that only the Custom ordering type allows for manual reordering of to-dos.
Goals to top ^
Goals are like todos, but you can track them over time. Each goal appears like a small calendar.
Goals can be images or audio just like notes. We edit them and move them around just like the other type of items (notes, todos, etc). However, because they have more properties than the other note types, we will quickly go through the different types of goals you can have in MindPad. To change a goal's type, you can tap on the settings icon, or on the text under it's title.
Firstly a goal can be a Yes/No goal, or a Number goal. The Yes/No goal can be either successful or not for the day. If we tap once on a day in the calendar, we mark the day as successful (or Yes) and becomes a colored tick mark: 
However, if we tap a second time on it, the tickmark becomes a cross, which signifies an unsuccessful day: 
A third tap on the day shows an arrow: 
The arrow means that the day is marked as a skip day. Skip days are useful when you are on holiday, or otherwise unable to reach your goal. The next tap on the day clears it.
However, if we tap a second time on it, the tickmark becomes a cross, which signifies an unsuccessful day: A third tap on the day shows an arrow: The arrow means that the day is marked as a skip day. Skip days are useful when you are on holiday, or otherwise unable to reach your goal. The next tap on the day clears it.
A Number goal, however, is different. When we have a Number goal, we enter a number for each day. When we configure the goal we also say whether we need to be under, above or exactly on this number for the day to be successful.
When we tap on a calendar date for a Number goal, we get a little pop-up prompt where we can enter a number. We can also remove the number and tap somewhere outside of the prompt to remove the previously entered number. We can also mark the day as a skip day.
When we tap on a calendar date for a Number goal, we get a little pop-up prompt where we can enter a number. We can also remove the number and tap somewhere outside of the prompt to remove the previously entered number. We can also mark the day as a skip day.
Marking days as successful on the calendar builds the so-called streak for the goal. This is the number of times in a row we have been successful with the goal. It's a cool metric to follow. If you are doing well, the number will be higher. The streak length is directly comparable to previous streaks, so you can easily figure whether you are doing better or not. Comparisons of streaks and more fun indication of how well we are doing is shown on the stats page which can be opened by tapping 
for each goal.
The streaks can be formed in different ways. By default, goals are Every Day goals. This means that the goal needs to be marked as successful every day. However, this can be changed in the goal settings. The goal can also be valid for some days only. For example, you could have the goal applicable to Monday, Wednesday and Friday only.
We only need to be successful on these three days in order to continue the streak we are on.
for each goal.
The streaks can be formed in different ways. By default, goals are Every Day goals. This means that the goal needs to be marked as successful every day. However, this can be changed in the goal settings. The goal can also be valid for some days only. For example, you could have the goal applicable to Monday, Wednesday and Friday only.
We only need to be successful on these three days in order to continue the streak we are on.
Another type of goal is one which you only need to be successful with for a number of days per week, month or year.
When using such a goal, we can be successful on any number of days (on the pic above - 2), per a period (on the pic above - Week). The days can be any days in the period.
When using such a goal, we can be successful on any number of days (on the pic above - 2), per a period (on the pic above - Week). The days can be any days in the period.
We can also set the goal so that we need to succeed on a particular date of each month.
There needs to be one successful day each month, on the selected date for the goal streak to continue. On the above example, the each 9th of each month would need to be successful - like the 9th of July, 9th of August, 9th of September and so on.
There needs to be one successful day each month, on the selected date for the goal streak to continue. On the above example, the each 9th of each month would need to be successful - like the 9th of July, 9th of August, 9th of September and so on.
The last option for the goal is to be successful every few days, weeks or months.
For this goal streak to build up, it would take for the 4th of December to be successful and then the day 7 days after it, and then the day 7 days after, and so on. The goal can also be configured so we need to be successful every 7 (or any other number) days, weeks, months, or even years.
For this goal streak to build up, it would take for the 4th of December to be successful and then the day 7 days after it, and then the day 7 days after, and so on. The goal can also be configured so we need to be successful every 7 (or any other number) days, weeks, months, or even years.
The combination of Yes/No goals and the streak requirements form a powerful way to track recurring events. You can have a look at many preset goals when adding a new goal through the top action bar.
Reminders to top ^
MindPad offers an elaborate reminders system. It allows the scheduling of different types of reminders. The reminders are associated with any type of item - note, todo, goal, etc. To add a reminder tap
for the item. This opens the reminder set up screen where we can add a once-off reminder.
The second tab lets us add repeating reminders. They can be Daily, Monthly or Custom. The Daily reminders can be for some weekdays only, or for every day at a particular time.
The Monthly reminders are for the same day of each month.
The last option is Custom. We can set a reminder to fire every few days, weeks, months or years starting from a date and time in the future.
A convenient way to see a timeline of upcoming reminders is by opening the reminder summary screen from the 
icon on the bottom left of the side menu.
You can see which reminders will fire and when for the following month, which ones have been shown in the past and you can also create new reminders by typing their content (or adding an image or audio) and tapping Add at the bottom of the screen. Doing so will let you create a new reminder at any point of time in the future. If the reminder is for more than a month in the future, it will not show in the reminder summary screen and you will get a notification.
icon on the bottom left of the side menu.
You can see which reminders will fire and when for the following month, which ones have been shown in the past and you can also create new reminders by typing their content (or adding an image or audio) and tapping Add at the bottom of the screen. Doing so will let you create a new reminder at any point of time in the future. If the reminder is for more than a month in the future, it will not show in the reminder summary screen and you will get a notification.
You can disable all reminders from MindPad in your device settings. If you are not receiving any notifications, it might be because they are disabled there. The reminders will not make a sound if your device is on silent. In all other cases you should receive an audible notification when the reminder gets triggered.
Please also note that once-off reminders are removed automatically two weeks after they get shown.
Profile and Account to top ^
When you first opened MindPad you were asked to register. The app can also be used as an anonymous user. Regardless whether you are a registered user or an anonymous user, you can see your profile by tapping
on the top right of the side menu. This opens the Profile screen.
If you are a registered user you can log out and log in as another user on the same device. When anonymous you cannot log out because there is no way to log back in, so your data would be lost.
You could, however, delete your account. Deleting an account is immediate, and cannot be reverted. All your data will be deleted from our servers, including the actual account.
As anonymous user you can always register from the profile screen. If you are registered you can link your Google and Facebook accounts to your MindPad account so you can log in with any of them.
A little perk for registered users is the option to upload a profile photo.