Back to home
The complete list

Every function in IdeaM.

All 100 of them, grouped by what you would actually go looking for. This is a reference, not a reading assignment — nobody uses all of it, and most people get their work done with a handful. It is here so you can see the size of what is in the box, and find the one thing you came for.

100
Functions
11
Areas

Looking for the short version instead? See the highlights — or read the how-to guide.

Basic outlining

10 functions

The everyday structure work — building, moving, finding, and looking at an outline.

  • Hierarchical outlining with drag-and-drop, indent and outdent
  • Search that opens only the matching items
  • Zoom into one branch and hide everything else
  • Expand or compress the whole outline at once
  • Tags with colours, and filter the outline by tag
  • Multi-select items for bulk changes
  • Link one outline to another
  • Sort and rename outlines in the sidebar
  • Stacked and content views for different ways of reading
  • “Show Me…” views — describe what you want to see, and save it

Writing & editing

8 functions

What you can put inside an item, and how you write it.

  • Rich text with headings, lists, checklists, code and quotes
  • A floating format bar that appears when you select text
  • Dictate anywhere you can type
  • Canvas and drawing items for sketching
  • Spreadsheet items for numbers
  • Embed Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Maps
  • Item properties — type, colour and tags in one place
  • Unlimited undo

Importing & capture

7 functions

Getting what you already have — and what you just thought of — into IdeaM.

  • Import anything — YouTube videos, PDFs, web pages, documents, images, audio
  • Capture from a photo — a whiteboard, sticky notes, a hand-drawn map
  • Merge new material into an existing outline — and unmerge if you dislike it
  • Quick Capture — a passing thought, from anywhere, in seconds
  • Import from Markdown, plain text, OPML, and IdeaM's own files
  • Paste an image straight into the writing pane
  • Record audio, or paste a transcript, with who-said-what identified

Research & your Second Brain

10 functions

Gathering material, keeping it, and asking it questions later.

  • Research and import many sources at once, synthesised into one outline
  • Refresh an outline against the live web, with citations
  • Ask your outlines a question, in your own words
  • Answer Styles — blunt truth, poke holes, what matters, explain simply and more
  • A permanent memory outline, always one click away
  • Save anything into it from anywhere
  • Free, instant, offline keyword search
  • Ask it questions and get answers from your own material
  • Automatic tagging of what you save
  • A dashboard of what is in there

AI assistance

12 functions

The AI working on your outline — always shown to you before it changes anything.

  • Generate a sub-outline from any topic
  • Write or expand the content of an item
  • Write content for every item beneath one
  • Reformat an item with plain-English instructions
  • Reshape a whole outline — structure, length or style
  • Summarise an outline down to its essentials
  • Translate a section into 21 languages
  • Describe an image, or generate one
  • Your Voice — teach it how you write, so drafts sound like you
  • Proposed Changes — see every AI edit before it happens, and approve it
  • Choose cloud AI or private on-device AI
  • AI Activity — a private record of every AI action, on your machine only

Project management

6 functions

Turning an outline into a plan you can actually run. Off until you switch it on in Settings.

  • Task items with a checkbox and a details form
  • Four statuses — not started, in progress, done, blocked
  • Priorities and due dates
  • Prerequisites, with warnings when something is blocked
  • Five instant reports, with no AI involved
  • Board view — a section as columns and draggable cards

Email management

6 functions

Email in, email out. Off by default — IdeaM never sends for you and never touches your inbox.

  • Import email — a message or a whole thread becomes a clean outline
  • Paste the thread, or drop in a .eml file
  • Suspected junk is filed into a labelled branch — never deleted, always rescuable
  • An email, written from a branch
  • Pick the tone — friendly professional, formal, or casual
  • Hand the finished draft to Gmail, your mail app, the clipboard, or a .eml file

Producing finished work

11 functions

One outline becomes the thing you actually wanted to make.

  • Wizards — one-click recipes; four live today, five more previewed
  • A podcast, as a two-host conversation that plays immediately
  • A narrated, branded video
  • Optional cinematic AI video scenes, on your own key
  • Optional AI music under the narration
  • Update Changed — rebuild only the sections you edited
  • A slide deck that opens in PowerPoint or Keynote
  • A book-quality PDF with a title page, contents and index
  • A website, from eight templates
  • Mind maps and flowcharts drawn from your structure
  • Posts for X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Bluesky and YouTube

Exporting & sharing

10 functions

Your work leaves in whatever shape you need it. Never locked in.

  • 23 export formats in total
  • Documents — PDF, Word, Markdown, HTML, LaTeX, plain text
  • An e-book in ePub, with a cover and chapters
  • Outliner formats — OPML, Obsidian, Notion, Evernote, Org-mode, TaskPaper
  • Mind-map formats — FreeMind and XMind
  • Data formats — CSV, JSON and JSON tree
  • An interactive outline others can click through
  • A teleprompter view for reading aloud
  • Share Link — publish a read-only page, and unpublish any time
  • Export a single branch rather than the whole outline

Data safety & ownership

8 functions

Your outlines are yours — ordinary files, on your own machine.

  • Your outlines are ordinary files on your own Mac
  • Choose where they live — including iCloud Drive
  • Automatic backups before anything risky
  • Restore from a snapshot
  • A backup health check that runs on its own
  • Derivative-by-default — AI writes a new copy rather than overwriting
  • Export everything you have in one file
  • Delete everything, for real, whenever you want

Cost, control & settings

12 functions

Who pays, what is switched on, and where it runs.

  • A help button that answers your questions in plain English
  • Report a problem, straight from the app
  • Ask-first cost approval before anything that costs real money
  • Bring your own AI key — five providers supported
  • Free on-device AI with no key at all
  • A monthly usage meter you can see
  • Professional mode — silence every tip and prompt at once
  • Turn whole capabilities on or off
  • Light and dark themes
  • Works on Mac, iPhone, iPad and the web
  • Automatic updates on the desktop
  • Outside AI assistants can read and propose, never change, your work

Start with five, not 100.

Bring in what you already have, ask your outlines a question, and export the result. The rest is waiting for the day you want it.

Read the guide