1.3.1 - Windows - Model Window - Find Nouns Area
The Find Nouns Area is the part of the Model Window that allows you to find nouns.
There are three steps to finding nouns:
1) Choose a noun type, or all types.
2) Specify all or part of the name of the noun you want to find.
3) Tell MindModel to find the nouns.
The Find Nouns Area has three parts, each corresponding to one of the three steps.
1) Choose a Noun Type
First, choose a noun type from the noun types drop-down.
If you want to find an organization, choose "organization". If you want to find a person, choose "person".
If you want to search all types rather than just one, choose "<all types>", the top item in the drop-down.
2) Enter the Name
Second, enter all or part of the name of the noun you want to find in the entry area.
There are a few reasons why it's usually a good idea to type part of the name, rather than the whole name.
First of all, MindModel searches for exactly the name you enter, so if the person's name isn't exactly what you type, MindModel won't find the person. For example, if you enter "Susan B. White" and the person is stored in MindModel as "Susan White", MindModel will not find the person.
However, if you enter "White", MindModel will find all the people whose names contain "White". Then you can scroll through the Nouns List and find "Susan White".
A second reason why it's often a good idea to enter part of the name is that it can save you time spent typing. If you're looking for a person named "Bartholomew Squiggleston", it would take quite a while to type that name into the Find Nouns Entry Area.
Instead, you could just type "mew". MindModel will find people whose names contain "mew", in any part of the name. It isn't likely that there will be too many people with "mew" in their names, so you won't have much trouble looking through the Nouns List for "Bartholomew Squiggleston".
The same technique works no matter what noun type you're looking for: people, organizations, skills, etc.
3) Click the Go Button
Once you've selected a noun type and entered part of the name you're looking for, click the "Go" button to the right of the Find Nouns Entry Area to begin the search. If you prefer, you can hit the return key (on the keyboard) instead of clicking the Go button.
Once you click Go (or hit return), MindModel will fill the Nouns List (the top list in the Model Window) with the nouns that match your selected noun type and entry.
As you can see from the picture below, the user has selected "people", entered "susan" as part of the name, and clicked the Go button.
MindModel has filled the Nouns List with all people whose names contain "susan", which in this case is one person: Susan White.
You may also notice that, even though Susan White's name is displayed in the Nouns List, the Statements List still shows statements related to Dale Ritcey, the previously-selected noun.
This is not a mistake. This is the way MindModel is supposed to work. If you want MindModel to find all statements related to Susan White, just double-click on Susan White's name in the Nouns List.
Sometimes new users tell us that they'd like MindModel to find statements for the selected noun automatically, without their having to double-click on the noun. After using MindModel for a while, most users agree that this automatic feature would not be helpful.
Many times, you'll want to find a noun without finding statements for that noun. You may want to see a noun summary in the Summary Window. Having to wait for MindModel to find statements for the selected noun every time would quickly become tiresome.
Power-User Tip
You may have noticed the drop-down arrow to the right of the Go button. Clicking this drop-down arrow brings up the Model Window Go Button Menu.
The "Find Marked Nouns" command fills the Nouns List with all marked nouns in the model.
To learn more about commands that mark and unmark nouns, refer to the section: Feature Guide: Menus: Nouns Menu: Mark Selected Noun.
Find Marked Nouns in the Nouns List
This command is similar to the "Find Marked Nouns" command described above, but instead of looking through the entire model and filling the Nouns List with all marked nouns from the model, this command looks through the Nouns List for marked nouns. Any marked nouns found in the Nouns List are left in the Nouns List. Any unmarked nouns found in the Nouns List are removed from the Nouns List.
Note that this command does not delete any nouns from the model. It simply removes nouns from the Nouns List.
Find Marked Statements
The "Find Marked Statements" command fills the Statements List with all marked statements in the model.
To learn more about commands that mark and unmark statements, refer to the section: Feature Guide: Menus: Statements Menu: Mark Selected Statement.