First steps with Instantli

Instantli_Team

Instantli shows you documents, emails, and other content that is related to what you are currently reading or writing-instantly. The shortcut CMD-SHIFT-Y puts important content right at your fingertips with no need for you to search for it. If you already use an Instantli Cloud, Instantli will even show you relevant documents and other content that is not on your computer. This provides you with a central location for your local context.

Starting Instantli

After you start Instantli for the first time, you will see a short introduction of the key functions. When you close the introduction window, Instantli will request access to your address book and calendar. Don't worry: Your personal data will never leave your computer. Instantli requires this information in order to compile a timeline and provide positive results when you ask for related content.

Instantli will display your timeline every time you open it. Learn more about the timeline in the section about information space in Instantli.

Use content from the Instantli Cloud

If you like, you can also install content from your Instantli Cloud or-in the macOS version-from Twitter and Facebook, along with the content that is already on your computer. You need to open the settings in order to do this. In the macOS version you will find them under the "Instantli" menu, and in the Windows version they can be found via the button on the bottom left of the app.

Select "Accounts" to connect your Instantli Cloud with Twitter and Facebook. Instantli will then ask you to provide your login details. You also have to provide the web address for your Instantli Cloud.

Calling up links

If you currently use one of the supported standard apps for macOS or Windows, you can call up relevant links with a shortcut at any time. The keyboard shortcut on your Mac is CMD-SHIFT-Y and on your PC or Surface it is WINDOWS-Y. Instantli will then display relevant links with no need for you to enter a single search item.

The related links could be correspondence for an email in Outlook from years ago, inspiring templates for the PowerPoint presentation that you are working on, or background information for your project description in Word. Once you have connected your Instantli Cloud, you can even see important content from your team that is not saved on your Mac or PC. Anything that you have saved on your Mac or PC remains private.

Simply filter out the unimportant stuff

Instantli uses three small circles to show you how relevant the content is to your needs. The more filled in each of the three circles is, the greater the relevance or importance of the content. You can use the slider above the list to hide content that is less important. It is also possible to filter the results using one or more terms in the search bar.
On your Mac, just like on your iPhone, you have to scroll down in order to see the slider and the search bar.

Navigating to other content

Any content that is displayed in Instantli can be used as a springboard, or context for other related links. This is particularly useful if you are looking for background information or inspiration. It also works the other way around so that you can return to your starting point.

To do this on your PC or Surface, you can simply use the arrow in the toolbar at the top of the page. On your Mac, you can navigate using the arrow keys or with a simple swipe.

Information spaces for quick entry

In Instantli, you can quickly switch between information spaces. To do this on your Mac, use the menu in the toolbar with the three lines. On your PC, you can use the buttons on the left-hand toolbar.

Timeline for an up-to-date overview

The timeline displays all the latest content that has been allocated to you, regardless of where it comes from: emails addressed to you, documents that you are working on, tweets from your network, messages on your Facebook wall, or content from your Instantli Cloud where you were mentioned. The Instantli timeline doesn't just provide you with everything in one place-it even lets you filter out the unimportant things thanks to the content-weighting.

Favorites for the things you keep coming back to

You can add all the content that Instantli shows you to your favorites. Instantli can even automatically create favorites from content that you have recently accessed a lot. The weighting on this kind of content increases the more you access it.

Subscriptions to keep you up to date

You can subscribe to related articles for any kind of content in Instantli. Instantli provides you with active updates as soon as it finds new links that are related to your selected content. You no longer have to worry about missing something important.

Searching without limits

If you want to search for something without any specific context, you can do so in the information space. This can even go beyond the limits of your Mac or PC into your GIN Cloud and your social networks. It is even possible to precisely formulate what you need intuitively, for example "all emails received from Max last week" or "my presentation about the Alpha Project".

Store and process content immediately

You can mark down your ideas instantly on your Mac. Your note is automatically allocated to your current context or information space, so you can always find it in the right place straight away.
You can even directly edit documents that are in common formats in the Instantli preview. This includes simple texts, Mark Down, RTF, RTFD, DOC, and HTML documents.

Share content with friends and colleagues directly

You can share all content in Instantli with friends and colleagues on your Mac-and soon on your PC as well. To do this, use the button in the toolbar with the triangle. Instantli then shows you which channels you can use to share your content, for example: a web link via Twitter, a photo via Facebook or a file via email.

Further assistance for using Instantli

You can find a description of all Instantli functions in the Help section of your app in the usual location. We would also love to hear your questions, comments, and ideas in our Forum.