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BlockFlow keeps the text you capture with the block of time you plan to work on it. A block is a window in the week. A flow is one captured piece of work: the exact words, a title, and the page they came from.

The browser extension, BlockFlow Smart Capture, sends a capture only after you choose Send to BlockFlow or send from the toolbar. It talks only to blockflow.geccomputers.com.

Create an account

A new account is free for 30 days and does not ask for a card. Open Start a trial and choose Create account. Use an email address you can open, and a password you will remember.

If you already have an account, sign in with that email and password.

A store reviewer can do either of those. A test username and password supplied with the store submission also signs in. That password is not published on this page.

When the 30 days end, sign-in still works and the flows already saved stay readable. New captures, import, new calendar connections, and calendar publishing wait until a paid plan is added.

Sign the extension in

1. Install BlockFlow Smart Capture, then pin it to the toolbar if you want the icon visible.
2. Open the extension options. In Chrome, click the puzzle piece, then BlockFlow, then the three dots, then Options.
3. Choose Sign in. A BlockFlow tab opens.
4. Finish sign-in in that tab with the new account or the test account. Return to the options page. It should say you are signed in on this browser.

Signing in on the website alone does not attach the extension. The Sign in button in the extension options is the step that connects them.

Send a capture

1. Open a normal web page whose address starts with https://. A useful sample is example.com.
2. Highlight a sentence with the mouse.
3. Right-click the selection and choose Send to BlockFlow. Or click the BlockFlow toolbar icon, check the text in the popup, choose a block if you want one other than Inbox, and choose Send.
4. Chrome shows a notification, Sent to BlockFlow, when the save succeeds.
5. Open blockflow.geccomputers.com and sign in with the same account. The sentence is a flow in Inbox, with the page address, unless you filed it in another block.

File in a block, on the right-click menu, lists the other blocks after Inbox exists. The popup can pick a block before Send.

The same account on a second signed-in browser sees the same flows. The extension stores its sign-in token only in the browser where you chose Sign in.

What a capture stores

• The exact highlighted text.
• A title, taken from the first line of that text or from the page title.
• The page address and the page title.
• The time of the capture.

The highlighted text, your notes, and the page address are encrypted in the database. Block and flow titles stay readable. The extension reads that selection only for the send you just chose. It does not read other pages, and it does not download or run code from another site. Details of storage are on the privacy page.

Blocks and flows

• Inbox is the landing place when you do not choose another block. Inbox stays, and it cannot be deleted.
• Opening the site shows the block scheduled now. If none is scheduled, it shows every flow.
• A flow can be marked done, archived, restored, edited, moved to another block, or deleted. Delete does not ask a second time.
• A block that still has flows cannot be deleted. Move or delete those flows first.
• The week is Monday through Sunday, America/New_York. Times snap to 15 minutes.
• Export downloads your blocks and flows as JSON. Import skips rows already stored.

Calendar

Calendar is optional. The extension does not need a calendar to save a capture. On the signed-in page, Calendars under Profile publishes block names and the flows in those blocks. Inbox is not published. Each flow in the event ends with Update Flow. When the flow has a page address, Flow Link sits on that same line. Update Flow opens a small window where you can mark the flow complete, change the comment, or delete it. The window closes after that. A completed or deleted flow is left off the next time that block is published. Disconnect leaves the flows in BlockFlow and removes the events that BlockFlow published.

If a capture does not appear

• The options page must say you are signed in. Choose Sign in there again, then send once more.
• Highlight the text on an http or https page before you send. Browser pages such as chrome:// and the Chrome Web Store do not share a selection with the extension.
• If the popup says it could not load blocks, the extension is not signed in, or the trial’s 30 days have ended. An ended trial can still be opened and read.
• Refresh the BlockFlow page. Flows for the signed-in account show up there, including a capture sent from another device on that same account.