How to write a note about an attack

A note is a free-text description of what happened. A few sentences in your own words. The app can use your note to help fill in other fields, and you can read it back later to remember how the attack felt. There is no right way to write one. Long or short, both are fine.

There are two ways to write a note: at the start of the log (the "Paint the picture" step) or near the end (the "Notes" step). They serve slightly different purposes, explained below.

Same on iPhone and Android

1. Open the app.
2. Tap the Log tab at the bottom of the screen.
3. Tap the big purple Log Migraine card at the top.
4. The wizard opens on the Timing step. There are 14 steps in all.

Option A: The Paint the picture note (the second step)

This note appears at the start. The app reads it and tries to fill in your severity, symptoms, pain location, medicines, triggers and reliefs from your words. This saves you tapping through later steps.

1. Tap Next once to move from Timing to Paint the picture.
2. You will see a big text box with an example in faint grey, under the line "Type or speak freely — we'll pre-fill your entire log".
3. Type a few sentences in plain words. For example: "Woke up at five with a pounding pain on my left temple. Felt sick. Lights were too bright. Took my tablet at six."
4. If typing is hard, tap the Voice button and speak instead. On iPhone your words appear in the box as you talk and you tap Stop when done; on Android the phone's speech window opens, and your words are added to the box when you finish. See the separate article on voice input.
5. Look at what was written. Edit anything that is wrong.
6. Tap the Find matches button. It briefly shows Analysing…, then little coloured tags appear below the box: a severity, pain locations, symptoms, medicines, triggers and reliefs it spotted.
7. Tap the small cross on any tag to remove it. Items in italics are the app's suggestions rather than things you said outright.
8. Tap Next to continue. The pre-filled items now appear in their proper steps later in the wizard.

Option B: The Notes step (the second-to-last step)

This note is for anything that does not fit into the other steps. It is read only by you. The app does not try to extract anything from it.

1. Tap Next through each step of the wizard until you reach the Notes step. It comes right after Missed Activities, just before the Review.
2. You will see a large text box under "Add any additional notes about this migraine", with a Voice button if you would rather speak.
3. Type whatever you wish. For example: "Started after a tense phone call. Felt better after lying down for two hours. Husband helped with the curtains."
4. You can leave this blank.
5. Tap Next to go to the Review step.
6. Tap the purple Save Log button at the bottom of the Review step.

If you want to keep the note short

1. A single sentence is plenty. "Bad headache after lunch, took a tablet, slept for an hour" is a useful note.
2. The point is not perfection. The point is to capture something you may forget by tomorrow.

Editing your note later

1. Open the Journal tab at the bottom of the screen.
2. Find the migraine entry by date.
3. Tap the small ⋯ menu on its card, then Edit.
4. The notes box is on the first page of the edit screen. Change the text, then go through to the Review step and tap Save.

If the Find matches button does nothing

1. Make sure there is some text in the box. The button needs something to read.
2. If nothing useful is found, you will see "No matches found — you can add items manually in the next steps". That is fine. Just tap Next and fill in the screens by hand.

What if I do not want to type anything?

You do not have to. The note is optional. Tap Next with the box empty and you will move on to the next step without any harm done.