idea catalog

Idea Catalog overview

Learn what the Idea Catalog is, why it matters, and how to use it as your Channel's home base for ideas.

The Idea Catalog is the main database for a Channel's content ideas. It is where you capture rough concepts, organize production details, scan what is moving, and open each Idea's full editor when it is time to work.

Think of it like a creator-focused Airtable base for one Channel: every row or card is an Idea, and the layout changes depending on how you want to work.

The Idea Catalog open inside a Channel, with the toolbar and list of Ideas visible.

What the Idea Catalog is for

Use the Idea Catalog when you need to:

Capture new video, episode, post, or campaign ideas.
Track each Idea's title, status, priority, categories, assignee, platforms, filming dates, and release date.
Add custom fields for Channel-specific details.
Switch between table, grid, and kanban layouts.
Filter, sort, and save views for repeat workflows.
Find a specific Idea in the current view by title.
Edit the table like a spreadsheet: select a range of cells, copy, paste, and fill down.
Select multiple Ideas and take bulk action.

How it is used

Most workflows start with a simple loop:

Add an Idea
Create an Idea from the catalog or the global Create menu.
Fill in the important fields
Add enough information that the Idea is useful later: title, status, priority, categories, assignee, release platform, and any custom fields your Channel uses.
Choose the best layout
Use Table for dense editing, Grid for thumbnail-first scanning, or Kanban for moving Ideas through production statuses.
Narrow the list
Apply filters and sorting when you need to focus on a subset, like high-priority Ideas, scheduled releases, or Ideas recently updated by one teammate. Sorting can stack several rules — see Use the Idea Catalog sort builder.
Find an Idea in the current view
Use Find in view when you know part of an Idea title and want to jump to it without changing your filters, sort, grouping, or layout. Bluprint scrolls to the matching row or card and highlights the matching title text. See Find an Idea with Find in view.
Open an Idea when it is time to work
Open the Idea window to edit the full details, tasks, linked scripts, calendar events, thumbnails, and custom field values.

Edit the table like a spreadsheet

Table view is a real grid, not just a list. If you have ever filled a column in Airtable, Excel, or Google Sheets, the same muscle memory works here — select cells, type, copy, paste, fill down.

The Idea Catalog table view with a range of Title cells selected across two rows.

Select cells

Click a cell to select it.
Click and drag, or Shift-click a second cell, to select a rectangular range.
⇧+→ and the other arrow keys grow or shrink the range from where you started.

Move around

Keys	Does
`↑` `↓` `←` `→`	Move one cell
`⇥`	Move to the next editable cell, wrapping onto the next row
`⇧`+`⇥`	Move to the previous editable cell
`Esc`	Close the editor, then clear the selection

Edit

Keys	Does
`↵` or `F2`	Open the selected cell's editor
Just start typing	Opens a text, number, or date cell and uses what you typed as the first character
`Delete` or `Backspace`	Clear every cell in the selection

Copy, paste, and fill

Keys	Does
`⌘`+`C`	Copy the selected range
`⌘`+`V`	Paste into the selection
`⌘`+`D`	Fill down — copy the top row of the selection into every row beneath it

On Windows and Linux, use Ctrl in place of ⌘.

Paste is the one worth understanding:

Copy one cell, select many, and paste — the single value fills the whole selection.
Copy a block of cells and paste — the block lands starting at the top-left cell of your selection and spreads out from there.
Bluprint copies as tab-separated text, so a range pastes cleanly into Google Sheets or Excel, and a block copied from a spreadsheet pastes back into the catalog.

The right-click menu on an Idea Catalog table cell with Edit, Copy to Clipboard, and Clear Cell options.

Right-click any cell for the same actions in menu form: Edit, Copy to Clipboard, Clear Cell, plus the Idea's own actions.

Bulk actions

Bulk actions help you clean up or move multiple Ideas at once.

In table view, use the checkbox on each row to select specific Ideas, or the checkbox in the header to select all visible Ideas. Once one or more Ideas are selected, the toolbar shows the selection count and an Actions menu.

Available bulk actions include:

Delete Ideas
Archive Ideas

Several selected Idea rows with the bulk actions chip in the catalog toolbar.

Preferences

The preferences panel controls personal catalog behavior.

Open the Preferences button in the toolbar to adjust:

Auto re-sort on change: automatically re-sort the catalog after a short delay when Ideas change.
Row height: choose the table row height that fits your editing style.

The Idea Catalog Preferences menu with Auto re-sort on change and Row height controls.

Common mistakes

Treating every Idea like a finished video

The catalog is for rough ideas too. Capture early, then use status, priority, and filters to separate rough concepts from ready-to-produce work.

Using one layout for every task

Table, grid, and kanban are different ways to work with the same Ideas. Switch layouts instead of forcing one layout to do everything.

Forgetting that custom fields are Channel-specific

If one Channel needs sponsor fields and another needs guest fields, create those fields in the relevant Channel.

Next step

After you understand the catalog, learn how each layout works in Idea Catalog layouts.