My favourite MindManager shortcut keys

Here are the shortcut keys I regularly use:

1. F4 to hide all but the selected topic and it’s subtopics. Press F4 again to toggle back.
2. Ctrl+F5 to zoom the map to fit the screen
3. Alt+F3 to centre the map on the selected topic
4. F3 to centre the map on the selected topic and close down the level of detail on all other topics
5. Ctrl+S to save the map
6. Ctrl+D to toggle the level of detail on the selected topics
7. Ctrl+T to toggle the Notes window
8. Ctrl+K to add or edit a hyperlink
9. Ctrl+Z to undo the last action
10. Ctrl+SHIFT+ALT+V to paste inside a topic. Useful for adding images copied elsewhere.

You can see all the rest in the Learning Tab – Keyboard Shortcuts

What are your favourites?

Managing Files and Folders with MindManager

1 Using the File Explorer Map Part

MindManager comes with a tool for mapping folders and files. You add one of the Map Parts to a map and point it at a folder. Depending on the choice of Map Part you will get the files, folders or files and folders added to your map.




2 Dragging and Dropping from Windows File Explorer

Open Windows File Explorer and select file(s) and folder(s) (hold down the Ctrl Key to do multiple selects) and drag to the map.










3 Adding a hyperlink
You can use the Add Hyperlink tool to add files or folders links to the map.













4 What's the difference?

4.1 Sub Folders
The Map Part will show one level of subfolder(s). If you right click the Map Part icon on a folder and Refresh you will add the next level down.


Folders added by dragging and dropping are just a link.

4.2 Refreshing
Map parts can be refreshed. Any files or folders added or deleted after the map was edited will be added or deleted.


5 Sharing with Associates

You can share your map of files and folders with others by
• Using Export > Pack and Go or Send > As Attachment
• Export as Web Pages. Use the Clickable Image Map template and then copy the exported folder and the sub-folder called Linked Documents (which contains all the linked files) to your web or network server.

6 Attaching Files
You can attach files in MindManager using the Paper Clip tool. This takes a copy from your disk and embeds it in the map file or allows you to create a new document and embed it in the map. Opening, editing and saving an attachment changes the file in the map not the file stored on the disk drive.
Attachments can only be accessed by MindManager users from the map. Attached files are not exported with the clickable image map web export.

Using Background Images with MindManager

MindManager has the ability to include background images and colour. This can be used to brand and watermark your maps, to have a background image which is relevant to the map content or create a subtle and pleasing graphic effect. You need to experiment to get this right. A bad background can distract from the purpose of the map. You have seen people do it with PowerPoint beware of doing it to your maps.


The easiest to way to set these up is to right click the background of a map to reveal the Background settings. These include colour, image selection, transparency, a variety of tiling effects and access to a background image library.




A few tips:

• In the Print > Page Setup, you can enable/disable the background from printing. Best to disable when you have single colour background. You will use a lot of ink and with some printers have a soggy sheet of paper! You can do this for PDFs as well.
  
  
• The Paper set of background images can be used to give you a grid to line up your topics horizontally and vertically. You can turn it off before publishing.
  
  
• You can have both an image and colour. Adjust image transparency to let the colour show through.

Chuck Frey has provided some more general advice in his blog: How to add visual dimension to your mind maps with a background image or color

Sharing your MindManager Maps with non-users

MindManager maps soon become rich containers of information. My process tends to go like this:

1. Brainstorming or a record of an event or meeting
2. Then I add images and hyperlinks to topics,
   
3. Followed by notes in topics which may have more links and images.
4. I could then add Excel ranges and/or Outlook items (email, notes, contacts, events, tasks)

As you go down this list your ability to share the map with people who do not have MindManager becomes more and more difficult or complicated.

At level 1 I can export to PDF or an image file and email it.

At level 2 The hyperlinks do not work in images or PDFs. They do in the web export to clickable image map but you then have to upload the files to share them first. The Mindjet Player in PDF or Flash file does not quite reproduce the map, the style and topic positions change.

At level 3 I now have to use one of the full web site exports to allow viewers to see the notes. The PDF Player and Flash do show notes but not images and links in notes. Word export can also be used. Non of these gives a overview of the orginal map, if it has more than a few topics.

At level 4 The Outlook and Excel placeholders appears in some of the exports but my experience is key data is not visible.

MindManager Web and Mindjet Connect do allow non-users to access the map and edit it. But it's not cost effective for you (you have to pay for an account) or time effective for the user (logging in, learning how to use it) compared to emailing a PDF for example.

Have you any good strategies for or barriers to sharing MindManager maps with non-users?