Converting tables (spreadsheets) into MindManager Maps

Have you ever been frustrated about adding a table of data to your MindManager map? There it is all nicely arranged. It could be a list of meeting attendees e.g. Ecademy 12th Birthday Party. You can copy and paste it (just the attendee table) on to a map but the result is not what I want. Each row gets concatenated into one topic.


Here is how I process it in Word to produce the map I want. Paste part of this attendee list as unformatted text in to Word or use a simple two column table with a few rows of data.


Then Insert > Table > Convert text to table


Now you have a tabulated set of data. In this case the Name column comes with some excess baggage. Use search and replace to remove the guff. Delete any columns you do not need.

Select the Name column apply Heading 1 style
Select the Organization column apply Heading 2 style

You could have Location as the Heading 2 style or make it a sub-sub-topic with Heading 3 style. I also added Ecademy Meeting in Title style.


Open a new map in MindManager.

Select the table contents in Word and then click the MindManager button in Add-Ins. Hey presto.



Alternatively save the Word document and the import in MindManager. Ecademy meeting becomes the central topic. You can also copy and paste Spreadsheets in to Word and process them similarly.

Do you have a better way?

Some little known changes in MindManager 8.2

Lars Jensen from Mindjet revealed the following in the Yahoo MindManager User Group forum. Thought you might like to know about these. With my comments.

• Windows 7: Now supports new file dialogs and DPI adjustments. (I am not sure what that means)
  
  
• Timer: Moved from a separate window to the status bar.
  Tools > Timer adds timer to bottom of screen
  
  n.b. The Twit Cleaner is very useful if you have a mass of people you no longer want to follow in Twitter.
  
  
  
• Map background: Added “Watermark” tiling option, which create a staggered, rotated background without having to prepare it specially in an external image editor.
  
  I spent "hours" creating and angled "Draft " picture the other day in a picture editor. Here are a couple of pictures you could add to a Status folder in your Background Images folder.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Map background: Can now drag & drop images onto background image preview within Background Properties dialog. (I don't get this one)
  
  
• MindManager Options (Edit): Added options to preserve scale when copying and replacing topic images. You can set Copy images at full size and Paste images at same scale.
  
  
• Built-in Browser: Ctrl+click now opens hyperlink or attachment in external browser, regardless of Built-in Browser settings. (That works :) )
  
  
• Text Marker context menu: Added Quick Filter and Find Next/Find Previous (to match icon markers). Right click on a Marker to see this menu.
  
  
• Quick Filter context menu: Added “Remove Filter” item for convenience. Right click on a Marker to see this menu.
  
  
• Mini View: Clicking outside the “viewable area” rectangle now scrolls map to the click point. (View Ribbon > Zoom > Mini View - Mine only works in the viewable area rectangle)
  
  
• Keyboard shortcuts: Revised document history shortcuts to be compatible with Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer (i.e. Back = Alt+Left; Forward = Alt+Right). (Can't find this)
  
  
• Keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+N opens a new default map without the Template Chooser dialog. (That works :) )
  
  
• Date & Time: Added keyboard shortcut to insert without dialog (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+T). (That works :) )

It is a useful set of changes. Please can someone enlighten me on the ones I do not get.

Using 6 of the MindManager Short Cut Keys in Presentations

This two minute video will show how the following short cut keys work.

Using Short Cut Keys in Presentations with MindManager

Ctrl-F5
Fit map to screen

F3
Centre focused topic

F4
Hide all except topic branch in focus
Show All

Ctrl-F3
Centre map and collapse all topics

Ctrl-D
Toggle Level of Detail

F11 or Ctrl-T
Open or Close the Notes Pane
Use Ctrl-Shft-PgDn to move to next note
Use Ctrl-Shft-PguP to move to previous note

I regularly use these in presentations.

Do you have any other favourites?