Maps
The same tree a checklist holds, drawn as a picture. Nodes branch from a root, and the shape is worked out for you — there is nothing to drag into place and nothing to tidy up afterwards.
Drawn by the server, which is why it travels
The layout is computed before the page is sent, not by a script once it arrives. That buys three things worth having: a map that draws with no JavaScript at all, a map that is the same picture for everybody and the same picture next week, and a map that prints and exports as what you were looking at.
Building one from the keyboard
Enter adds a sibling, Tab adds a child, and the arrows move between nodes the way they lie on the screen — up and down among siblings, left to the parent, right to the first child. A map is typed as fast as a list is, which is the point of it having the same keys.
Colour, and what it is for
A node can take one of six colours. Six rather than sixteen million: a palette you can tell apart at a glance is one people actually use, and the same six appear on a board's cards, so a colour means the same thing wherever you meet it.
A note on any node
Like a checklist item and a board card, every node has a marker with a note behind it — full Markdown. Press n on a node to open it.
Finding one
/ opens the find box. Typing moves to the matching node and brings it into view, which on a wide map is the difference between finding something and scrolling for it.
It is still text
A map exports as an indented outline and reads back in as one, so the same tree can leave as a map and arrive as a checklist. Converting between the two loses nothing but the picture.
Every key
A map is the same tree a checklist is, drawn around a centre. It takes focus when it opens, so a new map can be typed into straight away.
- Tab makes a CHILD here, where on a checklist it indents the row you are on. Enter and Tab meaning sibling and child is the one pair every mind map agrees on, and a map has no left margin to indent from. Moving an existing node is Shift with an arrow.
- The arrows follow the screen rather than the outline, which means they mirror: on the right of the centre, right goes deeper and left comes back; on the left of the centre it is the other way round, because that half grows leftwards. Pressing towards the centre from a branch crosses it, to whichever branch on the far side is nearest.
- A colour belongs to a BRANCH: everything under a coloured node takes it, unless that node has been given a colour of its own. The lines take it too, so a coloured branch is coloured all the way.
- A link says two nodes are related where the tree cannot — they are in different branches. It is drawn as a dashed line, and pressing l again on the same pair takes it away.
- A big map is handled by folding branches and by focusing on one of them, not by zooming out — below about half size the labels stop being readable. Fit is there to see the shape; focus is there to read a part of it.
Moving around
- ↑ + ↓
- Previous or next node at this level
- ← + →
- Away from the centre, into a branch — or back towards the centre and across to the other side. Which key is which depends on the side you are on, because they follow the screen
- Space
- Fold or unfold this branch
Changing things
- Enter
- A new node beside this one
- Tab
- A new node underneath this one
- Shift + Tab
- Move this node out to its parent's level
- e
- Rename this node
- Shift + ↑ + ↓
- Move this node and its branch among its neighbours
- Shift + ← + →
- Send this branch to the other side of the centre
- Shift + Delete
- Delete — asks first if it has children
- n
- Open this node's note — the same key the checklist and the board use
- c
- The next colour for this branch, and none again after the last
- l
- Link this node to another — press it, go to the other, then Enter
Finding one
- /
- The box above the map — type to go to the next node that matches, its own note included. Nothing is hidden: a map's shape is what it says
- Enter
- In the box: the next match. Shift+Enter for the one before
- Esc
- In the box: empty it and go back to where you were
Seeing it
- .
- Focus on this branch, drawing it as the centre
- ,
- Back out of a focused branch
- + or −
- Zoom in or out, about whatever is selected
- 0
- Actual size
- f
- Fit the whole map on screen
While editing
- Enter
- Save, and start a node beside this one
- Shift + Enter
- Save, and start one before it
- Tab
- Save, and start a node underneath
- Esc
- Save and stop editing
Everything else
- ?
- Show or hide the Help panel above the map
- y
- Copy a link to this — paste it into any note and it comes back here
- Y
- Copy its web address instead — to send to somebody rather than to paste into a note
- s
- Everything about this note that is not its content — its settings, its history, who can see it
- Esc
- Over to the notes and folders — and Esc there brings you back