By drawing the eye to particular aspects you are focusing on those items that you think are important.įor quite large diagrams it can all get a little overwhelming, so by clicking on a particular element, you can collapse any child elements into that element, leaving only a small circle at the end denoting that this note can be expanded to reveal more details. The point of the formatting is to make the map visually engaging and to allow you to highlight elements that are important within your concept. You can also use bold or italic to add emphasis or simply write in capitals if you want something to stand out. You can also see that the connecting lines can be formatted and that elements can either be enclosed in bubbles or simply underlined. You could use green, for instance to denote a particular character’s story arc, or group things using clouds (The coloured enclosed area shown on the right of the image) to structure a scene or a theme. It is up to you how you format your mind-map. Once you have the basic structure in place you can add in colours and grouping and change the formatting of the information, perhaps denoting various aspects through colour, position or grouping (see below). This very easy and intuitive interaction makes it very simple and direct to use, and allows you to express very complex ideas in ways that are easy to understand and manipulate. If you drag it over the top, the gradient will appear across the top and the element will be added as a peer-node (at the same level). If you drag it over the outside of the element, a grey gradient will appear on the outside and it will add it as a child-node. If you want to relocate an element somewhere else on the diagram, simply click and drag the element over another element. To add an additional node to the end of an element, simply press the Tab key. You are then invited to enter text to identify the new element. To add a new branch, simply click on an existing branch (or navigate using the arrow keys) and press the space bar. You can see that the basic elements of Setup, Confrontation and Resolution act like branches for the elements connected to them. The image, right, shows an example mind-map of the three-act structure sometimes used for screen-writing. Mind Map of Three Act Structure (click to expand) It’s like an ever-expanding tree of ideas, notes, concepts, reminders and thoughts, specifically arranged around a central concept. The claim may be hyperbole but it is an interesting book.Īs a very quick introduction for the uninitiated, mind mapping allows you to connect thoughts and ideas to a central concept and then connect and re-organise those ideas in a non-linear manner allowing increasing levels of detail. If you are familiar with the techniques of mind-mapping then you are going to be right at home, but if you haven’t used this technique are are unfamiliar with it then I would suggest you read the Wikipedia entry on Mind-Mapping, which is agnostic of any tool, or get hold of Tony Buzan’s book Mind Mapping: Kickstart your creativity and transform your life. If you type at this point it will replace these words with a title of your choosing, usually the subject of this particular map. In the centre of the screen is an oval with the word “New Mindmap” in it. There is a menu, a toolbar with usual Save, Print, Copy Paste etc with a vertical toolbar with lots of small icons. When you first open FreeMind, this is the screen with which you are presented (this is on a Mac, on Windows it adopts the Microsoft look and feel).
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