Fall has officially arrived. And with it, the lastest version of iOS & iPadOS has been installed on millions of devices, worldwide. Naturally, we've been working on making sure MindNode is ready for the newest system features. Here's what's new.

Using a keyboard with your iPad is a fantastic way to boost your productivity while brainstorming with MindNode. And now, it's gotten even better. The first new addition is the updated keyboard shortcuts bar. It appears at the bottom of your screen, letting you select autocomplete suggestions, start dictation, or use MindNode actions like creating a new main, child, or sibling node.

Keyboard shortcuts are a great tool, letting you perform actions at the stroke of a key. The keyboard shortcuts view, available by holding down Command (⌘) has been redesigned to display shortcuts by categories, and enable triggering them with a tap, making it easier to use and learn your favorite actions.

Sticker search now takes advantage of natural language processing, and we've improved support for localizations. This means that your search terms will be recognized more reliably, delivering the stickers you need, & in the language that you're using.

We've packed plenty more into this update, like improving navigating nodes using keyboard arrows, performance improvements for the outline, and fixed plenty of bugs. Check out our release notes for all the details. This update is available now for your iPhones & iPads, and requires iOS/iPadOS 14.

Hi Matt! Could you please introduce yourself?

I’m a writer — a novelist, in particular — full time now. I used to be a consultant software engineer focusing on user experience and interface design, on the various Apple software platforms, but I also wrote extensively for technology magazines and web sites. I made the transition to full time writing a few years ago.

I discovered mind mapping years ago, when I was still at high school, but I didn’t use it very much at that point in my life. I did occasionally create mind maps during my years at university, but generally I’ve always used outlines as my primary planning and thinking aid.

It was only when I started to write as my job that I found both mind maps and outlining had their own roles to play.

How has it helped you, personally or professionally?

Coming from a scientific and technological background, I’m a very logic-oriented person. I like to break down ideas and concepts into their components to help me understand them. I use outlines in almost every aspect of my life, from planning home renovations to creating the plot for a novel. I find it reassuring and comprehensible to be able to see how one thing flows to the next, and to be able to put things in their proper order. In short, outlines help me to refine, understand, and track the flow of any project or process.

Mind maps are very different. Where outlines are in a sense one-dimensional, mind maps have an additional dimension of letting me see clusters of related concepts, and how many branches a dependent ideas come from a common source. Mind maps help me to do two main things: to explore the core of an idea before I really know what I’m going to do with it, and also to discover the relationships between discrete ideas.

When do you reach for mind mapping, or outlining?

One of the things you quickly learn as a writer is that you’ll actually have too many ideas, not too few. I write down every idea I have, no matter how trivial, bizarre, vague, or anything else. I find that the mere act of writing them down lets my mind suggest them to me later, in a context where they’re useful. The challenge isn’t coming up with raw ideas, but rather finding where they fit, and how they relate to other ideas. That’s where thinking tools like mind maps and outlines come into play.

My process for coming up with the plot for a novel usually involves starting with one very specific idea. It might be a core element of the story, or it might be a single scene, or even just an interesting character. There’s always something that feels like it has the potential to carry a story. That’s where I start.

If I feel like the story is something short, I might just go straight from the inspiring idea to an outline, but if it’s going to be a novel, I mind map first. I create a root node with the core idea, and the first thing I do is a sort of free association exercise, where I note down anything that the core idea makes me think about. It can be the meanings of words, or related plot elements, interesting places, other people, or anything else. Next, I tend to scan through my archive of written-down ideas, and see if any of them feel like they might be connected to the story I’m working on. If so, I add them to the map.

At that point, I zoom out so I can see the entire map, and I just let myself read it without judgement. Connections almost always become evident, even just one or two. I then start to move nodes around, and shape the tree into clusters of things that seem to go together. I don’t know why it works, but I can almost always start to see details emerging — perhaps a theme, or a genre, or the nature of the story’s central conflict.

I just allow the mind map to develop organically, sparking whatever associations come to me, and with enough attention (and plenty of breaks to let the subconscious do its work), it starts to shape itself into a few main areas that are relevant to a novel: characters, settings, plot elements, conflicts and themes, and so on.

At that point, I can take what I’ve learned from the mind map and start to slot it into the suitable form for a novel, with the three act structure, an inciting event, adversity, change, confrontation, and resolution.

Broadly, there are two types of writers: those who are more comfortable making it up as they go along (“pantsers”), and those who prefer to make a detailed plan first (“plotters”). I’m definitely in the second category. Before I start to actually write, I create an outline that’s many thousands of words long itself, to guide me.

Are there any particular features in MindNode that you have found useful?

For the most part, I use MindNode in quite a bare-bones fashion, as a robust and keyboard-driven outliner, and as an Apple Pencil-friendly mind mapping tool. I work quickly when I’m planning, and don’t tend to do much adornment — like changing colours, adding images/icons, and so on. There are two exceptions though.

First, since my outlines (and thus the mind maps they generate) can become very detailed, I use Focus Mode to visually de-emphasise subtrees that I’m not currently thinking about. I like to have multiple main nodes, for example to separate plot outlines from meta-textual elements and higher level planning, so I’ll often Focus on a particular main node while I work.

Second, when planning a novel it can be very useful to keep track of how much time you’re spending with protagonists vs antagonists, to ensure there’s a certain balance. Both types of characters need to be present and recurring, and it’s beneficial to make sure the story doesn’t dwell for too long on any one perspective. Tags in MindNode are useful for that purpose, because they place coloured dots on tagged nodes. This makes it easy for me to see which perspective a given scene is from, without having to expand all the nodes beneath it. It gives an immediately-visible overview of the balance of a plot, whether a given scene includes conflict, and anything else I care to create a tag for.

What's your favorite device to use MindNode on?

I use MindNode almost exclusively on iPadOS, because I’ve been using an iPad Pro as my full-time computer for several years. Being a writer means I have the privilege of being able to choose almost any platform or device for my work.

I’ve written a series of articles on my own web site detailing my journey since making the iPad my sole computer, including details on how I accomplish various tasks encompassing writing, publishing, book cover design, and various technical administrative tasks. Those articles can be found here.

(I do also have an iPhone, of course, and I’ve been known to occasionally add an idea to MindNode there while I’m out and about.)

Find out how Matt Gemmell uses MindNode to transform his thoughts into novels.

From Thoughts to Novels: How Matt uses MindNode to Write

We love the new, colorful design of the all-new iMac, and how comprehensively macOS integrates the color of each device. So, we decided to create six matching MindNode themes for each of the new iMacs. Add them to MindNode to make your mind maps look right at home on your new device. You can find even more themes on our Themes Page.

Download our new MindNode themes for the colorful iMacs

This January, we introduced Outlining in MindNode on the Mac. Since then, we've been hard at work, making further improvements, fixing bugs, and adding new features. We added new keyboard shortcuts, new multi-touch gestures, made the Outline easier to use, fixed numerous bugs, and much more. Today, we're happy to announce that we're releasing Outlining on iOS & iPadOS. It's the same Outline you already enjoy on your Mac, but fully optimized for your iPhone & iPad.

In order to make Outlining a natural experience on the iPhone & iPad, we've adapted it to how you interact with your devices. You can outline by using touch, an external keyboard, or a trackpad. Like on the Mac, you can outline and mind map side-by-side, or use the new full-screen Outline.

Outlining on iOS & iPadOS also takes advantage of the unique capabilities these devices offer. We've added support for using an external screen, which lets you see your mind map on a second display while outlining on your iPhone or iPad in full-screen mode. Outlining also supports Scribble with Apple Pencil.

Outlining in MindNode is now available for all MindNode Plus subscribers. New Users can try MindNode Plus for free using our 14-day trial.

MindNode 2021.2 is available now on iOS & iPadOS!

My name is Summer, I'm a figurative artist and Senior Textile Designer for a fashion company in Los Angeles, CA. I create in a lot of mediums and produce content all over the internet. Primarily on Twitch and soon to be on Skillshare. Overall, I'm an artist and a thinker.

I discovered mind mapping years ago, but it was all by hand then. I LOVE the studies of productivity, time and organization. I've read most of the books out there covering everything from memory palaces to GTD to Atomic Habits. I delved heavy into a many of the alternative techniques for mental organization like brain dumps and productivity habits like the pomodoro technique – if there's an organization acronym or catch phrase, I probably know it. I have a lot of ideas all the time, and they get overwhelming – and I've tried so many different things – I make lists and just never look at them again, or have a million interests and project plans with goal sheets of things I want to do that don't connect to each other, and don't take into account everything else I'm doing (or the actual time I have to do them in).

Mind mapping takes alllll of that and lets me get as detailed as I want while retaining the big picture. It helps me see the feasibility of projects or scheduling and it helps me stay on track. My brain is wonderful because it connects disparate ideas and combines them into new ones, but it does that all the time – so having a literal web of ideas that I can jump around in lets my mind feel calm – not only is everything written down like a brain dump, but I can riff on any part, expanding it out, and not loose sight of everything it's attached to. I couldn't get into mind mapping by hand because it felt I'd need an infinite amount of paper and it was so messy! I'm such a visual person, and the chaos on the page of a handwritten mind map did not do for me what MindNode does. It allows me to think creatively, in an organized fashion. It lets me bring order to the chaos after expressing all the gargantuan ideas pressing to get out. I can also re-organize and align things later, and it becomes a working document. I've been a part of the MindNode community for years – but started really diving in more the last year or so since getting an iPad. The new features are amazing too. I've turned a few friends on to it, and one especially has said it changed how she approaches everything now – it's given her a new way to think. I love that.

I start mind maps whenever I start to feel overwhelmed or if there's a big project without a straight line of action in sight. I tend to get that deer-in-the-headlights paralysis if I can't clearly see my next steps, and if things aren't broken down small enough to be actionable. So I take them into a mind map and break them down. And then break them down even further if I need to. They're also great for showing me what seems difficult to understand - I did one of my schedule to show myself I shouldn't be upset I don't draw as much as I want – because I could visually see I didn't have the time during the week, if I wanted to also sleep and workout, etc. I use them personally a lot, just to see what I'm prioritizing and what's getting left undone, and where my interests are leading me or what projects I want to tackle next. They are my brain dump and my list maker.

I use them for professional projects as well. I'm using a large one right now for the first Skillshare class I'm creating. I was given a few outline forms to help with laying out the class, but I'd have to have 4 pages laid out in front of me at all times just to see the big picture.

Preparing a class for Skillshare with MindNode

It felt very overwhelming and I kept going back trying to reorganize the class because I couldn't wrap my head around it the way it was being laid out. With a mind map, specifically with MindNode – I can see what isn't fleshed out, what needs more outlining, what doesn't have enough b-roll or what slides haven't been made - in one, easily navigable document. Once I had everything laid out, I then started to move each item into parent/child line for each video I'm making to see how they would play out. Where I discuss what, with what tools. It's been the only thing to get me moving forward on this massive project.

I've laid out writing projects, blog and video ideas, business ideas – the format is insanely fun to use and seems to spur more ideas than typical brainstorming. It also helps me see what not to pursue. If I have an idea for a podcast, I can see how many ideas or topics I can pull out of it, or if the content would dry up fast. I've laid out content calendars that, once visualized, are completely unrealistic. It's great, because seeing that, visualizing the imminent failure of such a plan due to the sheer volume of work on top of my full time job, keeps me from trying to do it and burning out. And I don't blame myself! It was a plan that was doomed to fail, and all the time and effort and disappointment of not accomplishing it – I didn't have to go through any of it. I can SEE before I DO. Like I said to a friend, it's like that red yarn on a wall that ties everything together, without the conspiracy theories. It excites and prepares me for new projects, helps me avoid bad ones, and lets me organize this giant ball of ideas that is my brain.

Do you have any favorite MindNode features?

I LOVE the Tags and tag-highlighting. It’s great to go through and mark what I need to do in each section and then have it auto-populate into a very do-able list. It’s a life saver. And tasks?! VERY satisfying to check off as they're done. I like the little pictures and stuff you can add, but I try not to get caught up in making lists prettier as a form of procrastination, lol.

Learn how Summer connects it all together with MindNode in this User Story.

How Summer Connects it all Together with MindNode

Today, we're updating MindNode with a powerful, new outlining feature and a fresh look for the Outline. With this addition, Outlining and Mind Mapping are finally a unified part of your brainstorming process.

An outline is a hierarchical list that shows relationships in a tree-like structure. That might sound familiar, and with good reason, as mind maps are in many ways the same: visual representations of hierarchical relationships in a tree structure. Outlines and mind maps share the same underlying format but display information in a different dimension.

MindNode has had an Outline for a long time. Until now, it's been a great way to see your thoughts from another perspective. Today's update builds upon that by adding full editing capabilities. You can add, edit, remove and rearrange your Nodes directly in the Outline. This is an excellent way of brainstorming, particularly when you need a more organized, structured approach.

MindNode lets you instantly jump between Outlining and Mind Mapping. You can edit your mind map and outline side-by-side, or exclusively with the Full-Size Canvas or Outline. This flexibility lets you choose the method that works for you. 

We've also updated the visual design of the Outline with a new, linear representation. It makes it easier to distinguish node levels, and identify the structure of your thoughts. The new visual design will also be available in the Free Editor.

Today's release is only the first step in our rollout of Outlining in MindNode. The next will be a release for iOS & iPadOS, coming in March. And we'll keep working on further enhancements like inline notes and improved Visual Tags throughout the year, as well as new mind mapping features.

Outlining in MindNode is now available for all MindNode Plus subscribers and on Setapp. New users can try it for free using our 14-day trial. If you have a Legacy License, you can enjoy an extended 6-month or 12-month free trial of MindNode Plus.

MindNode 2021.1 is now available, bringing Outlining to MindNode.

MindNode’s focus has always been to make it easy and fast to collect your thoughts, brainstorm your ideas, and structure your projects. For this, a mind map is the best technique, but sometimes a different method can help.

For example, I use MindNode’s Quick Entry to capture thoughts or use the outline view to browse open tasks. However, MindNode currently doesn’t offer an easy way to switch back into Quick Entry and doesn’t allow making fast edits in the outline.

After shipping an outline mode in MindNode for over ten years, we are finally giving it the attention it deserves: we are adding outlining to MindNode. So whether you prefer a mind map or an outline, MindNode is the best tool to brainstorm your ideas.

Outlining will ship with our next feature release on Mac early next year and only two months later on iOS. In our initial release, we will support all basic outlining features. Throughout 2021 we will add new functionality - like inline notes, images, and tags - to cover all your outlining needs.

Bringing outlining without compromises to MindNode was not an easy undertaking. Not all aspects of a mind map can be directly transferred to an outline. We also wanted to support side-by-side mind mapping and outlining. During development, we made several assumptions about the behavior we expect. To verify our decisions and make necessary changes before releasing this feature to our large user base, we will do a public beta for this new feature. If you are a MindNode Plus subscriber, head to our "Public Beta" page to learn more.

Outlining has been one of our top user requests over the years. We are very excited that we will bring this feature to our MindNode Plus subscribers early next year. With many new planned mind map and outline features, 2021 will be exciting for MindNode. Thank you for your continued support!

This week, we were pleasantly introduced to the future of the Mac during Apple's "One More Thing" event. The show's star was the new Apple M1 Chip - the first Apple processor specifically designed for the Mac. Over the past few months, we've been busy making sure MindNode is ready for this new era of Mac hardware.

MindNode's new user interface looks great and fits right into macOS Big Sur. We've adopted a custom Accent color, updated the toolbar, and redesigned the Inspector with a new tabbed, and fully resizable interface.

We refreshed our macOS icon, making sure it looks just right in your Dock.

We also brought our new Widget to Big Sur's Notification Center. It's an easy and great way to start a new mind map and quickly access your pinned and recent documents.

MindNode 2020.6 requires macOS 10.15 and is available now on the Mac App Store and on Setapp later next week. Check out our detailed release notes to learn more about all the other changes.

Are you also as excited as we are about this week's hardware releases? Let us know if you also ordered the new MacBooks and what other Big Sur features you would like to see in MindNode.

MindNode 2020.6 is out now and is ready for Big Sur, Apple Silicon and the future of the Mac.

Big Sur, Apple Silicon and the Future of the Mac

This installment of Mastering MindNode will conclude our exploration of various canvas interactions you may not be aware of. We’ll show you how to instantly drop pictures in your mind map, annotate images and take advantage of the space bar to reorganize your mind map. Here we go!

The photo picker lets you view your Photos collection on the Mac and choose which images you want to add to your mind map. After opening it, you can easily drag and drop images directly from it inspector to your node of choice. You can also drag and drop images directly from the Finder or the Files app on iPadOS while using Split View.

Drag and drop images to your canvas from the Files app in Split View on the iPad

Now that you’ve added an image to your mind map, you can also add some more information to it with annotations. Simply select the image on your iPad or iPhone, tap on Quick Look in the menu, and feel free to scribble with your finger or Apple Pencil. On the Mac you can select the image, right click it, and select Edit Image from the context menu. 

Add more information to your images by annotating them directly in MindNode.

Part of creating your mind map is the freedom to reorganize your thoughts by combining them with other nodes. You can make this process quicker on the Mac by hitting the space bar to instantly attach a node to another one while dragging it.

Reorganize your mind map by pressing space to attach nodes on the Mac.

Did you hit the space bar too quickly while reorganizing your thoughts? No problem! Start dragging the branch or node you want and hit "d" on your keyboard to detach it instantly.

Detach nodes instantly on the Mac while dragging by pressing "d".

That wraps up our coverage of canvas interactions in this series. We hope you’ve learned something new, and look forward to presenting our next installment on how you can use URL schemes in MindNode.

Learn how to master Canvas Interactions in MindNode.

Mastering MindNode – Canvas Interactions Pt. 2

Last November, I updated you on our plans for MindNode 7 and our switch to a subscription business model. This transition is now almost complete. Today, I'd like to give you a brief look back at the past few months and an update on our plans for upcoming releases.

One of the motivating factors which helped us decide to switch to subscriptions was that it would allow us to ship updates more regularly. Instead of holding back features for major releases, we can ship them once they are ready. This is what we have achieved by delivering new features every other month. This year we have shipped Visual Tags, new Node Shapes (borderless main nodes; embedded, hexagonal and octagonal styles), Image Positioning within nodes, new Siri Shortcuts, and full Pointer support on iPad. 

If you haven't already, give MindNode a try on a Magic Keyboard. We have continually improved our integration, and you can now also use gestures like Shift + Drag on a node to create a cross-connection.

We noticed over the course of this year that our current release versioning scheme no longer fits our new development cycle: We no longer want to ship major updates; instead, we want to focus on regular, incremental improvements. With this weeks' update, we are switching to a year-based version number. Going forward, our release numbers will be comprised of the current year, followed by the release number.

Yesterday, we shipped our iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 update. This release adds a Widget that you can add to your Home Screen or Notification Center. Our Widget comes in three sizes:

a small Widget that allows you to pin a single document on your Home Screen

a medium Widget that lets you access two pinned documents, and buttons to start a new document or launch Quick Entry

a large Widget that has the same features as the medium Widget, but also lists Recent Documents

Additionally, we have now adopted two new system pickers. The new iOS 14 photo picker gives you access to your full photo library and has the same albums, events, and lists as Photos app. We also adopted the system font picker, which was added to iOS last year. It enables you to access your custom-installed fonts and use them in MindNode documents.

Finally, we also adopted several new iPadOS features, including Scribble support and support for the new context menu.

Apple announced big plans for the Mac last June, and with our 2020.6 release, we will optimize MindNode for macOS 11. We have carefully updated MindNode to adopt the new user interface, refreshed our Mac icon, and will also bring our Widget to the Mac. Throughout the summer, we have also been busy porting MindNode to Apple Silicon, and we will be ready when the first new Macs arrive.

2020.7 – Create an Outline of Your Ideas

At the end of this year, we will add one of our most frequently requested features to MindNode. It's a feature we have been working on for almost a year now, and I can't wait to share more details once we have locked in the final design.

All of the features and enhancements in our 2020.5 and 2020.6 updates will be free for all existing MindNode 5-7 customers. Starting with 2020.7, new features will be exclusively available to our MindNode Plus subscribers. Enhancements and bug fixes will continue to be free to all existing customers.

In this edition of Mastering MindNode, we’ll focus on some useful tips and shortcuts that you can use on the canvas, where you create your mind maps. You’ll learn how to reset the width of your nodes, straighten cross-connections, and a few more things. Let’s get started!

Whenever you select a node, you see a purple button appear in the top-right corner. You can use this button to adjust the width of the node. If you double-tap/click this button, you can automatically reset the width to fit your content.

Cross-connections are a useful way to link ideas across mind maps. We’ve previously covered how you can use keyboard shortcuts to create regular and inverse cross-connections between nodes. If you double-tap/click the green knob at the center of a connection, you can automatically straighten it.

Folding nodes allows you to organize your mind maps and collapse topics that you don’t need to see. You can do this by right-clicking on a node and choosing “Fold nodes” on the Mac, selecting a node on iOS and choosing “Fold” from the popup menu, or by using the “Option (⌥) + .” keyboard shortcut. 

When using a trackpad or mouse on macOS or iPadOS, you can also hold “Option (⌥)” to turn the node well (the plus button next to a node) into a folding button. This is the fastest way to fold a branch.

That’s it for now. Our next installment will continue to look into more ways that you can interact with MindNode’s canvas.

Learn about useful shortcuts and tips available in MindNode's Canvas

Mastering MindNode – Canvas Interactions Pt. 1

Every time you interact with a touchscreen device, whether its a simple tap or a swipe, you’re using one of the many possible gestures in iOS and iPadOS. While those two are the vast majority of gestures used, there are plenty more that can make using your iPhone & iPad faster, smoother, and more intuitive. This installment of Mastering MindNode will show you the various iOS gestures supported by MindNode and how to use them.

Typing and creating mind maps can often become messy. It should be no wonder then that there are three gestures available to undo your last action.

The first of these is a 3-finger swipe. Simply place three fingers on your screen and swipe them to the left to undo your last action. With this gesture, you can also swipe your fingers to the right to redo.

The next gesture is a three-finger tap. If you tap once, you open up a small editing menu at the top of the canvas where you can undo, copy, paste and redo. If you do a double three-finger tap you undo you your last action.

Finally, the last undo gesture is shaking. Naturally, this is a bit easier with an iPhone than an iPad, however, a short shake will undo your last action.

The regular way to cut, copy, and paste things in iOS can be somewhat tedious. You first have to select something, let the options menu appear, and then choose which action you want to perform. A simple pinch and expand gesture makes things simpler. After selecting an item, make a pinching movement with three fingers to copy it, or do that twice to cut it. To paste, expand three fingers in a selected position.

MindNode has two ways of viewing your content. The default view is as a mind map on your canvas. The other is in outline mode. Because of this, we have different gestures to select multiple items.

To select multiple nodes on your canvas you can use a rubber band selection, by holding down your finger and dragging the box over what you want to select. Alternatively, you can place a finger anywhere on the canvas, and use another finger to tap each item you want to select.

Select multiple rows in outline mode by placing two fingers on an item and dragging them up or down.

We hope that you’ve learned something new and that you enjoy mind mapping with these gestures. Since they are a system-wide feature, you can use many of them in other iOS & iPadOS apps. Our next installment of Mastering MindNode will be about canvas interactions.

Learn how to use various iOS & iPadOS gestures to mind map more intuitively.

The last few weeks we’ve been digesting all of the new features that were announced at Apple’s virtual Worldwide Developer Conference. We’re excited about the transition to Apple Silicon and all of the new features we can bring to MindNode with iOS 14 and macOS 11. You can read about our impressions of the conference in the Wall Street Journal. We’ve also been hard at work on bringing you our latest update and with it new styling options, improvements to Visual Tags, and a significant change to our Smart Layout Engine. Let’s dig in!

We’ve added new styling options, giving you more ways to organize your thoughts. You can now create borderless main nodes (finally!), use an embedded style in the horizontal layout, and a line style when mind mapping in a vertical layout.

We’ve updated the popup tags menu with the ability to enter tag highlighting mode, and remove tags (swipe the tags to the left on iOS).

We’ve made tag highlighting mode even more powerful. Now, when you highlight two or more tags, you can display them as a union, showing nodes with any of the chosen tags, or intersection, showing you nodes which have all of the selected tags.

Our layout engine is what makes your mind maps look great and determines how your nodes move as you create your mind map. With this update, branches will now appear centered to their parent node.

As always, there’s plenty of smaller improvements and bug fixes in this update. For full details check out our release notes.

MindNode 7.3 is a free update and is available now on iOS, iPadOS and Mac.

MindNode 7.3 is now available with new node shapes, improvements for Visual Tags and a new smart layout engine.

New Styles, Improved Tags, and Smarter Layouts

Every platform has a different way of interacting with its devices. On iOS, you tap the touch screen to navigate your content. The iPad works similarly but is opening up to new ways of working with it. This chapter of Mastering MindNode will focus on a few shortcuts that rely on the traditional keyboard and mouse/trackpad interaction, available on the Mac.

Cross connections are a great way to link ideas that are on different mind maps. You can create them with a keyboard shortcut (⌘ + L), or by selecting the option in the Node menu. Another way is holding down Shift ⇧ and clicking & dragging between two nodes. Hold down Shift ⇧ + Option ⌥ to create an inverted connection.

On iOS, you use your fingers to swipe around on the screen to navigate your canvas. On the Mac, you can do the same with a trackpad and a 2-finger gesture. If you're using a mouse, simply hold down the spacebar and click and drag the canvas.

The trackpad lets us interact with the Mac through a variety of gestures. Most of them are based around swiping, pinching, and using multiple fingers, however, one of the more subtle gestures is force touch. You can use force touch in MindNode to instantly create a new main node anywhere on your canvas.

That's it for this entry. The next Mastering MindNode will explore how we use iOS gestures as shortcuts in MindNode.

Learn about various shortcuts in MindNode on the Mac

MindNode is made by IdeasOnCanvas, a small, independent company based in Vienna, Austria. Since our founding, 12 years ago, we’ve grown from a one-man team to a group of 11 people, working on improving, developing, supporting, and designing the world’s most delightful mind mapping app. In this new series, we’d like to take the opportunity to introduce our team and give you a glimpse into the people that make MindNode happen. Without further ado, meet Andreas.

Hi Andreas! Who are you and what do you do at MindNode?

I'm Andreas, a student at the University of Vienna and I'm working in support here at MindNode. That means that I help our users with all sorts of problems and questions regarding MindNode. I use the information provided by users to file bug reports for engineering and I forward ideas, feature requests, and general feedback to the whole team.

Did you use mind maps before you worked at MindNode?

Since I'm a person who likes to visualize thoughts and ideas, I occasionally used mind maps to structure information before writing papers for university. I mainly used pen and paper for such mind maps and the limitations of maps on paper annoyed me but I didn't know MindNode back then.

​I still like to create mind maps before writing a paper for university. However, now I'm using MindNode to do so and it's just fantastic! I can quickly rearrange branches, detach and re-attach them, add images and links, and quickly restyle the whole mind map without much effort. Basically, all those things that are not easily done on paper. I have also used mind maps for presentations at university and at meetings of a volunteer student organization I am a member of. 

Are there any features that are particularly important for you?

I don't think that I can name a specific feature. What makes MindNode such a precious tool is the whole experience of effortless mind mapping and the visually pleasing design. 

What are some of your favorite uses of MindNode?​

I discovered that using MindNode for presenting my ideas to others is actually a lot of fun. Especially Focus Mode improved that by a great deal.

Has working at MindNode changed how you use mind mapping?

Working at MindNode has changed my use of mind-mapping by a great deal. I would say that I'm using it more extensively now; mainly because of the interaction with our users. It's really amazing to see all the diverse use-cases and what our users can accomplish with MindNode.

Meet the team that makes MindNode happen.

Keyboard shortcuts can be a powerful tool when trying to avoid distractions and staying focused. When you’ve become acquainted with an app and its shortcuts well enough, they can start to feel like a natural extension of your hands as you type away. MindNode has many shortcuts that we all know from other apps, like ⌘ + C & ⌘ + V for copy and paste. But in this edition of Mastering MindNode, we’d like to show you a few shortcuts that will help your fingers stay on your keyboard and mind map more efficiently.

Smart text shortcuts make it easier to create notes, tasks, and tags while typing. Turn them on in the settings panel, and use them on the canvas and in Quick Entry.

You can create a note while editing your node title by adding a new line (⌥ + Enter), typing "--" and adding one more new line. Everything that you write below the two hyphens will turn into a note.

Add a hashtag at the end of a node title, followed by a word to add a new tag instantly. Do the same with other nodes, and they will all have the same tag.

Add "-[]" to the beginning of any node title to create a task. If you add "-[]" to a parent node, it will transform all child nodes to tasks.

Most keyboard shortcuts require the use of a modifier key, like Shift ⇧, Option ⌥ , or Command ⌘. However, if you're using the on-screen software keyboard on your iPhone or iPad, you don't have access to most of these keys. That's why we've added a few shortcuts that work without a hardware keyboard.

Add a new child node while typing by entering three spaces.

If you want to add a new sibling node, just hit the Enter key three times.

If you create a node by accident, you can remove it by hitting the delete key three times.

That wraps up our coverage of advanced text shortcuts. Our next topic will be Mac shortcuts.

Learn how to take advantage of advanced text shortcuts in this chapter of Mastering MindNode

Mastering MindNode – Advanced Text Shortcuts

It’s not often that Apple surprises us with a with a major new feature that completely transforms how we interact with a device. Yet, this spring they accomplished that with the announcement of pointer support in iPadOS 13.4 and the introduction of the new Magic Keyboard.

We’ve been using MindNode with the Magic Keyboard for the last few weeks. Based on our experience we gradually added pointer support to MindNode 7.1, and today we’re happy to share our first enhancements (with more to come soon).

Like on the Mac, you can now use the pointer to easily select multiple nodes using a rubber-band selection. Making it very easy to move multiple nodes or change the style.

Hint: this is also possible with touch input, by long pressing on the canvas and dragging your finger

The pointer also makes moving and rearranging your nodes slightly simpler. Now, you can instantly click and drag a node.

When you’re working on a Mac, the cursor is constantly adapting to what you’re doing. We’ve taken the iPad’s playful, animated pointer and made it transform to the node well, tasks, notes, tags and the resizing knob.

Trackpad support makes an already fantastic mind mapping experience on the iPad even more powerful. Combined with our vast collection of keyboard shortcuts and gestures, it makes capturing your thoughts a breeze.

MindNode 7.2 is a free update and is available now on iOS and Mac. For a full list of all of the bugfixes and improvements, check out our release notes.

MindNode 7.2 is out now with trackpad support for iPadOS

In our last post we explored various features that can be triggered with a long-press action on iOS. All of the gestures we saw were focused on the four icons in the inspector panel. In this installment of Mastering MindNode we’ll conclude our focus on long-press actions by digging deeper and showing a few other spots you can press down a bit longer.

Focus Mode lets you put a spotlight on a single thought on your mind map. While in Focus Mode, you can tap on any other branch to see an option to refocus to it, or you can use a long-press action to refocus instantly.

Entering a custom node width is a useful feature when you’re trying to create a unified style across several nodes. One way to set the width is by tapping the + and – buttons in the style panel. However, if you long-press “Width” you can open a text field to enter the number you wish.

You can change the color of any element of your mind map by using the built-in color picker. While it’s very easy to pick a nice shade of blue with the sliders, there are times where you need the same shade as your company's logo. Long-press the color picker to enter the precise hex value you need.

When you’ve put in the effort of making your mind map look just like you want it, it makes sense to save it for later, or even to share it with others. If you long-press the + symbol in the themes panel you can instantly extract a theme based on your mind map style and give it a name.

That’s a wrap for long-press actions. Our next Mastering MindNode post will be focused on advanced text shortcuts in MindNode on Mac and iOS.

Learn how to use long press actions in MindNode on iOS

Mastering MindNode – Long Press Actions in iOS – Pt. 2

Since we released MindNode 7 several months ago, much has changed. Our team has not seen each other personally for over a month. We’ve all found ways of adapting to working at home, taking care of our kids, pets and coordinating over Slack. Yet, one constant has remained throughout the lockdown, which is our work on MindNode. We’ve been busy fixing bugs, improving existing features, and adding several new ones as well. Here’s what we’ve prepared for MindNode 7.1.

We’ve added two new node shapes, hexagonal and octagonal to help you emphasize certain ideas and further personalize your document.

We’ve also looked into more ways that you can customize your mind maps. Now, you can decide where your images and stickers are placed, to the side, above or below your ideas.

Many of us begin our weeks by creating a mind map of what we would like to accomplish. With our new Shortcut Action you can create a workflow to automatically export your documents to Reminders, Things & OmniFocus.

We’ve also added basic support for Pointer Interactions on iPadOS 13.4, with full support coming with MindNode 7.2, and several bug fixes and improvements. For a full list check out our release notes:

MindNode 7.1 and the upcoming 7.2 release are free updates for all MindNode 7 users.

We hope that you’re all doing well, wherever you’re spending the lockdown, and we look forward to hearing your feedback on our latest update.

MindNode 7.1 is out now with new node shapes, customization options and more.

Shortcuts, Shapes and Repositioning Images

While the spread of the new corona virus has impacted our lives, we've all taken preventative measures and have switched to working from home. Instead of chatting with each other in our office kitchen, we're now doing daily team video chats. With our kids at home, our productivity has naturally slowed a bit, but we are adapting and are still hard at work on the next update. In the spirit of a recent post by Jason Fried, we want to offer you a small glimpse into our current home office setup.

"My home office setup is a MacBook Pro with an external display and nothing else. Rarely pen and paper. That black thing behind the display is a PlayStation 4."

"I share my home office with my two cats. For testing MindNode and supporting our users I have a MacBook Pro (+ second screen, stand, Magic Keyboard & Trackpad), two iPads (+ keyboard & Apple Pencil), an Apple Watch and iPhone XR. Also a notebook, highlighter, pen & sticky notes."

"When I work at home I normally work from the kitchen table. For the quarantine, we built a home setup in our bedroom. From the office, I brought home a monitor, an office chair and peripherals.  We also 'borrowed' a desk from our daughter. My wife and I share this setup at the moment."

"Luckily, I have my company iMac here at home. Otherwise MacBook Pro 13", late 2013"

"My usual home office is a IKEA standing desk, Mac Pro with XDR plus 27” LG, a RødeCaster with AudioTechnica mic and headphones for podcasting, as well as my cam for video work. Audio is done with a smaller Bose Setup and some stereo-linked HomePods in the rear. Oh, and I use all the lighting gear for video stuff to bring this room to blinding daylight brightness, which helps a lot with the mood right now. :)"

"My wife and I converted our dining table into a shared home office. My half of the table features a MacBook Pro with an external monitor and an iPad Pro."

"My desk didn’t really change due to Covid-19. Just the office in Impact Hub Ostrava that I share with 2 others is just for me in these days. Featuring Ikea motorized desk, old but still good 24” HP display, 16” MBP, 11” iPad Pro, B&O headphones, Magic Mouse."

"My office is in my bedroom. I reassure myself of the existence of the outside world with a desktop wallpaper of my last holiday. I use two video-led panels on microphone stands to brighten up the room."

The spread of the new corona virus has impacted all of our lives. Here's how we've adapted to working from home.

Blog

Smarter, Better & Optimized for iOS 15

From Thoughts to Novels: How Matt uses MindNode to Write

iMac Themes

Outlining on iOS

How Summer Connects it all Together with MindNode

Outlining in MindNode

Outlining and Mind Mapping Side-by-Side

Big Sur, Apple Silicon and the Future of the Mac

Mastering MindNode – Canvas Interactions Pt. 2

MindNode Fall 2020 Updates

Mastering MindNode – Canvas Interactions Pt. 1

Mastering MindNode – iOS Gestures

New Styles, Improved Tags, and Smarter Layouts

Mastering MindNode – Mac Shortcuts

Meet the Team – Andreas

Mastering MindNode – Advanced Text Shortcuts

Trackpad Support for MindNode is Here

Mastering MindNode – Long Press Actions in iOS – Pt. 2

Shortcuts, Shapes and Repositioning Images

Greetings from Our Home Office

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