User Guide

MindNode mind map styling

Now that we've talked about styling individual nodes let’s move on to styling the entire MindNode mind map.

Layouts

The most important thing to watch out for when it comes to the readability of your MindNode is bound to be the layout. How you arrange your info determines how easy it is to understand. Here's how you can easily change the layout:

• Choose between two Branch Types; Rounded and Angular.
• For the layout of a mind map, you can select either the horizontal (left and/or right) layout, the vertical (top and/or down) layout, or the compact layout (e.g. for organizational charts).

You can apply these layout styles individually for each main node.

Helpful actions while determining the layout of your mind map include Balance Mind Map and Move All Node Left/Right or Top/Bottom, which you can find in the Action tab > Organize (iOS)/Main menu > Node > Organize (Mac). The next choice is between:

• Smart Layout (default): this setting automatically arranges your nodes in a compact, easy-to-read way.
• Manual Layout: If you want to decide how your nodes will be set up on the screen, you can go ahead and select > Manual in the sidebar. This setting gives you more freedom to move the nodes around in whatever way you like. However, MindNode will still shift your nodes slightly, so they don't overlap. If you'd like to override this, too, you can deselect it in the Preferences/Settings by unchecking the option Prevent node collisions in manual layout.

On your Mac, you can activate MindNode's Smart Layout algorithm for just one branch by selecting the parent node and going to Node > Organize > Layout Children. Keyboard shortcut: Option ⌥ + Command ⌘ + R (also works on an iPad with an external keyboard).

On iOS, you find'll the same under the action menu (circle with three dots) > Organize > Layout Children.

Canvas

The canvas, essentially, is the background behind your mind map. You can change its color at the very bottom of the Styles sidebar (Mac)/Styles tab in the panel (iOS).

Themes

To make creating visually appealing mind maps as easy as possible, MindNode comes with a bunch of themes for your MindNodes files.

To apply a theme to your file, double-click/tap it in the Themes sidebar (Mac)/tab of the panel (iOS).

The last used theme gets synced via iCloud between MindNode on macOS and iOS.

For more themes, go to the MindNode Theme Gallery. Then, on your Mac, click the + in the upper left corner of the Themes (color palette icon) sidebar. On iOS, this + is located in the lower-left corner.

In this menu, you can also create your personal themes. To do so, create a new file with:

• A main node
• Six child nodes
• One connection
• Set the colors and font to your liking

Select the + and select Extract Theme. This will save the style, and it will now be available in the theme selection, where you can also rename this theme.