I find that my single map just doesn’t offer the flexibility I need in cases such as these:
My map has grown too large to manage as one file.
I want others to take over responsibility for portions of the map.
My project team has already created separate maps, and now I need to integrate them all together.
In order to deal with the first two problems, I need to be able to create a new map from a portion of my current map. I do this as follows:
1. Click the topic you want to have as a separate map. Select Actions➪
Level of Detail➪Show whole topic from the menu bar.
All subtopics associated with the selected topic are displayed.
2. Select File➪Send to➪MindManager (as new map).
MindManager displays the Send To MindManager dialog box.
3. Choose the format desired for the new map and click OK.
MindManager creates a new map according to your specifications (see Figure 12-3).
4. Click the tab corresponding to your origin map and delete the subtopics that were exported to the new map.
MindManager displays your simplified origin map.
5. Click Window on the menu bar and select the new map that you just created.
MindManager displays your new map.
6. Save your new map by clicking File➪Save as. . . from the Menu bar and typing in the desired filename.
MindManager saves your new map. It is now available for you to specify as a hyperlink destination. I tell you how in a couple of paragraphs.
Figure 12-3:
Subtopic 3 Subtopic 1
Subtopic 2
Subtopic 3 Topic 2
You can select and send more than one topic to a new map. If you select more than one topic, however, you will not see the Send To MindManager dialog box and the new map will always be created with the selected topics as main topics.
If an exported topic contains hyperlinks, those hyperlinks will probably not work from the new map. See the section “Keeping Your Links Fit and Healthy”
for details on how to repair broken links.
I may have at this point a mixture of maps:
From the procedure just described.
Other maps that I created.
Maps created by someone else.
This is the third problem situation I described at the beginning of this sec
tion. I solve it in a simple and elegant way by creating links to all my related maps, using these steps:
1. Right-click the topic that is to be the hyperlink origin on your original map and select Insert Hyperlink.
MindManager opens the Insert Hyperlink dialog box.
2. Click the File Browse button.
MindManager opens the File Select dialog box.
MindManager records, by default, the location of the destination file rel
ative to the location of the main file. For this reason, the path is called a relative path. The advantage of this choice is that you can transfer the directory that contains your main map (and all subdirectories) to another location on your computer, or to a different computer entirely, and all your links will still work. In order for relative paths to work, how
ever, your destination files must be located either in the same directory as the main file, or in a subdirectory of that directory. If you cannot do this, or simply do not want to for any reason, click the Absolute radio button on the Insert Hyperlink dialog box before clicking the File Browse button. MindManager will then record the entire path to the file from the root directory. Remember, however, that if you move the main directory to another location or computer with this option selected, you will have to repair all of the hyperlinks before being able to use the map hyper
links again.
3. Navigate to the folder containing your new map, click the file name, and then click OK.
MindManager displays the path to your selected file in the Link To field.
4a. If you want the destination to be the entire map, click OK.
MindManager closes the Insert Hyperlink dialog box and inserts the MindManager application icon next to the topic description on the main map. If you point your mouse to the icon, MindManager draws a red border with red shading around the icon and briefly displays the path name stored in the hyperlink.
4b. If you want the destination to be a particular topic on the map, click Select Topic.
MindManager opens the Select Topic dialog box and displays all the topics defined in that map. If you have bookmarked topics in the desti
nation map, you can click Show only bookmarked topics to restrict the display to your identified topics.
a. Click the topic or bookmark that you want to be the hyperlink destination and click OK.
MindManager closes the Select Topic dialog box and displays the name of the topic or bookmark that you selected in the Topic/
Bookmark field.
b. Click OK.
MindManager closes the Insert Hyperlink dialog box and displays the hyperlink to topic icon next to the topic on your main map. If you point your mouse to the icon, MindManager briefly displays the path to the destination file and the title of the selected topic.
To edit your hyperlinks, right-click the hyperlink icon and select Edit Hyperlink.
You can change any fields just as if you were creating a new hyperlink. Click Remove Hyperlink to delete the hyperlink entirely.
MindManager has a fantastic option for working with maps containing hyper
links to other maps. Figure 12-4 shows a meeting minutes map with two large topics presented in separate maps. I have set up hyperlinks to Review of activities since last meeting and Discussion of issues.
Figure 12-4:
A meeting minutes map with hyperlinks to separate maps.
If I click on the Multimap Workspace button with this map displayed, MindManager shifts to multimap mode. In this mode, MindManager does the following:
Displays the base map as a thumbnail in the upper-left corner of the display.
Displays all hyperlink destination maps that have the base map as their origin, also as thumbnails.
Provides a drop-down combo box that you use to change the size of the thumbnails.
Displays a toolbar and four action tabs that you use to carry out a number of functions involving all of these related maps.
Figure 12-5 shows MindManager’s display of my meeting map in multimap mode.
Figure 12-5:
Meeting minutes map in multimap display mode with a submap selected.
Select any map by clicking it. Select two or more maps by holding down the control key while you click on each desired map. Click Select All to select all maps with a single click.
With the exception of Rename (active only if one, and only one, thumbnail is selected), all commands are executed on each selected map. This is particu
larly useful if you want to use the Assign command to make all maps uniform in style and color (see Chapter 14 for more detail on this).