2. Getting started

2.1 Creating a mind map

It's really easy to get started with Mind42. Creating your first map and adding some nodes really is a matter of seconds. Whenever you start Mind42 the first thing you'll see is the "Mindmap Manager" dialog. It has three sections stacked vertically entitled "Saved mindmaps", "New mindmap" and "Import mindmap". If you don't have any saved mind maps (which is the case if you start Mind42 for the first time) the "New mindmap" section will be opened by default. To create a new map you only have to enter a name in the input field in this section and hit "Enter" or press the "Create" button. The dialog gets closed and you'll see the root node of your newly created map, with the text you've just entered as the name of the map.

Tip: The name of the mind map (e.g. in the open dialog) is always the text you've entered for the root node. If you change the caption of the root node, also the map name gets changed. There is no separate map name.

2.2 Creating nodes

Now, that you have created your first map it's time to add some nodes. Like creating the map itself this task is also very easy and fast to accomplish. For the beginning let's just start by clicking the root node (by clicking a node ind Mind42 you select it). A blue line visually highlights selected nodes and a menu appears beyond the node (this applies to every node in Mind42). It's only possible to select one node at a time and the menu below the node will always show the actions, which are appropriate for the selected node. In the case of the root node the menu only consists of two buttons, an arrow and a paper clip. For now we'll only concentrate on the arrow. If you place your mouse cursor over the button and don't move it for some seconds a tooltip will appear which describes you what the button will do. In the case of the arrow button it will say, "(Tab) Add text node as child to the mindmap". This means that the button will create a new node and add it as a child to the currently selected node. The "(Tab)" means that you also could press "Tab" to start this action while the node is selected.

Tip: Alternatively you can also press "C" to create child.

To create a child of the root node just click the button, or press the "Tab" key. The new child will be created instantly, and the text is selected by default. This allows you to press the button, and immediately enter the text of the new node. Enter a text for this node and press "Enter" or click the "Apply" button to apply the saved text to the node. As you'll see the newly created node now is selected - indicated by the blue line beyond it. Also the menu (with much more buttons then before) has moved beyond this new node. But before we continue just a quick note on editing the text of a node. Immediately after creating the node it is in the edit mode, which means that you can change the text. After applying the text you'll have to enter this edit mode again before you can change the text. You can start the edit mode by double clicking the node or by pressing "Enter" while the node is selected.

Now, that we've created our first node we, of course, want to add some more nodes. As already mentioned before the now visible node menu is much bigger than the menu of the root node. For now we'll concentrate on the left column of this buttons. The first button is the already known child button. You can use this button - like before - to create a new node and to add it to the selected node as a child. The second button in this column is the so-called "sibling" button, which allows you to create new nodes as well. Using this button you can create a new node, which will be added as a sibling after the currently selected node - so on the same level of the mind map. The keyboard shortcuts for this action are "Shift-Tab" or the "S" key. The rest works the same way as before. Now create some nodes and read on - all the other menu items will be explained in later sections of this help.

Tip: If your map grows beyond the boundaries of the application window you can scroll the map to the parts you are currently working on. This partly happens automatically, but you always can move the map manually by pressing the mouse button down on an empty space of the map and moving the mouse.