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.

One of the philosophies that go into the design of all of MindNode’s features is that the app stays out of your way, letting you focus on your thoughts and create your mind map. Simultaneously we put a lot of effort into making our features as powerful and easily accessible as possible. We take advantage of the various types of gestures and shortcuts that are possible on the Mac and on iOS to make mind mapping intuitive and a delightful experience. So we’d like to shine a light on some of the interactions in MindNode that are slightly hidden, and will help you become a power user.

A long press action is triggered by holding your finger down on the screen of your iPad or iPhone on a particular element for about a second. This gesture can add an extra layer of functionality to a button or element that you normally tap, which is how we added a few of the following hidden features in your actions panel.

You can easily change a node into a task by using the Command + Shift + T keyboard shortcut, or by finding the feature in the actions panel, however there is one more hidden shortcut to make this happen. Simply highlight the branch you would like to transform into tasks, and long press the inspector panel icon (the three dots) and voila! You’ve just made some tasks. Long press the icon again to remove them.

If your node has a note attached to it, you can quick preview the content of it by long pressing the notes/tag symbol. A preview will appear on your canvas as long as you keep your finger pressed on the screen.

Next time you want to add an image to your mind map that you have saved in your iCloud folders instead of your photo stream, long press the images symbol and the file manager will show up.

If you like the way a particular node looks, you can quickly copy its style to your entire map, nodes on the same level or the rest of the branch. Select the node you like and long press the style symbol to choose where to apply your look.

That's all for now. Mastering MindNode will be a recurring series on our blog, showcasing more gestures and interactions throughout MindNode on macOS and iOS. Our next topic will be long press actions in iOS.

Mastering MindNode – Long Press Actions in iOS – Pt. 1

My name is Christopher Grant and I am a professional artist working in the medium of oil on large format canvas to create traditional Abstract Expressionist works.

How has MindNode been a part of your workflow?

While I mainly use MindNode in my professional work, one of the more interesting uses I’ve found is creating cartographic style concept maps for a game I play with friends, Dungeons & Dragons.

Originally it was just a part of my workflow, utilizing other applications along side it. Now, however, MindNode is the workflow. Almost everything I do for our games begins and ends with MindNode. From brainstorming and creating adventures to expanding our cartographic maps. It is the constant brainstorming that is the workspace rather than a jumping-off point.

Tell us more about how you use mind mapping for creating an adventure.

During our gameplay, players will adventure through fictional places I’ve created for them as the Dungeon Master. A Dungeon Master is like a storyteller and the Players are like the main protagonists of the story. Rather than using traditionally drawn maps, I create concept maps where each node represents a specific place such as a town or dungeon.

Are there any features in MindNode that help in particular?

When players explore new areas I’ve not yet created, something that happens a lot in our games, I can quickly create new nodes describing them. It’s this ability to not get bogged down with the multiple keystrokes that makes it so desirable. It’s fast to create maps! This drastically reduces preparation time and perhaps more importantly helps keeps our fictional world where it should be, in our imaginations.

Another important feature of MindNode is one most people may not even consider a feature, it’s esthetics. Because these mind maps that are created for our games are often shared, it’s important they look good. MindNode’s mind maps are quite esthetic and thus I’m not forced to spend large amounts of time making changes in order to make our maps pretty. As such, the app feels lighter, faster and more fluid than other mind mapping applications.

"Almost everything I do for our games begins and ends with MindNode." – Christopher Grant

How Christopher Creates Adventures with Mind Maps – Being a Dungeon Master

MindNode 7 is now available on the App Store, the Mac App Store, and Setapp. This release adds Visual Tags, a new feature that helps you add more context to your thoughts. We have also introduced our new MindNode Plus subscription and a new Free Editor.

Tags are a great way to categorize and add more context to your thoughts. You can use them to prioritize ideas and bring focus to a related group of ideas that are otherwise not connected. Using our tag highlight mode, you can focus on a group of tags to discover new connections between your ideas. 

We’ve also updated our outline to support tags. Now when you’re browsing your mind map in outline mode, you can see which tags you’ve assigned to your nodes.

Visual Tags can also be added to your thoughts while typing them up in Quick Entry. Simply select the tag symbol to add a tag to your node or just type # and the following text will become a tag. This #-shortcut will also work when you edit your nodes on the canvas.

With MindNode 7 we have also changed our business model from a one-time purchase to a subscription. MindNode Plus is our new cross-platform subscription that unlocks all of MindNode’s features on Mac & iOS. 

MindNode 7 is a free upgrade for all existing MindNode 5 and MindNode 6 customers. This means that if you purchased MindNode 5 or 6 your app will automatically update to MindNode 7 and you will get Visual Tags and all other enhancements for free. New features in future releases will require MindNode Plus.

MindNode Plus is available as a monthly and annual subscription. Initially, the monthly subscription will be priced at $2.49 and the yearly at $19.99 (local prices will vary based on taxes and currency conversion).

We have also introduced a new Free Editor, which allows basic editing operations like adding nodes, editing titles, reordering and folding. Documents can also be imported and exported. Even when your subscription has elapsed, you are never locked in and you always have access to your data.

For more information about our decision to change our business model please read our previous blog post, and if you have any questions about your license please check our extensive FAQ about MindNode Plus.

With only 9 months since  MindNode 6, a major point-update last fall and now MindNode 7 with Visual Tags and a major update to our business model, we have entered a new era for MindNode. In the future, we will be able to bring you new features and updates much more frequently. 

We are looking forward to hearing your feedback and please don't forget to check out the release notes for all new MindNode 7 changes - like new stickers, a new theme and better system integration on iOS. 

Add More Context to Your Thoughts – MindNode 7 has Landed

Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is David and I am working as a freelance React Native developer and bootcamp instructor specializing in cross-platform application development. I work remotely and I love building things for happy users.
My other mission is helping people to earn time by sharing all my automation and life hacks!

I am using MindNode for a lot of things, but basically it's for dumping my brain.

As a developer — and especially in the JavaScript world — it's really complicated to stay up-to-date with all the different technologies. When I am reading a great article, instead of just bookmarking it, I make a manual curation for my own work. I found this technique really effective for the memory, because when I am working with clients or during a bootcamp I remember the location of the bookmark on my giant mind map.

As a React developer I am always thinking in terms of a tree of component (It's more or less the same as a giant HTML page with plenty of nodes). When I jump on a new project, I used to draw the application component tree on a whiteboard. Now I am using MindNode, it helps me to visualise the interactions and state.
As an automation Nerd I am using a lot of tools like Zapier to connect API's together. It's really powerful for creating automated flows like the classic onboarding. It's ok when you have simple interactions, but when it become more complex I always create a mind map to reflect all the different scenarios.

Your first release to the store for your mobile application

Going to vacations can be a stressful experience. As humans being we like to complete tasks. That's a great opportunity to use the feature "add task to node" and export them to notes to complete my packing list from my phone!

What features in particular have been important for you?

When you are working 8 hours on a tool, every seconds matters. I am a power user of Alfred, a productivity app which boosts your efficiency with hotkeys.

One of my main problem is time. If I want to edit a mind map here is the classic workflow:

It's very slow, I don't have time for this. This is why I am using Alfred to automate the workflow.

This allows me to quickly copy/paste urls if I want to bookmark them.

According to me, the most important feature with MindNode is sharing files in different formats (.pdf,.png or .markdown) I am using it all the time!

When I need to write a blogpost I can quickly export my MindNode document (with option +  command + e) to a markdown file and illustrate my thoughts with a nice image.

Feel free to contact me on Twitter if you want some automation advice with MindNode 😉

"When I am working with clients or during a bootcamp I remember the location of the bookmark on my giant mind map." - David Leuliette

Blog

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

Mastering MindNode – Long Press Actions in iOS – Pt. 1

How Christopher Creates Adventures with Mind Maps – Being a Dungeon Master

Add More Context to Your Thoughts – MindNode 7 has Landed

How David Develops with Mind Maps – Automating and Planning

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