New icons look more sophisticated and intuitive now with the icon design upgrade.
All icons on tool bar as well as on note, on schedule, and on hyperlink.

Under Theme, there typically exist Native XP, Office XP and Office 2003 Styles.
The default setting has now adopted MS office 2003 style set.

What's been added since version 4.5 ?

Menu
Under Edit, for Paste special, Hyperlink has been added as well as Select - Level added. Under View, Full Window has been added. Under Insert, outline has been added. Under Format menu, the new Mapping Direction, Fishbone diagram has been added. You will also note that Topic Outline has been deleted. Under Tools Menu, the following new features, Repair Hyperlinks, Image Map and Theme have all been added. Under Tools menu, Fishbone tab in Options has been added.

Toolbar Icons
Under Toolbar Icons, Additions and Modifications have been made. Outline has also been added. Text Align as a pull down style menu has been incorporated as well as spacing as a pull down style menu. Excel Exportation has been added. Auto Paste Mode and Insert Topic Outline have been deleted.

New Pop Up Menu Feature
A window will pop up when clicking the right button of mouse on a blank section of the page. If Delete is selected in the pop up menu after a Topic is selected, then Without children option will position itself at the top.


Under Paste special Menu, Hyperlink feature has also been added. Under Select Menu, Level feature has been added.
A window will pop up upon right click of mouse on an empty spot on the screen. Please note that when no Topic is selected, a Full Window has been added, as well as Background.
The pop up window below will appear when clicking the right button of mouse within the toolbar section.

Dialog boxes modified or added
New dialog box, File open dialog box and Broken hyperlink dialog box have all been added.
Image map dialog box have been added. Under Options Menu, the new Fishbone dialog box has been added. In Misc. Tab, Make a backup copy option has been added.


Background dialog box has been added. And Under Topic Properties, Outline Tab has been Deleted.

Windows Manipulation
With Windows manipulation, Windows can be easily manipulated. This can be done primarily with the auto detection of mouse movement over the minimized window icons. In particular, when their auto hide options() are on as shown below.


The new feature have been added to Windows including Clipart Window, Note Window, Outline Window and Scenario Window. The Windows are minimized at the left picture above and restored at the right one.

This feature is one of the primary differentiators of version 5.0 compared to previous version 4.5. It improves the presentation of various thoughts with multiple maps. More than one independent map can be created by adding branches to a Floating Topic just like a main topic map. The picture below illustrates an example of a multiple main topic map. If a main topic with Title is dragged, then the subtopics are also moved, in conjunction.

Normally, to visualize a topic, clip art can be added to the topic as a background or in its neighbor in the previous version. Now with MM 5.0, a shape can be added to a topic as an outlining tool for better recognition without taking much space. The shapes include Rectangle, Round, Ellipse and Diamond. The Line thickness of Outline is set as 1 in Line Weight of the tool bar Menu. Here´s how you use it:

1. To apply to an existing Topic, select a topic and click on "outline" from the "insert" Menu. Choose a shape for the outline. It can also be clicked from the tool bar. The picture below shows the 4 types of Outlines. To remove it, select "outline?" from "insert" menu and choose "none".
   
2. To add a new Floating Topic with Outline, select an Outline shape from the toolbar and the mouse cursor changes into drawing mode in the Edit Window. Next, locate your desired position for a new floating Topic and drag it to adjust the Outline box size. The box will fill with background color. The ESC key or the right button of mouse needs to be clicked in order to release the mouse cursor back to normal without drawing an outline.
   
3. To set Line Color or Line Weight for Outline or Branch, when Line Color or Line Weight is selected at a Topic with Outline, the popup window will appear for the selection of where it will be applied to among Outline, Branch or Both.
   
4. The Outline dialog boxes can be displayed from either Format - Style/Line, Tools - Options/Default Style/Line, or Topic Properties/Branch/Line/Style.
   

There is an effective tool that can be used to solve quality problems by logically organizing them by branches. This is also called the Cause & Effect diagram and/ or the Ishikawa diagram. Or, otherwise known as a fishbone pattern. The direction of generating branches resembles a fish bone. Fishbone can be applied only to the main topics ( Note: It cannot be applied to any subtopics.).

Note that only Straight line type for Branches is allowed and the tail size is adjusted proportionally to the Head size. (Note: The first level Topics cannot have clip art or Outlines.) Once the thickness of line at the head of the fishbone is set, the same will follow for all the branches and sub branches.

It is important to note that a fishbone pattern is independent from existing style settings. New first level topics are generated in order of one up and one down. The biggest blank space will be filled first and it does not support the local focusing feature for its Topic.

In a fishbone pattern, a Boundary, like the one in the picture below, can be applied by selecting a boundary while focusing the Head of the Fishbone. You can set the head image for the fish by selecting Tools - Options.. - Fishbone Tab from Menu. Once a head image for each direction is set, then it will be applied accordingly whenever a new fishbone is created. Please refer to the dialog box in the above for any changes or additions.

The primary purposes of Fishbone diagrams include helping users visually organize causal relationships in complex ideas or events. Secondly, to increase awareness of cause and effect is a priority. And thirdly, to develop the ability to organize material learned.

Some suggested uses for Fishbone include
For Literature:
Map a character's action or the causes leading up to an event in the literary work or technique that was invented.
For History:
Map an event or creation of a new form of government or set of laws that lead to its creation.
For Science:
Create a lab in which students search for the causes of an end result you have given them.

Fishbone Mapping
Purpose:
The purpose of fishbone mapping is to organize the causal interactions of a complex event or idea.

Now with Excel Exportation, a map created can be converted into an MS excel file with the Excel Export function. In addition, note that Hyperlinks and Schedules can also be included. To use, simply click "Export to MS Excel" from the excel icon from toolbar menu. The dialog boxes below will then be displayed one by one. The saving folder location and file name can be specified from the first dialog box.

From the second dialog box below, an export type can be chosen among Topic arrangement types including the Horizontal Topic Arrangement, Vertical Topic Arrangement and Text Tree under "Choose export type". Choose items to be included in the result by selecting each check box under Choose item to be included in the result.

From the third dialog box below, check the box if you want to launch the result excel file after the exportation. Otherwise, uncheck it.

Horizontal Topic Arrangement

Vertical Topic Arrangementt

Text Tree

The previous version 4.5 only supported center alignment for text of topic. Now with MM 5.0, users can choose Left, Center and Right alignment, and text of topic for better look and feel overall. To change the text alignment, select the topic(s) and then select one of the following.

Select the text alignment toolbar icon to set the topic alignment.

Select Topic from Format Menu.

The batch selection of branches in the same level is now supported. To use, simply select one Topic with mouse and choose it either from Select - Level after clicking the right button of mouse or from Edit - Select - Level from Menu bar.

As you continue to produce maps, you may encounter instances whereby you may need hyperlinks of the same website, or same files to a different Topic. In MM 5.0, this can be done simply by copying a Topic with hyperlinks and pasting them into another Topic by paste special - hyperlink. Here´s how you use it:

1. Copy a Topic with hyperlinks with CTRL+C.
2. Select another Topic to paste the hyperlinks.
3. Click the right button of mouse and select "Paste Special - Hyperlink" to initiate paste.

Schedule icons can now reflect task achievement rates. Hence, overall achievement rates can be determined by the look and feel of schedule icons. The portion of pink color to light blue represents the rate of work completed as shown below.

The physical file size of a map created by version 5.0 has been significantly reduced from that of its predecessor, version 4.5. Hence, portability is greatly improved for emailing and for portable storage devices.

In the previous version 4.5, the Image Map tool was provided as a stand alone application. For version 5.0, it is now embedded for easier converting of map files to webpages. The image map, as a background, will have all active hyperlinks. This feature can be found from "Image Map" from Tools Menu Create Image Map. The resulted html file keeps all the hyperlinks alive.

This function saves you substantial time in locating the currently working map file folder, by opening your active map file folder as a pop up. It does this by popping up the windows file manager, thus, revealing the folder. Here´s how you use it:

1. Right click of mouse button at map's window title tab at the bottom
2. Click "Folder" from the popup menu shown below
3. The Currently working file folder will be displayed from the window file manager as a pop up

A currently working map can now be shown in Full screen mode by selecting the full window option. A currently working map will be shown in full screen mode by selecting "full window" option after clicking right button of mouse at any blank spot. To go back to normal mode, simply select "full window" option again

When hyperlinked files are removed or moved to other locations, this feature saves substantial time from otherwise searching for broken hyperlinks. How to use:

1. Click Tools - repair hyperlinks from Menu and then a window below will pop up to show the list of hyperlinked files removed or moved from the current map. It will do this one by one, if any exists. The purpose is to establish new links or delete them.





2. Users can either establish or delete them from the pop up window. This can be also done when you click a hyperlink icon of a topic with any missing hyperlinks. This is shown by the example below:

10 most recently used fonts are now listed on the top of the font list.

The picture alignment can be set for each clip art folder. For example, if the Frame folder was set as Background, then any picture in Frame folder can be applied as a Background when it is selected.

The process of inputting a number from below to config.txt in each clip art folder is simplistic.

• 0: default
• 1: left
• 2: right
• 3: top
• 4: bottom
• 5: background

You can add a background image to your map from your own image files. Enhance the look of your map for graphic effect. How to Add/Modify/Remove:

To apply a background image, select an image that you want from a dialog box. Select the Background option after clicking the right button of mouse on any blank spot. If desired, you can use your own images as the background image as you set the background format. Bear in mind that it should be subdued in content or by using transparency to fade it.

You can format the map background to select a solid color or include your own background image. You can control the background image transparency here for your own image.

If you want to remove the image, simply select Remove from Background dialog box and click ok button.

When printing, you can include it on your printout by checking " Background" in the Map tab of Print Setup from File Menu.

Rollup/Rolldown

From MM 5.0 the rolling position for each branch is also remembered so that it works like the tree of windows file manager. It remembers the current status of all the child branches when a branch is collapsed. And then it displays exactly as the status of all the child branches it stored before when a branch is expanded.

When you have a number of branching levels, it can be hard to see what you're doing. To simplify your Mind Map, you can hide certain levels by 'rolling them up'. When you want to see them again, you simply roll them down.

- The following shows a different icon indicating that there are some branches rolled up as shown below.

Drag & drop function enhancement

How to add a hyperlink or an image:
1. Navigate to a web page or file in your default browser or in Windows Explorer.


2. Navigate to a web page or file in your default browser or in Windows Explorer.


3. Drag it to MindMapper to the desired location on your map and drop it. A visual cue shows you how the link will be added.
You can also drag and drop an image from Windows Explorer into a map as a background or as a hyperlink.

Export

Word
Relation, Schedule, Resource, Gantt chart and Resource table at the end are added to the existing options for word exportation.

PowerPoint
"Generate PPT Slides with presentation images" has been added to the existing options for ppt exportation. This adds PPT Slides in presentation mode to a ppt file after converting them into images.

Project
Relationship as Task Dependency and Legend as Priority are added to the existing options for MS Project exportation. With Relationship as Task Dependency, users can add the dependency Relationships to tasks.
Legend as Priority applies to the priorities on legends when converting into MS project.

Hyperlink dialog box

It is very useful when you set more than one hyperlink from files in the same folder. It uses relative paths for hyperlinks as default if the files are in the currently working folder or in the subfolder of it. Here´s how you use it:
Click ">" above and right side from directory window

Moving to next Topic with a click of arrow key

In MM5.0, moving to the next Topic in Process Tree is possible now with a click of one of 2 horizontal arrow keys to the directions accordingly.

New dialog box

When a new map needs to be created, you can choose one of the readymade map styles by clicking File from New Menu. You can then preview a selected map from Style Selection dialog box. If no style is selected, then the Default Style will be applied to the new map.

Open dialog box

1. It remembers the last file open path for the following Menu selections.
Add Clipart, Insert / Picture / From File..., Background / Select..., Tools / Options... / Fishbone / Browse..., Tools / Options... / Default Style / Image..., Format / Style / Image...

2. It starts with the last file saved path for the following Menu selection.
Insert/ Hyperlinks... / Local File..

3. Options available when opening a file.
From Open dialog box, Original, Copy, Read Only, Delete and Rename options are available when the option icon()is clicked.
Original - opens the File.
Copy - opens a copy.
Read Only - opens a read only file.
Delete - deletes the selected files.
Rename - gives another name for the selected file.




4. Options available when saving a file with Save As.
From Save As dialog box, Password, Delete and Rename options are available when the option icon()was clicked. A password dialog box will be open when Password was selected. After you input your own password for a file, then you can password protect the file.

Password - applies a password to a map file.
Delete - deletes the selected files.
Rename - gives another name for the selected file.

Color Application Improvement

MM5.0 provides many more color selections for you to choose from. In fact, the colors can be applied to Font Color, Line Color and Fill Color. From the left picture below, Automatic implies the color already applied to the selected Topics. No Line in the right picture below will delete the line color.

The colors dialog box will appear by selecting More Colors. The Standard tab allows for more color selections. The Custom tab lets you place an associated number to make your own custom color.
"Generate PPT Slides with presentation images" has been added to the existing options for ppt exportation. This adds PPT Slides in presentation mode to a ppt file after converting them into images.

Double click on the Splitter closes the schedule window

When double clicking the Splitter in the bottom of schedule window, the window will close.

Multiple topics

1. The topic levels are determined by the number of blanks or tabs when inserting Multiple Topics from "Insert Multiple Topics" dialog box. The picture below shows an example of leveling by the number of blanks.





2. Generating Specific number of multiple subtopics
How to do:

Select shift + a number(1 to 9) at a topic.

It will create subtopics as many as the number you chose



Copying Topic style

A topic style copied from a Topic can be applied to another Topic. As in the picture shown below, select a Topic with a style that you want to copy. Then click "copy topic style" from tool bar menu then the mouse cursor will reflect it. The style will be applied to any Topic you click with the mouse at the cursor status. (As shown in the selected Topic in the second picture below) If you want to release the style copy mode, press "Esc" or click the right button of mouse.




Inserting pictures with multiple selection

More than one picture can be selected and inserted into background from Insert - Picture - From File . Please note that only one picture can be selected when inserting into a topic.

Initial look when opening a hyperlinked map

The root Topic was positioned in the middle before when opening a hyperlinked map. Now with Version 5.0, it takes an optimal position after the layout balancing, advancing direction of branches and their shapes are considered.

Black circle removed from Root Topic

In Version 4.5 there was a black circle for a Root Topic without any background image as shown below.



The black circle has been removed from MM 5.0 as shown below.



New line thickness 21 added

Relational Link

The Topics for linking always aggregate at the intersection at the center of a Topic and boundary box.
Relational line shapes are differentiated based on subtopics of a relational subject being added or not.



The process works as same as before if you key in "Enter" after putting some texts into the relational line. In addition, it works separately just as a floating text if you key in "Shift + Enter" after putting some texts into a relational line. The text part of a relational line works like a topic when Space bar is entered. You can add subtopics to it.

Create a 1st level branch at a specified Starting position
A first level branch can be used for creating a branch starting at a user specified point. From the Main Topic, while pressing "Ctrl", clicking left button of mouse shows a red point as a desired starting position. A new topic will be created by pressing Space bar or by inputting Character keys then.

New Rollup Icon look
A cross in circle at the end of branch indicates that there are subtopics that are rolled up.(Note: Version 4.5 showed a triangle)


Tahoma used as Default Font
Tahoma has now been set as the default font.

Arrow type to all 1st level can be set
Arrow type to all 1st level Topics can be set at once by selecting one from arrows tool bar icon when a root Topic was selected.

Change branch color
A color can be applied only to a branch of a selected topic. This is accomplished by clicking the line color of the tool bar while pressing shift key. Please note that it will not have an effect on its children.

Topic link
A Topic link can be used for linking one topic to another in the same map or in another map file. It allows real time access to other Topics by clicking a hyperlink icon. To use, go to paste Special - Topic Link. It could be set from Paste Special - Hyperlink before.

Apply Styles
Format - Style... from Menu
Click the mouse right button after a Root Topic selection. Uncheck "Use map style" from Format Menu for brethren succession, otherwise check it. Brethren succession will apply the style applied at last to its bothers to a new Topic. You can set the style for the currently working map files at Style from Format Menu.

1. A map created by selecting a Style map from New dialog box holds the property of Style in Format - Style...Menu.
2. A map created without selecting a Style map from New dialog box holds the property of Style in Tools - Options - Default Style Menu

Tools - Options... - Default Style from Menu
You can set the default style at Tools--> Options-->Default Style for new maps

Tree List was Changed into Process Tree
From Mapping Direction

- Rightward Tree List has been changed to Rightward Process Tree
- Leftward Tree List has been changed to Leftward Process Tree.