MindMup: Free Mind mapping software
MindMup is a free mind map software that you can use online. It runs inside your web browser so you do not need to install anything. You don’t even need to register to use the free version.
You can register a free account and store your mind maps for 6 months. The main limitation is you only have 100kb of storage space and your mind maps are public. If you need larger mind maps or prefer to keep them private, you can sign up for a personal gold account for just $3 a month or $25 a year. Mind maps can be saved to google drive or you can export them as an image or pdf file.
Brain storming
One of the best ways of using mind maps is for brain storming. Simply trying to get your ideas out in a visual form that allows you to see how ideas are related to each other. When brain storming, you usually want to start out with very general ideas and keep things simple. Later you can start breaking down each of the general ideas into more specific sections or steps. The main idea is to keep it simple and just let things flow naturally. Do not try to put limits on your mind while you are exploring as this will defeat the purpose. Later we will work through an example of how this works.
Parent, child, sibling, and nodes
With any type of mind mapping software, you will need to understand the terms parent, child, sibling, and nodes. A node is simply a single piece of information on the mind map that is represented by a graphical symbol. Mind maps are created by adding several nodes to the map. Each of these nodes have relationships with other nodes in your map. The root node is the first node you create. It is always a parent node and other nodes attached to it are either children or siblings.
Child node
A child node is used to break down a more complex thought or idea into steps or smaller concepts. For example, if the parent node was baking cookies, a child node might be ingredients. In this case the ingredients is a child of baking cookies. Ingredients can also be a parent that has its own children which could be the individual ingredients.
Sibling node
Nodes can have more than one child node. For example, ingredients could have the following child nodes: Milk, eggs, flower, chocolate, sugar, etc… Since each of the individual ingredients are all part of the parent ingredients, they are all children of ingredients and as such, they are also considered siblings (like brother or sisters) of each other. They are all at the same level.
Getting Started
To get started using Mindmup, go to https:// mindmup.com and click on the “create a free map” button under the “sign up” button. I will not cover every detail of how to use the application but will help get you going. You can also click the link at the end of the article to watch some videos.
After you click on “create a free map” the app will open inside your browser. There will be one node on the screen and this will be your root node where you start a brain storming session. Whenever a node has the dashed line around its icon, it is the currently selected node. To change the text inside the node, you can either double click on it, or press the space bar and start typing the new text. You can do this anytime a node is selected. Lets type “Baking Cookies” and then press enter.
Now lets create the child node ingredients. There are two ways to do this. The simplest way to make a child node is to press the tab key. This will create a node that is a child of the currently selected node. Once you press the tab, the child node appears and is ready for you to type in your text. Type ingredients in the node and press enter.
We are now ready to add some individual ingredients. Press tab again and create a child of ingredients, then set its text to flour.
Now we want to add the next ingredient. To do this, while flour is selected, instead of pressing tab, we press the enter key. This will make a sibling node that is the same level as flour. After pressing enter, the new node is ready for you to enter in the text. Lets enter eggs.
Keep it simple
One of the main things to look for in a mind mapping software is that it is very easy to use. I like mindmup because it allows me to create my maps without having to fiddle around with my mouse much. This lets me focus better and things flow easier. There are a lot more keyboard shrotcuts that you can find in the help page within the app; however, I would recommend that you start off with just a couple and add more as you start getting comfortable with the software.
If you do not like keyboard short cuts, you can of course use your mouse. The icons at the top left of the main screen allow you to create root, child, and sibling nodes of the selected node; however, this may be more distracting and break the flow. [sv slug=”abm” url=”https:\\mindmup.com” name=”MindMup”] [sv slug=”invite”] https://bookmarking.blog/free-mind-map-software/?feed_id=9&_unique_id=62d4859e46f0c
