Asana2Go Does Mind Maps: Import into Asana and/or Export to Mind Map Apps (including Coggle)
Asana2Go, the multi-purpose tool to flexibly copy, export and print from Asana (no affiliation), now easily creates beautiful mind maps from any of your tasks in any project, search results, or My Tasks, and you can also import an existing mind map into Asana preserving the nodes and hierarchy. (Other new Asana2Go features, creating projects dashboards/roll-ups and generating an Eisenhower Matrix, are covered separately.)
Importing and Exporting Mind Maps in Seconds
Why Mind Maps?
A mind map presents concepts and ideas graphically with great flexibility in layout and style. Many find this visual approach more intuitive for conceptual thinking, initial project idea generation, and organizing information generally, or for a myriad of other uses. Until Asana adds a mind map view alongside List, Board, Calendar and Timeline, there’s Asana2Go.
A fun way to get acquainted with what you can do with mind maps is to check out some amazing examples in the Coggle Gallery.
Bonus: New Save CSV/Text File Output Option in Asana2Go
As part of the newly-released mind map features, a new Save CSV/Text File button offers an alternative to the existing View+Copy and View+Print/PDF buttons for output. Use Save CSV/Text File for plain-text output, e.g., for mind map export, or for CSV, text, or JSON output files. If you use this to output HTML results, it will convert to plain text (see Copying and Printing in the Asana2Go Help if you want to preserve the HTML formatting).
The Fine Print
The mind map screenshot shown above was captured after some manual re-positioning in Coggle. The actual, unmodified (and colorful!) output from Asana2Go appears below:
With Asana2Go you can import into Asana any mind map from nearly any mind map app (most support the defacto standard “.mm” export format used) of any size, maintaining the full node hierarchical structure and the text of all nodes. The mind map content appears as Asana Sections, Tasks, Subsections, and Subtasks to any hierarchy level. (Sections/Subsections will be created if the node name ends in “:”.) In order to offer the widest support, and to provide the option of customization, importing mind maps requires three steps as shown in the demo video.
Using Asana2Go you can export from Asana a limited number of hierarchy levels — Project/Sections/Tasks/Subsections/Subtasks — creating an up to five-level-deep mind map, with unlimited nodes at each level. As with all Asana2Go formats, you can start your selection at an arbitrary Subtask, so those five levels can “start” at any hierarchy level within your Asana project. The excellent Coggle mind map tool is recommended because it offers a powerful free version and like Asana is a web app so it complements Asana nicely. But the Asana2Go export file works with other mind map applications that accept a similar format.
Details and caveats regarding import and export can be found in the Asana2Go Help. While you can do round-trips between Asana and your mind map tool, starting in either, this is recommended only for the initial stage of projects because information beyond node names and structure are not exchanged, and due to the export hierarchy levels limitation.
Asana2Go — Copy, Export and Print Flexibly From Asana
Asana2Go is a flexible tool for both novices and experts to flexibly copy, export and print from Asana. If you’re unfamiliar, it only takes a moment to try it out. Or just have a look at this demo:
Select from a Library of Standard Reports or Make Your Own
A mind map is just one kind of output that Asana2Go can produce. Novices can select from close to 20 different outputs including lists, tables, CSVs, etc., and the new projects dashboards/roll-ups and Eisenhower Matrix. Experts can create their own custom output using the included authoring tool with data and language helpers and documentation.
For Asana consulting, integrations and custom development including custom Asana2Go reports, contact the author and get more info at Trilogi Solutions.
