Click2try Free Mind 81 Tutorial

8/8/2019 Click2try Free Mind 81 Tutorial

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2008 Presage Technologies, LLC.

click2try Tutorial

Freemind


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Freemind

2008 Presage Technologies, LLC. 2

Copyright20082009PresageTechnologies,LLC.

You may freely distribute or publish this content provided you publish thecontent in its entirety and include all existing copyright notices, attributions,

links, and acknowledgements to click2try, Presage Technologies, LLC. and to

organizations mentioned explicitly or implicitly herein.


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Contents

Introduction .....................................................................................5

Creating a New Mindmap ..................................................................6

Inserting Child Nodes .......................................................................6

Inserting Sibling Nodes ....................................................................7

Adding Hyperlinks.............................................................................8

Linking Two Nodes..........................................................................10

Inserting a Note..............................................................................12

Formatting Nodes in Clouds ............................................................13

Formatting a Mindmap....................................................................15

Exporting a Mindmap ......................................................................17

Resources .......................................................................................18


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Introduction

If youre still wondering what the big excitement is about mind-mapping, its

probably because youve never tried Freemind. Freemind, besides being free,gives you an incredible range of capabilities that go far beyond just

brainstorming. Of course, if you want to brainstorm, Freemind has everythingyou could hope for in a creativity tool. But, Freemind doesnt stop there. With

its ability to embed links, dates, and files, Freemind becomes the perfect tool

for research, project planning, and for documenting things like your networkor your system resources.

Just how can Freemind help you?

Ease-of-use improves your problem-solving success rate

Makes brainstorming fun Collaborate and communicate easily Capture and organize seemingly disparate data Get a big picture view Collect data in one document

In this tutorial, youll learn some of the basics of using Freemind. Althoughyoull learn even more when you dive in and play with the tool yourself, this

tutorial will help you learn more about:

Creating mind maps Creating and inserting nodes Inserting hyperlinks Inserting notes Formatting mind maps Exporting mind maps

Once youve tried Freemind, youll be searching for projects to brainstorm,plan, and document!

NOTE: A note on terminology. The terms mindmap and mind map tend

to be used interchangeably, not only on the Web, but within many mind

mapping applications themselves. In this tutorial, the variant youll see mostoften is mind map in two words. Freemind features often include the single

word variant, so you may see those in headings or in descriptions of specific

commands.


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If you have child nodes with child nodes, youll likely want to add sibling

nodes too. Keep reading to find out more about sibling nodes.

Inserting Sibling Nodes

Sibling nodes are nodes that are equally related to the parent node. For

example, create a child node called Identify performance bottlenecks. This

would be an important task to undertake if youre trying to build a new,

improved network. Youll want to make sure you understand the kinds which

applications on your network cause the most performance hits, and youll

also want to identify the most common IT requests related to network

bandwidth problems. So, your Identify performance bottlenecks task willhave at least two subtasks. These two subtasks are equal in value, and can

be performed independently of each other. That makes them perfect

candidates for sibling nodes.

To insert sibling nodes:

1. Create your child node Identify performance bottlenecks.2. While that node is still selected, click the light bulb icon in the main toolbar.3. Type Review performance reports.4. Press the Return/Enter key on your keyboard. This should automatically

insert a sibling node directly underneath the last node you inserted.

5. Type Review IT trouble tickets. Your sibling nodes should look like those inthe following graphic:


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You can select any node and add child or sibling nodes to accommodate as

many details as you want to capture. If your ideas or plans are equivalent to

the main child nodes, such as Calculate sizing data in this example, then

select the Build Network oval and insert a new child node.

Adding Hyperlinks

The ability to add hyperlinks is one of the most powerful features ofFreemind. You can link to documents, websites, and to other types of local

files.

To add a hyperlink:

1. Click one of the nodes to select it. For example, click the Create preliminarydesign node.

2. Right-click and select Insert > Hyperlink (File Chooser). This opens thefile browser dialog.

3. Select a file you want to link to, and then click Open. You may need tochange the file type at the bottom of the file browse dialog to All Files. Bydefault, the dialog only shows Freemind files. After you link the file, an arrow

appears next to the node containing the link.

4. Click the arrow to open the file.You can also enter a link manually, if you like. This is especially useful when

you want to link to a known website.


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To add a manual hyperlink:

1. Click one of the nodes to select it.2. Right-click and select Insert > Hyperlink (Text Field).

3. Enter the location you want the link to point to. It can be a Web page, an FTPsite, a local network share, or some other external or internal location. In

this case, the hyperlink points to an external Web site.

4. Click OK to save the link.


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Linking Two Nodes

You may find it necessary to link two nodes. There are a couple of ways to

accomplish this. One is to create a graphical link between the nodes, so thatthe relationship is visible to anybody who views the mind map. The other

way is to create a local hyperlink between the nodes, so that when you click

one node, you are directed to the other. This can be very helpful as areminder, for example, when two items are mutually dependent.

Creating a Graphical Link between Nodes

1. Select a node on your map.2. Hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard and select another link. You should see

two highlighted or grayed-out nodes.

3.Right-click and select Insert > Add Graphical Link. This creates a linkbetween the two nodes.

4. To change the direction of the arrowhead, or to remove the arrowhead, addanother arrowhead, or remove the link entirely, right-click on the graphical

link itself, to display this dialog box:

The black dot next to an item identifies the option that is currently selected.


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Creating a Local Hyperlink

Next, create a local link between two or more nodes. This type of link, whichwill also be indicated by an arrow next to the link, lets you jump from a

clicked link to another node on the map.

1. Select the node you want to point to another node.2. Hold down the Ctrl key and select one or more target nodes.3. Right-click and select Insert > Add Local Hyperlink. This adds the link

arrow icon to the first node you selected.

4. Click the arrow icon. Freemind highlights the target node.This feature is very useful when you have a large mind map that contains

many details. As youll find, many items in your mind maps will have some

sort of relationship to other items. Hyperlinking is one way to reinforce thoserelationships, visually and functionally.

In the graphic below, the two IP addresses, when clicked, both highlight theEngineering node, indicating that the Engineering department network has

reserved those addresses.


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Inserting a Note

As you develop more detailed maps, youll most likely want to add notes to

different nodes, either as reminders to yourself or as notes to otheremployees who will be viewing the map.

To insert a note:

1. Select a node you want to add a note to.2. From the main menu, select Insert > Note. This adds a note icon to the

node and opens the note editing window at the bottom of the Freemindscreen.

3. Enter your note text.4. When finished, move the cursor back up to the main mind map area, and the

note editing window closes.


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Formatting Nodes in Clouds

Often, you need to visually identify a group of nodes, and show their

relationship more clearly than with simple graphical links. Also, if youre

creating certain types of diagrams, such as network diagrams, youll need to

show areas of the network that exist outside of or inside the network firewall,

for instance. Freemind clouds let you create this visual relationship in a

striking way. You can create a cloud around one or more nodes and color thecloud to either set it apart or to use the color to represent additional

meaning.

To create a cloud:

1. Select one node or multiple adjacent nodes.2. Right-click and select Insert > Cloud. Freemind surrounds your selected

node or nodes with a gray cloud.

3. Right-click the node and select Format > Cloud Color.4. Choose a color from the color picker.


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Thats it. You can also format nodes to appear in bubbles which are

rounded rectangles. And there are many formatting options available, suchas using any of the many icons Freemind offers to uniquely identify yournodes.


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Formatting a Mindmap

There are many ways in Freemind to format your mind maps and the nodes

and connectors of your mind map. Lets walk through a few of thoseformatting options.

Setting an Automatic Layout

Freemind has an automatic layout and formatting option, which, whenselected, applies a number of pre-defined formats to your entire mind map.

Generally, these formats make your mind map easier to read and identify

nodes based on their level in the hierarchy, through color and font size.

From the main menu, select Format > Automatic Layout. This sets thelayout for the entire map, as shown below:

Formatting a Node in a Bubble1. Select the node you want to format.


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2. Right-click and select Format > Bubble. This formats the selected node in arounded rectangle. You can also change the color of the border and thebackground.

Folding and Unfolding NodesWhenever you add sibling and child nodes to other nodes, Freemind

establishes a toggle feature that allows you to fold and unfold those items to

simplify the view of part or all of the mind map. While not specifically a

formatting function, this feature is good to know about when it comes time toreviewing or explaining large, detailed maps.

If one or more nodes appear to have a small empty circle to the left of the nodename, that means the node has children or siblings. Click the node to unfold it.

Click a node that contains children or siblings to close it. The small empty circle willappear next to the main node.

Using the Physical Style Menu

The physical style menu provides a set of pre-defined formats that you canchoose from for your nodes. You can also define your own set of styles by

editing the patterns.xml file in your Freemind directory.

1. Select a node on your mind map.2. Right-click and select Physical Style >style name.


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Exporting a Mindmap

Freemind lets you export to a variety of formats that make it easy for you to

share your mind maps. You can export to graphics formats, such as JPEG andPNG, to document formats, like PDF and OpenOffice.org Writer format, or to

HTML and XHTML and XSLT.

To export a mind map:

1. With a map open, select File > Export.2. Choose a format.3. Select a location and provide another file name, if needed.4. Click Save.

The file will open in whatever application you have on your system that

supports the file type you selected.


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Resources

For more information about Freemind, see the following resources:

Freemindhttp://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page Main

wiki page on SourceForge, contains lots of information and links to the

download site, additional resources, reviews, and much more.

Freemind FAQ

http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Asked_questions Dozens of

common questions and detailed answers about how to install, run, and useFreemind.

Freemind Accessories

http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Forums Third-party plug-insand add-ons for Freemind.

Freemind Forumshttp://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Forums

Main index site to several forums about Freemind.

Documents

Click2try Free Mind 81 Tutorial