☕ Buy me a coffee
The first line of the text is the mind map's centre — every
path below it branches out from that centre. After that, each line is a
branch path, split by "/" or "\". Lines sharing the same starting
segments merge into the same branch. A segment starting with "http" is
treated as a link: it becomes clickable and shows a thumbnail + page
title instead of the raw URL. A segment starting with "folder:" (e.g.
folder:C:\Users\My Documents) is treated as a local folder: clicking it
copies the path to your clipboard so you can paste it into Explorer's
address bar — browsers can't open Explorer directly. Wrapping
text in "<t>...</t>" at the end of a line attaches it as a
hidden tooltip on the node just before it (e.g.
RASR/Paper/<t>This is the detail of the paper</t> shows that
detail only when you hover over "Paper") — the older, longer
"<text>...</text>" form still works too, for anything saved
before this. Tooltips can span several lines and include bullet points
(start a line with "- "), and the hover menu's own tooltip editor and
the Drive file notes table both give you a proper multi-line box for
this. Ending a plain segment with "<c?>" (b/r/w/o/g/y/p/k for
blue/red/white/orange/green/yellow/purple/grey) recolours that node
and every node under it, until something deeper overrides it again -
e.g. "Ideas<cb>/Draft" makes both "Ideas" and "Draft" blue.
Tagging a node with "<#name>" (e.g. Control/Closed
loop/Gain/tuning/<#control>) lets any other node link to it with
"<L name>" (e.g. Feedback/Sensor/<L control>) - a dotted
curved line is drawn between them, independent of where they actually
sit in the tree, for connecting related nodes that aren't really
parent and child - the hover menu's own Create Tag and
Link to Tag buttons do this without typing the syntax by hand;
Link to Tag opens a list of every existing tag to choose from.
Link Local File picks a file from this device and links to it as
"<F path>" — browsers never reveal a picked file's real
folder path (a deliberate privacy restriction in every browser), so
only the filename fills in automatically; add the rest of the path
yourself if you want it recorded. A real thumbnail is still generated
from the file itself where possible (images and PDFs render for real;
other types get a coloured badge), and clicking the node afterwards
copies its recorded path to the clipboard, the same as a local
folder link. Drag
to scroll, pinch or scroll-wheel to zoom. Click any branch node to make
it the new centre and see only its sub-nodes, spaced out to fill the
screen — the floating Back button (bottom-right, next to the zoom
buttons) steps back out of that one level at a time, then goes on to
step back to a previous mindmap once there's no more centring left to
undo. Clicking a node with no sub-nodes
shows its full text in a popup instead. "Crawl Google Drive" signs you
into your Google account, then opens Google's own folder picker so you
choose which folder to load — the mindmap is built from that
folder's contents, with file thumbnails and click-to-open links, up to
400 items per scan (this turns on "Only show directories" automatically,
since a full folder scan is usually busy). Files sitting right in the
crawled folder (not inside any subfolder) are gathered under one small
Files in Root link inside the centre circle, below the mindmap's
title, instead of crowding the map with a branch per file — click
it to open a table in the top-right, which checks the crawled folder
for any previously-saved notes before showing each file's thumbnail,
name (click to open it) and a notes column, shown as a white-on-black
badge whenever a note exists (click to add or edit; no hovering needed
to see it). Editing a note saves the whole mindmap straight back to
Drive automatically, as a plain-text file named "_mindmapfilenotes.map"
right next to the files it describes, with those root files listed
first in the file so you can skim their notes without wading through
the rest of the folder tree — its own "Save notes to Drive"
button is there for a manual save too, if you want one. That same file
doubles as a crawl cache: crawling this folder again offers to load it
instantly instead of re-scanning from scratch, keeping your notes and
fetching thumbnails fresh for whatever's in it, without needing to
re-walk the whole folder tree. That table stays open until you actually
move
your mouse onto and back off it (or use its × button), so
clicking the link from across the screen won't close it before you get
there. With lots of nodes, names that would overlap are hidden
automatically and reappear as you zoom in; untick "Declutter labels" to
force every name to draw at once. Hover any other node for a small
menu: Centre makes it the new middle of the map (use Back to
return), Move then lets you click another node to make the
first one (and everything under it) a child of that node, +
Node adds a
child (plain text, a weblink, or a folder: path), + Link is the
same but prompts specifically for a URL and fetches its thumbnail
automatically, Colour opens a swatch picker that recolours that
node and everything under it, − Node
deletes it and everything under it, and <t> attaches
hover text — the Files in Root link doesn't show this menu,
since Centre/+Node etc. don't apply to it. Every edit is written
straight back into this text box using the normal "/" and <t>
separators. A weblink can end with "|Display Name" to set what shows
on the map, independent of the URL itself — Drive crawls use this
automatically so filenames survive being saved and reloaded later
(including from a crawl cache), rather than only existing in memory
for the session that first looked them up. A bare link with no
enclosing folder never shows a name, however far you zoom — only
links inside a folder can reveal theirs. With "Only show directories"
unticked, Drive image and PDF
files show a thumbnail that grows (and gets sharper) as you zoom in,
just like everything else on the map. Word, PowerPoint and Excel files
(.docx/.doc/.pptx/.ppt/.xlsx/.xls) show Drive's own preview when it's
reachable, and a plain coloured file-type badge when it isn't —
browsers increasingly block the cookie that preview depends on, so the
badge is there to guarantee something always shows.
Hovering never shows the popup menu over a file that's currently
hidden. Hovering a node with hover text attached also shows a
Copy button, to copy that text to the clipboard. The mindmap
redraws automatically as you type, whenever a new line appears in the
text box. While typing a node name, a hint below the text box suggests
completing it to a matching name that already exists at the same depth
elsewhere in the map (e.g. typing "Res" under one branch can suggest
"Research" if that name is already used at that same level under a
different branch) - press Tab to accept it. "Save Local" opens a save
dialog to choose where the .map
file goes (falls back to a plain download on browsers that don't
support that dialog); "Load Local" opens a file picker to choose one
to load. "Save Drive" writes a new timestamped file in your Google
Drive, and "Load Drive" opens Google's picker so you can choose
a .map file to load. Clicking a link (including one added via
Link File) that points to a .map file opens it as a mindmap in
place of the current one, rather than trying to open it as an ordinary
file - "Back" and "Forward" buttons appear to move between the
mindmaps you've visited this way, the same as a browser's history.