Freeplane Tutorial Extensions
This tutorial refers to Freeplane 1.2, which is under development but is available as a preview.
Contents
Introduction
The Freeplane tutorial consists of a Quick reference describing how to use the basic Freeplane functions, didactic examples of use cases and concrete instructions how to make these. The Quick reference is devided in parts for the Beginner, Advanced user and Professional user. The examples below are labelled in a similar way to help to indicate the level of difficulty if you want to make the map yourself. It is no problem if the beginning user wants to navigate a map for the advanced or professional user.
Examples
Index
Beginner. One way to bring structure in a linear text is by using categories as in this wiki. A limitation of these categories is that hierarchical relations cannot be displayed in a simple way. A mind map is better suited for this, as is shown by the example map on the right.
In this particular case the categories of the wiki are represented as underlined hyperlinks. The pages of the wiki are represented by red-arrow hyperlinks. The latter are created simply by dragging the page address (URL) of a wiki page onto a node and then editing the title of the node. If you clik on the hyperlink under the image, the mind map opens and you can click the links to jump to the pages of the wiki.
Advanced. An index can have many different forms. The map on the right displays all Freeplane functions. These functions are described in more detail in two maps called Quick reference and Documentation respectively. The map contains two solutions for linking a function to the two descriptive maps. The functions on the left half have the two hyperlinks themselves, but they are hidden until the mouse cursor is hovering the function (tool tip). The functions on the right half of the map have an external pointer - the nodes with the question mark. These external pointers contain the hyperlinks, which again are hidden until you hover with the cursor over the question mark.
Professional. The map on the right is an index map for the use cases of this tutorial. Unlike a classical linear index the indexed items can be displayed in any order and relations between them can be displayed. The map uses most of the functionalities of Freeplane in one map. Click the link under the image and open the mind map. Then read the node called Caption to learn how to navigate the map and unhide hidden information.
Quick reference
Freeplane mind maps can be very different from classical mind maps which only hold a very limited amount of information. The Freeplane's Quick reference is an example how a Freeplane map can be used to hold extensive amounts of (hidden) information and deliver it in a user determined way, adapted to the user's experience level. The reference gives a short description of the most used features of Freeplane. For a description of all menu items, see the documentation in Freeplane's Help menu.
To view and navigate this reference, click on the link "Quick reference" below the image on the right. The reference is also available in menu Help of Freeplane 1.2, under Getting started. But before this, view this Instruction for viewing maps in Freeplane.
Note that when viewing the reference through the Internet the look and feel is less and some features are not available (e.g. the predefined filters and the Freeplane menu's). If you use the reference from the Help, the look and feel is optimal, but the options are restricted to read only. Only if you load the reference as a .mm file in Freeplane, alle functionality is present.
The Quick reference does not give an introduction to the WHY of (mind) mapping. Below is a short introduction and are some didactic examples. Please contribute by giving your opinion and by providing more didactic examples. The place to contribute is the Freeplane forum [1].
Work environment
Meeting support
Freeplane is very suited to do rapid and easy note taking during meetings. In fact Freeplane can support the whole meeting process. This process starts with designing and distributing the topics of the agenda, keeping the attendants list, adding notes to the topics of the agenda and finally producing the decisions and action list of the meeting. Besides Actions can be supported with time signals. It is even possible to include the incoming and outgoing information in the map, either as hyperlinks or in a special area (Notes). And last but not least, part or all of the information can be password protected.
The Quick reference described above distinguishes between three levels of expertise: Beginner, Advanced and Professional. The two images at the right demonstrate the difference between Beginner and Advanced levels. Both maps display the same meeting information, but differently "formatted", with the different components available in Freeplane (node core versus node details, attributes, images, styles, etc.). As a result the information at the Advanced level is displayed in a way which is better suited for the purpose of meeting support. Besides,when the advanced mindmap is stripped from its specific information, the remaining structure could be used as a template for meetings in general.
Click on the hyperlinks below the images to open and navigate the respective maps. In Meeting advanced: hover the nodes (texts) to see hidden text like notes.
An instruction (animation) how to make and use the beginner meeting support is available here. This instruction is a stepping stone for the instruction how to make and use the advanced meeting support.(under development)
SWOT analysis
Mind maps can be supportive in carrying out all kinds of analyses. In this, Freeplane suports using images and arrows with labels to display concepts, which helps to keep oversight and focus. In case this is not enough, Freeplane supports using hidden text which the user can roll down or hover. Click on the small triangles, or hover the cursor over the images to see a descriptive text. To view and navigate the map, click on the link below the image.
Personal environment
Organize your collection
With Freeplane you can order, index and describe your collections, being it images, audio files or other information. It is especially easy to select a group of files and copy it in one action to a mind map. In that case these files appear as a clickable arrows (hyperlinks) in separate nodes, as shown in de mind map on the left(Beginner collection). Once in the mind map, you can rename and sort the nodes. In case of image links, you can turn the links to images which are visible in the map.
Of course it is possible to build a collection item by item too. And it is possible to add additional information and format it the way you want, as in the mind map on the right (Advanced collection). If you hover over the names, you will see additional information about location and time, which appear in a table of attributes. Or you can click the name of an image, which makes the image appear or disappear (fold).
Dashboard for GTD
When Freeplane opens it starts with a standard map. This map can be modelled into a dashboard with direct access to the most important information at home and on the Internet. You can do this by simply dragging hyperlinks into your map. Besides you can add (hidden) content to hyperlinks to remember their meaning. Alo you can set signals to remember when you have to give attention to this information. This makes Freeplane paricular supportive in implementing Getting Things Done. To view and navigate the map, click on the link below the image.
Vault for information
If you have information that needs protection, you can password protect it. It is possible to protect the whole map or protect a (sub)tree of nodes. The example tot the right contains a protected map MyVault. Within this protected map are branches for finance and for websites. These are separately protected.
Open the map by clicking My Vault under the picture. Then find the unlock icon in the menubar and click it. Enter the password "MyVault". Now the map opens (unfolds) and you see the branches for websites and for finance. Select creditcard of one of the banks, click the unlock menu button and enter password "creditcard". Now the creditcard information unfolds. You can do the same with the other creditcard. Then go to the websites and select the Freeplane open forum, click the unlock button and enter "Freeplane" as a password. Now the information for login unfolds. Note that an explanation of each node is presented below each node titel.
Scientific environment
Docear Academic literature suite
Docear supports in doing all the tasks related to literature management:
- Finding new literature (searching and exploring)
- Organizing literature (reading, annotating, and retrieving)
- Creating your own literature (drafting, writing, referencing, and publishing)
Docear is going to be inegrated with Freeplane at the end of 2011.
School environment
Assignment & Presentation
A map can be used to provide students with an assignement for a presentation, including directions, types of questions and links to litterature. The student can click the literature links to open the literature and add answers to the questions - in the map itself.
The map to the left contains a map with keywords for questions and literature links. For the advanced student these could be removed. Once the assigment is completed and the result is entered in the map, the map could be used to learn and do the presentation.
The map to the right contains model answers to the questions which could be used to check the result. You could protect these answers with a password so the student can see them only after you give it. To view and navigate a map, click on the link below the image.
<To DO: translate the maps in English>
Animations
The following are some examples of animations. They were made in Dutch for FP 1.1.3 and need to be adapted to 1.2 and translated in English.
- Instruction for viewing maps in Freeplane.
- Demonstration of Details, notes, attributes and filtering.
- Making your first map.
User manual
More information can be found in page user manual.
User forum
Open forum Freeplane for questions and discussions.
Links
See preview for:
- Example-AutomaticEdgeColor.mm
- Example - ConceptMap.mm
- Example - General_Balance_form.mm
- Example-Node_Classes.mm
- Example-Numbering_Links.mm
- Example-SummaryNodes.mm
- Example-USA_Economic_and_Regional_Structures.mm
Some free icons
- Silk Icons organized into folders [icons organized.zip]
- Flags of the world icons organized into folders [Flags organized.zip]
Some very simple scripting examples
