Freeplane app free#
Freeplane app mac#

And you can also attach photos to the node – they actually become part of the node and you can resize the picture too. Like other mind mapping apps you can also attach a link to anything on the web or to a local file. There is also a search and filter capability in Freeplane that can either highlight nodes containing your search parameter or display only those nodes and hiding all others. I’ve used that a few times and it is really fantastic. And it also supports LaTeX which is a markup language used for scientific equations. The node text can also support HTML as well as plain text, just like an email message in the mail app. Once the task was completed and I clicked yes, the text of the node would automatically turn a light gray color.

I’ve also had nodes where I created an attribute called task complete and it would have a value of yes or no. The conditional styles would automatically detect that text and add an action icon to the node as well as make the node bright orange so that it stands out. Whenever there was an action assigned I would put the word action followed by a colon and the action to be completed in the text of the node. You can also have conditional styles based upon keywords in the node text or conditions based upon the values of the attributes you create.Īs an example, I used mind maps to take meeting notes. You can adjust the formatting of each node and apply it to a particular style that you create yourself, or you can have each level of the map have a different style. A common example is to have an expense attribute which records the dollars you spent on a particular item and in the parent node attribute you can put a script that sums up all the expenses listed in the attributes of the children nodes.įormatting of the node can also be highly controlled. You can also write scripts within these attributes to perform unique functions. iThoughts has this capability for managing tasks as well however, Freeplane can have any attribute of any key value pair that you choose to create. Each node also has the capability of having attributes which are key value pairs associated with the node. You can also add notes to each node which shows up in the notes window below the main map window just like it would in other mind mapping apps. When you click the caret to hide the detailed text you can still see the text by hovering over the node. One of the features in Freeplane that distinguish it from other mind mapping apps is the ability to customize each node in very unique ways.Įach node has its text internal to the core of the node like any other app but you can also add detailed text which drops down below the node with a caret.

At least to me they don’t seem to be organized in a very logical way which makes it somewhat difficult to find specific menu items. Using the keyboard to work on your map is convenient and it’s the way I prefer to do it, but I do have to admit that if you like to use the drop-down menus they can be very confusing. You can also navigate around the map easily using the arrow keys. You can also fold and unfold branches with the space bar, which makes it very convenient. The actual mind map can look just as good as anything from iThoughts or any other mind map app that is made specifically for the Mac, it’s just the interface elements in the app itself that look a little non-Mac like.Įven though the interface is not polished it is still quite easy and intuitive to use.Ĭreating a new child node is done with the tab key and you use a return key to create a sibling node. A lot of Java based apps are a little clunky looking and Freeplane is no exception.Īnd though it is not as pretty as made-for-Mac type apps, it still has a lot of control over the style and look of the mind map itself.

Freeplane app free#

And as you can tell by the name it is a free open source app.

Freeplane app mac#

Mac OS, Windows, and Linux are the most common. In 2009 it branched off so the developer could go in a different direction with the code.įreeplane is a Java based app which can run on any platform that supports the java runtime engine. Freeplane was born out of another application called Freemind which still exists today. I just want to tell you why I use this particular app for mind mapping. I know Allison has already extolled the virtues of mind mapping, so I won’t go into all of that. I would like to review a mind mapping application called Freeplane.