Mode

FreeMind has so called modes, which can be thought of as sub-applications."

FreeMind's modes:

• Mind map mode – the most useful mode
• Browse mode – a mode for the web applet
• File mode – a demo mode
• Scheme mode – hidden or disabled

Mind map mode is the single most useful mode, the one in which most FreeMind users unwittingly operate all the time.

Browse mode is used in FreeMind applet meant for the web; it is doubtful that anyone uses the mode in the standalone FreeMind application.

File mode lets you browse your file system including folders and files as a mind map, and is a demonstration that a quite distinct mode can be implemented, presenting a structure as a mind map. It is rather constrained, half-baked and probably mostly unused. It cannot rename files and move them around, although this would we quite similar to moving around branches in the mind map mode.

Scheme mode is present in the code but is disabled.

Menu

The modes are accessible as menu items in the menu "Modes", in FreeMind 0.8.0 and 0.8.1

The modes are accessible as menu items in the menu "Maps", in FreeMind 0.9.0.

Keyboard

• Alt + 1: Mind map mode
• Alt + 2: Browse mode
• Alt + 3: File mode

Customization

The modes with which FreeMind is started are listed in user.properties, in the properties "modes" and "modes_since_0.8.0":

modes =

freemind.modes.browsemode.BrowseMode,Browse,freemind.modes.mindmapmode.MindMapMode,MindMap,freemind.modes.filemode.FileMode,File

modes_since_0_8_0 =

freemind.modes.browsemode.BrowseMode,Browse,freemind.modes.mindmapmode.MindMapMode,MindMap,freemind.modes.filemode.FileMode,File

You can let FreeMind start with fewer modes by editing the property.

Implementation

Each mode has a dedicated Java subpackage in the package "modes".

To implement a new mode, the developer has to create several classes for the mode, modeled on the existing modes, especially file mode. These classes include mode controller. No new mode has been developed since 2002; if a user of FreeMind developed a new mode, he did not share it back. The possibility of having another mode than the main mind mapping one is witnessed by the file mode.

Packages in CVS:

• mindmapmode
• filemode
• browsemode