Requests for enhancements
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We prefer that you send your requests for enhancements here. Please look first if a similar request for enhancement already exists, using Ctrl + F. Also, there is a section of requests for enhancements at FreeMind's project page at SourceForge.
Export and ImportCorresponding requests for enhancement. Export to Scalable Vector Graphics format (SVG)Available in FreeMind 0.8.0 RC2. Yes! I'd love to see something done with scalable vector graphics, or some such... I really wish Freemind could export to SVG, or maybe even flash... -- Bruce And happily, developers are thinking the same thing: -- Here's Dimitri on that very possibility in forum thread. Export to Flash or teach Flash to view mmSVG, however, is still not widely supported - not even in desktop browsers, so it is mostly a way to exchange drawings and print. Exporting to Flash or having a Flash viewer that displayed .mm files (after all, ActionScript can now load XML data easily) would enable quick and effortless integration with current Web browsers without requiring them to install the Sun JVM (which can be a major issue in some environments). Export to LaTeXFeb 10,2005. MindMapping concept is perfect when organizing the structure of a document. I believe that it would be a great feature if freemind could directly export a mindmap as a LaTeX file (using the text of the main node for the title, the text of the main branches for \section and so on). In the mean time (and since I know nothing about java) I wrote this perl script to translate mm->tex. Any improvements are welcome. I will mantain this utility here, but I hope this feature will be included in freemind one day. Export and import to GanttprojectRequests for enhancements: The above link contains an XSLT sheet that may do the trick for you after some adjustment. Export to favorites or bookmarksRequests for enhancements: Export to ontology formats (OWL, DAML)Requests for enhancements: Export and import to OPMLRequests for enhancements: See also OPML. OPML - Outline Processor Markup Language. SearchingRequests for enhancements: Further searching requests.
MiscAttach note to a nodeRequests for enhancements:
Many people want to have a note attached to a node. Some mind mapping programs have this feature. In my view, such a feature creates a basis for splitting of uses. I would expect long nodes to contain paragraphs or even small articles; I have such nodes, both plain and HTML. I also have long nodes containing nicely set HTML tables. An XSLT transforming script can either assume that paragraphs are in the long nodes or that they are in the notes; not both. Different uses would then require different XSLT scripts. Searching would need to be extended to also search through notes. Notes of different nodes, unlike nodes themselves, cannot be made visible on the canvas at the same time. Without note, every piece of the text in the mind map is a node and therefore first class citizen; it is allowed for it to have children, and whatever feature is offered to other nodes (like icons, time reminders, changing of the default color and the like) is offered to it as well. Screenshots showing how long nodes can be used follow. Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination
Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination
Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination
As this is such a requested feature, I'd like to invite you to discuss pros and cons here. --Danielpolansky 11:47, 15 Feb 2005 (PST)
Maybe it could help to add something like a 'keep-folded' property to a node. Idea behind it: A node with 'keep-folded' set is not shown, when the parent of it is unfolded. You would need extra handling for setting the property or showing those 'moved to the background' nodes though. But that way a note could just be a node with that property set. I think a property like that could be helpful in other contexts, too. If you use the Mind Map as a todo-list, you could keep done ((sub-)sub-)...)subtasks folded for example. Hilmar Always OnI would like to minimize to the system tray(for Windows). Or better yet, let's run FreeMind as a transparent window docked to the desktop. Like my brain, I like to always have FreeMind on in the background. Regardless, thanks! Better File Operations, Restore Workspace, New File ExtensionOn Mac OS X at least, the file dialog is buggy - it does not show network drives or my iDisk. Also, it would be useful to have FreeMind re-open the last edited file (and restore the workspace as it was when the user last quit). Still, the most annoying thing is the .mm filename extension - that extension is tied to Obj-C code files in Mac OS X, and probably on other platforms as well. Maybe .mind or .mmp? -- RuiCarmo File Dialog ImprovementsThe file dialogs could use some minor improvements. I would like the dialog boxes for load and save to remember what directory they were in and start from there the next time the dialog is open. Also, if you try to open a file from the "recent files" list but the file no longer exists, there is no warning from freemind. It would be better to have a "file not found" warning, and better still to remove the bad entry from the list when that happens. --fist_187 Images in freemindI really like the way freemind can use images as nodes. However, one of the problems with adding a lot of images to a map is that they are all different sizes. So, I wrote this php script: <?php
$tsize = 100; //thumbnail size
function noresize($name)
{
global $argv;
$fullpath = $argv[1] . "$name";
echo "<node TEXT=\"<html>";
echo "<img src="$fullpath"/> \"";
echo " FOLDED=\"true\">\n</node>\n";
}
function thumbit($name, $w, $h)
{
global $argv;
$fullpath = $argv[1] . "$name";
echo "<node TEXT=\"<html><img src="$fullpath"";
echo " width="$w" height="$h"\" FOLDED=\"true\">\n";
echo "<node TEXT=\"<html><img src="$fullpath"\"";
echo " FOLDED=\"true\">\n</node>\n";
echo "<node LINK=\"$fullpath\" TEXT=\"$name\">\n</node>\n";
echo "</node>\n";
}
if ($argc < 3)
{
die("usage: " . $argv[0] . " IMAGEPATH IMAGE1 [[IMAGE2] ... ]\n");
}
echo "<map version=\"0.7.1\">\n<node TEXT=\"Ian's image generator\"";
echo " FOLDED=\"true\">\n";
for ($i=2; $i<$argc; $i++)
{
$myimg = $argv[$i];
$props = getimagesize($myimg);
$w = $props[0];
$h = $props[1];
if ($w <= $tsize && $h <= $tsize) //too small
{
noresize($myimg);
}
else if ($w < $h) //resize height to 100, scale width
{
$w = intval(($tsize * $w) / $h);
$h = $tsize;
thumbit($myimg, $w, $h);
}
else //resize width to 100, scale height
{
$h = intval(($tsize * $h) / $w);
$w = $tsize;
thumbit($myimg, $w, $h);
}
}
echo "</node>\n</map>\n";
?>
This is a command line PHP script, so to use it under linux you would type something like: $ php freemindImgGen.php "file:////path/to/prepend/to/images/" image1.jpg [image2.jpg ... ] This will output the text for a new mind map (direct it to a file of your choice) with each image thumbnailed in its own node. The images should all be in the same directory (for some reason, relative paths for images don't seem to work). Each thumbnailed image will have 2 child nodes: one node with the full size image and one node with the filename of the image as a freemind link. Anyway, the reason that I'm posting this here in the request section instead of the user contributions section is that I would like to see this behavior ported into freemind itself. This would be a better behavior for when you drag-and-drop an image file into freemind, as it does just about everything you would want to do with an image in one shot. --fist_187
Node Cloning or Mirroring (aka soft links)Requests for enhancements: One feature request that has attracted a lot of attention from users is what they call node cloning or mirorring. This amounts to enabling a node to have more than one fathers. That is, such a node appears visually at more places of a map, still, has only one structure and data. Linking a node graphically to more parts of a map is already possible, but users proposing cloning would like to see more visually integrated approach. Users get encouraged by the fact that the hierarchical application LEO already has such a feature. This feature has been discussed at forums under threads [http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1022954&forum_id=22101 Cloning of nodes] and "node cloning/mirroring".
Mindmap-WikisCreating a mixture of Freemind and a Wiki would be very interesting. It would be shown on the web, and editable by everybody, like a Wiki, but it would not be text-only but a FreeMind's mind map instead. That is, provide FreeMind user interface to the underlying wiki technology, handling versioning and other issues. Is there any use of wiki markup in this scenario? Current wiki technology like MediaWiki is already quite attractive in its present state. Either FreeMind interface would be the only one, which would in my view discourage most of the users, or FreeMind interface would be alternative to a web interface, which would require FreeMind to understand wiki markup. This considered, I hold such a project for too expensive compared to the value it brings. Quite another issue is collaborative mind mapping. This issue is similar to wiki, but here the wiki name does not properly apply as neither wiki markup nor wiki's versioning concept applies. --Danielpolansky 13:24, 18 Feb 2005 (PST) Ok, GraphViz is not really mindmapping, but oddmuse-wiki in colaboration with graphviz is really fascinating, take a look (and don't forget to follow the "Edit the text of the Page"-link): http://wiki.doomicile.de/LinuxMuleHistory -- HinnerK
I would suggest starting with a simple save-to-WebDAV option, and then following it up with a standardized XML-RPC interface (maybe Atom would be too complex). Having some sort of hooks into node editing operations in the code would be useful, so that people could develop plugins of some sort to perform the actual HTTP transactions live from the applet version -- RuiCarmo The first thing that came to my mind while opening FreeMind for the very first time was: "Would it be possible to integrate Wiki in FreeMind?". Currently I am working with a project management software (named Trac) which integrates a Wiki Engine. It is a kind of colaborative project management solution, and it has encouraged all the team to document and activelly contribute to each other´s tasks. Maybe WikiFreeMind :-) could be something similar. I don´t think that FreeMind being the only one interface to be an issue, I think it would be great if we could use wiki formatting inside FreeMind nodes. It would be easy (a gross guess) to allow Wiki-links between nodes, or wiki/web-pages outside the map. It would not be too difficult to do a kind of serialization of the map as a Wiki Database, each node being a wiki page, following the extension mechanics proposed by WikiMedia, you could allow wiki tags that would keep track of the properties of the node as a serialized wiki-page. It´s pretty much brainstorming, but I think it would be possible to use FreeMind as a Wiki Navigator, and the Web Browser + Wiki Engine as a Node Editor. --loudenvier 17:15, 05 Apr 2005 (BRA) Applet allowing editing mind maps.Requests for enhancements: It would be fine to edit a map via applet and save it to a webserver directory. A perfect bookmark manager? And a useful tool in project preparation too?Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 18:10:33 +0200 I use Bookmark Manager from SourceForge, a very nice project. But I found that importing bookmarks into Freemind is a great option, if there only was a plugin to export them, Freemind would work as a perfect bookmark manager. An option like "export folder structure" would do. Plus, Freemind would work as a nice 'project manager' for creating directory-trees for large projects, at least I see I could find it very usable in my projects which require managing a lot of project files. Creating such structure in Freemind and then exporting it would be very usable. ===Changing attributes by depth level.=== Wouldn't it be good if nodes could have levels (defined as outward from the centre) so that you could change color, font and other node properties by level. For instace, all nodes of level two would have red bubbles. OR Allow user to define default level attributes to be applied when a branch is made. The most common one being font size and edge width. Undefined attributes like colour should flow down. This is just the desired default at creation time and may be changed. Branches further out than the deepest defined default all inherit from previous branch. Integrated Google web searchHow about an accessory software that would input FreeMind's XML and conduct Google and Google News searches on all nodes plus their neighbours? If anything useful is found (and there would be less than x hits), it would *wget* them and add links to the material to the map. Run this as a cronjob and your mind map will always have new ideas when you open FreeMind again.
MIDlet for editing with mobile phonesMIDlet idea entry front-end is a MUST! I want to be able to do mind mapping with my mobile phone and then upload the changes to the main map on my desktop.
Have floating textbox for titles or commentsHi I would like to request a feature, namely a title and/or comment at the beginning/end of page to be able to use it in presentations, where I would have my name on top right. I would suggest that there is no link to other nodes just a kind of text box. Maybe there are more people thinking about this nice addon? Request for enhancements:
An editable tree view (like the html export)With such view I can imagine freemind to be useable an smaller devices like an ipaq running familiar (or ppc). Can you run freemind on such devices? --Alex ToughGraph like dynamic layoutRequests for enhancements:
I think FreeMind would become much more powerful (not to mention cool looking) if it had a dynamic mode without a root node. It would be great if arbitrary links (not just parent/child) between any nodes were supported, if text size and colors would dynamically adjust according to the distance, relevance and other factors, and if the layout would be dynamic, with the graph rearranging itself on the fly. More details at the TouchGraph site ([1]), and at this page: [2]).
More flexible Resize OptionsWhat about the following resize possibilities: --TMaschler 01:46, 17 Feb 2005 (PST)
Easier to delete nodesA relatively straightforward enhancement: the Node/Remove Node on the popup menu could be moved to the main popup menu, under 'Insert Child Node'. It would probably be better server by being called 'Delete Child Node'. I think it would also be fantastic if it had a shortcut key - Del probably being the most suitable. I find it a right pain to delete nodes (I notice someone submitted an RFE on sourceforge asking for a delete function, clearly not being aware there already was one - I think this indicates it needs moving!) David Perez comment: An alternative I use is to cut the node in order to delete it.
Torsten Gräßler comment:
StatisticsRequests for features: Show the statistics
on the node level or a map level (once you can do node level, you also can do map level). Thousands of new iconsEnhancing the number and variety of icons to the sufficient amout would definetely increase versatility of FreeMind. Plenty of small pictures it is a must if you want to organize your knowledge (e.g. notes from collage), so that every 'key info' could be easily remembered. The more icons that help associating the information the better - I would like to see pictures of man, men, woman, women, tree, chair, table and so on - any thing you can imagine, categorized. I know I can use external pictures, but it's really inconvenient if I have to look for each picture on the Internet for a few minutes while creating a new map. Built-in icons would be a great help.
it would be great if i would able to add or delete icons in to the toolbar my self. 22.2.05 by erwin Not sure if the hyperlink arrows count as icons, but it would be good if they could be colour coded; eg blue arrow for a hyperlink to a local file on the local computer, yellow for a file located on the local network, red arrow for a hyperlink to a html site, Green arrow for a local hyperlink Zooming With Scroll ButtonBeing able to pan by holding down the right-hand mouse button and twiddling the scroll wheel is great. What would help navigation a little more would be to zoom in and out by holding down, say, the left-hand mouse button. Requests for enhancements: User defined iconsRequests for enhancements Keep custom/unknown XML tags when savingRequests for enhancements: Collaborative editing of mind mapsRequests for enhancements:
Conference-like editing of a shared map. When one user adds a node, other users get display update, and vice versa. Rather demanding request, but also potencially highly useful. Allow for mathematical formulas using LaTeX or MathMLRequests for enhancements: People want to type in mathematical formulas in text markup and see something good looking when not edited. User attributes or tags of a nodeRequests for enhancements: For user editable using a popping up table. File format example: <node TEXT="Tagged"> <tag NAME="cost" VALUE="500€"/> <tag NAME="todo" VALUE="yes"/> </node> Rich text formatting of nodesRequests for enhancements: Rich text formatting includes boldface, italics, font colors, tables and the like. It is already possible using HTML in nodes. What's missing is the GUI support for editing HTML nodes. Another thing missing is pasting of RTF - Rich Text Format directly into FreeMind. Enable spell checkingRequests for enhancements: Add label to edgesRequests for enhancements:
Add label to arrow linkFilter nodes by their iconsRequests for enhancements Set filter on a given node, as a list of icon names. When such a filter is set, only those descendands of the filtered node are shown that satisify the filter. A node satisfies the filter, if one of its icons is in the filter's set of icons, or one of its descendants satisfies the filter.
Insert Current Date and HourFeb 25,2005. It would be nice to have a button to insert in a node the current date and/or hour. Thanks!
Support for callto: protocolAs pointed out in a forum posting, support for callto: protocol would be helpful. Ability for arrows to have text associated, or be full nodesRelated To 1167198 non-tree graph (concept map?) I have a need in my current project (uni), to show heirarchies of risks, causes, and parties involved. Associated among these varying levels of heirarchies I have created arrows indicating relationship (affects-this, causes-something-else etc.), the color of the arrows indicating the relationship. It would be helpful to be able to put labels on the arrows. Actually more important than this, arrows should be full nodes, Allowing different objects to be attached as children (including other arrows). Admittedly giving arrows the ability to be full nodes may invite abuse & cause complexity, however informational-relations are themselves complex (solution should be as simple as possible, no simpler). Coding would perhaps be more elegent to allow for more than 1 child node in the code, but have a limit placed by higher-level code? (i.e. no children of children, even though the arrow objects themselves may allow for this) Object StylesIt would be nice to have the ability to set styles for an object, and be able to select styles (styles would perhaps be associated per object-type) when creating objects. Hyperlinks to Programs with ArgumentsIn addition to (followable) hyperlinks to web-pages, to local folders, to executable programs, and to executable files (e.g. "datasheet.xls"), it would also be nice to have hyperlinks to programs with arguments and switches such as: "notepad myfile.bat" or "explorer.exe /n,/e,C:\" --Lhg 01:11, 18 Apr 2005 (PDT) Show multiple maps in tabsXEmacs shows multiple documents at tabs at the top. Microsoft Excel shows multiple sheets of a document at tabs at the bottom. Although this is not a standard user interface model, seems quite useful for FreeMind. Various users requested this feature. --Danielpolansky 11:38, 30 Apr 2005 (PDT) Allow more maps to be shown side by sideIn XEmacs, Vim or Microsoft Excel, it is possible to see several documents side by side. It would make sense for FreeMind too. Nevertheless, the added value is questionable. --Danielpolansky 11:38, 30 Apr 2005 (PDT) User InterfaceKeyboardF1 is conventionally helpF1 is normally a help key in most apps Show a help bar on the bottom of the screen for F keysHave an optional toolbar that can be shown along bottom of screen with buttons that can be clicked with a mouse and operate as per the function keys and also give a hint as to what key does. e.g. [F1 help] [F2 hot][F3 green][F4 ] [F5] And format the text of the key as per the pattern it applies
MouseScroll wheel zoom Operationa) It would be nice to be able to zoom using just the scroll wheel rather than pressing CTRL at the same time. How about a user preference/option to control this. This is similar to many other Apps e.g. Excel ie wheel = zoom or pan b) The way the scroll wheel works seems opposite to many other programs which is confusing ie push wheel forward causes a zoom out whereas other apps zoom in The words "Node up" and "Node down" could be easier to understand if there was a verb in it e.g. Move node up Move node down The operation of it is great, but as a novice it is not clear if it does move up a node - ie where current cursor is moves or move the node - ie the node is moved to a different position on the diagram
MenuToggle toolbar on/off via View MenuAdd ability to toggle display of toolbars via the menu Suggest put it under View menu Functionality as per RIGHT mouse key on a blank part of the screen As a novice found it hard to understand the difference between Map and Browse would have found it easier if it had said ALT+1 Edit map ALT+2 Browse map ALT+3 File ToolbarsIcon toolbarCross and watebasket look like icons rather than buttonsTo a novice the delete (red cross) and delete all (wastebasket) icons look like icons ie add a cross to the map rather than perform operations especially on the popup "select icon" window. Some icons in left toolbar fall off bottom of toolbarTop toolbarOrder of icons in top toolbarWould be nice if these icons were in a more standard order (as per other apps) e.g. New, Open, save, print, cut,copy, paste with next/previous map buttons more to the right (Icons in V0.08 RC2 look a lot smarter) Font size pulldown is very widePulldown to select font size is stretching and becoming very wide, which doesn't look neat. New toolbar for format operationsMove font type and size pulldowns to new format toolbarie group all formatting functions as per Format menu options onto a format toolbar Add ability to select a default format for texte.g. have a split icon left part looks like a letter "A" in colour text is currently set to right part of icon looks like a black down arrowhead which if clicked pulls up a colour picker Add ability to select a default format for linese.g. have a split icon left part looks like a line in colour text is currently set to right part of icon looks like a black down arrowhead which if clicked pulls up a colour picker Add ability to select a default format for cloudse.g. have a split icon left part looks like a coloured outline of a cloud in colour text is currently set to right part of icon looks like a black down arrowhead which if clicked pulls up a colour picker
MapsWould be nice to be able to add a header or footer e.g. with name of file, title, date Would be nice to add a user image e.g. logo to a page Coloured backgroundAbility to define a colour for background paper
Show a '*' in window title if map has been updated but not savedAs per other editors show a '*' next to the file name (in the title of the window) if a file has been updated but not saved yet. Remove '*' when it has been saved
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