Web for FreeMind 0.4.0
What follows is sourced from doc folder of FreeMind 0.4.0; the content was probably hosted in FreeMind web site at the time. It must have been written by Jörg Müller. It is published here for historical interest.
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The FreeMind Project
Taking the concept-mapping approach to Human-computer interface design.
Try the brand new FreeMind Browser Applet
(You need Java and JavaScript to run it.)
Without Javascript:
- FreeMind for Netscape
- FreeMind for Internet Explorer If you are not interested in the internals, you can see FreeMind as a Mindmapping tool. All FreeMind users currently use it as a Mindmapping tool. But keep in mind that FreeMind is even more than that.
Because FreeMind is written in Java, it will run on virtually any computer. Just try it! :-)
A bit more technically speaking, FreeMind is a general tool for editing tree-structured data. That means, FreeMind is intended for editing Mind maps, XML/HTML Documents, Directory trees etc. In future, even network-structures will be supported, ie. Topic Maps (ISO) etc. All these data is represented to the user as a Mind map. This is achived with a modular design, which makes it possible to easily write modules, only designing the model of the problem (the data structure), without caring for the visual representation at all. Currently a Mind Mapping and a File Mode are implemented. Other modes should follow soon.
Vision
FreeMind now has evolved from a specific Mind Map Editor to a generic editor for tree structured data. I want FreeMind to become for tree structured data what emacs is for linear data (ie. text). The front end is a tree presented as a Mind Map, other views may be implemented in future. The backend can deal either with a tree or with a graph, but the important thing is that both are presented as a tree to the user. This way FreeMind will provide easy, intuitive access to many kinds of complex data and become even more useful with every new backend/mode that is implemented. What I had in mind when I began to write FreeMind, was creating a collaborative mind where people can intuitively share there ideas, knowledge and thoughts with each other. Of course FreeMind is only a first step into this direction, but I did this first step. Now a Mode must be implemented that makes collaboration over the Internet possible, maybe using the Topic-Map standard. I think linear text is a very poor way of representing knowledge, and by using trees and networks, visual representation, internet collaboration and open source we should be able to create some kind of a collaborative mind.
Guide
Introduction
Welcome to FreeMind and the world of computer-based Mindmapping ;-) To avoid confusion, yes, FreeMind indeed is a Mindmapping tool, but FreeMind is also more. It can represent any tree-structured data as a MindMap, and I look forward to once using it as a generic interface to the computer. However, this is a dream, but currently you can use FreeMind as a Mindmapping tool, which is what all FreeMind users do. FreeMind has Modes, which means that you can use a specific mode to do a specific task, for instance MindMap-Mode for creating and viewing Mindmaps. The MindMap-Mode will be the only that you will use now, but keep in mind that there are other modes to come. To use FreeMind efficiently, it's best to learn the keyboard shortcuts, so you don't have to take your hands away from keyboard, what would interrupt your workflow.
After all, I hope you like FreeMind, as I do, and have fun with it!
Installation
I have written FreeMind in Java, so you will need the Java Runtime Environment for your Operating System. That shouldn't be a problem at all, because Java is available for Linux, Windows, Macintosh, Solaris and even PDA's. Just Download it at java.sun.com/j2se. You need at least Java 2 Version 1.2 . If you can manage to install the JRE, your half on your way to install FreeMind (congratulations ;-).
FreeMind is packaged as a zip, and new versions are also available as tgz. Download the binary file (freemind-bin-x_x_x.zip) and create a directory where you want to install FreeMind into, and unpack the freemind-bin-x_x_x.zip into it. The source files (freemind-src-x_x_x.zip) contain the FreeMind sourcecode and are not executable! If you can't unpack the file, you need a compression utility. For windows you can take freezip. For Linux there should be such a utility on every distribution.
Once you have unpacked FreeMind, you can type "java -jar freemind.jar" on the shell if you are in the directory where freemind.jar is located. Alternatively, you can copy a link to freemind.bat (on windows) or freemind.sh (on unix) to your desktop. If FreeMind runs, open the file "freemind.mm", which explains the usage of FreeMind.
Usage
Configuration
FreeMind is widely configureable. You can select the language, english, german or french, make various defaults and choose which keybindings to use.
To configure FreeMind, edit either the file freemindUser.properties, which you should normally use, or freemind.properties, where I made the defaults, in any text editor, make your changes and store the file again as plain text. If you start FreeMind, the new properties are read in.
Configurations made in freemindUser.properties overwrite those made in freemind.properties, so you can play around and just delete the changed values from freemindUser.properties, if your changes don't work.
Usage
FreeMind should be intuitively to use. Just add the nodes you want. If you have problems with anything and think it's not intuitively, just send me a mail so that I can change it in the next release.
Development
Because FreeMind is still in development phase, there are some unimplemented or experimental features:
- Printing: Printing is still experimental and doesn't work well.
- Fonts: Due to a bug in the swing library, the selection of font attributes is somewhat buggy.
- File-Mode: Is still experimental, only basics are implemented.
Of course there are still some bugs in FreeMind (any software has bugs), but I use FreeMind every day and found it quite usable and stable. If you have any problems, feel free to send me a mail.
Project
STATUS
First of all, this is ALPHA Software! That means, it is not stable. There are many bugs for you to find, so if you find one, send me a mail so that I can fix it. You want to have stable software, don't you? So _really_ do this, or you may find the bug in the next release, too. (And if you find a bug, it IS a bug, not a feature, as Micro$oft tries to tell you ;-).
LICENSE
This program is licensed under the GPL.
FEEDBACK
If you like the program, have some ideas for new features, find any bugs, send a mail to: joergmueller@bigfoot.com
MISSING FEATURES
This is an early version, so there are many features missing: There is no undo/redo functionality (so be careful what you do ;-), there is no autosaving. All this will be fixed in future releases.
BUGS
The fontselection is buggy, but thats a bug of Java (the swing library), so the only thing I can do is wait...
TODO
Of course performance must be improved, and more modes must be implemented. Modes that will come are a serious filesystem browser, a XML/HTML editor, a client to a mindmapping-server (so that multiple users can edit the same mindmap), and everything you can imagine that deals with tree-structures. In future I want to create an applet so you can view mindmaps in your browser (combined with hyperlinking, this can lead us to a totally different web). In future a modular view architecture can be implemented, maybe with true graph presentation. If you can think of anything else one could do with freemind, tell me.
Roadmap
0.0.1
Initial Release, running program with a nice view (Mind map style). Released: 15.06.00
0.0.2
Automatically resizing Mind map, better node editor, better node-positioning algorithm. Released: 27.06.00
0.0.3
Hyperlinking between Mind maps, more than one Mind map opened at the same time. Basic printing functionality, internationalization, properties files. Released: 09.07.00
0.1.0
Modular Design. Mindmap-Mode and experimental File-Mode as samples. Released: 05.08.00
0.2.0
Internal possibility for named edges (not yet used), nearly completely rewritten view, better user interface, many improvements. Status: working...
0.2.1
As long as this list exists, future nearly never brought what I awaited it to bring ;-). So I give up making any predictions now. (Maybe this makes the roadmap needless? However... ;-) Status: planning...
FreeMind Project History
24.3.2001
Release 0.3.0
FreeMind Applet. I think the future of FreeMind will be the Web. The only mode yet available in the applet is the new "Browse" mode, so FreeMind maps can now be used on peoples websites, either to provide an overview or to replace the html. I also tried to get some system into all the keyboard shortcuts (sorry, folks ;-) (alt means: edit a node (toggle folded), ctrl means: command for the program (save) and shift means to modify the command (apply it to the whole branch) ). I also fixed some nasty bugs. 1.11.2000
Fifth release (0.2.0) Usable for normal user: Intuitive menu structure. Comletely rewritten node-positioning algorithm to enable future extensions (named edges) and for better performance. Many small bugfixes and improvements.
25.10.2000
Designed the new website, merged all available information for FreeMind (README's, Website, ...)
08.-10.2000
To add named edges, I had to completely rewrite the view (especially the nodepositioning algorithm). Also improved the internal architecture and the controller.
05.08.2000
Fourth release (0.1.0) New orientation: FreeMind is now a generic editor for tree structured data. Modular design, many bug fixes. Implemented modes: MindMap, File(experimental).
17.07.2000
Posting of the new website with better design and more information.
09.07.2000
Third release (0.0.3) Hyperlinking between Mind maps, more than one Mind map opened at the same time. Basic printing functionality, internationalization, properties files.
27.06.2000
Second release (0.0.2) Automatically resizing Mind map, better node editor, better node-positioning algorithm.
06.-07.2000
Designing of a XML-Format together with Jost Schenck which will be compatible with MyMap.
18.06.2000
First release (0.0.1), running program with a nice view (Mind map style).
25.05.2000
Program is running the first time.
07.05.2000
Starting of project FreeMind, initially with a JTree as view.
04.-05.2000
Design discussions with Richard Krutisch, evaluation of the failures of MindMapRK (eg. no Model-View division).
09.1999-04.2000
First ideas and evaluation of other Mind mapping programs.
Development guidelines
This file collects guidelines and aims of the FreeMind project to avoid possible conflicts.
Coding style
- Each class is imported on its own, no "import javax.swing.*" imports.
General
- FreeMind is a generic editor for tree-structured data and doesn't prefer any special kind of data.
- All code specific to any special kind of data is contained in a special Mode for that data.
View
- The data is represented as a Mind Map, as described by Tony Buzan.
- A modular design for the view may be implemented to make other views possible (JTree-like, top-down hierarchy etc.)
Controller
- Every command should be available both with the keyboard and the mouse.
***ToDo***
- Drag'n'drop style cutting and pasting. (by moving a square around)
- Named edges (edges with text).
Authors
FreeMind and this website are created by Jörg Müller. If you like the program, have ideas for new features, find any bugs, or want to contribute (ie. find your name here ;-) mail me.
Thanks goes to:
- Sebastian Fischmeister for misc patches
- Jean-Luc Deladriere for french support
- Jared Rhine for freemind2html
- Richard Krutisch, author of MAK
- Hauke Helmers for the images
- Rainer Janssen for time
- Jost Schenck, author of MyMap
Mailing Lists
We have the following mailing lists for FreeMind:
freemind-announce
A mail is sent to this list whenever a new Version of FreeMind is released. The traffic will be very low.
freemind-users
This list is intended for you, the users of FreeMind. I will be on this list too and answer questions about FreeMind. It depends on you how much traffic will be on this list.
