Printing large mind maps in a way in which they’re still readable has always been a bit tedious. Recently our support team has seen a flood of requests asking for help with the MindMeister print feature – especially when maps have become rather large – so we decided to post this step-by-step guide in the MeisterTips series.
The occasion might arise when you’d like to print a large map, but don’t want to shrink it down to a 8.5 x 11 (or A4), thereby making it unreadable. The solution? Break out the scotch tape, and get ready to print your map on multiple pages! To do this, there’s a very minor dance that needs to take place between your MindMeister printing (export) options and how you tell your PDF viewer to physically print the map.
To get started printing your larger-than-life mind map, select ‘Print’ from the options in the top menu bar. This will open up a dialogue box that presents you with a number of printing options. While printing directly from the browser window is technically possible, we’d recommend first printing to a PDF, and then using your PDF reader’s print function to send it to the printer (things just tend to work better using this method).
In the options dialogue, you’ll see a dropdown menu that gives you the option to select your preferred paper size. To print your map to multiple pages, select the ‘full’ option. Finish the action by clicking ‘Print’.
From here, MindMeister will export your map to your installed PDF reader (most probably Adobe Acrobat), and will present you with the option to, or automatically download it depending on your browser settings.
Proceed to print a PDF as you normally would. However – and this might be a setting you’ve overlooked as well. In Acrobat’s print settings dialogue, under the dropdown menu for ‘Page Scaling’ select ‘Tile all pages’. This is the setting that tells your PDF reader that you want to print the map over multiple pages.
By exporting your mind maps to a PDF format, and then using the PDF reader to select how you’d like your maps printed is a great way to make sure that even your largest maps don’t get compressed down to an unreadable format on a standard 8.5 x 11 or A4 sized sheet of paper.
One of the primary benefits of using mind maps in collaborative mode is to, quite literally, have everyone on the same page. And while this is a great way to get projects moving, if no one is taking ownership of these items, the map serves only as a data collection point, not a plan of action. Assigning tasks is the perfect solution for making your mind map a road to project success.
There are two unique ways to assign tasks within a MindMeister mind map, either manually or through our WunderTask feature. Manually assigning tasks can be used when you have only one or two action items to tackle. Conversely, if you’re dealing with multiple action items, or a large number of collaborators, WunderTask can be quite a time saver.
Manually Assigning Tasks
The option to assign tasks can be found under the Extras panel in the sidebar. Similar to Notes, Links, and Attachments, the tasks panel contains a number of customizable options.
To assign a task, first select the node that you’d like to assign a task to. Once highlighted, you may then assign a priority to this task. If you or your collaborators want to keep track of task completion, you can also select this option from the dropdown. In the date due field, you may either enter the date in mm/dd/yy format, or by clicking on the dropdown arrow, you can select the due date from a calendar interface.
Finally, in the ‘Assigned To’ field, you can start delegating who’s doing what. Those that you’ve already shared the map with will automatically be propagated in this list. Choose a name from your collaborators in the dropdown list, and they will then be assigned this task. If you’d like to assign a task to someone you’ve not yet shared the mind map with, you can manually enter his or her name in this field.
Using WunderTask
Similar to our WunderLink and WunderBild features, WunderTask can handle some of the heavy lifting for you. This can be particularly helpful when assigning a large number of tasks to numerous collaborators over a multitude of nodes.
To get started with WunderTask, select the node that you’d like to assign a task to. By clicking on the gear icon just below the ‘Assign To:’ field, WunderTask will automatically insert Priority, Completion, Due Date, and Assigned To options for you. By default, each WunderTask insertion will assign each task as priority 1. To change this you can either select priority levels from the dropdown menu in the sidebar, or simply click on the number icon. MindMeister will then automatically scroll through priority numbers for you. Likewise, the default Completion icon will be set to ‘not started’, and the Due Date is set to one week after the current date. Similar to manually adding tasks, all of these options may be altered in the sidebar options.
Advanced Options
If you want to delve even further into assigning tasks, the ‘Advanced’ link just below the ‘assigned to’ field is for you. In the advanced options panel you can set start date, due date, and duration of a specific task. Naturally, Priority, Completion, and Assigned To options can also be edited here.
In the Advanced Options dialogue, you’ll also be able to customize the email reminders feature. If your global settings are set to receive task notification emails (recommended), but you want to customize when you’ll receive reminders, this is where you can change them. From the dropdown, you can select any number of days before the assigned due date, up to one week.
By adding tasks to your collaborative brain storming sessions with MindMeister, you’ll be taking that brain storm and making an active plan of action out of it; one that all parties involved can follow and know what their exact part of the project is.
As a mind mapper, chances are you’ve got more than one map in the works at any given time. In this MeisterTip we’ll be focusing on switching between mind maps without having to exit to the main dashboard, as well as viewing multiple maps using browser tabs.
Switching between maps
Whether you’re a power MindMeister user with a great number of maps, or a basic user limited to three maps, swapping between your various maps can be done without ever having to visit your main dashboard.
Most users’ initial reaction is to click on the MindMeister button located at the top left of the map user interface. This will take you back to your map listings and is a good method to get an overview of all your maps, i.e. with whom they’re shared and when they were last modified.
However, there’s a much faster and more efficient way to navigate your mind maps.
From within an active map, just below the navigator, you’ll notice four buttons, one with a drop down indicator. This is the action we’re after. A click on this button will open up a dropdown that has the titles of your maps pre-populated. From here, simply select the map you’d like to work on and click. Your selected map will now be loaded, and ready for use.
No more swapping back to the main dashboard to find a desired map!
Viewing multiple maps
The occasion might arise when you’ll want to view certain ideas on one mind map, while referencing data within another map. You can use the method above to quickly swap between the two, but what if you want to go back and forth between maps and don’t want to reload them each time?
Thanks to the beauty of tabs, this is easily done. From your main maps listing, right click on the map ‘A’ that you want to view, and select ‘Open in a new tab’ (Note: in some browsers you can also just CTRL-click the map link). This will then open a new tab in your browser window with your selected map read to go. In your main browser window, click on the map you’d like to compare map ‘A’ with, and simply tab between the two.
Obviously this method can be applied as many times as you like, comparing one, two, three, etc. maps side by side within tabs.
In our next installment of the MeisterTips series, we’ll be addressing two of the more advanced features of working with maps: Our cut/copy/paste feature which maintains all of your node structure, links, images, and parent/child relationships, as well as how to create entirely new maps from mind map nodes.
Welcome fellow MindMeisters (and non-meisters)! This is our inaugural post in a coming series of tips and tricks that highlight some of the ‘little known’ functions you can do with MindMeister. We’ll start with something simple, stay tuned for future MeisterTips.
Whether you’re conducting a SWOT analysis of your competition and want to link out to their website, a student or professor using internal links to further explain a topic, or an individual user using links to point viewers to additional mind maps you may have created; using links is a great way to enrich your dataset. There are two unique ways to add links to your mind map: either manually, or using our WunderLink feature to seek out the most relevant topic link.
Manually entering links
The option to add links can be found under the Extras panel in the sidebar. The default linking option is set to URL. You can either manually type the web address into this field or paste the address from a separate browser window. Clicking anywhere else on your mind map will associate this link to your node. Chances are, you’ve already found the best link possible for your idea, but why not let the power of the Internet double check for you? By clicking on Advanced, you’ll be presented with a dialogue box that will automatically search for the most relevant links to your topic. If you find a link that better suits your topic, simply click on it, and then OK. This will then automatically insert the link to your selected node.
Internal linking
Similar to adding URL links, you can also link to topics within your current mind map, or any other of your MindMeister mind maps. From the links dropdown list, select ‘Topic’. Clicking in the text input area will then launch a dialogue box. By default, you’re presented with the option to link to different ideas within your mind map. This can be particularly beneficial in a mind map with a wide variety of nodes.
If you’d like to link to a completely different map altogether, you can select it from the dropdown menu at the top of this dialogue box. Selecting a new map will also give you the option to link to specific nodes (even sub nodes) within this new map, or the root node itself.
Email Links
Last but not least, you can also add email links to any selected node. Again, from the dropdown list, select Email. In the text input field, enter the email address you’d like to associate with this link. As with URLs, clicking anywhere else within your mind map will insert this link. You can even add multiple email addresses by separating them with commas.
Advanced Linking Options
Using WunderLink
The second method of adding links to your nodes is by letting the power of the Internet do the heavy lifting for you. Our WunderLink feature can be accessed by clicking on the gear logo located directly below the link dropdown menu. Technically speaking, WunderLink uses an API from Yahoo! to present you with the top search results based on your node text. 99.44 percent of the time, the link that WunderNote suggests will be the most relevant to your topic. If it’s not, or you do not want to use the link WunderLink has suggested, there are two options to change it.
The first method involves clicking the gear logo again. WunderLink will then insert the second search result from Yahoo! Clicking again will give you the third result, and so on.
The second method involves manually selecting the link(s) suggested by Yahoo! If you’d rather select the result yourself from Yahoo!’s results, you can access this via the ‘Advanced’ panel. Below ‘Show most popular results for ‘x’’ you can select any one of these search results to be used as your link.
By adding links to your mind map nodes you can exponentially add value and content, and thereby comprehension to your end user or collaborative team. Whether you choose to enter them manually, or by using our WunderLink feature, adding links can breathe new levels of understanding and interactivity into your mind map.
About
This is the weblog of www.mindmeister.com, the online mind mapping tool. In the true spirit of Web 2.0 we've decided to abandon our anti-social news page for a nice commentable blog. There are lots of greatmind mappingblogs out there so we'll restrict ourselves to discussing MindMeister related stuff only (that's a promise!). Find out more
The option to assign tasks can be found under the Extras panel in the sidebar. Similar to Notes, Links, and Attachments, the tasks panel contains a number of customizable options. 
Whether you’re a power MindMeister user with a great number of maps, or a basic user limited to three maps, swapping between your various maps can be done without ever having to visit your main dashboard.
The occasion might arise when you’ll want to view certain ideas on one mind map, while referencing data within another map. You can use the method above to quickly swap between the two, but what if you want to go back and forth between maps and don’t want to reload them each time?
The option to add links can be found under the Extras panel in the sidebar. The default linking option is set to URL. You can either manually type the web address into this field or paste the address from a separate browser window. Clicking anywhere else on your mind map will associate this link to your node. Chances are, you’ve already found the best link possible for your idea, but why not let the power of the Internet double check for you? By clicking on Advanced, you’ll be presented with a dialogue box that will automatically search for the most relevant links to your topic. If you find a link that better suits your topic, simply click on it, and then OK. This will then automatically insert the link to your selected node.
Similar to adding URL links, you can also link to topics within your current mind map, or any other of your MindMeister mind maps. From the links dropdown list, select ‘Topic’. Clicking in the text input area will then launch a dialogue box. By default, you’re presented with the option to link to different ideas within your mind map. This can be particularly beneficial in a mind map with a wide variety of nodes.
