Fundamental Concepts

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Please read through this chapter carefully to understand the fundamental concepts in MindVisualizer software before proceeding to read the next chapters.

A picture is worth thousand words. Please take a look at the visual map example below to get an overview first.
Basic Concepts in MindVisualizer

Here are the detailed description for each concept:

·     Visual Map. Visual Maps are documents processed by MindVisualizer software. A Visual Map in the software is a highly enhanced Mind Map or Concept Map (Spider Map). The above example itself is a Visual Map.

graphicNote: Each opened Visual Map in MindVisualizer is indicated by a Tab. See User Interface Introduction.

graphicNote: The canvas size of a new Visual Map created in MindVisualizer is equal to an A4 sized paper and it's the minimum size. When the content of the map grows exceeding the boundary of the canvas, MindVisualizer will center the whole map content and will extend the canvas size if necessary.

graphicNote: "Mind Map", "Concept Map" or "Map" are used to refer to a Visual Map in the rest of this help document.


·     Topics in the Visual Maps. The nodes or branches in Visual Maps are called Topics.
Except for Floating Topics and the Central Topic, all topics in the Visual Maps connect to a parent topic with a single line to represent a hierarchical relationship.

·     Types of Topics:
·     Central Topic. The Central Topic is the central theme, subject or idea of a Visual Map. The Central Topic is the first topic created when a new map is created and it cannot be deleted.

·     Main Topic. Main Topics are the second level topics. According to Mind Mapping methodology, Main Topics surround the Central Topic, in a clockwise order starting from the upper-right direction.

·     Subtopic. Also called a child topic. Subtopics are topics at the third or higher numbered level, they are used to support their parent topics. Subtopics are always in a top-down order.

·     Floating Topics. Floating Topics are topics without a hierarchical relationship connected to a parent topic.

graphicTip: By using multiple floating topics you can essentially have multiple starting points in a map. This is a trick or tip to visualize multiple subject in a single map.

graphicTip: Floating topics can be used to insert floating text or floating images to a visual map. For example, you can use a floating image to show your company logo on the upper right of the canvas or use a floating text to show a text footer for the map.

·     Topic Properties. This is the most exciting part of the software, where MindVisualizer brings in advanced computer technology to traditional Mind Mapping or Concept Mapping methodologies. All kinds of topics can have the following same set of properties.

·     Basic Topic Properties
·     Font. You can specify color, type face, size or style (bold, italic, underline) of the font you want to use for a topic.

·     Frame Style. You can use different styles of frame to denote different meaning.

·     Frame Color. Color of the topic frames.

·     Background Color. Color of the background of the topics.

graphicTip: Each main topic branch is Auto branch coloring to reduce your work needed to format the maps.

graphicTip: Each topic can have its own visual element described above, but you can select multiple topics prior to editing them to simplify the task.

·     Extend Topic Properties
·     Icon(s). Topic Icon(s) are shown on the left part of the a topic. A topic can contain one or more icons.

·     Image. Topic Images are larger and resizable compared to  topic icons.

·     Text Notes. Text Notes are used to add additional text information to topics. You can edit the notes as in MS Word. An icon representing Text Notes will be shown on the right part of a topic if it contains Text Notes.

·     Hyperlinks(s). Hyperlink(s) in MindVisualizer are the same as links in a web page. A hyperlink can be linked to any kind of source including a website link (URL), a document in your computer, an email address,  a Microsoft Outlook item (email, contact, calendar...) and so on. An icon representing Hyperlink(s) will be shown on the right part of a topic if it contains Hyperlink(s). You can have multiple hyperlinks in a single topic.

·     Attachment(s). An attachment is similar to a hyperlink to a disk file, except that it is embedded in the Visual Map document, instead of leaving the file in the external system. This is good when you need to send out a map to others without leaving out related documents.

·     Folding Button. When a topic contains child topics, a small round button will appear on the left or right end of the topic. Child topics expand or collapse when you click on them.

·     Topic Status
·     Selected or (Focused) Status. Topics that are selected are shown with light blue rectangles. Most editing operations in MindVisualizer are applied to the selected topic.
·     Mouse Hovering Status. When the cursor of the mouse is hovering over a topic, a light grey rectangle will appear. Several small floating buttons also appear allowing you to quickly perform frequently used tasks like inserting a child topic or deleting the topic.

·     Topic Relation. As opposed to a forced hierarchical line linking between a parent topic and a child topic, a Topic Relation can be optionally used to represent an additional parallel relationship between two topics.