Anytime I have a new character or setting, I can add it right to my mind map as I'm working. a perfect place for keeping notes to yourself. If you have any ideas or changes to your project while you're working, your mind map is right there for you to add them. When you want to work on a particular project, just fire up your mind map to get an overview of your progress and get started. Hopefully VYM's developer will eventually find a way to address using local links that are relative to the location of the mind map file.Ĭaveats aside, this is a really great way to work. You just need to launch VYM from the command line with your project folder as your current working directory. If you want to use relative paths, there is a workaround. That means that if you work on multiple computers, your project must be organized with the exact folder structure on all of them. The local links that VYM creates are all absolute paths on your hard drive. There is a caveat to this workflow if, like me, you version-control your projects. Since I do almost all of my writing in plain text using Markdown syntax, that means either Gvim or Atom, depending on which computer I'm using. Once you have that set, you can click on any node that you've assigned a link to and fire up the relevant default application. There are also separate settings for opening PDFs and actual web links. By default, xdg-open is already set there, but I like to change this to use mimeopen. Just go to Settings / Set application to open external links. a general listing of all of the article ideas I've had, loosely grouped by category, some with reference material attached. How about an example? Here's a simplified version of the mind map I use for writing articles on. As long as you have your desktop launcher configured properly (more on that in a bit), your mind map has everything you need to carry your project from a loose set of ideas through to completion. VYM will pop up a file dialog, and you can pick any file on your hard drive. ![]() Just choose the Edit local URL menu option. VYM gives you convenient access to this capability in the same References menu. They can also be links to local files on your hard drive. But links don't have to point just to things that are online. Most people use this feature to link to websites or online images as reference material. In that menu, you can select the Edit URL menu option and paste any web link as a reference. In VYM, you can make any node a link by right-clicking it and navigating to the References submenu. Most modern mind maps can treat a map node as a clickable link. The reason why it works in all of them is because the way I work relies on a fairly simple common denominator: the hyperlink. Whether you use VYM or FreeMind or XMind, the approach I cover here should work. A mind map is not just an idea board, it's a living document, a dashboard for planning my projects and tracking my progress.įor the examples in this article, I'll be using a handy little open source mind-mapping program called VYM, short for "View Your Mind." If you're interested, I have a pretty thorough podcast episode covering my fairly extensive hunt for a new mind-mapping application. In fact, for me, mind maps are a critical tool for managing my creative projects. Modern digital mind maps give you so much more. ![]() The semi-free-flowing, branched structure of a mind map really lends itself to helping you wrap your brain around whatever it is you're planning to work on. Most folks know mind maps are great for organizing your thoughts and brainstorming ideas for a project. I'm a huge proponent of using mind maps in creative work, which you may know if you've read any of my previous articles or follow my podcast.
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