Enable the import of fillable shapes and topic shapes
Voting Open
It would be great if PNG shapes or similar could be imported as outlines which could be used as standard shapes and topic shapes and to which fill and line colours could be applied, either directly or via SmartRules.
At the moment shapes can be imported but they appear distorted and you have to insert multiple returns and spaces to make them appear correctly. This also makes it difficult to use text with them. If fill colours are applied they either shade the whole topic box covering the shape or the fill doesn't appear at all.
This would be a great way to display information based around, for example, the maps of countries or states, and would enable a basic level of chloropleth mapping within MindManager.
I like this idea
Eons ago, MindManager shipped with a little Metafile editor for just this purpose, but does not do so today. A vector format is needed to support things like scaling and fill. There might be a similar easy-to-use software tool that can generate compatible EMF files for topic shapes. Converting bitmaps to vector formats usually gives unsatisfactory and choppy results.
Eons ago, MindManager shipped with a little Metafile editor for just this purpose, but does not do so today. A vector format is needed to support things like scaling and fill. There might be a similar easy-to-use software tool that can generate compatible EMF files for topic shapes. Converting bitmaps to vector formats usually gives unsatisfactory and choppy results.
A guick fix. In powerpoint you can save pictures as .emf, which can then easily be used in mm.
A guick fix. In powerpoint you can save pictures as .emf, which can then easily be used in mm.
Nick and Arnout, thanks for your responses. Unfortunately when I tried this the imported emf file behaved in exactly the same way as an imported PNG file.
Nick and Arnout, thanks for your responses. Unfortunately when I tried this the imported emf file behaved in exactly the same way as an imported PNG file.
Hi Alex,
I agree that it would be great to use fill and line colors for custom shapes and custom topic shapes.
Custom topic shapes can be assigned via Smart Rules and you can also set the size here.
Precondition is you have an image of the shape. Here I use the “scroll” shape from PowerPoint, which I saved as image.
Select a topic and open Format Topic in the topic contect menu
In tab Shape and Color the image can be selected
Next go to tab Size and Margins to customize the space for the text (this also avoids that you have to work with several returns to create the desired size) here in green. You can also set up a Fixed Topic Size (in yellow):
Next: Save you formatting as Topic Style:
Topic Styles can be used as trigger and effect in Smart Rules:
In my example, all topics with the topic text "Scroll" then get the topic style assigned automatically:
If you then apply further formatting to a topic with this topic style (here the margins) and update the topic style, all other topics with this topic style will also be updated
The result looks like this:
It is of course not exactly what you asked for, but I want to share the information how to use Custom Image Shapes in combination with Topic Styles and Smart Rules
Jan
Hi Alex,
I agree that it would be great to use fill and line colors for custom shapes and custom topic shapes.
Custom topic shapes can be assigned via Smart Rules and you can also set the size here.
Precondition is you have an image of the shape. Here I use the “scroll” shape from PowerPoint, which I saved as image.
Select a topic and open Format Topic in the topic contect menu
In tab Shape and Color the image can be selected
Next go to tab Size and Margins to customize the space for the text (this also avoids that you have to work with several returns to create the desired size) here in green. You can also set up a Fixed Topic Size (in yellow):
Next: Save you formatting as Topic Style:
Topic Styles can be used as trigger and effect in Smart Rules:
In my example, all topics with the topic text "Scroll" then get the topic style assigned automatically:
If you then apply further formatting to a topic with this topic style (here the margins) and update the topic style, all other topics with this topic style will also be updated
The result looks like this:
It is of course not exactly what you asked for, but I want to share the information how to use Custom Image Shapes in combination with Topic Styles and Smart Rules
Jan
Hi Jan,
Thanks for this. I'd forgotten that you could set the topic size this way, and the ability to select topic style by SmartRule will also be very useful.
However, it would be great if the fill and line colour of custom topic shapes could be made editable in a future release. For the moment I'm thinking of developing a workaround where I import four or five pre-coloured versions of the same custom topic. The relevant topic style could then be applied with a SmartRule, but of course that means that you end having to pre-customise then import four or five times the number of topic shapes.
Hi Jan,
Thanks for this. I'd forgotten that you could set the topic size this way, and the ability to select topic style by SmartRule will also be very useful.
However, it would be great if the fill and line colour of custom topic shapes could be made editable in a future release. For the moment I'm thinking of developing a workaround where I import four or five pre-coloured versions of the same custom topic. The relevant topic style could then be applied with a SmartRule, but of course that means that you end having to pre-customise then import four or five times the number of topic shapes.
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