Can hierarchical topics appear as floating topics in a second view? (in MM2023)
Discussion Open
Hello
Is it possible to create a hierarchy of say 100 topics and then to show those same topics as floating topics within a different view of the same data, In MindManager 2023?
The background is that I want to use freeform placement of my topics on a blank area of screen to control my tasks.
In effect, I want to use the pixel-level positioning on a second view of my task topics to define the relative Urgency (where along the Y-axis) and Importance (where along the X-axis).
(To get clear, I don't want to use a formal matrix or grid because that would be too rigid.
i.e. I am interested in controlling the importance of topics relative to each other, rather than use any form of absolute importance)
I have v2020 (Windows)
J
Hello John
This is not a feature of MindManager today. I can see the value of a visual layout though. You could do it manually by making your map a right map, with the hierarchy on the right of the central topic. The left half of the map could then be used as an urgency / importance layout. The task topics from the hierarchy could have duplicates as floating topics. each pair being cross-linked. This would take some manual set-up, or could be automated with a macro. You would then be able to manually position the ghost copies of tasks on the left of the map to maintain the Eisenhower graph.
Hello John
This is not a feature of MindManager today. I can see the value of a visual layout though. You could do it manually by making your map a right map, with the hierarchy on the right of the central topic. The left half of the map could then be used as an urgency / importance layout. The task topics from the hierarchy could have duplicates as floating topics. each pair being cross-linked. This would take some manual set-up, or could be automated with a macro. You would then be able to manually position the ghost copies of tasks on the left of the map to maintain the Eisenhower graph.
Hmm... that is a disappointing solution. I mean the whole point would be to avoid the need to duplicate a task! i.e. :
A. It's a pain to set up.
B. If you edit your topic name (or properties etc), the you really need to edit the name on both places...
But supposing I accept the hassle of needing to creating a duplicate of each of my tasks that is part of a hierarchy (i.e. a project), is there any easy way to add topics that link both directions?
PS I'm not sure what I seek could really be called an "Eisenhower graph" because I want something that can allows for freeform placement at the pixel level, whereas normal Eisenhower graphs are rather coarse, as they have only have a rather binary grid of x4 possible locations (i.e. lists) of where to put a task (topic).
Hmm... that is a disappointing solution. I mean the whole point would be to avoid the need to duplicate a task! i.e. :
A. It's a pain to set up.
B. If you edit your topic name (or properties etc), the you really need to edit the name on both places...
But supposing I accept the hassle of needing to creating a duplicate of each of my tasks that is part of a hierarchy (i.e. a project), is there any easy way to add topics that link both directions?
PS I'm not sure what I seek could really be called an "Eisenhower graph" because I want something that can allows for freeform placement at the pixel level, whereas normal Eisenhower graphs are rather coarse, as they have only have a rather binary grid of x4 possible locations (i.e. lists) of where to put a task (topic).
You could use the Freeform template.There you can place all your topics where you want and create bidirectional relationships
Or
You could use tags and the TAG view
Or
You could use the X and Y axes as a background to create Area's and use Smartrules to move your topics to area's that have some importance to you
Or...
Thee are so - maybe too - many options inside MindManager that could help you achive your goals
Just try and think a little bit ouside the box and see if one or two of those maybe just what you want
You could use the Freeform template.There you can place all your topics where you want and create bidirectional relationships
Or
You could use tags and the TAG view
Or
You could use the X and Y axes as a background to create Area's and use Smartrules to move your topics to area's that have some importance to you
Or...
Thee are so - maybe too - many options inside MindManager that could help you achive your goals
Just try and think a little bit ouside the box and see if one or two of those maybe just what you want
Hi John,
I have been following this and your other discussion with interest but I've been away so I didn't want to comment until I could return and try out a few ideas.
There is a MindManager feature which I don't think others have mentioned yet which will get you part of the way there at least in terms of easily establishing bi-directional links,. However, it also has a few frustrating limitations which may or may not be deal breakers (and apologies if you have already tried this and found it wanting). This is the Send Topic(s) to New Linked Map.
Unfortunately you can't send topics to a free form map but you can certainly send them from one. In this scenario you would create the freeform map, then highlight all the topics in the map. Right click on one of the selected topics and a context menu should appear which contains Send Topic(s). Move the mouse over this and select to New linked Map. Choose the Add selected topics as new main topics option and make sure both the Delete original topics and create links to exported topics and Create links from exported topics to original topics options are ticked. Then click OK.
A new hierarchical but fairly flat map should be created with a series of main topics attached to the central topic which are linked to the floating topics in the original map. Importantly the topics in the original map will also be modified to establish two-way links and you can move between corresponding topics in the two maps easily. You can then arrange the topics in the second map into a suitable hierarchy and these links will be retained.
However, as I said there are a few limitations, the first being the fact that you can only send topics from a free-form to a hierarchical map, and not the other way around. Also, while topic info like topic properties and tags, icons etc will appear in the linked topic, these will not be "live" so later changes in the original map will not be reflected in the linked map, or vice versa.
The biggest limitation is that you can only send topics in this way to new linked maps so if you later create additional topics in the floating map you can't send them to a previously-created linked map. You can send them to a new linked map and then copy them to the first linked map, but while the links back to the original map will still work those in the original map will need to be edited.
This is the issue which is obviously likely to be the most problematic and the most frustrating, as otherwise this approach would be not only seem to be a simple way to do what you want but would also be a simple way to establish create two-way links at the topic level.
Hi John,
I have been following this and your other discussion with interest but I've been away so I didn't want to comment until I could return and try out a few ideas.
There is a MindManager feature which I don't think others have mentioned yet which will get you part of the way there at least in terms of easily establishing bi-directional links,. However, it also has a few frustrating limitations which may or may not be deal breakers (and apologies if you have already tried this and found it wanting). This is the Send Topic(s) to New Linked Map.
Unfortunately you can't send topics to a free form map but you can certainly send them from one. In this scenario you would create the freeform map, then highlight all the topics in the map. Right click on one of the selected topics and a context menu should appear which contains Send Topic(s). Move the mouse over this and select to New linked Map. Choose the Add selected topics as new main topics option and make sure both the Delete original topics and create links to exported topics and Create links from exported topics to original topics options are ticked. Then click OK.
A new hierarchical but fairly flat map should be created with a series of main topics attached to the central topic which are linked to the floating topics in the original map. Importantly the topics in the original map will also be modified to establish two-way links and you can move between corresponding topics in the two maps easily. You can then arrange the topics in the second map into a suitable hierarchy and these links will be retained.
However, as I said there are a few limitations, the first being the fact that you can only send topics from a free-form to a hierarchical map, and not the other way around. Also, while topic info like topic properties and tags, icons etc will appear in the linked topic, these will not be "live" so later changes in the original map will not be reflected in the linked map, or vice versa.
The biggest limitation is that you can only send topics in this way to new linked maps so if you later create additional topics in the floating map you can't send them to a previously-created linked map. You can send them to a new linked map and then copy them to the first linked map, but while the links back to the original map will still work those in the original map will need to be edited.
This is the issue which is obviously likely to be the most problematic and the most frustrating, as otherwise this approach would be not only seem to be a simple way to do what you want but would also be a simple way to establish create two-way links at the topic level.
Hi Alex G
Thank you so much for your thoughtful suggestion.
No, sadly I think "Send Topics" won't be much use to me. In the end the problem is that I do need a 2-way flow of information. So what I really need is multiple different views (that one can edit) of the same live data. And so any form of one-way flow, particularly on to a whole new map each time, simply doesn't really cut it...
MY WORKAROUND
Meanwhile I am starting to get quite excited about my workaround which is to put everything into one free-form map and make heavy use of bi-directional links. MindManager has always run extremely fast and so far having loads of topics within a single map seems to work pretty well.
Details:
So what I've done is to create a free-form map which contains two areas:
A) Urgency x Importance area
i.e. This is a large area of screen devoted to managing the Urgency vs Importance of each topic based based on its position. (Note that this is free-form, rather than operating as a rigid grid.)
B) My (x10) projects area
I have rammed my Project topics together tightly in a vertical stack in an area above the Urgency-Importance area. And what is really nice is how MindManager opens up the stack and closes it again when you cycle through using Control/D ("Show next level of topics"). This lets me see (level-by-level) what task-topics are within the project-tree and then closes the tree.
==> This means see all my x10 projects at a glance just by closing them all up.
OK, I do concede that adding a new task *is* a bit fiddly... ie:
1. Add at task-topic to the project hierarchy
2. Make a copy of that task-topic
3. Insert reciprocal links (i.e. drag the new copy over the original, hold, select "insert reciprocal links")
4. Cut & Paste the new topic onto the Urgency-Importance area.
But this means I can: jump between:
A) seeing how (compared to each other) just how Urgent AND Important each task is. And
B) seeing which project each task is part of.
[i.e. exactly which part of which project!]
I shall now load up all my projects and shall return let you know how I get on!
J
P.S. So far for me personally, the only advantage for me in upgrading to MM v2023 from MM v2020 is the vastly better navigation around a large free-form map in v2023. (e.g. Horizontal scrolling from Shift+Scroll wheel, and mouse-pointer-centered-zooming).
Hi Alex G
Thank you so much for your thoughtful suggestion.
No, sadly I think "Send Topics" won't be much use to me. In the end the problem is that I do need a 2-way flow of information. So what I really need is multiple different views (that one can edit) of the same live data. And so any form of one-way flow, particularly on to a whole new map each time, simply doesn't really cut it...
MY WORKAROUND
Meanwhile I am starting to get quite excited about my workaround which is to put everything into one free-form map and make heavy use of bi-directional links. MindManager has always run extremely fast and so far having loads of topics within a single map seems to work pretty well.
Details:
So what I've done is to create a free-form map which contains two areas:
A) Urgency x Importance area
i.e. This is a large area of screen devoted to managing the Urgency vs Importance of each topic based based on its position. (Note that this is free-form, rather than operating as a rigid grid.)
B) My (x10) projects area
I have rammed my Project topics together tightly in a vertical stack in an area above the Urgency-Importance area. And what is really nice is how MindManager opens up the stack and closes it again when you cycle through using Control/D ("Show next level of topics"). This lets me see (level-by-level) what task-topics are within the project-tree and then closes the tree.
==> This means see all my x10 projects at a glance just by closing them all up.
OK, I do concede that adding a new task *is* a bit fiddly... ie:
1. Add at task-topic to the project hierarchy
2. Make a copy of that task-topic
3. Insert reciprocal links (i.e. drag the new copy over the original, hold, select "insert reciprocal links")
4. Cut & Paste the new topic onto the Urgency-Importance area.
But this means I can: jump between:
A) seeing how (compared to each other) just how Urgent AND Important each task is. And
B) seeing which project each task is part of.
[i.e. exactly which part of which project!]
I shall now load up all my projects and shall return let you know how I get on!
J
P.S. So far for me personally, the only advantage for me in upgrading to MM v2023 from MM v2020 is the vastly better navigation around a large free-form map in v2023. (e.g. Horizontal scrolling from Shift+Scroll wheel, and mouse-pointer-centered-zooming).
Well... as long as you are happy, Alec S. John S. Krsto S. or whatever alias you use.
Well... as long as you are happy, Alec S. John S. Krsto S. or whatever alias you use.
My humble apologies Ary, it should have read "John S." but to get clear although Alec S. + John S. were me, "Krsto S." was not me.
Back to task/project management, I have a problem. In practice I have discovered that it is simply not realistic when have say 500+ task (and up to 50+ tasks per project), that if I create duplicate task for each to then Insert Reciprocal Links to each of them using the 'drag-over & hover' method. I shall need to rethink this.
Do you have any tips for managing larger task lists & larger projects in MindManager when Importance & Urgency are not stable?
J
My humble apologies Ary, it should have read "John S." but to get clear although Alec S. + John S. were me, "Krsto S." was not me.
Back to task/project management, I have a problem. In practice I have discovered that it is simply not realistic when have say 500+ task (and up to 50+ tasks per project), that if I create duplicate task for each to then Insert Reciprocal Links to each of them using the 'drag-over & hover' method. I shall need to rethink this.
Do you have any tips for managing larger task lists & larger projects in MindManager when Importance & Urgency are not stable?
J
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