Can you create instances of a branch?

D P. shared this question 4 months ago
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Can you create instances of a branch where by if one branch is modified then that modification is reflected in the duplicates of that branch?

Replies (2)

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This is not a standard feature, but the Topic Tracker add-in from Olympic synchronises multiple copies of a topic.

https://www.olympic-limited.co.uk/mindmanager-add-ins/topic-tracker-mindmanager/

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You can actually do this using the Map Roll-up feature which is found in the Dashboards section of the ribbon under the Advanced tab.

This is designed mainly to roll up topics, branches or the whole map from other maps so the original map can act as a "dashboard" summarising data from one or more other maps. However, there is nothing to stop it being used to roll-up another branch within the same map.

To do this, save the map you are working on, click on the central topic (or whatever topic you want the duplicate to be attached to). Click on Map Roll-up and select Insert new map roll-up; you will be asked to choose the location, so go to the relevant directory and select the map you just saved.

You will be presented with a tree outline of the branches of this map. Select the relevant topic and then choose whether you want to show the topic only or the topic and its branch (this can be changed later). Then click OK.

The duplicated topic (or topic and branch) should now appear in the map. The topic (or topic and branch) will be identical to the original and will show the same topic properties, icons, tags etc, except that the topic will show a link to the original topic and a icon to the left.

If you click on this icon you will get a context menu; the first two options will be Show Topic Only and Show Topic and Branch, with the selected option ticked (which you can change). Further down will be Refresh Map Roll-up (more on that in a moment) and at the bottom Disconnect Map Roll-up.

There is one limitation to this approach. Any changes to the original topic and branch won't appear in the duplicates until the map roll-up is refreshed. As noted earlier you can do this by clicking on the context menu icon on the duplicated topic, but if you have several duplicated topics is best to go to Map Roll-up on the ribbon and select the options to refresh either all roll-ups or selected ones. There is also an option to automatically refresh map roll-ups on opening the file.

One thing to bear in mind is that if you are also rolling up tasks within the map or using formulas to sum topic properties on the central topic it is easy to double-count as these facilities will count the properties in both the original and the duplicated branches.

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Thank you for such a detailed reply.

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Thanks D P.

Please post how you went if you do end up using this technique. I have used the Map Roll-up facility mainly for its intended purpose of rolling up other maps, and I stumbled across the ability to do this within the same map by chance. I haven't used this in practice very much so would be interested in how well it works for you.

Another thing to note is that while you are able to add or remove subtopics in the original branch and have these changes appear in the duplicated branches, subtopics moved to other branches are no longer linked and will no appear as duplicates - unless the branch they are moved to has already also been duplicated in this way.

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