How does using AI change your mapping process?

Nick D. shared this question 33 days ago
Discussion Open

In a webinar last week Werner Dolata showed us the AI App for MindManager 24. This helps you to get content from generative AI tools into your map, and to elaborate topics or summarise trees.

For those who are using it, how does integrating AI-generated content change your mapping process? What are the advantages and disadvantages?


If you have MindManager 24 for Windows you can download the AI App from Werner's site at

https://filelinkerenterprise.com/download/aiappfree/

Replies (6)

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Hi everyone,

Thanks Nick for sharing the event details and his contributions to MindManager and the community.

As someone working in the secret service, my PC is air-gapped, and I can only run MindManager 2020. However, in the App Studio, we can still download a free version for MM2020. I tried this, and although MM2020 isn't explicitly mentioned, the above AI app installed using the MMAP version for MM21.

As a secret black medical scholar, I often need to read and memorize extensive medical texts. Previously, I found that breaking them into tree-like branches helped with understanding and memorization. I used tools like BookxNote for Windows or MarginNote for iPad/iOS. With these, you highlight text in PDF, then it generate a mindmap usually in xmind and then one can import into mindmanager.

With AI, I now paste the text into a prompt and ask it to summarize it into a tree format. When pasted back into MM, the text usually retains the # and * symbols, as the AI's reply is in markdown format. The FileLinker addon not only removes these symbols but also chops larger text blocks into smaller ones. However, I believe this requires a server connection, which is against our organization's policy.

While this helps by automating the removal of # and * and breaking down larger text, it struggles with branches containing numbers. https://community.mindmanager.com/topic/2780-filelinker-help-some-but-risk-of-data-loss


The new App Studio app introduces a better UI, but the core functionality remains the FileLinker addon.

I recently tested MM20 with the AI app and Perplexity, and it worked smoothly.

I also tested it with the Cursor IDE AI. When I receive a reply, I simply copy it, and within the AI app (or the old FileLinker addon), the "AI/convertor" command in the context menu processes the text, placing it in the clipboard for easy pasting.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences!

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Thank you for your response. Do you find that branches created by AI are different to those written in your own words? Are there differences in comprehension and memorisation?

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1. my source of text are from PDFs, using bookxnote or marginnote you high light words and then the software simply join your highlights into a sentence and export as xmind mindmap. so text are from the PDF, only shorten and no change.


when using AI, it depends.

if i ever used "summarize" in the prompt, then the AI will somehow remove some info from the input.

e.g.

drug A, mechanism xxx , can use oral or intravenous, dosage 1mg/kg etc.


if i use "summarize", it could omit the route and dosage.

and the degree of omit could be set into your prompt. This is rather personalization, so i have tuned my prompt that specifically asked it to summarize but keep the routes and the dosage. <-- "prompt engineering."


and i use the "summarize" prompt heavily, i got tons of PDF textbooks. i am relying on AI to help me summarize the most important parts.


2. i found the text distilled by the AIs are much easier to comprehends and memorize, however there is not without problem. sometimes, they do omit things that are important and it's better to double check with the source, briefly

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Two Types of Mind Maps

In general, I distinguish between two types of mind maps. The first type is used for knowledge generation: It is about creating new knowledge and structuring existing information. In doing so, I use AI like ChatGPT to gather ideas or develop initial structures. However, I have found that I prefer to design, restructure, and supplement these mind maps myself to gain a deeper understanding and internalize the knowledge better. Therefore, I rarely take content from ChatGPT directly without changes.

The second type of mind maps involves capturing information in daily work and project activities, such as tasks, notes, or meeting minutes. These mind maps are more focused on routine tasks and help me efficiently organize and document my daily activities. Here too, AI supports me, particularly with note-taking and creating meeting minutes, which greatly simplifies my work.

Future Vision

My desire is to further explore the potential of my extensive knowledge and find ways to make the knowledge from my mind maps usable in other contexts. The combination of AI and MindManager is an important approach to both deepen my own understanding and make knowledge more accessible and usable for others.

However, I still lack the ability to automatically transfer the content of my mind maps into other programs. An easy integration solution, for instance, between MindManager and other tools via an API, would be ideal. Since I am not a programmer, it is difficult for me to create such APIs myself. It would be extremely helpful if there were ready-made solutions, like those offered by platforms such as Zapier.

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Since English is not my native language, writing this section took me a very long time, and even then, only with the help of ChatGPT. Once again, ChatGPT has provided me with invaluable assistance here.

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Thank you René, that is very interesting.

MindManager does have an interface to Zapier, but I have never seen a real-world demonstration. What kind of integrations are you missing?

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So far, I have used my MindMaps for myself in seminars and training sessions. In the future, however, I intend to use them as a knowledge source for AI agents and CustomGPT. This means that content needs to be read and processed. Creating a PDF or XML is not helpful, as much of the information is stored in notes, properties, and task information. Exporting all maps to Word is tedious and not practical.

I once worked with Zapier by having maps sent to me from a Miro board into MindManager.

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Hi Nick,

I tried to synch via Zapier, but I didn’t work. I told Marian about during the beta.

He‘ll check it

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I‘m using the AI interface to collect my searching results from Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude.

It‘s easier for me to think and connect the results presented in a map layout than as a list

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