Changes in Mind Map functionality

  • 26 September 2020
  • 11 replies
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Userlevel 7
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Hey fellow Miroers. As noted by @German Manvelov in this post, it looks like there are number of changes in the way Mind Maps, some noted in the updated Mind Maps and others not.

Some of the changes:

  • Reassigning nodes - Noted in the help article, you can now reassign a child/parent node by simply clicking and dragging it - however, as noted by @German Manvelov, this is perhaps not as polished as it could be and appears to create some challenges, especially if you you are simply try to move the node and not reassign in. Here I am just clicking and dragging a node - watch as it reassigns itself as I just attempt to move it over to the right:
  • Creating a new Mind Map from a node - In this post by @Diy, I believe there was previously a bug where you could duplicate a mind map node using copy/cut-and-paste, Ctrl+D, or Alt+drag. Once you did, it retained its status of a sub-node which looked kind of funny on its own. However, it could still be reattached to a mind map was orphaned. Now when you extract a sub-node from a mind map, it is converted to a new mind map as a central/root node. This is also true if you just had two mind maps that were created net new - you could attach one to the other as a sub-node. In this example, I am doing an Alt+drag on a sub-node:

 

 

Other things I noted:

  • When attaching a central node as a sub-node on another mind map, if you keep your mouse button held down, you can ‘cancel’ the attaching by moving away again. However, once you let go of your mouse button, you would have to cut-and-paste that node to make a new mind map from it. Here’s what happens if you hold the mouse button down:
  • This may just be my paying more attention now, but connection lines don’t seem to be as fluid when the sub-nodes are close together - example at 200% zoom:

     

What have you noticed?

What do you think about these changes?


11 replies

How to prevent Mind Map nodes from attaching to a different node?

Mind Map nodes move to a different node automatically. I don’t know if this is a new “feature” since before I had to press Ctrl but now it makes it impossible to align multiple nodes.

If you look at the image, I would like to align the highlighted box to the other green nodes but when I drag it to the right the node attaches to the upper or lower nodes.

Is there a way to force it to stay on the same node?

 

Userlevel 4

@Robert Johnson Hey and thanks for the feedback!

Reassigning nodes - Noted in the help article, you can now reassign a child/parent node by simply clicking and dragging it - however, as noted by, this is perhaps not as polished as it could be and appears to create some challenges, especially if you you are simply try to move the node and not reassign in

We are improving an algorithm for nodes reassigning and we’ve released a new version. Did it become better, or you still have struggles when you want to simply move the node?

Userlevel 7
Badge +12

@Tolya Filippov  - I can confirm that

  • when dragging a node, it does now need to be in closer proximity to another node before the join action occurs
  • and when I use Ctrl + D or Alt + drag to create a new central node and then drag that central node it joins to child nodes AND if I keep holding my mouse button down and drag really far away from the mind map, it does not once again separate to become a central node again (that part was a bonus and may have unintentionally been fixed).

Looking good! Great work team!

@Tolya Filippov  - I can confirm that

  • when dragging a node, it does now need to be in closer proximity to another node before the join action occurs
  • and when I use Ctrl + D or Alt + drag to create a new central node and then drag that central node it joins to child nodes AND if I keep holding my mouse button down and drag really far away from the mind map, it does not once again separate to become a central node again (that part was a bonus and may have unintentionally been fixed).

Looking good! Great work team!

Hi; I’ve been experiencing the same issues, which affects especially cases where you want to keep several nearby trees separate. (See a screen rec, here) Tree parents won’t ever detach no matter how far you drag, while their children will happily skip from branch to branch (children love to play). However, if you cut & paste the mistakenly attached parent, it will reset. But that’s not a pleasant workaround or cleanup, since it gets pasted in a different location, potentially messing up other elements. Also, sometimes a weird tree layout reset happens (also captured in the screen rec @0.16).

I can think of cases where it’s handy to have this “enthusiastic attaching” or “sticky nodes” behaviour, but only when there’s just one tree with a lot of space. In my practice I’m often working with many, so things get very messy now, unnecessarily. To keep the best of both perhaps, I’d consider some kind of a preference switch: A = auto-attach (like now) while holding CTRL will momentary disable this, and B = the inverse, hold CTRL to invoke auto-attach while it’s by default disabled.

While my thoughts tumbled on over this re-ordering functionality after posting: I wonder if it might be helpful if there could be more of a functional overlap between parent-child nodes (as in mindmaps) and other node graphs?

The re-attaching behaviour, including control over changes of hierarchical behaviour to branches, would be quite helpful just as well for other node-based diagramming, but the latter typically lack the same UX to add/reorder nodes. Essentially, ways to convert one into another would be helpful, e.g. taking a branch of nodes made in a mindmap, detaching it and converting it into a simple step progression, a circular scheme, etc., and vice-versa. Though there is already the functionality to add a same object after an arrow, I usually find it much faster to just jot a bunch of connected nodes in mindmap mode (using enter & tab) in the first (dirty) stage of drawing (when you still try map your mind). But once for instance a process structure emerges, I have to draw it all again, now using shapes and arrows, which work differently, requiring to organise groups instead of parents, etc. I’d already love it if Tab while standing on a node of whatever style simply yields “add the same style, to the right” for any type of diagram, not just for mindmaps. Or, imagine selecting any node, and tab+arrow down would add you nodes downward, tab+arrow left leftward, etc, while you can reassign a particular node as a parent, later.

Just some thoughts - perhaps worthy of another thread.

Userlevel 4

and when I use Ctrl + D or Alt + drag to create a new central node and then drag that central node it joins to child nodes AND if I keep holding my mouse button down and drag really far away from the mind map, it does not once again separate to become a central node again (that part was a bonus and may have unintentionally been fixed).

@Robert Johnson This is a bug, we’ll fix it in the nearest future. If you drag a node far away it should become separate again.

I can think of cases where it’s handy to have this “enthusiastic attaching” or “sticky nodes” behaviour, but only when there’s just one tree with a lot of space. In my practice I’m often working with many, so things get very messy now, unnecessarily. To keep the best of both perhaps, I’d consider some kind of a preference switch: A = auto-attach (like now) while holding CTRL will momentary disable this, and B = the inverse, hold CTRL to invoke auto-attach while it’s by default disabled.

@sytsew Thanks for the feedback and your suggestions. Currently, we are testing an improved version of reassigning nodes that should fix your problem. Stay tuned, I’ll let you know about it.

Userlevel 7
Badge +12

For anyone interested in being able to turn mind map nodes into Cards, e.g., for using them in Kanban, check out the web-plugin by @Yash called Cardsy. It will generate new cards from sticky notes, shapes, text, and as of Oct 18, 2020, even mind map nodes. Super helpful!

You can learn more and install it from this post:

https://community.miro.com/community-stories-60/cardsy-create-cards-in-bulk-from-selected-widgets-on-the-board-679

Has anyone created a plugin to collapse nodes?

Hey fellow Miroers. As noted by @German Manvelov in this post, it looks like there are number of changes in the way Mind Maps, some noted in the updated Mind Maps and others not.

Some of the changes:

  • Reassigning nodes - Noted in the help article, you can now reassign a child/parent node by simply clicking and dragging it - however, as noted by @German Manvelov, this is perhaps not as polished as it could be and appears to create some challenges, especially if you you are simply try to move the node and not reassign in. Here I am just clicking and dragging a node - watch as it reassigns itself as I just attempt to move it over to the right:
  • Creating a new Mind Map from a node - In this post by @Diy, I believe there was previously a bug where you could duplicate a mind map node using copy/cut-and-paste, Ctrl+D, or Alt+drag. Once you did, it retained its status of a sub-node which looked kind of funny on its own. However, it could still be reattached to a mind map was orphaned. Now when you extract a sub-node from a mind map, it is converted to a new mind map as a central/root node. This is also true if you just had two mind maps that were created net new - you could attach one to the other as a sub-node. In this example, I am doing an Alt+drag on a sub-node:

 

 

Other things I noted:

  • When attaching a central node as a sub-node on another mind map, if you keep your mouse button held down, you can ‘cancel’ the attaching by moving away again. However, once you let go of your mouse button, you would have to cut-and-paste that node to make a new mind map from it. Here’s what happens if you hold the mouse button down:
  • This may just be my paying more attention now, but connection lines don’t seem to be as fluid when the sub-nodes are close together - example at 200% zoom:

     

What have you noticed?

What do you think about these changes?

Hi guys, I’m trying to copy&paste nodes from one branch to another one with no luck. I can drag&drop between nodes, but not copy. Every time I hit CMD+C and CMD+V on top of another node, a new set of central nodes get created rather than attached to the node.

 

Thanks and regards

Userlevel 7
Badge +12

@skretzig - This did throw me off a bit too, but I believe the intended behaviour is that a copy-and-pasted node is first created as a root/central node, in the event that you want to create a new mind map. Otherwise just drag and attach that central node type onto an existing parent/child node and it will convert:

 

@skretzig - This did throw me off a bit too, but I believe the intended behaviour is that a copy-and-pasted node is first created as a root/central node, in the event that you want to create a new mind map. Otherwise just drag and attach that central node type onto an existing parent/child node and it will convert:

 

@skretzig - This did throw me off a bit too, but I believe the intended behaviour is that a copy-and-pasted node is first created as a root/central node, in the event that you want to create a new mind map. Otherwise just drag and attach that central node type onto an existing parent/child node and it will convert:

 

Thanks @Robert Johnson it works like a charm!!!! Saludos!!!

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