SimpleMind Review

Organize Your Thoughts Into Hierarchical Branches Of Topics

SimpleMind uses a common yet powerful way of capturing and organizing thoughts. With this tool, users can create mind maps which are made up of branches of topics. These topics are arranged in a hierarchical structure which means there are parent topics and child topics. All of the topics are linked to an ultimate parent topic which is also known as the central theme or topic of a mind map. This is the starting point from which new topics can be developed.

Facilitate Brainstorming By Creating Central Topics

The mind map editor delivers a feature which is ideal for conducting brainstorming sessions. This feature is the capability to create as many central themes or topics as needed. This way, users can easily capture thoughts while setting aside the structuring of those thoughts in the meantime. After they’re done gathering all their thoughts and organizing them in one place, they can then start positioning and arranging the topics, connecting one topic to another and building topic hierarchies and relationships.

Freely Move Topics And Branches

When it comes to structuring and arranging topics, SimpleMind offers a set of features for that. For example, a single topic can be selected, dragged, and positioned to a different area in the mind map. An entire topic’s branch can be moved to a different location as well. To do this, users simply need to long press the parent topic of the branch. All the child topics in the branch will be shown with a thick border. After that, they can then drag the branch and move it to any area they want.

Set Up Cross Links To Link Topics That Are Not Hierarchically Connected

Topics that are not positioned in the same hierarchical structure can also be connected to each other. This can be done by setting up cross links. To add a cross link, users need to utilize the node icon or functionality within the topic they want to link. Once such functionality is activated, they can then drag the node and release it on the topic they want to connect to. Additionally, cross links can be set up using the topic toolbar where they access the cross link icon.

Collapse/Expand And Hide/Show Tools

Visualizing and analyzing mind maps especially those large maps that are designed to show complex processes and topics can be difficult. Because of this, SimpleMind is built with tools which make it easy for users to navigate through large mind maps. One of those tools is called the Collapse/Expand tool. With this tool, users will be able to collapse or hide all the child topics within a topic branch or expand or show them all. Another tool is the Hide/Show tool. In comparison with the Collapse/Expand tool, this tool doesn’t collapse the entire topic branch or show all the child topics of the branch at once. Instead, it gives users the ability to hide or show child topics one at a time.

Free Form Layout Feature

SimpleMind is equipped with advanced features, and one of them is that it can present mind maps in various layouts. It has a free form layout feature which permits users to position and arrange topics in any way they prefer. This way, they have the freedom to decide how they want to visualize their mind maps and which map layout they want to use.

Automatically Arrange Topics

In addition, the mind map editor comes with an auto-layout feature. With this feature, the solution automatically arranges the topics contained in the mind map. It can structure the topics in four types of mind map layout: horizontal, vertical, list, and top-down layout. Also, different layouts can be applied simultaneously to a single mind map.

Achieve Accurate Alignments Using Snap To Guidelines

Another advanced feature offered by SimpleMind is its snap to guidelines feature. This feature enables users to control the alignment of topics. As they move topics around the mind map, the solution displays guidelines based on the guideline options they set up. For example, they can combine options such as center horizontal and center vertical. As a result, when they move topics and align them with other topics either horizontally or vertically, guidelines are shown so that they will be able to accurately position the topics, maintaining the same center.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Mind maps are used to display clear information as well as present visually appealing documents. One way of doing this is to enrich mind maps with photos or images which can effectively communicate information. SimpleMind is designed by people who understand that a picture is worth a thousand words. With SimpleMind, images and photos can be added to topics.

Add Embedded And Floating Images To Topics

There are two types of images which can be added to topics, namely embedded images and floating images. An embedded image is an image which is related to a topic. Because such image is a part of the topic itself, the image is placed inside the topic. To add an embedded image to a topic, users have to select the topic where the image will be placed on, access the topic toolbar, and select the image. They can also create a child topic wherein the image serves as the topic itself. In this case, the image will be shown with a transparent background and without borders.

Multiple Options To Store Full-Size Images

On the other hand, a floating image is an image located outside the topic and doesn’t have a feasible connection to the topic. Floating images are displayed as thumbnail images on mind maps. By double tapping the thumbnail images, users will be able to view their full size. In addition, SimpleMind provides them with three options for saving the full-size image. They can store the full-size image directly on the mind map file. As a result, the full-size image can be viewed across multiple devices. Another option is storing the full-size image on a local device. In this option, the thumbnail image is linked back to the source and the full-size image cannot be viewed on other devices. Lastly, the full-size image can be uploaded and saved in the cloud. All devices that are connected to the cloud link or service where the image is stored can access the full-size image which is linked to the thumbnail image within the mind map.

Enrich Your Mind Maps With Video And Voice Files

Video recordings can also be added to topics. Likewise, video files are attached using the topic toolbar. These video files are shown on the mind map as video thumbnails. However, the capability to access and playback the videos depends on where the video files are stored. Similar to how images are stored, video files can be saved on a mind map file, in the cloud, or local device. The solution also allows users to add voice recordings to their mind maps and store them using the same options.

Customize The Appearance Of Your Mind Map Using Hierarchical Styling

SimpleMind has styling features which help users customize the visual appearance of their mind maps. The solution is built with styles that are organized in a hierarchical manner. For instance, they can use its top-level style sheets to define visual settings and generally apply them to all their mind maps. Here, they can customize the appearance of the entire mind map such as the colors, fonts, and borders of topics, relations, and other elements.

If they want to modify the specific style settings of a particular style sheet and customize the specific visual attributes of a mind map, they will be able to do that using the Mind Map Style feature. With this feature, they can customize numbering, background colors, checkbox colors, and how relations are connected to topics (e.g., centered, base line or left-right). Whatever changes they made are automatically applied to the active mind map that they are currently working on. When it comes to changing the attributes of specific elements such as border width, border style, and alignment; they can take advantage of the Element Style feature for such purpose.