iPads in the classroom are being introduced to schools all over the world and the results so far have been very positive. Studies have shown that using the iPad to teach in the classroom directly boosts test scores in fields such as science, mathematics, reading and foreign languages.

There is a huge number of applications available to people in all levels of education, Whether you are an educator looking for a teaching aid or a student wanting to make flash cards for study, there’s an app for you! In the mind map below we have a list and  features of 10 of the best Learning Apps for the Apple iPad:

• Evernote
• Mental Case
• MindMeister
• The Elements
• Wikipedia
• Mathboard
  
• Nasa
• 3D Brain
• Voice Memos
• Flash my Brain
  

MindMeister recently thought a class of 12 year old students how to use mind mapping in the classroom. Check out Thomas’s story in his blog post here: Mind mapping in the classroom using Apple iPad

How do we further enhance the “visual” of MindMeister?

The go-to answer here is, naturally, Icons and Images, and my guess is that many of you are already familiar with our standard Images and Icons library, but how about our more advanced options?

Customized Map Themes

The standard MindMeister “Grid and Blue” default look is certainly functional, and accomplishes the job, but can you remember which map has XYZ info, and which one has ABC info at a glance? Chances are, probably not. However, adding a custom theme to your map (paying members only) is a dead simple way to differentiate various subject matters.

To access and apply customized map themes:

• Under “Format – Map” toggle the “Map Theme” button
• From the “Map Theme” dropdown, select a theme that you can easily associate with your topic
• Click on your chosen theme to apply

You might also notice that we’ve offered further customization options including font and box (node) color combinations, as well as Background and Lines.

I get a lot “How did you get that background?” emails regarding my collection of public maps, and here’s the secret:

Seamless repeating background images.

More specifically, one of my go-to sources is patterncooler.com. 9 times out of 10 there’s very little alteration of many of their stock images to be made, and the process is as simple as downloading an image from patterncooler, and uploading it to my map theme.

Drag-and-Drop

Thanks to the inclusion of a number of HTML5 elements introduced in MindMeister v. 4.7, it’s possible to drag and drop images directly from your desktop to a selected node. To do this:

• Highlight the node that you’d like to drag your image to
• Select your image from your desktop and click-and-drag the image over the node
• The node border will toggle green when it’s ready to receive the file
• Release the mouse, and your image is automatically inserted

But what if I want to ensure that all images are of the same size? No problem!

All images that you insert can be resized to your liking.

• Click on the image you’d like to resize
• Drag the bottom right corner of the outline to suit your desired dimensions
• Holding down “shift” while dragging will ensure that dimensions scale accordingly

Likewise, the process is demonstrated beginning at the :30 second mark in the video above.

Google Images

Over two years ago, we introduced the ability to insert images into your map via a handy “Use an image from the web” feature, located under the Icons and Images toolset. The feature employs the power of Google Images to match the text of your node to a matching image and then offers you the option to select and insert the most appropriate visual.

In addition to being a great visual cue and reminder, the perfect image can sometimes take higher precedence in conveying your point (a picture is worth a thousand words …. ). To insert an image via a Google Images search:

• Highlight the node you’d like to add an image to
• Under “Icons and Images” select “Use an image from the web…”
• Scroll through the various image options Google presents
• Select an image that best illustrates the text associated with your node
• Click on “Use Selected Image” to insert this image into your document

Got a web image you’d like to use, and not finding it in the Google Images search? A company logo perhaps? No problem! Under the same dialogue, instead of selecting Google Images from the drop down, select “Enter URL”. From here, copy/paste the URL of the image you’d like to insert, and click on “Use Selected Image”.

Tip: When searching for suitable images, I highly recommend you target .png or .gif images only (transparent backgrounds).

WunderBild

What if your boss has given you the next 15 minutes to convert that default map into something memorable? You could spend the next 14 minutes hunting down perfect images, but that leaves very little time to brush up the finer details of the content. What’s an employee to do?

WunderBild to the rescue! WunderBild automates the Google Image search for you, and inserts the top image result returned from a Google Images search. To access WunderBild:

• Under “Icons and Images” click on the images icon (not the dropdown toggle, but the icon itself)
• You’ll see a rotating image. This indicates that MindMeister is talking to Google Images, asking for the most appropriate image associated with the node text

Again, as these images are pulled from the top ranked Google Image matching the search parameters, results are not always 100% spot on. To quickly move to the next ranking image result, click the images icon again, and MindMeister will insert the second top result. Another click; the third result – and so on.

IconFinder

The other, “How did you do that?” or “Where did you get those…?” emails I receive is regarding my icon choices. The answer here, again, is dead simple: IconFinder.com. Here’s how and where I can all those gorgeous images from:

• Under “Icons and Images” select “Use an image from the web…”
• Select IconFinder from the available sources
• Scroll through the various image options IconFinder presents
• Select an image that best illustrates the text associated with your node
• Click on “Use Selected Image” to insert this image into your document

By giving your maps a dash of variety and visual representations, you’re sure to increase both comprehension and retention of the data presented. The example map might not be the most beautiful of my MindMeister creations, but chances are, without looking, can you name the company logo I used in the example?

 
If you answered WordPress, you’re well on your way to maximizing the power of images within your projects.

However, we’ve seen a number of eager MindMeister users that want to share their maps, only to follow a standard web sharing procedure – copy/paste the URL, and be met with the dreaded “Access Denied” message by those interested in viewing their shared map(s). In order to avoid this, let’s take a look at how to share your mind map with the world, and avoid the “Access Denied”.

How to share MindMeister mind maps

Once you’ve reached the point in which you’d like to share your MindMeister creation with the world, you’ll first need to make your mind map public. Not making a mind map public is what forces the “Access Denied” to appear to your visitors.

To make a map public:

In the bottom left corner of the MindMeister user interface, click on the “Share Map” button.

You’ll be greeted with a dialogue box offering you four different options; General, Share, Publish, and Notifications.

Similar to our embedding mind maps tutorial, you’ll need to “Publish” this map. By publishing, you’re telling the MindMeister system to allow this map to be viewed by the world.

Our default is to keep all maps private.

Slide the Publish slider to the right, enabling public views of your map.

MindMeister will automatically generate a sharable URL.

This is the URL that you want to use when sharing.

Doing so will also activate the options panel on the right where you can set copy and export preferences, open the map to external edits (WikiMap), and password protect your map.. Additionally, you can help make MindMeister better (and your map more visible) by categorizing it. Drop down boxes offer language and Category options.

That’s it! Your mind map is now visible to the world, and you’ll never Deny Access to any viewers.

Got a public map you’re particularly proud of? Let us know about it in the comments section!

• Blogger
• Tumblr
• WordPress
• TypePad

Embed a map?

Before getting started, I’ll take a brief second here to point out that instead of taking a screenshot, or posting a simple link to a mind map that you want to be directing your readers to, you can embed a fully interactive mind map into your blogging/publishing platform of choice.

The secret is in the source

With all of the methods we’ll discuss below, you’ll need to access the embed code. To do this:

• Click the “Map Action” icon in the footer of your mind map.
• Select “Properties” from the available options
• Select “Publish” from the available options
• Slide the toggle to the “On” position
• Select which permissions, language, and category you’d like to give your mind map, and then click “Embed map…”
• Select the Settings you’d like to give your embedded map. Note: The live update option is what we use to facilitate our Live Mind Mapping exercises.
• Enter the dimensions you’d like your map to be displayed at. Keep in mind MindMeister’s 3:2 aspect ratio for proper formatting.
• Select the zoom level you’d like displayed. We use 50 percent as a default.
• Copy the Embed code and paste into your publishing tool of choice…

A word on width

One of the most common embedding mistakes I see is making the map wider than the column width it’s being embedded into.

One quick and easy way for Mac users to measure a column width is to press cmd+shft+4 to bring up screenshot crosshairs. Upon clicking the mouse, the crosshairs will read 0, and increase as you move away from this base point. With cmd+shft+4 depressed, start at the far left of your column and mouse over to the far right edge of the column, noting the number of the width crosshair reading (the top one). This will give you an approximate column width. For example, the optimal MindMeister column width is 560 px.

In HTML mode

In all of the following examples, I’m using the HTML, or non-visual editor. The MindMeister embed code is based on iframes, thus a wysiwyg or visual editor will not accept your MindMeister embed code.

Now that you’ve generated the code, let’s look at how to use it.

Blogger

Once you’ve constructed your text, inserted all the images and links necessary, it’s now time to embed your mind map. To do this:

• Select the area of your Blogger entry where you’d like to embed the mind map, and press return a few times (we’re clearing some space here).
• Now switch to the “Edit Html” tab located in the top right corner of your composition window.
• Copy the embed code (or click Copy to Keyboard) we generated in step 8 above
• Paste the iframe code into your Blogger composition window

That’s it! You may now switch back to “Compose” and continue blogging, preview your post, or publish it.

Tumblr

Tumblr presents it’s own unique method of posting, as the system itself isn’t designed to use iframe code. However, there’s a very easy work-around that will allow you to embed MindMeister mind maps in Tumblr. Here’s how:

• In your Tumblr dashboard select “Video”
• Copy the embed code (or click Copy to Keyboard) we generated in step 8 above
• Paste the iframe code into the “Embed a Video” section.
• Enter any text you’d like in the “Caption” section.

Fairly simple, once you know that MindMeister mind maps may be inserted into Tumblr – but only via the “Video” option.

WordPress

Arguably the world’s most popular blogging platform, there’s slight bit of trickery involved to get WordPress and MindMeister to function properly together. Let’s get started.

As with Blogger and Tumblr, we recommend finalizing any text, links, formatting, etc. before embedding your mind map.

• If you’re in “Visual” mode, switch to “HTML”
• Select the area of your post where you’d like to embed your mind map, and press return a few times (we’re clearing some space so that you can easily identify the MindMeister code).
• Copy the embed code (or click Copy to Keyboard) we generated in step 8 above
• Paste the iframe code into your editing window.
• Select either “Preview” or “Publish”.

Important: Do not click back to Visual mode. WordPress isn’t too friendly with outside code sources, and quite often nullifies the code if you switch back to “Visual” mode. The same applies if you save the blog post as a draft. If you do not open your draft in HTML mode, your MindMeister embed code will be nullified by WordPress.

TypePad

Embedding a MindMeister mind map in TypePad is virtually identical to the method employed with WordPress. Please follow the steps listed above, including the switch to HTML mode.

An embedded mind map is a great way to fully illustrate your point with readers. If used as a wikimap, you’re also now fostering interactivity with your viewers. By following the steps outlined above you should be well on your way to surpassing screenshots and/or text links.

The above tutorials are by in no means inclusive of all blogging/CMS platforms on the market today, but the methodology will apply to most. If you’re having issues with these methods above, or have a particular platform you’d like me to look at, please leave a comment below, and I’ll do my best to have a look ASAP.

Thanks for making MindMeister your mind mapping solution of choice, and happy embedding!

Ever have bit of content in one map that you’d also like to include in another? Chances are, your initial reaction is to double click the text or highlight all, reach for the ctrl+c keyboard combo, head back out to the maps list, enter your chosen map, create a new node, and ctrl+v to paste. That’s a lot of work, just to get one bit of content from one map to the other.

Making the whole process a lot simpler (and more productive).

To copy from one map to another, select the node you want to copy. This can be done from any node anywhere in your process, including the root node. Right click on this node.

You’ll be presented with a number of options, first and foremost, cut, copy, and paste. Select whichever method you’d like, cut or copy, and click. Please note, you cannot cut the root node (but you can copy it).

Now switch over to the map that you’d like to insert this text to. Highlight the node that you’d like to apply the data to, and again, right click. This time, select paste, et voilà, a completely formatted copy of your data. No need to create a new node and insert text, links, images, or any other associations.

Creating new maps from nodes

If you’ve got one map in particular that’s beginning to take on a life of it’s own, it might be handy to create a completely new map from this unwieldy beast. Instead of starting from scratch and copy/pasting all child nodes into this new map, why not just export the whole thing in one easy step?

To create a new mind map from a particular node, we’ll follow the same process as copy/paste. Select the node that you’d like to make a new map from. Right clicking on this node will again bring up the options panel. This time, instead of selecting copy or cut, scroll down to the Tools option. From here, you’ll see three options; copy as text, create as new map, and alphabetize. Select create as new map, and sit back and watch the magic happen. A new dialogue box will open giving you the option to create a link to this new map from the existing one, as well as the option to preserve the sharing permissions from the original map.

If you chose to create a link to the new map, you’ll now see a link icon in the top right of your original node, directing viewers to the new map. A quick check from either your dashboard or the dropdown map switcher will confirm that this new map has been created and is titled the same as your original node.

Working with multiple mind maps certainly falls well within the GTD philosophy and can even foster completely new ideas and plans.

In our next MeisterTip, we’ll be looking at taking MindMeister’s powerful Task Management System with you on the go via integration with Google Calendar.

The occasion might arise when you’d like to print a large map, but don’t want to shrink it down to a 8.5 x 11 (or A4), thereby making it unreadable. The solution? Break out the scotch tape, and get ready to print your map on multiple pages! To do this, there’s a very minor dance that needs to take place between your MindMeister printing (export) options and how you tell your PDF viewer to physically print the map.

To get started printing your larger-than-life mind map, select ‘Print’ from the options in the top menu bar. This will open up a dialogue box that presents you with a number of printing options. While printing directly from the browser window is technically possible, we’d recommend first printing to a PDF, and then using your PDF reader’s print function to send it to the printer (things just tend to work better using this method).

In the options dialogue, you’ll see a dropdown menu that gives you the option to select your preferred paper size. To print your map to multiple pages, select the ‘full’ option. Finish the action by clicking ‘Print’.

From here, MindMeister will export your map to your installed PDF reader (most probably Adobe Acrobat), and will present you with the option to, or automatically download it depending on your browser settings.

Proceed to print a PDF as you normally would. However – and this might be a setting you’ve overlooked as well. In Acrobat’s print settings dialogue, under the dropdown menu for ‘Page Scaling’ select ‘Tile all pages’. This is the setting that tells your PDF reader that you want to print the map over multiple pages.

By exporting your mind maps to a PDF format, and then using the PDF reader to select how you’d like your maps printed is a great way to make sure that even your largest maps don’t get compressed down to an unreadable format on a standard 8.5 x 11 or A4 sized sheet of paper.

There are two unique ways to assign tasks within a MindMeister mind map, either manually or through our WunderTask feature. Manually assigning tasks can be used when you have only one or two action items to tackle. Conversely, if you’re dealing with multiple action items, or a large number of collaborators, WunderTask can be quite a time saver.

Manually Assigning Tasks

The option to assign tasks can be found under the Extras panel in the sidebar. Similar to Notes, Links, and Attachments, the tasks panel contains a number of customizable options.

To assign a task, first select the node that you’d like to assign a task to. Once highlighted, you may then assign a priority to this task. If you or your collaborators want to keep track of task completion, you can also select this option from the dropdown. In the date due field, you may either enter the date in mm/dd/yy format, or by clicking on the dropdown arrow, you can select the due date from a calendar interface.

Finally, in the ‘Assigned To’ field, you can start delegating who’s doing what. Those that you’ve already shared the map with will automatically be propagated in this list. Choose a name from your collaborators in the dropdown list, and they will then be assigned this task. If you’d like to assign a task to someone you’ve not yet shared the mind map with, you can manually enter his or her name in this field.

Using WunderTask

Similar to our WunderLink and WunderBild features, WunderTask can handle some of the heavy lifting for you. This can be particularly helpful when assigning a large number of tasks to numerous collaborators over a multitude of nodes.

To get started with WunderTask, select the node that you’d like to assign a task to. By clicking on the gear icon just below the ‘Assign To:’ field, WunderTask will automatically insert Priority, Completion, Due Date, and Assigned To options for you. By default, each WunderTask insertion will assign each task as priority 1. To change this you can either select priority levels from the dropdown menu in the sidebar, or simply click on the number icon. MindMeister will then automatically scroll through priority numbers for you. Likewise, the default Completion icon will be set to ‘not started’, and the Due Date is set to one week after the current date. Similar to manually adding tasks, all of these options may be altered in the sidebar options.

Advanced Options

If you want to delve even further into assigning tasks, the ‘Advanced’ link just below the ‘assigned to’ field is for you. In the advanced options panel you can set start date, due date, and duration of a specific task. Naturally, Priority, Completion, and Assigned To options can also be edited here.

In the Advanced Options dialogue, you’ll also be able to customize the email reminders feature. If your global settings are set to receive task notification emails (recommended), but you want to customize when you’ll receive reminders, this is where you can change them. From the dropdown, you can select any number of days before the assigned due date, up to one week.

By adding tasks to your collaborative brain storming sessions with MindMeister, you’ll be taking that brain storm and making an active plan of action out of it; one that all parties involved can follow and know what their exact part of the project is.

Switching between maps

Whether you’re a power MindMeister user with a great number of maps, or a basic user limited to three maps, swapping between your various maps can be done without ever having to visit your main dashboard.

Most users’ initial reaction is to click on the MindMeister button located at the top left of the map user interface. This will take you back to your map listings and is a good method to get an overview of all your maps, i.e. with whom they’re shared and when they were last modified.

However, there’s a much faster and more efficient way to navigate your mind maps.

From within an active map, just below the navigator, you’ll notice four buttons, one with a drop down indicator.  This is the action we’re after. A click on this button will open up a dropdown that has the titles of your maps pre-populated. From here, simply select the map you’d like to work on and click. Your selected map will now be loaded, and ready for use.

No more swapping back to the main dashboard to find a desired map!

Viewing multiple maps

The occasion might arise when you’ll want to view certain ideas on one mind map, while referencing data within another map. You can use the method above to quickly swap between the two, but what if you want to go back and forth between maps and don’t want to reload them each time?

Thanks to the beauty of tabs, this is easily done. From your main maps listing, right click on the map ‘A’ that you want to view, and select ‘Open in a new tab’ (Note: in some browsers you can also just CTRL-click the map link). This will then open a new tab in your browser window with your selected map read to go. In your main browser window, click on the map you’d like to compare map ‘A’ with, and simply tab between the two.

Obviously this method can be applied as many times as you like, comparing one, two, three, etc. maps side by side within tabs.

In our next installment of the MeisterTips series, we’ll be addressing two of the more advanced features of working with maps:  Our cut/copy/paste feature which maintains all of your node structure, links, images, and parent/child relationships, as well as how to create entirely new maps from mind map nodes.

Whether you’re conducting a SWOT analysis of your competition and want to link out to their website, a student or professor using internal links to further explain a topic, or an individual user using links to point viewers to additional mind maps you may have created; using links is a great way to enrich your dataset. There are two unique ways to add links to your mind map: either manually, or using our WunderLink feature to seek out the most relevant topic link.

Manually entering links

The option to add links can be found under the Extras panel in the sidebar. The default linking option is set to URL. You can either manually type the web address into this field or paste the address from a separate browser window. Clicking anywhere else on your mind map will associate this link to your node. Chances are, you’ve already found the best link possible for your idea, but why not let the power of the Internet double check for you? By clicking on Advanced, you’ll be presented with a dialogue box that will automatically search for the most relevant links to your topic. If you find a link that better suits your topic, simply click on it, and then OK. This will then automatically insert the link to your selected node.

Internal linking

Similar to adding URL links, you can also link to topics within your current mind map, or any other of your MindMeister mind maps. From the links dropdown list, select ‘Topic’. Clicking in the text input area will then launch a dialogue box. By default, you’re presented with the option to link to different ideas within your mind map. This can be particularly beneficial in a mind map with a wide variety of nodes.

If you’d like to link to a completely different map altogether, you can select it from the dropdown menu at the top of this dialogue box. Selecting a new map will also give you the option to link to specific nodes (even sub nodes) within this new map, or the root node itself.

Email Links

Last but not least, you can also add email links to any selected node. Again, from the dropdown list, select Email. In the text input field, enter the email address you’d like to associate with this link. As with URLs, clicking anywhere else within your mind map will insert this link. You can even add multiple email addresses by separating them with commas.

Advanced Linking Options

Using WunderLink

The second method of adding links to your nodes is by letting the power of the Internet do the heavy lifting for you. Our WunderLink feature can be accessed by clicking on the gear logo located directly below the link dropdown menu. Technically speaking, WunderLink uses an API from Yahoo! to present you with the top search results based on your node text. 99.44 percent of the time, the link that WunderNote suggests will be the most relevant to your topic. If it’s not, or you do not want to use the link WunderLink has suggested, there are two options to change it.

The first method involves clicking the gear logo again. WunderLink will then insert the second search result from Yahoo! Clicking again will give you the third result, and so on.

The second method involves manually selecting the link(s) suggested by Yahoo! If you’d rather select the result yourself from Yahoo!’s results, you can access this via the ‘Advanced’ panel. Below ‘Show most popular results for ‘x’’ you can select any one of these search results to be used as your link.

By adding links to your mind map nodes you can exponentially add value and content, and thereby comprehension to your end user or collaborative team. Whether you choose to enter them manually, or by using our WunderLink feature, adding links can breathe new levels of understanding and interactivity into your mind map.