Faster Mind Map creation and better editing in NovaMind 5 for Mac update

The latest release of NovaMind 5 for Mac has been updated with new editing capabilities, which will make it much faster to create Mind Maps when the content comes from other documents.

These are represented in the new Paste Special menu.

Pasting text into a topic that you are not editing

In the Paste Special menu, there are two options that allow you to replace the title of the topic with text that you are pasting, while not in editing mode for the topic: Paste Text as Topic Title replaces the text on the topic with the text on the clipboard, using the default formatting. This is the recommended method, since you get all the NovaMind formatting from the theme, as well as automatic text colouring. Paste Formatted Text as Topic Title pastes the text as the title of the topic, using the formatting of the text that you are pasting. This is useful if you have specific formatting requirements and want to override the default formatting.

Creating topics by copy and paste of text

In the Paste Special menu, there are four options which allow you to add multiple subtopics at once by pasting text. For all of the options, the general processing is the same: For each line in the text that is being pasted, NovaMind will create a topic. If the text is indented, NovaMind will automatically create it as a subtopic, so you can format text to be multiple topics and multiple levels of subtopics. Text can be indented using spaces or tabs. The options are as follows:

• Paste Text as Subtopics: This creates a new subtopic for each pasted line, and subtopics from there for any indented lines. The text is formatted using the default formatting, so you get the full benefit of the themes, automatic coloring etc.
• Paste Text as Callouts: This creates a new callout for each pasted line, and subtopics from there for any indented lines. The text is formatted using the default formatting, so you get the full benefit of the themes, automatic coloring etc.
• Paste Formatted Text as Subtopics: This is the same as Paste Text as Subtopics, except that the text on the topics is formatted according to the pasted text. This means that you don’t get the benefits of the themes and automatic coloring, but do have text that looks exactly as in your other application where it was copied from.
• Paste Formatted Text as Callouts: This is the same as Paste Text as Callouts, except that the text on the topics is formatted according to the pasted text. This means that you don’t get the benefits of the themes and automatic coloring, but do have text that looks exactly as in your other application where it was copied from.

In addition, recent releases have been progressively refining the editing experience with new and improved capabilities such as:

• Made it so new link lines are selected ready for immediate editing.
• Improved the way selections are handled after paste operations.
• Made the undo and redo of text editing operations maintain topics in editing mode where appropriate.
• Made it possible to add, edit, and remove resources even if there is no topic selected (Platinum edition).
• Made it so that pressing Escape while editing the size of topic parts (e.g. images) returns the selection to the topic.
• Improved the handling of copy and paste of topics with inline images in the text.
• Made it so that if you are editing a topic and paste copied topics or a copied Mind Map, it pastes the Mind Map / topics rather than the text outline.
• Added the ability to use translucent themed colors.
• Updated the color wells so they work out whether to apply a transparency to a previously selected themed color or use a custom color.
• Made the color array automatic coloring mode user interface easier to understand.
• Made it so that if you try to undo while in the middle of an image add operation, it just cancels the add operation.
• Made it possible to copy and paste image filenames on to topics.
• Made it possible to copy and paste image URLs on to topics.
• Made the resource editor so that it saves the current edits when you manually add another resource (Platinum edition).
• Made the resource editor so that it automatically puts you into editing mode on a newly added resource’s name (Platinum edition).
• Added the ability to drag on colors and themed colors to set the fill color of topics.
• Changed topic editing so that when you switch to another application and back again, you are still editing.
• Added the ability to switch to a different Mind Map on initial activation (Pro and Platinum).
• Added the ability to switch to a different Mind Map in a document with a single click even when editing text (Pro and Platinum).
• Added all the paste options including Paste Special options to the Mind Map context menu.
• Made it so dragging on a file and hyperlinking to it uses the file name without the full path as the display name.
• Made it so double or triple clicking on a different topic when you are already editing a topic will select the word/paragraph under the cursor.
• Changed the topic and Mind Map copy operations so that they put rich text on the clipboard for a better paste experience in other applications.
• Added an optional toolbar item for creating link lines, for those who work with them a lot.
• Made the topic being edited retain its editing status when dragging text within the topic.
• Made is so that you can drag a color onto either a line topic or a link line to change the stroke color.
• Improved the behavior of topic insertion when the Mind Map title is selected.
• Updated the default shortcut keys for switching between editing topics and notes in the German localization to be Command+# and Shift+Command+# to work better with German keyboards.
• Made using the resize handles to resize a topic while it is being edited retain editing status, and retain text selection.
• Improved the behavior of grafting and moving topics that are being edited.

The updated release is available immediately through the download link on the NovaMind web site, or through the normal update mechanism for customers who have purchased through the NovaMind online store. For customers who purchased through the Apple Mac App Store, it has been submitted and will be available as soon as it has gone through the Apple approval procedures.