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Hi, in this video you’ll learn how to upload a Mind Map to NovaMind Connect from within NovaMind.

The text below is basically the script of the movie for those who prefer having it in writing.

Seeing as the process is almost identical for Windows and Mac, they are both included in one video, and you will see both user interfaces.

To start the upload, on Windows, you can use the option under the NovaMind Button, then choose to Publish on NovaMind Connect.

On Mac, you can either use the option in the File menu called Share on NovaMind Connect, or click the icon on the Toolbar. If you don’t see the icon in the toolbar, you can control-click the toolbar and add the NovaMind Connect icon.

Next you will see the login panel. On Windows you get the option to have your username and password stored encrypted on your system for next time so you don’t have to enter them every time to log in.

On the Mac, it is very similar, only you get the option to store your username and password in the system keychain.

If you store your credentials in the keychain, next time you upload, you will get a different panel to initiate the upload, where unless you wanted to change your login details, you would just press Return to start uploading.

NovaMind will then contact NovaMind Connect to get upload details, so you will briefly see a progress panel while it collects that information.

If you have already uploaded that document to NovaMind connect, you will see a panel showing you the existing document details.

Now if you are updating an existing document that you have already uploaded, just click the Replace Selected Document option. This will preserve any comments on the existing document, maps and branches, and update everything to match the new version of the document. Note that if you delete a branch that had comments on NovaMind Connect, those comments will be removed when the branches are removed on NovaMind Connect.

You should be aware that if you are editing a Mind Map, and cut and paste branches from one place to another on the Mind Map, they will be considered to be new branches as far as NovaMind Connect is concerned, and the comments that were on the original branch will be deleted. If, however, you graft the branch from one place to another, it is considered the same branch, and therefore all comments are still attached.

Now you will be able to enter the title of the document, the description and tags. If you are replacing an existing document, the information will be pre-filled with what is currently on NovaMind Connect, and you can edit it if you desire.

The title should be a brief one so that people can see at a glance what the Mind Map is about.

The description should be a complete description of what the Mind Map document is all about. Bear in mind that people will be searching for Mind Maps on NovaMind Connect, so make sure to use the types of words they are likely to be searching on in your description.

Then the tags. A tag is a keyword or term assigned to your document, used to help describe the document so that it can be found again easily.

Please use only one or two words for each tag, and use singular terms.

Assign tags to your document by listing them with commas between them.

You should use tags that are the same as the ones already in use on the NovaMind Connect tag cloud if they suit your document. The more people use the same set of terms, the easier it is to find the important tags for the types of document on NovaMind connect. This helps with finding things. In many cases you’ll have some tags in common with others on the site, and some that are unique to this document.

Now you are ready to press the upload button. You should be aware that there is a timeout between the time when you initiate the upload and when you click this upload button - you have 15 minutes. If you wait longer than 15 minutes, the upload will fail and you would have to try again. This is a necessary security measure in the underlying technologies we are using for NovaMind Connect.

So click the upload button, and you will get a progress bar again while the file is uploaded and then NovaMind tells NovaMind Connect that the upload was successful.

At the end of the process, you will get a URL to view the document on NovaMind Connect

Now if you immediately click to go to NovaMind Connect, it is likely that the document may still be being procesed, but NovaMind Connect will show you the document as the different parts are processed, and you should get the first of the Mind Maps in the document visible pretty much straight away. NovaMind Connect will continue to check the progress of the processing, and will automatically add Mind Maps as they become available. When the processing is complete, you will automatically be switched over to the completed document view.

The processing should only take a few seconds for a small Mind Map, and probably all but the biggest Mind Map documents will be processed in well under a minute, but if you want to go elsewhere in the web site, you can do so, and your document will continue to be processed in the background, and when it is ready, it will automatically appear on the recently added Mind Maps on the home page of NovaMind Connect, as well as in your profile. You will also receive an email from the system when the document has been processed. The email will also include a link to the document on NovaMind Connect, so you can click that link to go directly to the document if you like.

The technology that drives NovaMind Connect is very complex and includes 11 different systems spread out over 4 different physical locations with all the vagaries of networking between the systems, so it is possible that there may occasionally be communication errors between the different parts, but it is designed to both try to recover from any issues, and to inform us that there are issues so we can deal with them. So if your document doesn’t appear immediately, please be patient and the issue should be resolved shortly. If it still hasn’t appeared after 24 hours though, please do contact us so we can chase up on where the issue occurred and get it live for you.

All of this makes it sound more complex than it is to use the system, but the reality is that once you have stored your password, all you need to do is click a couple of buttons, and enter the title, description and tags and that’s about all there is to it.

I hope you enjoy using NovaMind Connect and find it a useful resource.

 

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Tags: mind map, novamind connect, share, tag, upload

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 8:29 pm and is filed under Announcements, NovaMind Web Site. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.