NovaMind Connect FAQ

Membership:

Q: How do I join NovaMind Connect?
A: Just fill in the information on the signup page, and we will send you an activation email. Click on the link in the activation email to activate your account.

Q: Why would I want to join NovaMind Connect?
A: There are many reasons, such as:

You can almost instantaneously share your Mind Maps for the benefit of others, and to get feedback and comments on the documents you share
You can link to any branch on any document that you have uploaded and refer to it in your blog posts, micro-blogs, web pages, emails etc, so that others can see what you are talking about
You have a handy backup repository for your Mind Maps and a way of viewing and downloading them from any web browser
You can hold conversations about the Mind Maps you have posted with other NovaMind Connect members
You can help build a knowledge base of Mind Maps which is fully searchable
You can rate the documents on the site, both for your benefit (your highest rated ones are listed at the top of your favorites list), and for the benefit of the wider community
You can tag documents for easy grouping of similar Mind Maps
You can create a network of friends whom you can communicate with using the message system in NovaMind Connect
You can be notified when your friends post new Mind Maps
You can notify your friends when you post new Mind Maps or update existing Mind Maps

Q: Can I use NovaMind Connect without becoming a member?
A: Yes, you can access some of the functions like looking at Mind Maps, searching for them, looking at profiles and comments etc. You can not rate, comment, upload, make friends, send or receive messages or receive notifications until you become a member.

Q: How much does it cost to be a member of NovaMind Connect?
A: Nothing! This is a free service for the benefit of our customers and the wider community.

Q: I've lost my password - what do I do?
A: Click on the Login link and then use the Forgotten password link to be sent an email with a password reset link in it.

Documents and Mind Maps:

Q: What's the difference between a Document and a Mind Map?
A: A Document (or Mind Map Document) can contain multiple Mind Maps within it. Each Mind Map has multple Branches.

Q: How do I add Mind Map documents to NovaMind Connect?
A: You upload them directly from NovaMind 4.5 or later.

Q: How do I update an existing Mind Map on NovaMind Connect?
A: Just upload the updated document. It will find the old document in your account and update it.

Q: How do I delete a Mind Map document from NovaMind Connect?
A: You must be logged in, then go to your Profile page, and you will see your Mind Maps with a delete button on each document.

Q: What if I want to upload a new version of my Mind Map as a new document?
A: When you upload it, NovaMind Connect will ask whether you want to update the existing Document or upload as a new one.

Q: Can I upload documents in any language?
A: Yes, we have tested NovaMind Connect with a wide variety of languages, and it works well. The only thing that you should be aware of is that the filename of the file you upload can't contain any non ASCII characters (i.e. it must be named using English letters). If there are any non-English letters in the filename, the name of the file as stored on our system will have all the non-complying letters removed, and if this results in a zero length filename, we will assign a file name to it. All this happens behind the scenes and does not affect how you can name your files on your machine - all it affects is the name of the downloaded file when someone downloads it from NovaMind Connect.

Q: Why do my Mind Maps look different on NovaMind Connect than they do in NovaMind?
A: The documents you upload are turned into a whole lot of images and supporting files by a special program that is based on the Mac version of NovaMind. There are slight differences between the way Mind Maps look when viewed on Mac and Windows, so if you have created the Mind Map on Windows there may be very minor differences in the way it looks.

Also, if our processing system doesn't have the font you have used available on our system, it will automatically fall back to a different font as close as possible to the font that you had on your Mind Map. We have uploaded over 600 fonts on to our server and have all the most common fonts available, but if you use something out of the ordinary, we may not have it available and will have to choose a different font to use when generating the images.

You can download a list of the supported fonts here

Comments:

Q: What do the comment links mean when they say things like "2 document comments of 5 total"?
A: Comments can be attached to Mind Map documents at three different levels:

Document comments - attached to the document itself
Mind Map comments - attached to a particular Mind Map within the document
Branch comments - attached to a specific branch within a Mind Map in the document.

When you look at the comments, it is useful to be able to see all the comments for the entire document in one place, so we show you them all, but it is also useful to know whether there have been any comments posted for the particular item you are looking at. This is why we provide that information in the link to view the comments.

When you first expand the comments section, you will see that the comments are "threaded" by the item they are attached to, and the current item has its group expanded (if there are any comments on that item).

Q: If I upload an updated version of my document, will it wipe out all the comments that were there on the previous version?
A: All the comments that were there are preserved, so long as the branches they were attached to are still on the updated Mind Map. Where a branch has been deleted, the comments for that branch will also be deleted.

Note: if you graft a branch from one place to another in the Mind Map, the comments will be able to track it and will stay attached, but if you cut and paste the branch from one place to another on the Mind Map, it will be seen as a new branch, and all the comments attached to the old branch that you cut are removed. Note also that when you upload, if you upload it as a new document, none of the comments from NovaMind Connect that were on the old document will be transferred to the new document.

Rating:

Q: What's the point of the rating system?
A: There are two main purposes:

To allow you to highlight your favorite Mind Maps so you can find them more easily in your favorites list
To allow the best Mind Maps to percolate to the top of the Top Rated list so people can find great Mind Maps quickly

Q: I can't set the rating - what's wrong?
A: You need to be logged in to rate the Mind Maps

Q: When I click the star for my rating, it doesn't change the number of stars lit up
A: The number of stars lit up depends on the average rating for the document. If a lot of people have voted, your vote may not on its own be enough to move the average vote up to the next star or down to the previous star. When you do rate a document, you can see that your vote has been recorded because it will show your rating at the end of the rating text like this: "4 ratings: Avg: 2.5 Yours: 3

Tags:

Q: What are tags, and why should I use them?
A: 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. It also provides a new dimension of linking of similar documents without having to do searches for specific terms.

Q: What's that "Tag Cloud thing?
A: It shows the tags that people have set on all the documents, with the most common tags being bigger than the others. This provides a very quick way to get an overview of the things that people are creating Mind Maps about, and allows you to in a single click, see the documents that relate to that tag.

Q: What words should I use for tags?
A: Please use only one or two words for each tag, and use singular terms. If your document relates to existing tags, please use those tags so that we increase the effectiveness of the tagging. Assign tags to your document by listing them with commas between them like this: "presentation, personal effeciveness, goal setting"

Profile and Emails:

Q: Why do I keep getting emails about things sent to me?
A: Because you have left the email options turned on in your profile. If you wish to change them, click on the Profile menu item. Turn off the checkboxes for the emails you don't want to receive.

Q: How do I replace that smiley face picture with my picture?
A: Click on the Profile menu item, and then click on the pencil icon beside the smiley face, and select the new picture to upload. Note that we will scale the uploaded image to a minimum dimension of 200 pixels, and then crop it to make it square.