Branch Hyperlinks

The five types of hyperlinks that can be attached to any branch are described below:

This links to another NovaMind document on your local machine. You must specify the name of the file to open, and you can also specify the title of a branch to select when the file is opened. To link to either another branch in the same Mind Map or another branch within the same document but on a different Mind Map, leave the "Link to NovaMind File" text empty, and enter the text of the branch you want to select.

When a user clicks on this type of link, the file will be opened as another document in NovaMind. If you specify a branch title to select, the Mind Map will be searched in the order that the graphics would print in that Mind Map, and the first title that exactly matches the link specification will be selected, and moved to the center of the view of the document.

Note that if you distribute the NovaMind document to other people, they will not be able to access the linked document unless it is at the same relative location on their computer. You can specify the location of a linked file using relative paths - the link needs to start with a . to refer to the current directory, or .. to refer to the parent directory (relative to the directory where the mind map you are editing is stored).

If you want a link to just open a new empty document, instead of typing a file name, type "<NEW>" as the name of the file to open.

Linking to a NovaMind document on a URL requires full specification of the URL site and the document name. You may also specify the title of a branch to select when the file is opened.

When a user clicks on this type of link, the URL will be opened as another document in NovaMind. If you specify a branch title to select, the opened Mind Map will be searched in the order that the graphics would print in that Mind Map, and the first title that exactly matches the link specification will be selected and moved to the center of the view of the document.

This links to any file on your local machine and will open that file using the specified default application.

This links to any URL, and will open that file using your default web browser application.

This link asks you to specify the recipient of the email, the title of the email and the message.

When you click on this type of link, the details you specified will be composed in your default email application. You have the opportunity to edit the message before sending it. An operating system limitation limits your messages to about 950 characters in length - if the length of the message plus the title and recipient address it more than 1031 characters, you will receive an error message, and the link will probably not work.

Note that if you distribute the NovaMind document to other people, they will not be able to access the linked file unless it is at the same relative location on their computer. You can specify the location of a linked file using relative paths - the link needs to start with a . to refer to the current directory, or .. to refer to the parent directory (relative to the directory where the mind map you are editing is stored).

Below are a few scenarios showing how to do so.

If you have another file that was called file.txt in the same folder as your Mind Map, you can refer to it as "./file.txt". e.g. with a directory structure

/Users/you/Documents/YourMindMap.nmind /Users/you/Documents/file.txt

If it was in the folder higher by one level in the hierarchy, you would refer to it with "../file.txt" e.g. with a directory structure

/Users/you/Documents/YourMindMap.nmind /Users/you/file.txt

If it was in the folder below by one level in the hierarchy, you would refer to it with "OtherFolder/file.txt" or "./OtherFolder/file.txt" e.g. with a directory structure

/Users/you/Documents/YourMindMap.nmind /Users/you/Documents/OtherFolder/file.txt

You can combine this to refer to any folder relative paths e.g., the structure below would be referred to as "../../OtherFolder/file.txt":

/Users/you/Documents/YourMindMap.nmind /Users/OtherFolder/file.txt

When you move the files to a different computer or different parent folder, for the links to remain valid, you just need to maintain the relative locations of the files e.g. in the second example you could move the files to:

/Users/SomeoneElse/Documents/YourMindMap.nmind /Users/SomeoneElse/file.txt

You can add hyperlinks to a branch by either dragging the destination over the branch, or by dragging the destination over the hyperlink panel while the desired branch is selected, or by using the Add button on the hyperlinks panel:

To add a hyperlink using the Add button, you will need to select the hyperlink type from the popup menu that appears when you click the button.

Drag a file onto the branch you want it linked to, or select the branch you want to add the hyperlink to and then drag the file onto the hyperlink panel, and the hyperlink will be added.

Drag a URL from your web browser onto the branch you want to have the hyperlink on, or select the branch you want to add the hyperlink to and then drag the file onto the hyperlink panel, and the hyperlink will be added. Most web browsers have a small icon to the left of the web address which you can drag. You will be shown the standard panel as below, allowing you to adjust the options for the hyperlink.

You can change the type of the hyperlink by clicking on the up and down arrows on the right of the hyperlink line.

And you have access to the full editor for the hyperlink by double-clicking on the hyperlink icon on the palette.