Adding Branches to your Mind Map

This topic describes how to add branches to your Mind Map using the ribbon bar and hotkeys.

Adding branches using the Ribbon bar:

On the Home tab, there is an Insert command group, and it has options for adding a branch (which will be added as a sibling of the selected branch), or to add a child branch. The shape of the branch is denoted by the shape of the branch shown on the button. This is determined by the theme if you are using a theme. If you want to insert a different shape, you can use the arrow at the bottom of the button to pop up a menu of options from which you can select the branch type to add.

On the Insert tab, you have options to add the different branch types directly with a single click.

On the shape Format tab, there is also an Insert command group which is exactly the same behavior as the one on the Home tab.

Adding branches using the Suggesterator:

If you have the Suggesterator installed (it is available for free download from the NovaMind downloads page), and it has some suggestions for branches to add, then they will appear in the Suggesterator panel.

To show the Suggesterator panel, click on the little lightbulb icon at the bottom right corner of the window.

You can select the items you would like to add (hold the Ctrl key while selecting multiple items), and click the Add Branches button to add the branches. Branches are added as children of the selected branch. If you would like to have the definitions of the words added to the branch notes for the new branches, check the Include Definitions checkbox.

If you don't see options that appeal to you, click on the "Give me more!" button to get a different selection of words.

Adding branches using hotkeys:

You can use the KeyTips to guide you through the options for hotkeys. To activate KeyTips, click the Alt key. You will see little tags showing you the options for the currently selected area of the user interface. When you first press the Alt key, you will be shown the key tips for the top level, like this:

Then when you choose a top level item, you can then choose the detail options etc until you get the command you want.

So for example to add a new branch, you could use Alt + H + IB, then select the branch type and press Enter, or you could do it from the Insert tab with Alt + I + CL for a line chld branch.