Messages

1

NovaMind 5 for Mac / Re: Reusing custom shapes

« on: May 17, 2013, 03:09:12 am »

You can certainly copy and paste the shapes, so you can create a "map" which serves as your own gallery of shapes. 

I have done this when I create images using features of NM and want to reuse them as the created images and not go through the process again.

2

NovaMind 5 for Mac / Re: New beta

« on: May 02, 2013, 03:04:38 am »

Hi.  I don't use NM4 anymore (well, very rarely I will use it to create a framed image to transport to a NM5 map).  As soon as we could post hyperlinked pdf's online, I was hooked on NM5.  I love more about it than I don't like, but I still have some issues.

I haven't downloaded this beta, but will read the updates.  I cannot use the theme editor until the background is part of what is saved.  Some backgrounds are hard to create and if using the theme kiils the background (first beta), then I was better off not using it.

It is fascinating to me to learn about the many different ways people using mapping software.  I do like the organic look of the flexi-topics, but I need to squeeze stuff in single page maps so I am not sure how much I would use it.  But I hope this becomes possible for you all soon. 

And I hope we can look at other people's maps soon -- like putting Connect back online -- for ideas.

Kathy

3

NovaMind 5 for Mac / Re: Some hyperlinks do not export to PDF intact

« on: April 19, 2013, 03:55:42 am »

Hi, Windy. 

99.9% of them work just fine.  (Attached hyperlinks do not export, but inline hyperlinks do, for those who may not know this.)

My link-checker has found links where if she clicked, she got "not found".  When I double-checked from my maps, the links were fine and so I didn't change them.  I assumed it was a Windows vs. Mac, or Yahoo vs. Safari issue.  But then I decided to use the same PDF she used and got "not found".  There is a difference, but a rare one.  I only guessed at the difference in URL.  They are long and I might have missed something or done something wrong.

And, unfortunately, I had fixed the "problem" links by deleting or replacing them before I mentioned it here or to NMSupport, so they were interested but powerless to fix what they could not see.

Today I will get a new bunch of maps which need link fixes and some may fit the above special case.

Thanks for the response, anyway.  I miss the forum activity, but I expect that means that people are not finding too many problems.  That is a good thing.

Kathy

4

NovaMind 5 for Mac / Some hyperlinks do not export to PDF intact

« on: April 10, 2013, 03:59:45 am »

Hi.  I will report this to NM Support, but in case it is something I am doing wrong and not a NM problem or glitch, I wanted to share it with you.

I have lots of hyperlinks on maps at my sites and periodically hire someone to do link-checking so I can reconnect links that become invalid.  In the last month a number of links on the PDF versions at one of the sites came to her "not found", but when I double-checked from my map, I could follow the links perfectly.  I thought it was a Firefox vs. Safari difference.  However, I decided to check the PDF version hyperlinks and indeed they couldn't be followed.

When I click to edit the hyperlink I see a # symbol somewhere in the address which does not appear when I go to the site.  It gets inserted in the copy and paste.  When I edited it out, the link worked fine from the PDF.  It may have to do with the path I took to get to the page in the first place.  Maybe in other cases, different symbols cause invalidation.  I know when the % is in a link it cannot be followed.

You may all know this stuff.  I am not that experienced with copying hyperlinks and what site software does when links are copied.  But don't make the mistake I did and think that because the hyperlinks work in your maps that they will always work in your PDFs.  Mostly they do but not always.

Anyway, if anyone else has other tips or instruction for me, feel free to share what you know.

Kathy

5

General / Re: Printing

« on: February 20, 2013, 04:08:28 am »

Hi.  I started with NM4 and used it a lot, and I still use it every now and then for certain features.  I never used PDF with NM4, but I will try now.

I recall that I always select "scale to fit on a single page" in the first print dialogue box. 

If I make a big map and it would not fit on one page without selecting the scale option, then what you get in the first print screen is what the PDF would be.  Is that clear?  I just took a one page map and spread it to three and could print it on one page or three pages, depending on if I selected that box or not.  The PDF would be the same as the print screen.

6

NovaMind 5 for Mac / Re: Help with Branch Position

« on: February 17, 2013, 03:23:22 am »

Well, you may be right, Windy.  And because I can manage it, it may be on a back burner if anywhere.  My maps are all complex eventually, with lots of fixed elements (layout ignored). 

When I hear from them, I will share about it, so assume there is no word so far.

I would prefer they keep perfecting the theme editor.

7

NovaMind 5 for Mac / Re: Help with Branch Position

« on: February 16, 2013, 03:43:54 am »

Great suggestion, Windy, but -- alas! -- it doesn't apply here.  After I posted yesterday, I went to my Finder and pulled out three maps at random and tried the graft maneuver, and the same thing happened, so I sent them to Support with screen shots of one of them.  All were started in NM5, I think.  Between the last sentence and this one, I just tried it again on my newest completed map and it happened again (just in case my memory of when I started the others was incorrect). 

The grafted branch can move back in place on the undo, but the branches that moved out of position to make room, do not move back... EVER...

... EXCEPT the condition in which all branches are on one side and maybe boxes and images on the other.  Grafting a branch to a side without other branches will not move anything if they are layout-ignored, and the action can be undone like you would expect.

So it is branches which do not move back.  That is the problem.  I would welcome a solution that was easier than what I do.

Thank you for brainstorming with me.

8

NovaMind 5 for Mac / Re: Help with Branch Position

« on: February 15, 2013, 10:00:57 am »

This ALWAYS happens and I have sent them other maps with the same problem and not gotten help.  No doubt, it is either not solvable or not a high priority.  I will try once more, but that is it. 

9

NovaMind 5 for Mac / Re: Help with Branch Position

« on: February 15, 2013, 05:06:54 am »

I do realize that the reason the other branches on the left moved down was that the layout engine had to get items away from the floating topic and other elements.  I am not complaining about how things moved, but rather that they will not move back if I don't like it. 

That is why I always SAVE at every step I like and rename each version until I finally land happily somewhere.

10

NovaMind 5 for Mac / Re: Help with Branch Position

« on: February 15, 2013, 05:01:59 am »

Hi Windy,

What I wrote was true for me.  I do not know exactly how to publicly share the set of botched map versions (since NMConnect is mostly down these days), but I am going to try something.  Bear with me.  I just added an unnamed page to one of my sites which has three map images:

http://myhealthmaps.org/---.html [This link removed 02-17-13]

First image is the map as published elsewhere on the site as an image and PDF
Second image is following attempt to graft "Yasko" branch from right to left
Third image is after trying to move branch back by using "undo".

Believe me, I have done this so many times and gone nuts that I had to find a way around it.  My way is the best I can do.

I just tried to paste three images here and can paste one, so here is the third image on the linked page above.  I probably do not need to say that all the branches on the left which have moved below the midline were all nicely arranged on the left in the space now left open after the grafting attempt.



Here is the link to the original map image and PDF.  If you want the NM5 map to play with, I can email it to you, I guess, since I do not know how to share the map itself online.

     http://myhealthmaps.org/methylation-nutrients.html

11

NovaMind 5 for Mac / Re: Help with Branch Position

« on: February 14, 2013, 03:50:02 am »

You know, after my long answer, I reread the question and realized that you asked -- more or less -- the difference between dragging and grafting.

However, if grafting creates problems for anyone as it does for me, then my answer applies.

Feeling silly, but there it is...
K

12

NovaMind 5 for Mac / Re: Help with Branch Position

« on: February 14, 2013, 03:28:49 am »

This is a major problem.  I reported it a long time ago and have put up with it since then.  I have tried lots and lots of different ways to do it, but the fact is that when you graft a topic from one side to the other, you risk screwing up the entire map.  AND IT IS ONE OF THE THINGS THAT YOU CANNOT UNDO.

So, because I love NM5, I have the following work-arounds to minimize the problem.

First, be sure your work is saved before you try anything because YOU CANNOT UNDO TOPIC GRAFT ACTION!  (Or at least I cannot.)  Save at every step that you like, and even rename each step to keep return options for yourself.

I go to a topic on the side TO WHICH I WOULD LIKE TO GRAFT, the topic above where I want the graft to be.  I click on that topic and hit return to get a new topic just below it and title it with the topic title I wish to put there.

Then I simply copy all the subtopics and branches from the original topic on first side to newly-created topic on the desired side, and then delete the original one.

So you are really just doing a new branch instead of grafting it.  But that way you can put it where you want.  And NM5 does let you copy and move a bunch of branches at once.  Things don't screw up when you graft subtopics, just topics.

If you have questions, PM or EM me.  I do this really often.

On a sort-of similar, but not exactly, problem... Sometimes you are building subtopics on one side of a topic or floating topic.  After 5 topics, the new topics go to the other side.  If you intend to put a 6th topic on one side below the 5th topic, I suggest you click on any topic 1-4 and click enter.  The new topic will appear below it and you can create your topic.  It will drag more easily down to 6th place, than having it appear on the other side and then grafting it where you want (trouble lurks in that maneuver as I said above). 

Hope these things are not confusing.  NovaMind has lots of interesting functions, but also requires some tricks.
Kathy

13

NovaMind 5 for Mac / Re: Suggested Improvements

« on: February 03, 2013, 04:21:01 am »

Hi.  I have not had crasher problems with the themes, but the way I do my mapping, I cannot use them.  Some features disappear from maps when I try to create a theme and use it for easy additions and editing (backgrounds, some shadowing).  I have just reported it, so I do not know if these are limitations or bugs.

I was unfortunately vocal at the beginning of NM5 because I didn't like some of the changes from NM4 which was a very nice program on its own.  But they have added features I never thought I would get in a mapping program that make me a little sorry for my impatience.  I hope they can make the theme editor work with more functionality that it currently has.  Until I used it more I didn't understand why the beta was lasting so long.  But now I hope other people are reporting similar things or they are just adding functions.

I agree with you on the link lines.  I would also like to shadow them.  Because I use the maps at a website, I use shadowing a lot for visual effect and it looks a little weird to have a non-shadowed line between two items which are shadowed.  But I can live with it.

I would love little pop-ups that we can put notes in, like scroll-overs.  That seems like I am dreaming for that one.

Anyway, thanks for this thread.

14

NovaMind 5 for Mac / Beta and last NM5 version, which to use?

« on: January 30, 2013, 04:33:10 am »

Hi.  Sometimes I use the beta release -- when I want to make a theme out of a map I am creating.  Usually I use the last version before beta.  I have not had problems with either, and I am not reading about problems with the beta release.

Are all of you just doing everything with the beta version now?

Is a regular update with theme editor about ready to be released generally?

Not a biggie, just find myself deciding all the time which to use.

Kathy

15

NovaMind 5 for Mac / Re: Any export with hyperlinks?

« on: January 24, 2013, 04:08:07 am »

Map hyperlink exports are easy with PDF once the map is made.

What I want is to export a text version (Outline view?) with the hyperlinks intact.  In the ancient days when I had Windows and used MindJet, the map could be exported to Word and all the hyperlinks were intact.  This was very useful to me because so few people had MindJet to see and click on the maps -- and there was no public sharing as we had on Connect in the NM4 days.

The PDFs are maybe even better, because people get the visual effects along with the text, and everyone can open PDF hyperlinks, but I would still like the text-only option if there is a way.

Thanks for keeping this thread alive.
Kathy