Dr. Brian Friedlander recently posted a screencast in his Assistive Technology blog that briefly and simply explains how to use MindManager’s new "show branch alone" command. Why is this important? This feature is one that many users are likely to overlook, yet it may be one of the more important additions to MindManager. You see, I’m slightly ADD (as are most creative people, I suspect) – we’re easily distractible (Oh, look – a butterfly!).
Anyways, "show branch alone" enables people like me to focus in one one particular branch, and make the rest of a map upon which I’m working "invisible." With only one branch left on screen, I can then focus on fully developing the ideas and information related to it. Then, when I’m done with that topic and its sub-topics, I can "focus out" and show the entire map again. In MindManager 7 for Windows, this mode can be toggled on and off using the F4 key.
Several other mind mapping programs offer similar functionality: Inspiration was the program that pioneered it years ago, and XMIND also offers it today. It’s a very useful capability, in my opinion, and I’m glad to see that it’s now available on MindManager 7.
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