It’s that time again when we call on the Development Team to tear their eyes away from code and give us the lowdown on the latest iMindMap news. So here’s James, Captain of the iMindMap Desktop crew, to fill you in on what magic they’ve worked for 5.3….
It’s update time again for all you iMindMappers out there! We’re proud to present to you iMindMap 5.3 which is now available through our in-app updates and to download via our website. Read our How-To-Guide on Updates to see how you can get your hands on this exciting new release.
In this post I have listed some of the major changes to make it into the 5.3 release, but that’s only scratching the surface of what our development team has delivered. In total we’ve made over a hundred changes to iMindMap to make your Mind Mapping experience the best ever.
We’re pleased to announce that from 5.3 iMindMap has been translated into the following languages:
Plus probably the most popular English variant, English US, is now available too. All of these languages come with an associated spellchecking dictionary to fix those typos regardless of what language you write in.
Look out for these new languages coming to iMindMap Online very soon.
Yes folks, Child Maps are back through popular request!
For those of you not familiar with this feature from iMindMap v4, a Child Map is an alternative to a MultiMap when you want to separate out ideas and create a brand new map for them. Maybe one of your branches has become so big you think it deserves its own map? With a click of a button you can convert any branch and its descendants into a new Mind Map on a new clean canvas.
The Child Map button can be found in the Insert menu. Why not watch our Video Tutorial to see it in action!
We’ve gone back to SmartLayout and made it even better – and more flexible. We have especially focused on the Condense feature and given it a bit of an overhaul. The Condense tool now gives you more freedom to decide how SmartLayout minimises or maximises the white space within your Mind Map. Condense can be set so that you can choose whether SmartLayout automatically moves your branches and objects in your Mind Map when you move, edit, delete, cut or collapse branches. We have given you 3 settings: Off, Partial and Full; the default setting is Partial.
We feel that the Partial setting (activates Condense when you either delete or collapse a branch using tools like Expand & Collapse) gives you a good balance of freedom to do what you want while also keeping your map tidy.
For those users who just want to create maps as fast as possible try the full condense setting for the maximum level of map layout automation.
To change your Condense settings for the current map go to the SmartLayout settings dialog found on the main toolbar in Mac/Linux and under the Format Tab on Windows. To change your default Condense settings (applies to all future maps) go to the SmartLayout section in the iMindMap options.
One of the buttons you won’t have seen before is the Clean Up, which can be found next to the SmartLayout settings. This special little button will perform layout on your map, condense it and balance it all at once. We’re very proud of this little button and in the office we’ve found ourselves using it all the time! We hope you love it as much as we do.
Watch our SmartLayout Video Tutorial to learn more…
We want to give you as much choice as possible, so after listening to your feedback you can now use your own images for your Central Ideas. This is really useful if your map is very targeted – ideal if you want to use a company logo, a loved photo or specific image for technical topics. When you are creating a new map, click on Browse at the bottom of the Choose a Central Idea dialog and you can select any image from your computer to use. Just a small update that should have a big impact on the way you Mind Map.
As part of our commitment to improve the start-up speed of iMindMap we have made changes which have resulted in up to a 25% reduction in start-up time. There’s still more we would like to do on this so look out for further improvements in future releases.
Something that’s been very close to our hearts since the launch of iMindMap 5 is listening and responding to your feedback. We have various ways in which we capture your feedback but our primary channel is our feedback forum. In the forum you can see what others are suggesting and vote up good ideas, or suggest your own.
Here are some of the forum ideas that have made it into 5.3:
So if you have a good idea for iMindMap let us know and you might see it in a future release.
Not an iMindMap 5 user and want to test drive these new features? Download iMindMap for free now, or contact our Support Team with any questions.
Want to keep up to date with iMindMap 5’s developments? Follow our CEO, Chris Griffiths, on Twitter and hear all the latest news first! Follow Chris Griffiths
Leave a Reply