FreeMind

FreeMind overview

FreeMind can be used with ease for mental mapping. The result is elegant, wonderful and can be exported in several formats. When you start a new project, you will notice an oval shape with "New Mindmap" written inside, it's called the root node. Click on the node to edit it as shown in the figure below.

You can add a child node to the main node by pressing the right mouse button and then selecting (New Child Node) or pressing the (Insert) button on the keyboard as shown in the picture below. You can add a node in the same sub-level by pressing the right mouse button then selecting (New Sibling Node) or pressing the (Enter) button on your keyboard. You have to pay attention to the difference between using the Insert button and the Enter button. The Insert button will add a node in a new level in the hierarchy, whereas Enter adds a node in the same level of the hierarchy.

You can move between nodes easily using the arrows on your keyboard, thus by using the arrows combined with the Insert and Enter buttons you can navigate easily and add nodes quickly and professionally without the need to use the mouse that consumes more time.

Icons

FreeMind lets you add icons to nodes from a set of integrated emoticons and symbols shown in the image below. You can add icons by selecting the node to which you want to add an icon and then right-click and choose (Icons) and then choose the desired icon from the options available or by directly clicking on the icon from the left side of the interface.

Graphical links

The addition of graphical links, as shown in the figure below, to illustrate a relationship between two nodes of different levels or to demonstrate feedback is easily done by selecting the nodes by pressing the Ctrl key on the keyboard while clicking on the required nodes, then pressing (Ctrl + L) on the keyboard. You can change the orientation and color of the arrow by right-clicking on it.

Clouds

You can surround a node and all its sub-nodes in a transparent cloud to highlight and highlight them by pressing the right mouse button and selecting (Insert) and then selecting (Cloud) or pressing (Ctrl + Shift + B) as shown in the image below.

Other settings

There is more customization that can be added to the map, such as font size, arrow color, background color, and more. To edit those attributes right-click on the node then select Format.

Export map

The map is exported by pressing the File button, then selecting Export and selecting the export type, such as HTML, Java Applet, Flash, PNG, JPEG, and PDF.

FreeMind features

• Free and open-source.
• Easy to use.
• Excellent keyboard shortcuts.
• Export the map in several formats.
• Several options and customizations.
• Nodes sorting tool (Alphabetically).
• Ability to add graphical links.
• Ability to share and work on maps as a team.

Download the free mind mapping program FreeMind

Get the latest version of FreeMind 1.1.0 for Windows with a direct and fast download link via Downzen by clicking the download button on this page.