How to keep manually created mind map positioning fixed?
Firstly, many thanks for Cayra, it's a great tool! Have already used it successfully for presenting complicated topics and analysing cause-result relationships.
PROBLEM BACKGROUND. Object Mapping help says: "Objects are positioned on the diagram automatically. Though you can manually change their position, once the map is created."
THE CHALLENGE. How to keep manually created mind map positioning fixed? At the moment there're three major points of inconvenience:
- when I've created all the nodes, have arranged them nicely, but want to make any changes (like add a new note), then all the arrangements are automatically destroyed;
- even if I don't make any changes, any accidental click on any node destroys the positioning;
- if I open a file again, then all the nodes are there (of course), but got to start all the positioning from the beginning.
So what are the options of saving arrangements / positioning of nodes in Cayra, in addition to saving special arrangements of mindmaps to image (whichn doesn't solve those three inconveniences)?
Thanks in advance!
Jaan
Crash when selecting Fixed mode
When I click the pin on the menu bar, to lock the positions of my mindmap, the application crashes. I get the standard "The application as encountered a problem and needs to close." I have versio 0.9.5 and a clean install of .net 3.0 on Windows XP2.
I have the same problem when
I have the same problem when clicking the "pin" button to get a fixed layout. I am running Windows Vista.
+1 for pinning nodes
I think it would be great to pin nodes. I had a couple ideas.
1 - Add the ability to pin a particular node to the canvas behind it (think pushpin icon on Send/Receive dialog in Outlook, etc.). This is the obvious thought when it comes to locking/pinning a node.
2 - Add the ability to also pin a link connector.
To explain #2, imagine a node with 5 child nodes. If I pin the parent node and the five links (but not the five child nodes themselves), then the five child nodes are effectively pinned "in relation" to the parent as opposed to being pinned to the canvas. Now I can move the parent node and the five child nodes move accordingly, maintaining relative position.
Re: +1 for pinning nodes
Thanks, your idea sounds very interesting!
Although right now we're working on a new Cayra version that will have a fully fixed layout feature and while developing and trying this feature out we have discovered that it's not convenient to combine static & dynamic layouts.
Hi Jaan, If I understand
Hi Jaan,
If I understand your post correctly, I think these threads -- http://cayra.net/node/393 and http://cayra.net/node/409 -- should speak to your issues regarding node positioning.
For your question at the end of your post, are you talking about the ability to create blank templates of map arrangements that you find useful? If so, that's a great idea, but it's something that users should be able to implement on our own, without any changes to the program itself.
Wouldn't it work to open an existing map that has an arrangement you like, edit it to be an essentially blank map, and then save it under a different name as a template? In fact, I think I'll go off and experiment with that now. ;-) Of course, I could be totally mistaken about what you're suggesting.
Regards,
Dialer, who is still pretty much of a new Cayra user
Hello, I would second Jaan's
Hello,
I would second Jaan's opinion word for word.
"THE CHALLENGE. How to keep manually created mind map positioning fixed? At the moment there are three major points of inconvenience:
- when I've created all the nodes, have arranged them nicely, but want to make any changes (like add a new note), then all the arrangements are automatically destroyed;
- even if I don't make any changes, any accidental click on any node destroys the positioning;
- if I open a file again, then all the nodes are there (of course), but got to start all the positioning from the beginning."
I was marveled by the intuitive interface and great looking maps Cayra provides, however, as my map began to get more complex I noticed my interventions to organize the layout become more needed so that folks could better understand the different groups of nodes and children.
I decided to use the snapshot option to capture the map as I needed it but this began to increase the time I had to spend making the layouts and stole my attention from the creative process of adding the new nodes (the ease of which was one of the features that made me choose Cayra in the 1st place).
It became increasingly frustrating when, once I had a nearly perfect layout, a misplaced click or the realization that I still had to expand one last node reset the whole map and made me lose all the work. After about the 4th time this happened I just gave up :-(.
My suggestions to the developers are the following:
1. Perhaps "instruct" the program that once a node and its children have been manually dragged to a position they are no longer available for automatic repositioning or can only be repositioned upon users authorization.
2. Perhaps create two types of saving levels:
- Level A would be the standard file save (since I did notice that
seeing the same information displayed in different layouts does help
to better analyze and benefits the creation process!)
- Level B would provide an "intelligent" snapshot of the map in which
the plus and minus symbols could still be used to expand and
contract the nodes however they would be limited to
opening to the positions that were manually set by the user
(in this case files could be differentiated by a *.cayra-B
suffix or something of the sort).
Thanks in advance for anything that can be done to give us users more control over this aspect, which I wouldn't call a bug just an issue that requires more control. And thanks for what seems to have the potential for becoming a leading product!
Dave
Lock of the map
Hello Dave,
Thank you for your great feedback!
Right now our developers are working on "Lock of the diagram" feature, that will allow you to work with a static map (of course this feature will be optional). You can track this feature's status or subscribe to "News and announcements" forum to automatically know when new Cayra version with this feature is out!