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  • In this video, I'll be showing you how to add Topics, Floating Topics, Shapes, Callouts,

  • and Boundaries to your Mind Maps.

  • To add a new topic as a sibling of the topic you have selected, press Return. To add a

  • sibling above the selected topic, press Shift+Return. To add a sub-topic, press Command+Return.

  • To group one or more topics as the child of a new parent topic, you can use the Insert

  • Parent option on the Insert menu on the toolbar or main menu, or use Command+Shift+Return.

  • You can also add topics by dragging them on from the toolbar. The indicator will show

  • you where the topic will be attached and positioned. Just drop it at that point to attach it there.

  • Normally, you will just have one central topic on your Mind Map, and all the sub-topics as

  • descendants of it, and if you need another Mind Map, it will be on another canvas, but

  • sometimes you may want to add a floating topic that is not connected to the main Mind Map

  • at all. Floating topics can also have subtopics, shapes and callouts attached to them just

  • like the Mind Map. To add a floating topic, you can use the Insert Floating topic option

  • from the toolbar Insert menu, or from the Insert menu on the main menu, or drag a topic

  • on from the toolbar and drop it where it is not going to attach to another topic.

  • You should be aware that although floating topics look like other Mind Maps on the same

  • canvas, they are different in several important ways. They are not included as part of the

  • normal outline of topics, and are instead added on at the end of the outline. They are

  • also secondary as far as layout is concerned, and if the actual Mind Map bumps into a floating

  • topic or any of its descendant topics, the floating topic will be automatically pushed

  • out of the way.

  • Callouts are a way of annotating topics using an item that is visually connected to the

  • main topic, kind of like a speech bubble. To add a callout, select the topic you want

  • to add it to, and use the Insert/Callout option on the toolbar or main menu, or use the Command+Option+Return

  • shortcut. When it comes to arranging the Mind Map, the sub-topics will have precedence and

  • push the callouts out of the way if necessary. Callouts can themselves have subtopics, callouts

  • and shapes attached to them, just like an ordinary topic.

  • To duplicate a topic, floating topic, or callout, hold the Option key down while you graft the

  • topic. You can have multiple topics selected for this if you want, and NovaMind will duplicate

  • all of them.

  • To visually group topics, you can insert a boundary around them. Just select the topic,

  • and use the Insert/Boundary option from the toolbar or Insert menu. Boundaries are also

  • a good way of spacing out groups of items without needing to manually move the topics.

  • The boundary formatting options include a number of different shapes as well as the

  • ability to set the margin between the topics and the boundary to add to the visual separation.

  • Shapes are a unique feature of NovaMind, and allow you to add shapes or images that are

  • attached to topics but not part of them. On the insert menu, you will see the types of

  • shape you can add. In addition, you can drag images on to topics and choose the option

  • to add them as shapes.

  • Shapes give you a lot of flexibility of layout with a topic, because you are not limited

  • to just staying within the confines of the topic. Instead, you can add the shapes so

  • that they overlap the topic, and be either in front of or behind the topic, adding a

  • lot of visual interest. You can use the context menu to send a topic to the back or bring

  • it to the front. You can also include text on any of the shapes, so you can have visual

  • annotations for your topics. When you select a topic and move your mouse over it, you will

  • see lines to all the shapes that are connected to it, and when you have a shape selected

  • and move your mouse over it, you will see a line back to the topic it is attached to.

  • Shapes normally push other topics out of the way (apart from the one it is attached to),

  • but if you want to, you can use the context menu, there is an option to ignore the shape

  • when doing layout. When you select this option, it will not push the other topics out of the

  • way, and you can have a shape that is behind or in front of a number of topics. This gives

  • you a massive amount of flexibility of layout for your Mind Map. You can see whether a shape

  • is ignored or included in the layout by the color of the line between it and its topic.

  • It will be red if it is pushing the other topics out of the way, and green if it's not.

  • All shapes are an extension of a topic, and move when their owning topic is moved, but

  • you can also use them as statically positioned elements on your Mind Map which still push

  • other topics out of the way (as opposed to floating topics that get pushed out of the

  • way by the main Mind Map), by attaching the shape to the Mind Map title.

  • Note that if a shape is inside a boundary, it will push the boundary out, unless you

  • have it ignored in the layout. This provides added flexibility with the combination of

  • shapes and boundaries.

  • So now you know how to add all the different types of topics that are used on a Mind Map.

In this video, I'll be showing you how to add Topics, Floating Topics, Shapes, Callouts,

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