Mind Map Shapes
Bubbles, rectangles, circles, lines, connectors and a freehand pencil for laying out ideas on the board. Connectors stay attached to the shapes they link, so the diagram keeps its meaning while you rearrange it.
Overview
The mind map set is grouped under a single dropdown in the main toolbar. Pick a shape, then drag on the board to place it: nodes are drawn as a rectangle, connectors as a segment from one point to another, and the pencil follows the pointer wherever you take it. Double-click a node to type its text.
Unlike the Line, Vector and Arc shapes, mind map shapes are annotations rather than simulation objects. They are not bound to calculator terms and do not need a referential, so they can be placed anywhere on the board.
The shapes
| Shape | Description |
|---|---|
| Bubble | Rounded speech bubble with a tail, for comments and asides |
| Rectangle | Rounded box, the workhorse node for a topic or step |
| Circle | Ellipse, typically the central idea of the map |
| Line | A plain segment with no tips, for grouping or underlining |
| Connector | An arrow that links two shapes and follows them when they move |
| Pencil | Freehand strokes that follow the pointer, for drawing over the board by hand |
Connecting shapes
Shapes have no fixed connection points. Draw a connector — or drag the end of an existing one — and drop it anywhere inside another shape, including charts, tables, expressions and images: that exact spot becomes the attachment point. Dropping on empty canvas leaves that end free instead.
While you drag an end over a shape, that shape is highlighted so you can see it will become the target; move off it or over empty canvas and the highlight disappears. An end can't attach to the shape the connector's other end is already attached to.
An attached end is not a fixed coordinate: it is stored as a position relative to the shape's own box — for example "a quarter of the way across, a quarter of the way down" — and recomputed from the shape's current size, position and rotation on every redraw. Resize the shape and the point slides to keep the same relative spot; move or rotate it and the connector follows. Deleting a shape also deletes the connectors attached to it, and a single undo brings back both.
Select a connector to drag either endpoint. Dropping an endpoint on a different shape re-attaches it there, at the new drop point; dropping it on empty canvas detaches it.
Mind map shapes are annotations, not readouts: none of them offers the Pulse or Notation settings that shapes carrying numbers do.
Node properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Text | Label shown inside the shape; double-click the shape to edit it |
| Font size | Size of the label text |
| Text color | Colour of the label text |
| Border width | Thickness of the outline |
| Fill and border color | Set from the appearance dropdown, together with opacity, which fades the fill and leaves the border and the name alone |
The pencil
The pencil is the connector drawn freely: pick it from the same dropdown and drag anywhere on the board, and the stroke follows the pointer instead of running between two endpoints. A smooth curve is fitted through each recorded trail, so the line comes out clean rather than faceted.
The pencil stays in your hand until you put it down. Releasing the pointer ends one stroke, not the drawing: keep dragging and each new stroke joins the same pencil, so a sketch drawn in a dozen separate movements is one shape. Escape ends the drawing and places it on the board, and a single undo takes the whole thing away. A press without a real drag adds no stroke, and pressing Escape before anything is drawn leaves nothing behind.
A pencil is only its strokes. It paints no background and has no border, it holds no text, it carries no tips, and it does not attach to shapes or reshape from a bend handle. The whole drawing moves as one when you drag anywhere along any of its strokes, and one colour, one tip and one width apply to all of them from its toolbar.
| Tip | Description |
|---|---|
| Pencil | Thin and slightly rough, like graphite on paper |
| Pen | Clean and solid, with rounded ends |
| Marker | Thick and opaque, with rounded ends |
| Highlighter | Wide, flat-ended and translucent, multiplying over whatever it covers |
Each tip scales the line width rather than replacing it, so the width slider sets how big the chosen tip draws: the same width gives a fine pencil line and a broad highlighter band. The picker shows each tip as a sample of the stroke it draws rather than as an icon.
Connector properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Start tip / End tip | None, arrow, filled arrow, dot or diamond at each end |
| Type | Straight, curved or orthogonal path between the endpoints |
| Line style | Solid or dashed |
| Line width | Thickness of the connector |
| Label | Text placed on the connector, with a slider to move it along the line |
Select a connector to reveal a third handle on its path, in addition to the two endpoint handles. Dragging it reshapes the connector: for a straight connector it kinks the line into two segments meeting at an angle; for a curved connector it adjusts the curve, on top of the gentle bulge it already has by default; for an orthogonal connector it slides the elbow along whichever axis the path turns on.
Double-click a connector to type its label right on the line, the same way double-clicking a node edits its text. Once there is a label, drag it to slide it along the connector — the same effect as the Label Position slider in the toolbar, but directly on the canvas.