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The usage of K-mindmap is self explanatory. I will only describe the features in a very condensed form.
The main view is the central rectangle in the aplication window. It displays the graph (mindmap) that consists of nodes, branches and text fields (blobs). The view can be arbitrarily scaled, but it always displays the whole graph, that will be scaled accordingly. When you work with K-Mindmap you will spend most of your time clicking around in the main view, or typing into the text fields (also displayed there).
Here
you see a main view, which is scaled down very much, with a node and
a branch selected. If you do a right click anywhere in the main
window, the edit branch menu will open. To type into a text field
just left click on it. It is also possible to drag all items in the
main view, to move them to a new location.
An item is selected by left clicking on it in the main view, multiple selection is possible by holding down the control key. An operation will normally be performed on all selected items. If an operation can not be sensibly performed on an item it will be thrown out of the selection. (There is unfortunately no rectangle selection.)
When you do a left click on the white space in the main view all items will be deselected again.
The file menu contains just the standard entries. Mindmaps can of course be printed and get always mapped onto A4 sheets.
The edit tree menu is the one you will use most often; it contains all features to manipulate the topology of the graph. Therefore it also pops up if you do a right click on the main window.
Here
you see the edit tree menu, as you would see it after right clicking
next to the four selected branches.
Cut, Copy and Paste work as expected on selected branches. It is possible to paste branches into other running instances of K-Mindmap.
New Branch will split all selected branches into two. A new branch will be attached to any selected node.
Delete Branch removes all selected branches from the graph. It's start and end nodes will be joined into one, so that the graphs overall topology will be preserved. You can also type the del key to invoke this operation.
Disconnect Branch disconnects one branch, and the whole sub tree connected to it, from the rest of the graph.
Loosen node will disconnect all branches that meet in one node from each other.
This Menu lets you currently only change the font properties of a text field (Blob).
Toolbar, Statusbar show and hide the tool- and status-bar.
Blob Font lets change the font properties of a text field; it should be removed.
Option opens K-Mindmaps visual options dialog. You can change the color of all entities, and the font properties of newly created text fields (blobs).
The
options dialog.
The movement of all entities in K-Mindmap is done through a naive physical simulation. The blobs emit repulsive forces between each other, like electrostatic fields. The branches are elastic (but don't bend), and the nodes want to keep all branches point into the same direction. Finally the main views border emits a force that prevents blobs from leaving the visible area.
Dragging branches and nodes over the screen is also realized through (very strong) forces.
Start runs the simulation.
Stop halts the simulation. This saves system load, and lets you move nodes (not branches, sorry) manually which is useful for printing.
Parameters opens a dialog box, that lets you change the various parameters that control the simulation. Play with them; you can especially experience numerical instability, if you try out big values for the parameters; especially cForceSpeedRelation is sensitive. Most important is the default values button. All changes come into effect immediately, the apply button has no function.
Generate test data will insert some branches into your graph. I'll remove this function soon.
These
parameters control the movements.
This menu is just the KDE standard. If there were a help file for K-Mindmap, it would be loaded through the help menu, but there is none. In the near future I'll distribute this web site as a help file, and write an installation script for the whole application.
This text is, like the software it describes, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. You can redistribute and/or modify it as long as the resulting product will be distributed under the terms of the same license.