Mind map editor

Mind map editor

Edit your outline as a mind map, synced to Markdown. No new file format, no markup to add.

Usage

1. Open a Markdown file.
2. Press Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on macOS) and run Open mind map for the active file (or click the ribbon icon). Any note's map also opens from Open mind map linked to this note on its right-click menu, in the file explorer or on its tab.
3. The map opens in a split and stays in sync while you type.

Features

• Automatic mind map - Headings and bullet lists become nodes, with the note title as the root; heading depth and list indentation define the hierarchy. The root is the file's own name, so it is the one node the map does not edit - rename the note itself. Headings stand out by weight and a color-tinted fill; list items are plain.
• Edit on the map - Rename, add, delete, drag & drop. Dropping on a node's middle makes it a child; dropping near a sibling's top/bottom edge inserts it there. A rename is written as it is typed, and Ctrl/Cmd + Z takes it back.
• Working checkboxes - Clicking toggles [ ] ⇄ [x] in the file.
• Collapse branches, in sync with the Markdown pane - A handle on each node folds its branch (− / +3), and the pane folds with it - both ways, and after a restart. A reading pane takes no fold state, so there the map folds its headings by their own handles; its lists stay the reader's. The header buttons and the fold commands do the whole map at once.
• Show a node's own text - Off by default; the ¶ header button draws the lines under a node that are no node of their own inside it, and ≡ on its corner folds them away. The map only draws this text - it is written in the Markdown pane: click a line to put the cursor on it, double-click to open it there. The ¶ button is that map's own, so a second map can leave its text alone.
• Hide completed tasks - The ✓✓ header button hides checked tasks behind one ✓ n done node per parent. Click it to reveal just that parent (− hide done puts them back). Per map, and remembered across sessions.
• Map and editor follow each other - Selecting a node brings its note to the front of the Markdown side and moves the cursor to its line; moving the cursor selects the node it belongs to - down to the line, where a node's text is drawn. Neither side steals the focus.
• Follow wikilinks - Clicking a [[wikilink]] switches map and editor to the linked note together.
• Maps side by side, one note each - A map follows whichever note you open, like Obsidian's own outline. The 🔗 button and Open mind map linked to the active file tie one to its note's tab instead, beside that note; asking again fills that map pane rather than another. Obsidian's own link, undone from its tab menu.
• Branch colors - Each top-level branch gets a palette color by position and its subtree keeps it. Customize the palette in settings, one hex color per line.
• Levels tell apart - Every node of a level starts on the same left edge, so the depth is read off the column. Each level in is a step quieter than the one it hangs off - less of the branch color in the fill and the outline, and a size smaller - for six levels, after which the fill is spent. Headings keep square corners at every level, and the note itself carries a doubled border as the largest node on the canvas.

Keyboard shortcuts

Active while the mind map pane is focused.

Back/forward use Obsidian's own Navigate back / forward command: Ctrl + Alt + ←/→ (Cmd + Option + ←/→ on macOS).

Commands

None of these come with a hotkey; bind the ones you want in Settings → Hotkeys.

Settings

Settings → Mind map editor:

• Hide completed tasks by default / Show node text by default - What a map starts with; each one is then switched on its own from its header (✓✓, ¶).
• Sync collapse state with Markdown folding (default on) - An editing pane folds both ways; a reading pane follows along by its headings. List folding also follows Obsidian's Editor → Fold settings.
• Split direction - Side by side / stacked, for any pane the plugin splits open. A map that can join one already there opens as a tab instead, wherever that pane sits.
• Branch colors - Custom palette, one hex color per line.

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Building, testing and releasing the plugin: docs/DEVELOPMENT.md.