MindNode Next

IdeasOnCanvas recently launched MindNode Next. Congrats, guys! 🎉

I’ve been using MindNode since its early days. It’s the app that got me into mind mapping, so I was obviously very excited to see what they have been working on.

It did not disappoint. I think it will still take some time for me to fully switch to the new version, though.

MindNode is an integral part of my workflow, so I am expecting it to take a while before all this works with the new version (hopefully ;)).

Here are some of the things I have noticed so far:

I immediately missed recent documents in the new version, but with some help, I was able to fix that. (You can find my LaunchBar action here.)

Searching works really well. I only hope I’ll be able to access it with LaunchBar eventually, as I do with the current version, so I can search via LaunchBar not only by title but also by content.

I need custom themes. I am just so used to them, especially to my smaller font sizes. I know it’ll come.

I also built some “templates” for mind maps that I use regularly. I generate those by using the import URL scheme (obviously via LaunchBar) so I can pre fill the basic structure, that always stays the same. I could not yet figure out how to make the URL scheme work with the new version.

The biggest thing that keeps me from using the new version more is that currently, links are not preserved when I paste rich text onto a node. If I paste highlights from Zotero, I want those to link back to the PDF. Linking to emails and websites currently requires more steps because links are not preserved. (It would be even cooler if there were an option to detect markdown and convert it into rich text as you paste it.) Linking to folders on my Mac also doesn’t seem to work anymore.

And a maybe rather little funny detail: I always hide as much chrome as possible, but in the new version, I cannot hide the toolbar yet. My dream would be if all chrome would get automatically hidden as you work on a document, like iA Writer does. Just my ideas on a simple blank canvas ;).

This may read a little negative for an excited user. This is only because I compare it against a very complete classic version. This is not even meant as a review. It’s more about where I currently am with integrating it into my workflow.

I would recommend reading the blog post to understand the reasons for that new version, where it is headed, and the improvements they have already added. For me, just knowing they built a new base that will allow me to use one of my favorite tools in the future is reason enough to be excited.

I also would like to test some of the new features in Next. So maybe someone wants to work together on a third-party integrations mind map with me?

In any case, I’m looking forward to what’s ahead.