Use map themes

A map's overall appearance or default "look" is determined by its underlying Map Theme.

A map theme is a collection of the default format settings used for the various types of elements your map. When you add a new map object, its appearance is determined by the map's theme. The Map Theme contains settings for:

The Map Theme may also include a set of topic styles.

If you want to change the default format settings for the current map you can modify the theme, or you can apply a different Map Theme.

Each new map you create uses the theme of the blank map or the template you use to create it.

Once you've chosen the map's theme you can then go on to change individual topics by applying topic styles or formatting. This individual formatting overrides the theme's automatic format settings, and persists if you modify the current theme or assign a new theme to the map. (Note that you can remove the map's formatting first if you want to return all topics to their automatic formatting.)

A variety of map themes are installed with MindManager. You can use one of these, or you can save the current map's default formatting information in a Theme file so you can re-use it. See Create and modify Map Themes for more information on saving a Map Theme. A theme with the original default formatting is installed with MindManager and can be applied like any other theme.

What do you want to do?

 

Apply a Map Theme

You can apply a different Map Theme to your map at any time. If you have already applied formatting to individual topics, these topics will not be changed by applying a new Map Theme unless you first remove the formatting you've applied. (see below)

  1. On the Design tab, in the Map Format group, click Map Theme.

  2. If you see the theme you want to use in the gallery, click it.
    Otherwise, click Assign from Template Organizer, and you'll see a dialog with theme names and folders on the left side.

Use a Map Theme from a file that doesn't appear in the gallery or organizer ▼

Clear the map formatting

When you apply a new Map Theme, the theme's settings will not override any formatting that you have already applied. If you have already been working on the map for a while and decide to use a different theme, you may wish to clear the formatting that you've applied before applying the new theme.

  1. Select the topics, boundaries or relationships whose formatting you want to clear (press CTRL+A to select all objects).

  2. On the Home tab or on the Design tab, in the Font group, click Clear clear_formats_button.gif .

  3. Press CTRL+SPACE.

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Modify the map's theme settings

Save new theme settings on-the-fly

Use the Map Theme command in any of the format dialogs to save the formatting of the selected topic, boundary, or relationship as the new style default.

What gets saved? ▼

Any topics or objects using the default theme formatting (without additional formatting applied) and any topics or objects you add will display using the theme's default formatting.

Use Modify Theme view

A special view lets you change the Map Theme directly. You can use this view to modify the theme settings of the current map, and you can also modify the theme settings for templates and map theme files.

See Use Modify Theme view for more information on using this view.

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Use the default Map Theme

A default Map Theme, Default.mmas, is provided with MindManager. You can reset the map to use this default theme, modify it like any other theme, or use the theme of the current map as the default from now on.

Reset the current map to the default Map Theme

Replace the default Map Theme with the style of the current map

A "backup" copy of this theme, Default (original).mmas, is included with MindManager.

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See also:

Create a new map

Create and modify Map Themes

Use Topic Styles