Use Smart Map Parts

MindManager comes with several categories of Smart Map Parts. See Add topics using Map Parts for more information on Map Parts in general. You can modify Smart Map Parts using standard resource commands to modify, copy, duplicate, delete and rename the part. Smart Map Parts are by default automatically refreshed (updated) but you can change this using the Refresh options.

Once you have added a map part to your map you can see options for viewing and updating its information in its context menu. Right-click on the part to see these options. The particular options available will depend on the Map Part's function.

File Explorer

These Map Parts create links to files and subfolders within a particular folder on your system.

Select an existing topic or create a new topic to act as a root topic for the Map Part.

Do one of the following:

On the Insert tab, in the Insert Branch group, click Map Part.
On the Status Bar click the Task Panes button , then click Map Parts.

In the Map Parts task pane, navigate to the File Explorer Map Parts folder. The Map Parts are displayed in the bottom pane:

All Files and Folders creates links to all files and subfolders under the target folder.

All Files creates links to all files within the target folder.

All Folders creates links to all subfolders under the target folder.

Drag the Map Part onto the map (or just click on the part to add it as a subtopic of the currently-selected topic).
Select the folder that you want the map part to link to, then click OK.

After a short pause, the Map Part will be populated with links to the files or folders on your system. The links will be updated (reflecting any files or folders added or removed) only when the Map Part is refreshed.

Microsoft Outlook Linker and Microsoft Excel Linker

The Microsoft Outlook Linker and Excel Linker Map Parts feature two-way communication between MindManager and Outlook or Excel. This allows you to add or edit an item in either application. See Add new Outlook items and Link to Excel data for more information on other ways of adding these items to your maps.

Create a new root topic or select an existing topic to use as the root.
Do one of the following:
On the Insert tab, in the Insert Branch group, click Map Parts.
On the Status Bar click the Task Panes button , then click Map Parts.

In the Map Parts task pane navigate to the Outlook Linker Map Parts folder .
Drag the Map Part onto the root topic (or just click on the part if the root topic is still selected).

The Appointment, Contact, Note, and Task parts- will invoke the appropriate Outlook dialog so you can enter the item. The item will be added in Outlook as well as in MindManager.

Details for the Outlook items are summarized in the note for each item's topic. Click the Notes icon to see information about each item.

Web Services

Use MindManager's Web Services map parts to retrieve data from online e-commerce, search, and social sites. When you add the part to your map you enter a search term and choose other search options. Results appear as subtopics. To change the search term or options, right-click the web services map part icon

on the parent topic.

News Feeds

You can create your own news feed Map Parts to give you the latest headlines from a specific source. The content is updated each time the Map Part is refreshed .

You can create your own news feed Map Parts using any source that provides its feeds in RSS (or RDF) format. RSS is an XML-based format for distributing and aggregating Web content (such as news headlines and blogger entries). Many popular news sites such as CNet and Yahoo provide RSS feeds free of charge for use by individuals and non-profit organizations for personal, non-commercial uses. Additionally, independent news aggregator sites like Syndic8 list targets for thousands of RSS feeds from a wide variety of sources.

Do one of the following:
On the Insert tab, in the Insert Branch group, click Map Part.
On the Status Bar click the Task Panes button , then click Map Parts.

In the Map Parts task pane navigate to the News Feeds Map Parts folder.
Right-click on the News Feeds folder.
Click Add new News Feed to Library.
Enter the URL of the feed source. You can obtain the url by copying it from the site you want to link to. In some cases you'll see a button for the feed .

Click the button and click Copy Shortcut, then switch back to MindManager. Right-click in the URL box and click Paste.
Click the button, copy the URL from the browser Address field, and then switch back to MindManager. Right-click in the URL box and click Paste.

Click OK.
In the Map Parts task pane, drag the new Map Part from the News Feeds folder to the folder where you want to add this part. (Right-click and then click New Folder if you want to create a new folder.)

The new News Feed Map Part will appear in the Map Parts pane, and you can use it as you would any other news feed Map Part.

Some news feeds may not have an associated image, so they show up without a label in the Library. You can add your own text label to the part by doing the following:

Click the arrow next to the Map Part, and then click Modify. The Map Part appears in its own window. Add text as you would to any topic. Then, click Save and Close in the upper-right of the window.

Refresh Smart Map Parts

Smart Map Parts keep an active link to the original data source, so when the source changes, the Map Part can be updated to reflect the latest state of the external data. You can refresh all Map Parts, or just a single Map Part to see the most recent information You can set options for individual Map Parts to determine whether they are refreshed or remain static. You may also convert a Smart Map Part to a static Map Part.

You can set an option for individual parts to determine whether the part is updated during the refresh, and prompt you before refreshing the part if it was modified.

The Microsoft Outlook Linker Map Parts work a bit differently than other map parts. See Add New Outlook Items for details on refreshing and converting them.

Refresh all Smart Map Parts

During the refresh operation, the whole Smart Map Part is deleted and replaced with a new part containing the latest data from the data source. All modifications to the part (e.g. adding of subtopics, changing the text or visual attributes) are lost. The progress bar shows the name of each topic in the map.

Refresh a single Smart Map Part

Set the refresh options for individual Map Parts

Auto-Refresh: If this option is selected (default), the part is refreshed when the Refresh Map Parts command is executed. If this option is cleared, the part is skipped, leaving it unchanged.

Silent Refresh: If this option is cleared (default), and the part has been modified, you will be prompted to confirm the refresh or cancel. If this option is selected, the part is refreshed automatically, even if it was modified.

Convert a Smart Map part to a static topic

The Map Part is no longer linked to its source and the current data will no longer be refreshed.

Disconnected Microsoft Outlook items become Custom Properties sets. Disconnected Microsoft Excel data becomes a Spreadsheet.