Wizards are a convenient, quick way for anyone to enter information into a map. They can simplify the construction of complex maps so that even casual users can enter the map information quickly. Wizards can also ensure consistency in the structure and content of maps.
Wizards can be attached to map templates. When a user creates a new map from the template, the wizard runs automatically, prompting them for the required information. (Users can disable a wizard in the Template Organizer.)
Wizard customization is an advanced feature and should be used only by advanced users of MindManager.
There are many possibilities for setting up wizards ranging from the simple to the complex. The steps below illustrate the basic procedure for setting up a wizard for a map template.
Create the map that will be used as a template. The Wizard will collect the data beginning with the topics at the upper right and proceeding clockwise around the map.
On the Tools tab, in the Templates group, click Customize Wizard to begin creating the wizard. You can stay in this mode until you've finished creating wizards, or return to it to add more wizards or modify those you've created.
Select a topic for the first wizard page. (Usually a main topic with subtopics.)
Under Page Settings choose New wizard page and enter the page’s header and a brief description that will display when the wizard runs. This is where you can add comments about the data to be entered.
If you leave this page set to "No data" it will just be used to display the questions for the subtopics. If you want the page to collect data for this topic choose the Data type and enter some text for the Question. When the wizard runs the data that the user enters as an answer will replace the topic text. (If you want to keep the original topic text and just have the answer follow it, add a colon : to the end the topic text on the map).
Select a subtopic and set the Page settings to Add to previous wizard page. This means the user will be prompted for the data on the same page used by the previous topic (in this case, the parent). A wizard page can only ask for three answers at a time but it will repeat until all the answers from the subtopics have been collected.
Choose the Data type and enter some text for the Question.
Continue with the other subtopics, adding them to the previous wizard page. Then move on to the other main topics and their subtopics in the same manner (creating New wizard pages for the parent topics and additional pages for the subtopics). You need not collect data for every topic. You can return to the wizard setup for any topic by selecting the topic again.
As you create the wizard notice that the topics are shaded to indicate their status – darker shading and solid outline means the topic begins a New page, while lighter shading and dotted outline means that the topic only collects data (its question is displayed on the New page from the topic level above).A topic shaded in red indicates an error.
When you’ve finished setting up the wizard pages, click on the Close button.
Save the map as a template. The wizard is automatically saved with it.
To see how your wizard functions, simply use the template to create a new map. The wizard will run automatically when the template is used. If you need to refine the wizard, just modify the template and use the Wizard customization commands again.