Mind Map Workbench
Expand a topic into child ideas and add cross-links between different branches. Change parents and sibling order directly, keep branches folded and park independent ideas at the top level. The visual map and keyboard-operable outline show the same project.
Key features
- Reparent branches and reorder siblings
- Fold branches with hidden descendant counts
- Independent top-level ideas and child promotion on delete
- Distinct tree edges and cross-link visualization
- Keyboard selection, folding and button-based editing
- Validated JSON project round trip and text outline
How to use
- Load the example or edit the project title and first topic.
- Add a child, sibling or independent idea to the selected node.
- Change its parent or sibling order and fold branches as needed.
- Connect two ideas with a cross-link and inspect the visual and list.
- Download the JSON project and import it later to continue editing.
Use cases
- Plan connections among travel places, transport and budget
- Outline an article while marking related material in other branches
- Park meeting ideas as independent topics, then move them into branches
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from a plain outline?
Besides parent-child order, it stores cross-links between otherwise separate branches and displays them in the map. The text outline lists cross-links at the end, but you need the JSON project to edit the structure again.
How do I move an idea?
Select a node and choose another parent or the top level. Up and down buttons change order only among siblings. A move that would make a node its own ancestor is rejected.
What happens to independent ideas and deleted nodes?
Independent ideas have no parent and remain visible as top-level topics. Deleting a node promotes its children to its parent and removes only cross-links touching the deleted node.
Are folded branches and links saved?
Yes. Version 1 JSON contains the title, every node, cross-links and folded node IDs. Folding hides descendants and their links in the visual but does not delete them. Text outline is for reading; only JSON can be reimported.
What if the file is invalid or too large?
The importer checks version, duplicate IDs, missing parents or link endpoints, cycles, depth, counts and the 256 KiB cap. It leaves the current project intact on error. Arbitrary SVG or HTML is not imported.
Does it autosave or support collaboration?
No. Editing occurs in page memory, and refresh starts from the example. Download JSON to keep your work. Idea contents are not automatically sent to another user or included in analytics events.
Privacy
Ideas and imported JSON are processed in browser page memory. The tool does not upload or autosave them. A file is downloaded only when you choose an export button.
Comments & questions