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MapsAll Documentation

Getting Started

Welcome to MapsAll, your AI-powered mind mapping tool. This guide will help you get started with creating, managing, and sharing your mind maps.

Creating an Account

To use MapsAll, you'll need to create an account. Visit the homepage and click on "Sign Up" to create a new account with your email and password.

Accessing Your Dashboard

After signing in, you'll be taken to your dashboard where you can see all of your mind maps. From the dashboard, you can:

  • Create new mind maps
  • Access and edit your existing mind maps
  • Search and filter your mind maps
  • Sort maps by title or last updated date
  • See the number of nodes and active todos for each map

Creating Maps

MapsAll makes it easy to create new mind maps for any project or idea.

Starting a New Map

From your dashboard, click the "Create Map" button in the top left corner. The system will create a new map with a default title that you can change later.

  • Choose whether to start with a blank map or use AI to help generate your map

Using AI to Generate Maps

When creating a new map, you can choose to have AI help generate the initial structure:

  • Enter a topic or prompt for the AI to work with
  • The AI will create a structured mind map based on your input
  • You can then edit and customize the generated map as needed
Tip: You can paste in meeting notes or any text content, and the AI will automatically create a structured mind map from it. This is a great way to organize and visualize discussions or notes from meetings.

Duplicating Maps

You can duplicate any existing map by clicking the three dots menu on a map card and selecting "Duplicate." This creates a copy of the map with all nodes and connections.

Tip: Use map duplication when you want to create variations of an idea without modifying the original.

Deleting Maps

To delete a map:

  • From the dashboard, click the three dots menu on a map card and select "Delete"
  • When a map is deleted, all its nodes and connections are automatically removed

Using the Editor

The MapsAll editor provides a powerful yet intuitive interface for creating and editing mind maps.

Editor Interface

The editor consists of:

  • A canvas where you create and arrange nodes
  • A toolbar at the top with actions and tools
  • A side panel for node properties and AI assistance
  • A minimap in the bottom-right corner for navigation (toggle with the map icon in the bottom-left toolbar)

Creating Nodes

To create a new node:

  • Click the "Add Node" button in the toolbar

Adding Child Nodes

There are two ways to add child nodes to an existing node:

  • Click the plus button (+) in the node's toolbar when the node is selected
  • Use the AI generator by clicking the sparkle icon (✨) in the node's toolbar
Tip: When adding a child node, pressing Enter creates the node and immediately allows you to start typing the label for the next child node. This creates a smooth workflow for quickly capturing multiple ideas in sequence.

Using AI to Generate Child Nodes

The AI generator offers several options for creating child nodes:

  • Build deep hierarchy - Creates a comprehensive structure with multiple levels of nodes
  • Create a few levels - Generates a moderate hierarchy with 2-3 levels of nodes
  • Add mostly children - Focuses on creating direct child nodes
  • Custom prompt - Allows you to specify exactly what kind of nodes to generate
Tip: The AI generator takes into account the existing structure of your mind map and the context of the selected node to generate relevant child nodes. It will avoid duplicating existing nodes and maintain a logical hierarchy.

Connecting Nodes

To connect nodes:

  • Click and drag from a node's connector point to another node

Styling Nodes

You can customize the appearance of nodes in several ways:

  • Colors - Change node colors to categorize and organize information. When you change a node's color, you can choose to propagate that color to all its child nodes.
  • Bold Text - Make node text bold for emphasis using the TextB button in the node toolbar
  • Icons - Add icons to visually represent concepts
Tip: When you change a node's color, you'll see an option to "Propagate to children". This will apply the same color to all child nodes in that branch, helping you maintain consistent color schemes throughout your mind map.

Adding Notes

Each node can have detailed notes:

  • Select a node and click the notes icon
  • Use the rich text editor to format your notes
  • Add links, lists, and other formatting

Moving Nodes

You can reorganize your mind map by moving nodes:

  • Drag a node to move it and all its child nodes to a new position
  • When you move a node to connect with another node, a line will appear indicating the new parent-child relationship

Deleting Nodes

You can delete nodes in two ways:

  • Delete - Deletes the selected node(s) and all their child nodes
  • Shift + Delete - Deletes only the selected node(s) and preserves their children by connecting them to the parent node

AI Generation

MapsAll's AI capabilities can help you generate ideas and expand concepts in your mind maps.

Generating Map Content

The AI can help you create content in several ways:

  • Generate a complete mind map from a prompt or topic
  • Expand a specific node with related ideas and child nodes

Using AI Suggestions

To receive AI suggestions:

  • Select a node and click the sparkle icon (✨) in the node's toolbar
  • Choose from different generation options:
    • Build deep hierarchy - Creates a comprehensive structure with multiple levels of nodes
    • Create a few levels - Generates a moderate hierarchy with 2-3 levels of nodes
    • Add mostly children - Focuses on creating direct child nodes
    • Custom prompt - Allows you to specify exactly what kind of nodes to generate

Todo Functionality

MapsAll allows you to turn your mind maps into actionable task lists with its todo functionality.

Creating Todos

You can create todo items in two ways:

  • For a single node: Select the node and click the checkbox icon in its bottom toolbar
  • For multiple nodes: Select multiple nodes and click the checkbox icon in the multi-select toolbar that appears

Managing Todos

Once you've created todo items:

  • Click on a todo node's checkbox to mark it as complete/incomplete

Todo Dashboard View

The dashboard shows maps with active todos:

  • Maps with todos display a todo counter showing the number of incomplete todos
Tip: Use todos for project planning by breaking down large tasks into smaller, manageable steps represented as todo nodes. The hierarchical nature of mind maps makes it perfect for organizing tasks and subtasks, where parent nodes can represent major milestones and child nodes can be specific action items.

Play Mode

Play mode offers an interactive physics-based visualization of your mind map, perfect for exploring relationships and gaining new perspectives.

Accessing Play Mode

You can enter play mode in two ways:

  • From the editor: Click the graph icon in the top toolbar
  • From the dashboard: Click the three dots menu on a map card and select "Play"

Physics Settings

Play mode includes adjustable physics settings that affect how nodes interact:

  • Link Length (default: 80px) - Controls the distance between connected nodes
  • Force (default: -100) - Determines how strongly nodes repel each other (negative values) or attract (positive values)
  • Padding (default: 3px) - Sets the minimum space between nodes to prevent overlap

Preset Configurations

Quick access to different visualization styles:

  • Default - Balanced settings for general use
  • Soap - Nodes float freely with minimal connections
  • Clusters - Strong repulsion creates distinct groups
  • Sticks - Rigid connections with minimal node movement

Creative Exploration

Play mode is particularly useful for:

  • Discovering hidden relationships between distant nodes
  • Visualizing the overall structure of complex maps
  • Gaining new perspectives by seeing your ideas in motion
  • Identifying clusters and patterns in your thinking
Tip: Try different physics settings to find the visualization that best suits your current exploration needs. The "Clusters" preset is great for identifying natural groupings in your ideas.

Public User Profiles

Every MapsAll user has a public profile page. Your profile displays your name and any maps you have chosen to share in the public gallery. This makes it easy for others to discover your work and for you to showcase your best mind maps.

What appears on your profile?

  • Your display name and profile image (from your account settings or sign-in provider)
  • Your profile text (optional, supports Markdown formatting)
  • All maps you have explicitly included in the gallery

You can edit your display name and profile text inline on your profile page.

Your profile text is an optional section where you can share information about yourself. It supports Markdown formatting:

  • **Bold text** for emphasis
  • *Italic text* for subtle emphasis
  • [Link text](url) for clickable links

Controlling your profile

  • You have full control over which maps appear on your profile by toggling the "Show in Gallery & Profile" option in the sharing dialog for each map
  • You can remove a map from your profile at any time by disabling this toggle
  • Your profile is accessible via a direct link (e.g. /users/your-user-id). It is not publicly listed or indexed, but can be discovered by others if you have maps in the public gallery (for example, by clicking your name or avatar on a gallery map).
Tip: Use your public profile to build a portfolio of your best mind maps, or to share resources with your team, class, or community.

Sharing Maps

MapsAll makes it easy to share your mind maps with others in read-only mode.

Sharing Options

To share a map:

  • From the dashboard, click the "Share" button on a map card
  • Use the sharing dialog to configure how you want to share your map

Share Settings

You can control how others access your shared map:

  • Public Link: Toggle to enable/disable sharing
  • Password Protection: Set a password that recipients need to enter to view the map
  • Show in Gallery & Profile: Choose whether to include your map in the public gallery and on your public profile (see Gallery section and Profile section for details)
  • Copy the share link to distribute via email, messaging, etc.
Note: Shared maps are accessible to anyone with the link. Be careful when sharing maps containing sensitive information. You can add an optional password to restrict access to your shared map.

Keyboard Shortcuts

MapsAll offers keyboard shortcuts to speed up your workflow:

Node Manipulation

  • Ctrl + B - Toggle bold text for selected node
  • Delete - Delete selected node(s) and all their child nodes
  • Shift + Delete - Delete selected node(s) and reattach their children to the parent node

Selection

  • Ctrl + Click - Select multiple nodes
  • Shift + Drag - Select multiple nodes by dragging