Node types and styling
The seven node types, reference nodes, map style, and edge styling.
Every node has a type that decides what it holds and what happens when you open it. How the map looks is set for the whole map under Map style.
Node types
Select a node and use Type on the node bar to convert it. The text is kept.
| Type | What the node holds |
|---|---|
| Text | Plain text. Every node starts as this. |
| Task | Text plus a checkbox on the node. |
| Code | Source code in a monospace face. |
| Math | LaTeX, rendered as an equation. |
| Link | A web address, with an optional title. |
| Note | A reference to a note in your library. |
| Deck | A reference to a flashcard deck. |
Link asks for an address and rejects one that cannot open. Note and Deck open a picker.
Shapes, loose text, frames, and images are not node types; they come from the tool dock. See Editing the canvas.
Reference nodes
A Note or Deck node shows its target's current title and cannot be edited. A deck node also shows how many cards are due. If the target has been deleted, the node reads "Missing reference".
Double-click the node, or click the mark on its edge, to open the note, the deck, or the link in your browser.
Map style
Map style in the header has four groups.
| Group | Choices |
|---|---|
| Arrangement | Balanced, Tree right, Tree down, Radial, Timeline, Free |
| Branches | Line, Taper, Step |
| Palette | Dawn Classic, Rainbow Branches, Monochrome, Study, Org Chart, Blueprint |
| Background | Dots, Grid, Plain |
Free leaves every node where you put it. Arrange now, under the arrangement tiles, lays the map out again.
Pin, in the node bar's overflow menu, keeps a node in place when the map is arranged. Unpin releases it.
Save style as template, in the same menu, turns the selected branch's styling into a palette of your own. Choose how many levels to capture; the result is available in every map. Saved templates can be deleted; the six built-in ones cannot.
Edge styling
Select an edge to get its own bar.
| Group | Choices |
|---|---|
| Line and thickness | Solid, Dashed, Dotted, Double; Hairline, Normal, Bold |
| Routing | Curve, Straight, Orthogonal |
| Ends | None, Arrow, Dot, set separately for the start and the end |
| Color | The branch color, or a color of its own |
And everything below it, in each panel, applies the choice to every edge further down the branch. An edge without its own color uses its branch color; Match the branch returns to that.
Related
- Editing the canvas covers the gestures that build a map.
- Export and import covers getting a map out.