Mindmaps

Mindmaps earn their place before the writing starts: structuring a paper, mapping a research area, planning what a thesis chapter must cover. In the Diagram tab, a mindmap’s entire syntax is indentation.

Step 1 — Root and branches

Choose the mindmap type. The first node is the center; each level of indentation is a ring outward:

mindmap
  root((My paper))
    Introduction
      motivation
      prior work
    Methods
      setup
      protocol
    Results
      main effect
      controls
    Discussion

The ((double parentheses)) make the root a circle. Indent with consistent spacing — the indentation is the structure.

Step 2 — Node shapes

Shapes distinguish kinds of ideas:

mindmap
  root((Thesis))
    (Chapter: Theory)
      [must: derivation]
      [must: assumptions]
    (Chapter: Experiment)
      [must: calibration]
      open question?

(rounded) and [square] render as their bracket shapes; bare text is a plain node — a lightweight visual vocabulary for “chapter”, “committed content”, “still thinking”.

Step 3 — Grow it as you think

Because structure is only indentation, reorganizing is just moving lines — promote a sub-idea by unindenting it, demote by indenting. The layout redraws itself; there is nothing to untangle.

Step 4 — When a mindmap is the wrong tool

Honest boundaries: a mindmap shows a hierarchy. The moment your ideas need cross-links (“this result feeds that discussion point”), you’ve outgrown it — switch to a flowchart, where arbitrary edges are the point.

Step 5 — Export or insert

A planning mindmap often never leaves your project — but it exports like everything else: vector PDF, or Insert with a \label (a mindmap of a field’s structure can be a genuinely good Figure 1 in a review article).

Tip: Cap it at three rings. A mindmap’s value is seeing the whole shape at a glance; a fourth ring of detail belongs in the document itself, not the map.