Editing your mindmaps
You have many options as you edit your mindmaps.
Selecting a node
Select a node by either pointing at it with the mouse or
clicking on it, as governed by your user preferences (Edit / Preferences).
Editing a node
If you right-click on a node, you'll see a context menu
with several choices.

- Edit: Change the text of a node
- Edit a long node: Open a window to edit text.
- New Child Node: Create a new linked node, one
level deeper. [Mac users may want to create an alternative to the Insert key.
See user.properties page.)
- Cut: Cut the selected node and all of its
descendants to the clipboard. Note that because there is no Undo function as
of this writing, Cut may be used to delete text, which can then be recovered
with Paste. See below.
- Copy: Copy the selected node and all of its
descendants to the clipboard.
- Copy Single: Copy only the selected node
to the clipboard.
- Paste: Insert the contents of the clipboard as a
child of (below) the currently selected node.
- Node: Offers a variety of options for formatting
and positioning nodes. See Editing nodes for
details.
- Branch: Offers options for importing and
exporting branches.
- Edge: Offers options for the style, color and
width of edges (the lines connecting nodes)
- Physical style: Presents a variety of choices
for preset styles that can combine font, size, color, etc. Styles are defined
in the file called patterns.xml. See Customizing
FreeMind for details.
- Icons: Offers a choice of decorative icons. When
you choose an icon, it is inserted at the start of the node, but after any
icons that are already there. You can also insert an icon from the icon
toolbar at the left hand side of the window. (You can remove this toolbar by
right-clicking on the background of FreeMind.)
Selecting multiple nodes
- To select multiple nodes hold control or shift while
clicking.
- Control lets you add single nodes to a set of already
selected nodes.
- Shift lets you select continuous ranges of nodes or
whole subtrees of nodes.
Reordering nodes
Move nodes up and down within a group of siblings (same
level) by using Ctrl+Up Arrow or Ctrl+Down Arrow.
Editing long nodes
When you've opened the window to edit a long node
(Alt-Enter), removing the checkmark from "Enter confirms" allows you to key in
line breaks with the Enter key; otherwise, use Ctrl-Enter. You can also split a
long node into two nodes at the point of the cursor, by using the "Split"
button.
Tip: To create a multiline node, insert a new
node and press Alt-Enter.
Is there no undo in FreeMind?
There is no undo so far (0.7.1). Help against data loss
are offered by:
- The autosave feature
- You can install a clipboard manager, which will make
all elements cut from FreeMind available in its history. A freeware example of
a clipboard manager for Microsoft Windows is
Yankee Clipper.
Autosave
By default, a backup copy of your map is saved to the home
directory every minute. To disable this function, or change the time interval or
the save directory, edit the user.properties file in the home directory.