XMind – Mind Mapping Tool

Part of good web design is working with good tools and knowing how to use them.

My mind mapping tool of choice is XMind. It's an Open Source project and has most of the features of a paid product like Mind Manager, but it's free.

I like to customise the default styles of the mind map elements too. Below is the customisation I have made to my DefaultStyles.XML file for your information. You can customise this file to change how your elements looks and behave when you open a blank mind map.

<style id="centralTopic" type="topic"><!--
<topic-properties fo:font-weight="bold" fo:color="#4c4c4c"
			fo:font-family="$system$" fo:font-style="normal"
			fo:font-size="18pt" fo:text-decoration="none" 
			shape-class="org.xmind.topicShape.roundedRect"
			shape-corner="8pt" svg:fill="#97cbff" fo:margin-left="22pt" 
			fo:margin-right="22pt" fo:margin-top="14pt" fo:margin-bottom="14pt"
			line-class="org.xmind.branchConnection.straight" 
			line-color="#808080" multi-line-colors="none" line-corner="8pt"
			line-width="1pt" spacing-major="20pt" spacing-minor="10pt"/>

--></style><style id="mainTopic" type="topic"><!--
<topic-properties fo:font-weight="bold" fo:color="#303030"
			fo:font-family="$system$" fo:font-style="normal"
			fo:font-size="12pt" fo:text-decoration="none" 
			shape-class="org.xmind.topicShape.roundedRect"
			shape-corner="5pt" svg:fill="#ffffff" fo:margin-left="6pt"
			fo:margin-right="6pt" fo:margin-top="6pt" fo:margin-bottom="6pt"
			line-class="org.xmind.branchConnection.roundedElbow" 
			line-color="#808080" multi-line-colors="none" line-corner="4pt"
			line-width="1pt" spacing-major="14pt" spacing-minor="10pt"/>

--></style><style id="subTopic" type="topic"><!--
<topic-properties fo:font-weight="normal" fo:color="#303030"
			fo:font-family="$system$" fo:font-style="normal"
			fo:font-size="10pt" fo:text-decoration="none" 
			shape-class="org.xmind.topicShape.roundedRect"
			shape-corner="5pt" svg:fill="#ffffff" fo:margin-left="4pt"
			fo:margin-right="4pt" fo:margin-top="4pt" fo:margin-bottom="4pt"
			line-class="org.xmind.branchConnection.roundedElbow" 
			line-color="#808080" multi-line-colors="none" line-corner="4pt"
			line-width="1pt" spacing-major="8pt" spacing-minor="1pt"/>

--></style><style id="floatingTopic" type="topic"><!--
<topic-properties fo:font-weight="normal" fo:color="#303030"
			fo:font-family="$system$" fo:font-style="normal"
			fo:font-size="13pt" fo:text-decoration="none" 
			shape-class="org.xmind.topicShape.roundedRect"
			shape-corner="8pt" svg:fill="#ffffff" fo:margin-left="6pt"
			fo:margin-right="6pt" fo:margin-top="6pt" fo:margin-bottom="6pt"
			line-class="org.xmind.branchConnection.roundedElbow" 
			line-color="#808080" multi-line-colors="none" line-corner="4pt"
			line-width="1pt" spacing-major="8pt" spacing-minor="1pt"/>

--></style><style id="summaryTopic" type="topic"><!--
<topic-properties fo:font-weight="normal" fo:color="#404040"
			fo:font-family="$system$" fo:font-style="normal"
			fo:font-size="9pt" fo:text-decoration="none" 
			shape-class="org.xmind.topicShape.rect"
			shape-corner="5pt" svg:fill="#f0f0d0" fo:margin-left="4pt"
			fo:margin-right="4pt" fo:margin-top="4pt" fo:margin-bottom="4pt"
			line-class="org.xmind.branchConnection.roundedElbow" 
			line-color="#808080" multi-line-colors="none" line-corner="4pt"
			line-width="1pt" spacing-major="8pt" spacing-minor="1pt"/>

--></style><style id="boundary" type="boundary"><!--
<boundary-properties shape-class="org.xmind.boundaryShape.roundedRect"
			shape-corner="8pt" svg:fill="#ffffff" line-color="#afafaf"
			line-width="3pt" line-pattern="dash" svg:opacity=".5"
			fo:font-family="$system$" fo:font-weight="false" fo:color="#707070" 
			fo:font-style="false" fo:font-size="9pt" fo:text-decoration="none"/>

--></style><style id="relationship" type="relationship"><!--
<relationship-properties shape-class="org.xmind.relationshipShape.curved"
			line-color="#0068cf" line-width="3pt" line-pattern="dot" 
			arrow-begin-class="org.xmind.arrowShape.none"
			arrow-end-class="org.xmind.arrowShape.normal"
			fo:font-family="$system$" fo:font-weight="false" fo:color="#707070" 
			fo:font-style="false" fo:font-size="9pt" fo:text-decoration="none"/>

--></style><style id="summary" type="summary"><!--

<summary-properties shape-class="org.xmind.summaryShape.curly"
			line-color="#808080" line-width="2" line-pattern="solid" line-corner="5"/>
--></style><style id="map" type="map"><!--

<map-properties svg:fill="#f3f4f9" svg:opacity=".6"/>
--></style>

Enjoy. Til next time ...