Last year I developed Mindbak, a prototype of an online mind mapping tool in Silverlight 3. Today I published a first beta version. It still has bugs, but the basic functions work.
The beta runs at http://www.mindbak.com →(no longer available). Maps are edited with keyboard and mouse, close to the way Mind Manager works. TAB, INS and ENTER create subtopics, DEL deletes the selected topics, and the arrow keys move the selection. Topics move by drag and drop, and CTRL plus a mouse drag selects several topics at once. Fonts, colours and topic shapes change from the ribbon bar.
Try it out and send me your feedback.
What was hard
The designer surface has to grow and shrink with the map and keep scrolling while a topic is dragged around with the mouse. The red markers that show where a dragged topic will land were the second tricky part. The third was the layout engine, which places every topic and draws the connectors after each change.
Screenshots
A map that explains the keyboard and mouse shortcuts.Editing a map in the browser.Editing a map in the browser.Topic formats change from the ribbon bar.Editing a map in the browser.Editing a map in the browser.Many main topics on one map, zoomed in.Editing a map in the browser.
