Guide
How to turn text into a mind map
A practical, step-by-step walkthrough of writing an outline and watching it become a visual mind map — no design tools required.
Mind mapping usually starts with a blank canvas and a mouse, which slows down the moment you're trying to think fastest. Text to Mind Map flips that: you write a simple indented outline, and the map builds itself as you type. This guide walks through the whole workflow, from your first line of text to an exported image.
What's covered
Building the outline
Turn a blank page into a structured tree: the goal, its branches, and the tasks underneath.
Steps 4–5Editing at keyboard speed
Restructure without touching the mouse, and attach detail to a node in one keystroke.
Steps 6–8Shaping and navigating the map
Pick a layout that fits your content, then zoom and organise as the tree grows.
Steps 9–10Saving and sharing your work
Export a finished map to an image or PDF, or back it up with Google Drive.
How to turn text into a mind map
A practical, step-by-step walkthrough of writing an outline and watching it become a visual mind map — no design tools required.
1. Start with your central idea
Open the editor and type your topic on the first line. This becomes the root node of your map — the centre that every branch connects back to.
2. Indent to create branches
Press Tab at the start of a line to indent it one level deeper, turning it into a child node. Press Shift+Tab to outdent and move it back up a level. Each level of indentation becomes a new layer in the map.
3. Add siblings with Enter
Press Enter to start a new line at the same indentation level as the one above it, creating a sibling node. This is the fastest way to list several related points under one branch.
4. Reorder nodes without retyping
Use Alt (Option on macOS) + Up or Down arrow to move the current line — and everything nested beneath it — up or down among its siblings, without cutting and pasting text.
5. Enrich a node with quick commands
Type your configured trigger key (`, @, #, or ~) at the start of a line to open the quick command menu. From there you can set the node's text or markdown, attach a URL, add a detail image, or apply a colour or tag — all without leaving the keyboard.
6. Switch layouts to match your content
Use the layout switcher above the map to try balanced, star, left, right, or tree diagram arrangements. A wide list of parallel ideas often reads better as a tree; a single central concept usually suits a balanced or star layout.
7. Fine-tune the visual structure
Drag any node to reposition it, click a node once to adjust its text or background colour, or double-click to open its full detail panel and add notes, a title, a URL, or tags. Use the collapse (>) control on a node to tidy away a large subtree while you focus elsewhere.
8. Zoom, centre and organise your workspace
Use the scroll wheel or the +/- controls to zoom, and the centre button to snap back to the middle of your map. Add more diagrams as tabs at the top of the editor panel, and double-click a tab to rename it.
9. Export when you're ready
Use the export button in the top navigation bar to save your finished map as a PNG, WebP, or PDF image, or export the underlying outline as plain text.
10. Back up with Google Drive (optional)
Open the Google Drive sync menu next to the theme toggle and sign in to push a copy of your workspace straight to your own Drive — not ours. Pull it back down on another device, or turn on auto sync so backups happen on their own while you keep working.
Why write before you draw
Most mind mapping tools start you on a blank canvas: you place a shape, connect it, place another, and repeat. That's fine for a finished diagram, but it's slow for the messy, fast-moving part of thinking — the part where ideas are still being sorted.
Writing an outline lets you capture ideas at the speed of typing. Structure — what belongs under what — is expressed with a single keypress (Tab), not a drag-and-drop connection. The visual map becomes a by-product of organising your thoughts, rather than a separate task on top of it.
Keyboard-first, mouse-optional
Every core action in the editor — creating a node, nesting it, reordering it, tagging it — has a keyboard shortcut. That matters most when you're brainstorming: switching to the mouse to draw a connector breaks your train of thought in a way that pressing Tab does not.
The mouse is still useful for the parts that benefit from direct manipulation: dragging a node to a new position, resizing the view, or picking a colour from a palette. The editor and the map stay in sync regardless of which one you use at any given moment.
We don't store your data — you do
Everything you write stays in your browser — there's no server round-trip while you work, and no account is required to get started. We simply don't receive your content, which makes the tool suitable for early-stage notes, private planning, or anything you'd rather keep off someone else's server.
When you do want a backup or need to pick up a map on another device, sign in with Google through the sync menu next to the theme toggle. Push sends the current workspace to a private folder in your own Google Drive; pull brings the latest saved copy back down. Turning on auto sync repeats a push periodically in the background, so you don't have to remember to do it manually.
Exporting still works the same way it always has — to an image for sharing, or to text or JSON as a portable copy — so Drive sync is an addition to that workflow, not a replacement for it.
Try it with your own notes
Open the editor and turn your next outline into a map in a few minutes.
Open the app