If you've used Workflowy, Text to Mind Map will feel immediately familiar: type a line, press Tab to nest it under the one above, press Enter for a new sibling, Shift+Tab to pull it back out. That's the entire core interaction in both tools, and it's deliberate — Workflowy's outlining model is one of the fastest ways to get thoughts out of your head and into a structure.
The difference shows up once the outline gets long. Workflowy keeps everything as a list — collapsible, searchable, but still a list. Text to Mind Map renders that same outline as a visual map alongside the text, updating live as you type, so the shape of your thinking is visible without switching views or exporting anything.
What's the same
- Keyboard-first editing. Tab to indent, Shift+Tab to outdent, Enter for a new sibling — no mouse required to build the structure.
- Plain-text foundation. Both tools are, at their core, an indented outline. Content is portable and easy to reason about.
- No clutter. Neither tool buries the outline under panels, databases, or project-management scaffolding.
Where they differ
| Workflowy | Text to Mind Map | |
|---|---|---|
| Core view | Outline / list | Outline + live visual map |
| Account required | Yes | No |
| Data storage | Workflowy's servers | Your browser — we don't store it |
| Visual mind map view | Not built in | Built in, updates as you type |
| Node colour / tagging | Colours, tags, highlights, images | Colours, tags, images, links — shown directly on the map |
| Export | Plain text / OPML (paid tiers) | Text, JSON, PNG, WebP, PDF |
Workflowy's strength is its maturity — sync, mobile apps, years of refinement on the list view itself. If you never need to see your outline as anything other than a list, Workflowy is a proven choice.
Text to Mind Map is a fit if part of why you outline is to see how the pieces relate to each other spatially — planning, brainstorming, or explaining a structure to someone else — without giving up the same fast, keyboard-driven way of writing it down.
Moving an outline over
Copy any indented outline out of Workflowy — plain text, one item per line — and paste it into Text to Mind Map's editor. Indentation is read directly as hierarchy, so the structure carries over intact and immediately renders as a map.
Common questions
Many people search for a Workflowy mind map view or a way to get a visual outline out of Workflowy directly — as of writing, Workflowy doesn't have a native map or canvas view. Text to Mind Map doesn't modify Workflowy; it's a separate, standalone tool that happens to share the same outlining shortcuts, so your existing muscle memory carries over.