Everything is reachable from the keyboard. Your hands never leave home row.
| ⏎ | A new node beside this one, same level, same branch. Type, Enter, type, Enter lays down a whole level without stopping. |
| ⇧⏎ | A new node at the same level but in the next branch along, so you can fill a level across the whole map without walking back to each parent. It goes in the order you see: top to bottom on a sideways branch, left to right on an up or down one, and wraps round on the same side. |
| ⌘⏎ | A child, one level deeper. |
| ⌘←↑→↓ | From the centre: start a branch that way. On a branch: the same direction again goes deeper, a sideways direction adds a sibling on that side. |
| hold Tab + ←↑→↓ | With a selection up, the arrow back toward the centre groups it: a new parent slides in above every selected branch, wherever they were, and they all become its children, in map order. Type its name. Otherwise: insert a node in between. Point back toward the centre and the new node becomes this one's parent. Point outward and it slides in above this node's children, adopting them. This is how you backtrack and add a layer you did not plan for. |
| ←↑→↓ | Walk the tree. Past the last of a node's siblings the arrow carries on into the next branch along at the same level, staying on that side of the map. Unlike Tab it does not wrap: run out of map that way and it stops. |
| Arrows while typing | Stop typing and start moving, in one press. ⌥+arrow moves the cursor inside the text instead. |
| Tab / ⇧Tab | Cycle every node at the same level. On a focused branch's own node, it moves the focus round the sibling branches instead, like the arrows do, and wraps. |
| ⌘K | Jump to any node by typing a few letters of it. Works across the whole map, opens folded branches and steps out of focus to get there. |
| ⌘0 | Zoom out to the whole map. Steps out of focus first, so this always shows you everything. |
| ⇧⌘0 | Fit just the selected branch, or the selected frame. |
| ⌘. | Take me to the selection: centre on it at 100%. Esc afterwards puts the camera back where it was. Leaving a focus does the same: you land at the zoom you had before you went in. |
| ⌘/ | Focus: the selected branch fills the screen. Press it again to go back to exactly the view you had, zoom and all. Esc steps out one level at a time. |
| Arrows while focused | On the focused node itself, a sideways arrow carries the focus to the branch beside it and the arrow pointing back toward the centre lifts it a level, so you can walk a large map branch by branch without stepping out and back in. Outward still goes to the first child. |
| Space or any letter | Retype the selected node, replacing its text. A new node is ready the same way: it is selected rather than opened, so there is no cursor to look at, and your first letter starts it. Leave it blank and it goes. Cursor in new nodes, in the style panel, opens new nodes for typing instead. |
| ⌥⏎ | Line break inside a node. |
| Esc | Stop typing. A node left blank is dropped. |
| ⌫ | Delete just the node. Its children move up and take its place, and flash so you can see where they went. With a selection up it deletes exactly what is selected, and anything underneath that you did not select moves up the same way. |
| ⌘⌫ | Delete the whole branch, or every selected branch. ⌘Z brings any delete back. |
| ⌘Z / ⌘⇧Z | Undo / redo. Retyping a node is a step of its own, so overwriting one by accident comes back with ⌘Z, even while you are still typing. |
| ⌥←↑→↓ | Move the node itself. Sideways reorders it among its siblings, and past the last one carries it on into the next branch along on that side, outward tucks it under the sibling before it, back toward the centre promotes it a level. The whole branch travels with it. With a selection up, every selected branch moves together and stays selected, so you can keep pressing. |
| ⌘E | Fold or unfold a branch. A folded node wears a badge with the number hidden underneath; click the badge to open it. With a selection up it folds every selected node at once, so a whole level goes away in one press. |
| ⌥J | Merge the selected nodes into one. The first in map order keeps its place; its text becomes all of theirs, one per line, and it takes every child they had. Links and frames follow it. Also on the selection bar. |
| ⌥S / ⌥⇧S | Split a node with several lines into one node per line: as siblings right after it, or with ⇧ as its children. It keeps the first line and its own children, and leading bullets or numbers are dropped. Works on every selected node at once. |
| ⌥O | Sort. A small menu, a number picks: A to Z, Z to A, reverse, biggest branch first, done last, or back to how it was. It sorts the selected siblings among the places they already hold, or with one node selected, that node's children. On the centre each side is sorted on its own. |
| ⌘X | Carry. Picks up the selection (or the selected node): it goes faint where it is, and the arrows, or a click, choose where it goes. ⏎ drops it inside the ringed node, ⇧⏎ right after it, Esc puts it back. Nothing changes until the drop, and one ⌘Z undoes it. ⌘V puts it down as well as ⏎ does, and the clipboard still holds what you picked up, so you can paste a copy of it anywhere else. |
| ⌘D | Duplicate the branch, right below itself. With a selection up, every selected branch is duplicated and the copies come out selected. |
| ⌥X / ⌘⇧F ⌥F | Mark done (struck through) / flag. ⌥D still marks done, the older key. Firefox and Zen keep ⌘⇧F for themselves, so ⌥F does the same; likewise ⌥G ungroups and ⌥C copies as an image. ⌃ works as ⌘ everywhere, which is the key to use on an iPad. A flag is a hand-drawn pennant on the box; the Style panel has a ribbon, a ring and an asterisk instead. ⌘4 dims the map to its flags and Tab steps through them; in ⌘K, type ! first to list only flagged nodes. Sort has Flagged first, and a copied outline writes ! before a flagged line, which flags it again when pasted back. |
| ⌘⇧9 ⌥9 | Paragraph. Turns the node into a paragraph: wider, left aligned, smaller type, a rule down the side instead of a box, and never numbered. ⏎ on a paragraph writes the next one and ⌘⏎ starts an ordinary node under it, so a branch can go from map to document and back. It works while you are typing, without ending the edit. Numbering skips paragraphs, so a row of paragraph, bullet, bullet numbers a. b. Copying still gives you the outline, with your paragraphs as paragraphs, and pasting one back brings them in as paragraphs. The Style panel draws them with a rule or a dotted box. |
| ⌘⇧7 ⌥7 | Number. Docs' own key. Numbers the row the node is on, its siblings in order; with a selection up, every row that has a selected node in it, so ⌘⇧→ then ⌘⇧7 numbers a whole branch as an outline. On the centre alone it numbers the branches. Pressed on rows already numbered, it takes the numbers off. A number belongs to the row, not the node: nothing is typed into the text, and a move, a sort, a delete or a paste renumbers on its own. Rows nest 1. then a. then i.; the Style panel has 1.1.1 and I. A. 1. instead, and draws the number in the gutter, in the box or on the edge. A copied outline writes the number before the line and a pasted 1. or a. line comes in numbered. Numbering a row also settles its order, read off the picture: down the page on a side row, clockwise from the top round the centre. A row with a node hidden or folded away in it keeps the order it had, since there is no honest place to put what you cannot see. |
| ⌥⇧W | navi. The rail top left follows the selection and shows only the way up and the row you are on: ancestors as a muted spine, the siblings under the parent with yours lit, children as a count. When the centre is off screen a small arrow points to where it is. Click a row to go there. A long row is capped: three siblings either side and a folded row at each end, with the whole row in a scrolling box, just the count, or the row as chips as the alternatives in Style. Inside a focus it shows how deep you are instead of the spine, as pips, in words or as two crumbs. The key cycles always, only when the centre is out of view, and off; the Style panel has the same, plus a pill with the siblings as chips or a drawn sketch instead of the rail, whether it fades when idle, and whether it joins the maps rail in one panel. |
| ⇧←↑→↓ | Grow the selection node by node, the way Shift grows a text selection. Stepping back lets go of the last one. While typing, it selects text as usual. |
| ⌘⇧←↑→↓ | Select whole branches that way. Outward: this node's branch. Sideways: this node and every sibling that way, with their branches. Back toward the centre: the parent's whole branch. From the centre: every branch on that side. |
| ⇧ + drag | Lasso part of the map. Select a node and its whole branch comes with it. The Select button makes plain dragging do this too. |
| ⇧ + click | Select a node's whole sibling row: every child of its parent, in one gesture. This is how you get a level in hand to fold or delete it. |
| ⌘A | Select the selected node's whole level, across the map. Press it again for everything on screen. While anything is selected, the top bar shows how many, with Copy, Duplicate and Delete buttons. |
| ⌘G | Wrap the selection in a frame and name it. Frames resize themselves as the map underneath grows. |
| ⌘⇧G | Ungroup the selected frame. |
| ⌘C | Copy as an indented bullet list: exactly what is selected, each node under its nearest selected parent. With nothing selected, the selected node's branch (on the centre, the whole map), or the selected frame. Copies made here also keep done and flag marks, folds, and links between the copied nodes. |
| ⌘X | Cut: copies to the clipboard and picks the branch up, so nothing leaves the map until ⌘V or ⏎ puts it down. Esc puts it back where it was. In a network or during a talk the clipboard is written and the map is left alone. |
| ⌘V / ⇧⌘V | Paste as children of the selected node, or as siblings right after it. The pasted nodes come in selected, and point the way their new parent does. Pasting onto a blank node you just made puts the paste in its place, and one undo takes both back. |
| ⇧⌘C | Copy as an image, ready to paste into a deck or a doc. |
| Double-click a frame name | Rename it. |
| Frames in views | A frame follows what is on screen: in a focus it wraps the part you can see, while presenting it grows as its nodes are revealed, and in a network, where the tree is set aside, frames step out of the way. |
| ⌘ + click | Tie the selected node to the one you click, anywhere on the map. A faint arc joins them. The same pair again unties. A link says these two relate; it does not change who owns whom, so nothing moves. |
| ⌘⇧ + click | Tie two branches. Ties the selected node to the one you click as a branch tie: one heavier arc with a bracket at each end, and in Networks everything under either node counts as the same network, so a whole branch relates to a whole branch without a tie per node. The same again removes it. From the keyboard, select the two nodes and press ⌥⇧T. |
| The ∿ badge | How many links land on this node. Click it to walk to the other end, which is usually off screen; clicking again cycles through the rest. A folded branch carries the badge for everything tied up inside it, and walking there opens it. |
| ⌘ + click | Tie two nodes, and hand the branch over. A tie says the node you started from is on the branch you clicked. The work is the end with a branch; if both ends have one, or neither does, it is the end you clicked, so the order you click in is the direction. A node tied straight to a single item takes on that item. In Networks the held branch is drawn once, as a tree. Its items are its top row, since being done with a node means being done with what is under it; to track something deeper on its own, tie a name straight to it. The Holders switch beside the view tabs says how much of that to show: Off puts a quiet count under each item, Chips a chip per holder on every item of its top row, and Lanes the same thing as a grid. Clicking a chip marks that holder done with that item; there is no key for it. On the map the tie wears a small mark at the end that holds it. A branch tie (⌘⇧ + click) is the one tie that hands nothing over. |
| A hollow end | The node you actually tied is folded away inside the one the arc reaches, or lives in the map a link stands for. Better than a line running into nothing. In a focused branch, a tie that leaves the branch is not drawn, but the ∿ badge counts it as outside and a click on it goes there. |
| ⌘1 or ⌥1 | Normal view. The number keys are views, and 1 is the plain map. From any other view it puts you back where you were, focus and all. The ⌥ versions are there because a browser tab may keep ⌘ plus a number for itself. |
| ⌘2 or ⌥2 / ⌥L | Networks. Every network laid out by its ties, each clear of the others, and nothing else: a node with no tie on it leaves the view, so what is on screen is only what relates to something. The centre stays as a fixed point. ⌘E folds what is only reached through a node. Pressed while focused on a tied branch, it goes straight to that node's network. Press it again, or Esc, to turn it off: you land back where you were, focus and all. The Style panel's Networks row has the older view, Dimmed: the whole map stays put and everything no tie touches drops to a ghost. |
| ⇧ + double-click in Networks | Clear every link on that node. ⌘Z brings them back. |
| Tab / arrows in Networks | Step from one network to the next. In Networks, they move the selection network to network; in a focused network, they do it when the network's centre is selected, and move within the network otherwise. Tab wraps round, arrows stop at the ends. |
| ⌘/ in Networks | On a tied node, Focus shows its network on its own: the node, everything tied to it, and everything tied to those, and nothing else, laid out by the links; nothing is moved for good. ⌘/ again, or Esc, steps back to Networks. In the Dimmed view, Focus on an untied node does what it always did. |
| Moving in a network | The tree is hidden, so the keys follow what is on screen: arrows go to the nearest node that way, Tab walks the network nearest first, and anything you make with Enter or ⌘+arrow is tied to the node you made it from, so it stays in view. Moving nodes and inserting between them are off until you leave. |
| ⌘E in a network | Folds the network instead of the tree: everything reached only through the selected node goes, and it wears a badge counting them. Click the badge or press it again to bring them back. |
| ⌘C / ⇧⌘C | In a network: copy the network as an outline (the centre, what is tied to it, what is tied to those) or as an image of just the network. The Copy menu in the bar does both. |
| ⌘4 or ⌥4 | Flags. Everything without a flag drops to a ghost, Tab and the arrows step flag to flag, Esc puts you back. The view is offered only while the map has a flag. |
| ⌘3 or ⌥3 | Present. Walks the map (or the focused branch) one node at a time in reading order, showing nothing you have not reached yet. Each node lands where it will stay and the camera follows. → or Space next, ⇧→ the whole level at once, ← back, O a look at everything so far, Home from the top. ⇧O shows the whole story at once. After the last node, one more step lights the whole story and stands back. ⌘K jumps to any node in the story, telling everything before it. A click moves on too, and a right-click goes back. Leave and come back and it picks up where you were. The bar has a full screen button. Esc, ⌘1 or ⌘3 ends it and puts you back where you were. Folded branches stay folded. T mid-talk (or the Set up button in the bar, or the Style panel's Presenting rows) sets up the talk, and a change takes effect on the step you are on: the whole map on screen from the first second with the path lit (On screen: All, Behind you: Fade), what is behind you kept, faded or hidden again, one step revealing a node, a row or a branch (⇧→ is always one step coarser), and a camera that follows, holds the whole map or holds the branch. A talk as Cards drops the map: one node to a screen, its paragraphs as the body, its children as chips, and O has nothing to show. |
| ⌘P or ⌥⇧P | Present from here. The same talk, starting from the selected node instead of the centre, so the rest of the map is never told. On the centre it is ⌘3. Also in the right-click menu. |
| R while presenting | Arrange the story. The whole walk comes up, numbered. ⌘+click a sibling to say this, then that, or from a parent to one of its children to say which child that level opens with; the same pair again undoes. From the keyboard, Space picks a node up and Space on another puts the picked one before it. ⌫ unpicks a node and resets every arrangement underneath it; unlinking a node does the same. Order only ever changes things inside one level. A level you never touch is told in map order; once you pick any of its children, the ones you did not pick are skipped, and arrange mode marks them so nothing goes missing by accident. R again presents the new order from the top. It is saved with the map, and a map can hold several stories: the story menu in the bar switches between them (or [ and ], or a number while it is open), adds, renames and deletes them. Delete asks twice, and ⌘Z brings one back. |
| ⌘C / ⇧⌘C | While presenting: copy the story so far as an outline or an image, mid-talk. From the overview of the whole story, the finale or arrange mode, they copy the whole story. The Copy menu in the bar has all four, and a number picks while it is open. Images carry the story's frames and leave out what the story skips. |
| ⌘V | Paste an indented list and it becomes a branch. Tabs, spaces, bullets, numbers and markdown headings all read as depth. Markdown written inline comes off: bold, italic, code, strikethrough and links arrive as their words. When a list has no indentation left in it, as a chat answer or a stripped copy often does, its markdown says the shape instead: a line that is bold end to end is a heading, a line ending in a colon introduces what follows, and Term: a sentence becomes the term with the sentence as a paragraph under it. Paste onto the centre and the top level balances left and right. |
| Export ▾ | PNG and SVG of the frame or the whole map, and the full JSON with every setting. |
| Maps ▾ | Every map you have made, newest first. A map is named after its centre node, so renaming the centre renames the map. Copy and delete live in the same row. |
| ⌥N | A new map. |
| ⌥B | Break out a branch into a map of its own. The branch moves, with its marks, folds, frames and the links inside it, and a link takes its place. A tie that crossed the cut now lands on the link, drawn hollow, and goes back to its node when the map is brought back in. On a link, ⌥B brings the map back in as a branch; the map goes to Recently deleted unless something else links to it. ⌘Z undoes either, map and all. |
| ⌥K | Link the selected node to a map: pick one, or make a new one named after the node. A link shows the map's name and size, and its look is in the style panel under Map links. Its name follows the map, so open the map to rename it. |
| ⌥⏎ / double-click | Open a linked map. The same key on any other node, or a double-click on empty canvas, goes back up to the link you came through, at the view you left. Top left, a rail lists every map under the root map as a tree, with the one you are on lit: click a name to open it, ⌥[ and ⌥] walk them, a twist folds a branch of maps. ⌥⇧M folds the rail to one line that says where you are. A map linked from two places is listed under the first and marked under the second. Nothing shows until the map has a link. Linked from in the top bar says which other maps link here. A link whose map was deleted says so, and ⌥⏎ restores the map. |
| ⌥M | Switch map: pinned maps first, then recent ones. Type to filter, arrows and ⏎ to open. It starts on the map you were on before, so ⌥M ⏎ swaps back and forth. |
| ⌥P | Pin or unpin the open map (in the switcher, the highlighted one). Pinned maps sit at the top of the switcher and of Maps ▾, and the pin shows next to the Mappr name. |
| ⌥⇧1…9 | Open a pinned map, in pin order. |
| ⌥T | Give the map a colour tag; press again for the next colour, and past the last one it clears. The dot beside each map in the lists does the same on a click. |
| ⌥` | Back to the map you were on before. |
| Maps | Every map is stored on its own. A map that a link opens is kept under the map that links to it, up to a root map that nothing links to, and the Maps menu and the switcher list each root with the maps under it. Copy on a root copies the whole tree, links pointed at the copies; Delete on a root takes the tree to Recently deleted, each map restorable on its own; Export as JSON bundles the tree and Import rebuilds it. Detach makes a map its own again: every link to it becomes a plain node with its name. A map opens at the zoom and place you left it, reload included, and the last few undo steps come back with it. |
| Long press | On a node or the canvas, opens the same menu as a right-click, so every action is reachable by touch. |
| Touch | One finger pans, two fingers pinch to zoom, and a tap opens a folded branch. Making a map needs a keyboard, so touch is for reading one you already have. |
| The camera | Follows on its own. It holds still while you work mid-screen and slides only when you are about to run off an edge. |
| Drag / scroll | Pan. ⌘+scroll zooms. |
| Zooming out | Below 25% the map starts shedding its depth, a layer at a time, and each parent at the edge says how much it is holding. Nothing re-packs and nothing you folded by hand is unfolded: zoom back in and it all comes back exactly where it was. Click a count to dive into what it is hiding. The Style panel decides whether what survives shrinks with the camera or holds its size on screen. |
| Right-click | Mappr's own menu. On a node: everything that can be done to it, each row with its key beside it, so the menu teaches the keys. On empty canvas: the views, the camera and the maps. Any key closes it and still does what it does. |
| ⌘, | Style panel. It never takes the keyboard, so shortcuts keep working while it is open. |
| ⌥⇧K | Walk the key bar through the other modes without leaving the one you are in, so you can read the selection keys while you are on the map. Any other key, or five seconds, brings your own keys back, and the key you pressed still does what it does. |
↑↓ or a number to switch tabs · Esc to close
The last few releases. Click the Mappr wordmark any time to read this again.
⌘0 on a very large map can also settle further out than it could.⌘0 still fits the whole map, however far out you were, and ⌘⇧0 still fits the branch you are in, all of it.⌥⇧H is gone, one release after it arrived, and you will not miss it: select a node, ⌘+click a branch, and that node holds the branch. That is the same tie you were already making, and it always meant this. If both nodes have branches of their own, the one you clicked is the one handed over, so the order you click in is the direction. A node tied straight to a single item takes on that item.Esc always takes you back exactly one step, whichever way you came in, and so does ⌘/. Folding a network's first node now says how much it is holding back instead of looking like the network disappeared. And the untied parts of the map fade out when the view opens rather than blinking away.⌥⇧H. That node now holds the whole branch as its own, and so does anyone else you hand it to. Nothing is copied: there is still only one of each item, so renaming one renames it for everybody. The right-click menu has the same thing worded both ways, and ⌥⇧H again takes the branch back.⌘2 the held branch is drawn once, as a tree, and each item carries a small chip for every holder. Click a holder's chip to mark them done with that item, which is how you see at a glance who still owes you the Abstract. It is a click and nothing else: there is no key for it.⌘1 draws a holding tie as an ordinary tie with a small mark at the end that holds it, so you can see which way it points without opening Networks. No chips anywhere on the map.⌘Z puts the item and its ticks back together.