Your first map

This walks through making one real map. It takes about two minutes, and it covers most of what you will use every day.

Make a map

1. Open Smart Mind and tap New map, then Blank map.

   The editor opens with the first topic already waiting for text and the keyboard up. This first topic is the root — the middle of your map.

2. Type Trip plan, then tap an empty part of the canvas.

   Tapping away is how you finish editing anywhere in the app. The map saves by itself; there is no save button.

3. With the root selected, tap + Child in the bottom toolbar.

   A topic appears attached to the root, already in edit mode. Type Flights and tap empty canvas.

4. With Flights still selected, tap + Sibling and type Hotels.

   A sibling sits next to Flights rather than under it, so the map now has two branches.

5. Select Flights again, tap + Child, and type Outbound.

   The map re-flows as it grows and the topics never overlap.

You now have a map: Trip plan, with Flights and Hotels under it, and Outbound under Flights.

A faster way to start a branch

Double-tap an empty part of the canvas to drop a new independent topic there. One canvas can hold several separate maps.

Change what you wrote

Tap an unselected topic once to select it — it gets an accent ring. Tap it again to edit it, and the caret lands where you tapped rather than at the end.

Undo is forgiving in the way you would want:

• Typing a word and undoing reverts the whole word, not one letter at a time.
• Adding a topic and undoing removes it; redo puts it back.
• Deleting a branch and undoing restores the branch and everything under it.

Caution

Deleting a topic deletes everything underneath it. There is a confirmation for this, and undo always brings it back, but it is worth knowing before you delete a big branch.

Move things around

Drag a topic onto another topic to re-parent it: it detaches from where it was and joins the topic you dropped it on. Drag it onto the line between two topics instead to re-order it among its siblings.

This is how most maps actually get built. You write things down in whatever order they arrive, then move them once the shape becomes clear.

Find it again

Press back to leave the editor. Your map is in the library with a thumbnail, named after the root topic. From the library you can search across every map you have, sort maps into folders, and star the ones you keep coming back to. See Organize.

Where to go next

• Edit and rearrange — the toolbar, copy and paste, folding and more
• Change layout and style — make the map look the way you think
• Make a map with AI — start from a sentence instead of a blank canvas
• Tips and shortcuts — gestures, keyboard and trackpad
• Features — what every part of the app does