Using MindMup

MindMup is a mind-mapping tool that can be accessed from VU Collaborate.

This guide includes

Related guides

 

What is a MindMap?

A mind map is a diagram of visually organised information. Mind maps show hierarchical relationships among pieces of the whole. Often a single concept/image is drawn in the centre of a page. Then branching out from the central concept, topics and subtopics are added. Images, words, symbols and colour are added to each idea to help organise ideas, and create associations with the central concept. 

mindmap

Examples of Mind Map

While mind maps can be drawn on paper, the major downside is that they can be very time-consuming. With Mind Mup, the creation process can be sped up, by using keyboard shortcuts, and adding node, lines and images rather than drawing them. The finished Mind Mup can then be easily converted to a PDF or PowerPoint document or shared online.

 

Step One: Sign in to Mind Mup

1. Access Mind Mup 

  • From a VU Collaborate space from the nav bar,
    select Tools (orToolbox), then Mind Mapping Tool.
    From the pop-up window, select the link to the Login Page
  • Or go directly to the Mind Mup Gold login

access mind mup from navbar   pop up window access mindpmup login page

2. Sign in

  • Click Sign In, then Sign In with Microsoft.
  • Log in using your staff id@vu.edu.au (e.g. e1234567@vu.edu.au) and password.

sign in sign in with microsoft 

The MindMup Dashboard is where you can create new maps, and access previously created maps.

  • To create a new map, select create new map from the menu bar.
    create new mind mup
  • When viewing a map, select the MindMup logo to return to the dashboard.

 

Step Two: Creating Your Mind Map

To create your mindmap, identify the items below:

  • Create the Central Topic
  • Brainstorm and create Sub-Topics
  • Create relationships between topics and/or sub-topics

 

Create the Central Topic

The Central Topic is the main concept or idea to be explored. New Mind Maps start with a default Central Topic or Root Node.

1. To edit press the Space bar or double-click on the node and then enter a word or short description.

add central topic root node

Brainstorm and create Sub-Topics

Now that you have your main topic (or root node), you can begin to insert your sub-topics (or child nodes). 

2. Select the root node then add a child node from (a) the menu bar, (b) node options, or (c) via a keyboard shortcut.

  • (a) Menu bar - select Insert Child Node icon
  • (b) Node options - right-click, then select Insert Child
  • (c) Keyboard shortcut - select Tab key.

select insert child node    insert child node

3. You've got your first child node in, now let's give it some siblings.

Select the root node then add a sibling node, from (a) the menu bar, (b) node options, or (c) via a keyboard shortcut

  • (a) Menu bar - select the Insert Sibling Node button.
  • (b) Node options - right-click, then select Insert Sibling. 
  • (c) Keyboard Shortcut - press Enter key.

select insert sibling node   insert sibling node

4. To Insert an Image into your mind map, select the Insert Child Image Node from the menubar.

select insert child image node

5. After you have inserted an image into a node, double-click the image to add text to it.

6. To change the size or appearance of your image, from (a) the menu bar, (b) node options, or (c) via a keyboard shortcut

  • (a) Menu bar - click on your image node and then click Adjust Node Image from the top menu bar.
  • (b) Node options - right-click on the node and select Node Image.
  • (c) Keyboard Shortcut - select I key.

adjust node image menu bar   adjust node image

7. Adjust your images

  • Width and Height (1), ensuring the Keep Aspect Ratio is selected to prevent your image from becoming distorted.
  • Position (2) in relation to the text around it.

Once you are happy with your changes, select Save (3).

adjust node image change size position

8. You can also add an image to a node that has previously been created. Simply right-click the node you want to add an image to and select the Adjust Node Image button.

From the pop-up window, locate your image. Once added you will get the same insert window as above. 

9. To remove a node, select the node to be deleted, then

  • (a) Menu bar - select Bin icon, or
  • (b) Node options - right-click then select Remove Node.
  • (b) Keyboard Shortcut - select Del/Delete key.

select bin icon   node options remove node

Create relationships between topics and/or sub-topics

After adding a topic (root node) and its sub-topics (or child nodes), you can create a relationship between:

  • topic to topic
  • subtopic to another sub-topic

by creating a link between nodes.

10. First step, identify where the node relationship should start and end.
For example, the relationship starts from (a) and ends with (b) in the screenshot below.

connect select nodes

11. Select the node where the relationship should start (a).

connect select nodes start

12. Then connect to another node from (a) the menu bar, (b) node options, or (c) keyboard shortcut.

  • (a) Menu bar - select Connect to another node from the top menu bar.
  • (b) Node options - right-click on the node and select Connect to node.
  • (c) Keyboard Shortcut - hold the Alt key and click on the nodes.

connect to node

13. Select the node where the relationship should end (b).

connect select nodes end

Here is an example of a node relationship:

connect select nodes example

 

Adding Notes to the nodes

1. To add or edit a note, select from (a) the menu bar, (b) node options, or (c) via a keyboard shortcut.

  • (a) Menu bar - select Edit Text Notes note icon button from the menu bar
  • (b) Node options - right-click on the node and select Edit Notes.
  • (c) Keyboard Shortcut - select N key. 

select edit notes   add edit notes on a node

2. This will open a sidebar on the right side of your screen (a). Type your note there.

note adding a note

3. To close the note sidebar (a) from the menu bar, or (b) via a keyboard shortcut.

  • (a) Menu bar - From View, select Sidebar followed by Close Sidebar  hide sidebar
  • (b) Keyboard shortcut - select Esc key.

view close sidebar

Adding Files to the nodes

1. To attach a file to a node, (a) from the menu bar, (b) node options, or (c) via a keyboard shortcut.

  • (a) Menu bar - select Insert, then File Attachment. 
  • (b) Node options - right-click on the node and select Attach File.
  • (c) Keyboard shortcut - press A on your keyboard.

insert file attachment attach file

 

 

Other useful menu buttons:

undo redo   Undo/Redo.

9   Left/Centre/Right alignment of text.

10   Increase/Decrease node font size.

16   Zoom in/out or center mind map

 

Here is an example of a mind map that demonstrated VU Net Zero Key Principles (2021):

VU net zero mindmap smaller

 

Step Three: Customising your Mind Map

Expand each topic tile below for more details.

Customise Connection Line Styles

Customise Connection Line Styles

1. To change the style of the line, click on the line.
From here, you can modify the line style including add/remove the arrow, line colours, label, and thickness.

2. Select each option to apply changes.

line change style

Customise Individual Node Styles

Customise Individual Node Styles

1. To change the node style, click on the desired node and select Node style.

node style select

2. Within Edit Node Style screen, you can select to modify any style from the dropdown options.
including colours, text size, font, border and corners.

3. Select OK to apply the changes.

node style dropdown options

Applying Map Theme

Applying Map Theme

1. To apply a theme to your mind map, from the View tab, hover over Map theme.

2. Select the theme that you would like to apply.

Note: for organisational charts or family trees, you can use:

  • Top-down Standard or Top-down Simple
  • Bottom-up or Bottom-up Simple

view map theme

Customise your Mind Map and use an Image as Background

Customise your Mind Map and use an Image as Background

MindMup allows you to fully customise the look and feel of your map including background colours, texts and node styles.

1. From the View tab, select Customise Theme.

2. Then, choose the desired customisation options from the sidebar.

view customise theme sidebar

3. To use an external image as your map background, select Canvas under the Colors section.

view customise theme canvas

4. At the bottom of the Color Picker pop-up box, select Use Image. 

view customise theme use image

5. Upload the desired image as your map background.

As the background will be in tile format, it is recommended to use images that can be repeated seamlessly both horizontally and vertically.

 

 

 

Step Four: Downloading and Sharing Mind Maps

  • Download
  • Publish
  • Share

Download

To download your Mindmap, From File tab, select Download As. Then, choose the desired file extension from the list. 

  • Image (SVG, JPG, PNG) - download an image of your mind map
  • PDF - download an image of your mind map displayed within a PDF document
  • Outline - download as a text document, and tick Included Text Notes,  to include notes.

file download as

Publish

1. To publish your mindmap, from File (1), select Publish (2)

file publish

2. Review and make necessary edits to the title, description, and URL slug (1) then click Publish (2).

file publish map

3. Once the mind map is published, you can share it on social networking sites (1), send a link (2), or embed (3) it into your website or blog.

your map was published

Share

1. To share access to a mindmap. From File, select Share

file share

2. Enter the email addresses (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) to grant share access.
Click the dropdown and change the access to 'View Only' or 'View and Edit' as needed.

3. Then select 'Allow Access.' 

map sharing information

Note: Always use This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. like in the screenshot above to share your mindmap with another VU staff member. You can enter up to 10 emails, seperate with spaces or commas.

 

Displaying your Mind Map to students in VU Collaborate

There are different ways of displaying your mindmap to students in VU Collaborate.

Option 1. Provide a link to your mindmap in VU Collaborate.

Option 2. Embed your mindmap in VU Collaborate.

Note: To get the embed code or link to your mindmap, you will have to first publish your mindmap.

Option 3. Upload a .pdf or an image of your mindmap to VU Collaborate.

Note: To learn more about how to add links and upload files in VU Collaborate, refer to the guide on 'Adding content to a module' in VU Collaborate Help site for staff.

 

Accepting Student Mind Map Submissions

There are several ways students can submit mindmaps as assessment submissions.

Download and submit PDF Document (Mind Map) and/or Word Document (Outline)

To submit the mind map as document(s) to a VU Collaborate dropbox, students will need to 

  • Download as an image or PDF, and/or
  • Download as an outline and tick include text notes to include annotated notes 

 

Publish and submit the URL link

Students can also publish mindmaps, then submit the URL link or embed the mindmap in the HTML editor in the dropbox folder in VU Collaborate.

  • Note: Publish maps can be viewed by anyone AND
    the URL slug should be updated to include the student number (to keep URLs unique).
  • Also submitting a PDF and outline (if notes are used) is recommended.

 

Share and submit the URL link 

To submit a URL link to the mindmap, students will need to first share it with the teacher's email (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). 

  • Note: mindmaps can only be viewed by people who have been granted share access.
  • Also submitting a PDF and outline (if notes are used) is recommended.

 

To learn about how to create and submit mindmaps in VU Collaborate as a student, please refer to Using Mindmup guide on VU Collaborate student help site.

Further Support

Contact us This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., for information and resources on technology-enhanced learning, or visit VUCollaborateHelp.vu.edu.au.
Contact ITS Service Desk on (03) 9919 2777 or via self-service servicedesk.vu.edu.au for technical support.