{"id":113916,"date":"2020-06-08T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fedoramagazine.org\/?p=31141"},"modified":"2020-06-08T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-08T07:00:00","slug":"freeplane-the-swiss-army-knife-for-your-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/06\/08\/freeplane-the-swiss-army-knife-for-your-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"Freeplane: the Swiss Army knife for your brain"},"content":{"rendered":"

A previous Fedora Magazine article covered tracking your time and tasks<\/a>. Another introduced some mind mapping tools<\/a>. There you learned that mind mapping is a visual technique for structuring and organizing thoughts and ideas. This article covers another mind mapping app you can use in Fedora: Freeplane<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Freeplane is a free and open source software application that supports thinking, sharing information and getting things done. Freeplane runs on any operating system that has a current version of Java installed.<\/p>\n

Installing Freeplane<\/h2>\n

Freeplane is not currently packaged in the Fedora repositories, so you will need to install it from the project’s website.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Go to the project’s Sourceforge site<\/a> and click Download<\/em> to download the file<\/li>\n
  2. Open a terminal and extract the file (note that the version you download may be different): unzip freeplane_bin-1.8.5.zip<\/em><\/li>\n
  3. Move the extracted contents to the \/opt directory: sudo mv freeplane-1.8.5 \/opt\/freeplane<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The configuration file is located in: ~\/.config\/freeplane<\/em>. You can launch Freeplane by running \/opt\/freeplane\/freeplane.sh<\/em> from a terminal, but if you want to launch it from the desktop environment you can create a desktop file.<\/p>\n

    Open your favorite text editor and save the contents below to ~\/.local\/share\/applications\/freeplane.desktop<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    [Desktop Entry]\nVersion=1.0\nName=Freeplane\nIcon=\/opt\/freeplane\/freeplane.svg Exec=\/opt\/freeplane\/freeplane.sh\nTerminal=false\nIcon=freeplane\nType=Application\nMimeType=text\/x-troff-mm; Categories=Office;\nGenericName=Freeplane\nComment=A free tool to organise your information\nKeywords=Mindmaps; Knowledge management; Brainstorming;<\/pre>\n
    Next, update the desktop file database with update-desktop-database ~\/.local\/share\/applications<\/em><\/p>\n
    Now you can launch Freeplane from your desktop environment.<\/p>\n
    Using Freeplane<\/h2>\n
    At its first startup, Freeplane’s main window includes an example mind map with links to documentation about all the different things you can do with Freeplane.<\/p>\n
    \"\"<\/figure>\n
    Start your First Mind Mapping<\/h3>\n
    You have a choice of templates when you create a new mind map. The standard template works for most cases. Start typing the idea and your text will replace the center text.<\/p>\n
    Press the Insert key to add a branch (or node) off the center with a blank field where you can fill in something associated with the idea. Press Insert again to add another node connected to the first one.<\/p>\n
    Press Enter on a node to add a node parallel to that one.<\/p>\n
    All keyboard shortcuts are in the Freeplane documentation<\/a>.<\/p>\n
    Freeplane Plug-ins<\/h3>\n
    Plug-ins can be used to extend and customize the use of the app. Two important ones are:<\/p>\n
      \n
    1. Freeplane GTD+<\/a>: A generic task management add-on, with a special focus in supporting the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology<\/li>\n
    2. Study Planner<\/a>: helps organize learning<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      To install a new add-on to Freeplane, find the add-on you want on the Freemind add-ons directory<\/a>.<\/p>\n