Branch Hyperlinks

The five types of hyperlinks that can be attached to any branch are described below:

This links to another NovaMind document on your local machine. You must specify the name of the file to open, and you can also specify the title of a branch to select when the file is opened.

When a user clicks on this type of link, the file will be opened as another document in NovaMind. If you specify a branch title to select, the Mind Map will be searched in the order that the graphics would print in that Mind Map, and the first title that exactly matches the link specification will be selected, and moved to the center of the view of the document.

Note that if you distribute the NovaMind document to other people, they will not be able to access the linked document unless it is at the same relative location on their computer. You can specify the location of a linked file using relative paths - the link needs to start with a . to refer to the current directory, or .. to refer to the parent directory (relative to the directory where the mind map you are editing is stored).

If you want a link to just open a new empty document, instead of typing a file name, type "<NEW>" as the name of the file to open.

Linking to a NovaMind document on a URL requires full specification of the URL site and the document name. You may also specify the title of a branch to select when the file is opened.

When a user clicks on this type of link, the URL will be opened as another document in NovaMind. If you specify a branch title to select, the opened Mind Map will be searched in the order that the graphics would print in that Mind Map, and the first title that exactly matches the link specification will be selected and moved to the center of the view of the document.

This links to any file on your local machine and will open that file using the specified default application.

This links to any URL, and will open that file using your default web browser application.

This link asks you to specify the recipient of the email, the title of the email and the message.

When you click on this type of link, the details you specified will be composed in your default email application. You have the opportunity to edit the message before sending it. An operating system limitation limits your messages to about 950 characters in length - if the length of the message plus the title and recipient address it more than 1031 characters, you will receive an error message, and the link will probably not work.

Note that if you distribute the NovaMind document to other people, they will not be able to access the linked file unless it is at the same relative location on their computer. You can specify the location of a linked file using relative paths - the link needs to start with a . to refer to the current directory, or .. to refer to the parent directory (relative to the directory where the mind map you are editing is stored).

Below are a few scenarios showing how to do so.

If you have another file that was called file.txt in the same folder as your Mind Map, you can refer to it as ".\file.txt". e.g. with a directory structure

C:\Users\you\Documents\YourMindMap.nmind C:\Users\you\Documents\file.txt

If it was in the folder higher by one level in the hierarchy, you would refer to it with "..\file.txt" e.g. with a directory structure

C:\Users\you\Documents\YourMindMap.nmind C:\Users\you\file.txt

If it was in the folder below by one level in the hierarchy, you would refer to it with "OtherFolder\file.txt" or ".\OtherFolder\file.txt" e.g. with a directory structure

C:\Users\you\Documents\YourMindMap.nmind C:\Users\you\Documents\OtherFolder\file.txt

You can combine this to refer to any folder relative paths e.g., the structure below would be referred to as "..\..\OtherFolder\file.txt":

C:\Users\you\Documents\YourMindMap.nmind C:\Users\OtherFolder\file.txt

When you move the files to a different computer or different parent folder, for the links to remain valid, you just need to maintain the relative locations of the files e.g. in the second example you could move the files to:

C:\Users\SomeoneElse\Documents\YourMindMap.nmind C:\Users\SomeoneElse\file.txt

You can add hyperlinks to a branch by selecting the hyperlink option from the context menu, or by using the Hyperlink command on the Insert tab, or by dragging a file on to a branch from the Windows Explorer, or by dragging a URL from your web browser on to the branch you want the hyperlink on.

You can add another hyperlink by using the + button or remove one by selecting it and pressing the - button.

You can set the type of the hyperlink to any of the options shown (described above).

You can set the color of the hyperlink icon to differentiate it from the other hyperlinks on the branch by using the hyperlink color setting.

The options for the specific hyperlink type are shown on the right side of the panel, and are described above.

The hyperlink settings panel will be shown with a new hyperlink initially set to point to a local file (a file on your computer). You can then select a specific file to link to or change the hyperlink type as described below.

Drag a file onto the branch you want it linked to, and the hyperlink will be added.

Drag a URL from your web browser onto the branch you want to have the hyperlink on, and the hyperlink will be added. Most web browsers have a small icon to the left of the web address which you can drag. You will be shown the standard panel as above, allowing you to adjust the options for the hyperlink.

You can edit the hyperlinks on the branch by Control-clicking on the hyperlink. This will display the hyperlink settings panel and you can edit the settings there.

Select the hyperlink in the hyperlink settings panel, and click the minus button.