Get organised with a mind map

Launch your web browser, click in the Address or Location line at the top and type in www.bubbl.us and press Return. When the site loads, click the Start Brainstorming button. At the next screen, click the Create Account link at the top right, fill in the form and click Submit. After a moment the form disappears and options that were previously greyed out become active. There’s no need to wait for a confirmation email either – instead, we’re ready to start producing our first mind map.

See the empty bubble in the middle of the screen that says ‘Start here’? Hover the mouse pointer over it and a number of icons will fade into view – these are the controls that look after Bubbl’s various functions. Starting at the top left and going clockwise round the bubble they control moving the bubble, closing it, adding another same level or ‘sibling’ bubble (this will become clear in a few steps) connecting it with a different bubble, adding a subsidiary or ‘child’ bubble and changing the colour of the bubble.

We’re going to start planning a mind map for the annual general meeting of a fishing club. Click on Start Here once with the left mouse button, then highlight the text and type in a new heading – ours is simply ‘Angling Club AGM’. Click anywhere outside the bubble to finish relabelling it or press the Return key to create a new child bubble. We’re going to do that. The new bubble appears with the cursor already positioned so we can type a new label.

We’ve now created a series of child bubbles by clicking the New Child button in the top bubble (see Step 2) and then typing in a name for each one. Add some more bubbles and don’t worry about their position for now – we can fix that in a moment. Then, click the New Sibling button in the top bubble and give it a name. Notice how it takes on the same colour as the other top-level bubble to distinguish from the other, child-level bubbles.

The key to any successful mind map is the way it handles relationships and how easy it is to move tasks around the map, reassigning them as necessary. Here for example, we think that on reflection, the Buffet needs to be assigned to the Entertainments Committee, rather than just being associated with the AGM, so we’ll click on the Move button in the top left-hand corner and then drag the bubble across the screen and over the Entertainments Committee bubble so its outline turns orange as shown here.

Let go of the mouse button to drop the bubble into position. Notice that it’s now linked to the new top bubble and that the original line linking it to the other top bubble has disappeared. Next, we’re going to grab the Tickets bubble and drag that up and left to space the child bubbles out more evenly. Speaking of arranging bubbles, check out the top-left corner. From here it’s possible to zoom in and out, undo various steps, centre the whole map or unpin the bubbles so they return to their original positions.

Next, let’s change the bubble colours by clicking the Color button. Use the sliders to set the colour itself, the saturation (essentially the ‘strength’ of the colour) and the lightness. As the sliders are dragged left and right with the mouse, the colour of the bubble changes dynamically. Found a nice colour? Click OK to change it – notice that the child bubbles change to fit the new colour scheme. To change another, same-level bubble to the same colour, click its Color button and the colour we just created will be available as a clickable option.

It’s possible to rearrange the map at any time by dragging the various bubbles around the screen. This is useful if it becomes necessary to create relationships between different bubbles manually. In this example, we think that the Entertainments Committee should also take some of the responsibility for sourcing the prizes for the AGM awards dinner. Here we’re choosing the Connect button on the Prizes bubble and then, holding down the left mouse button, dragging to draw a line between it and the Entertainments bubble.

Give the map a name and click Save. Stored maps can be saved and reloaded, deleted, renamed and even shared with others so that several people can work on the same one (though they also have to sign up for the Bubbl service). Maps can also be printed out – click the Set Print Area button at the top left and choose landscape or portrait; then choose Screen to include all the white space (useful for handwritten notes) or Fit All to print only the chart itself.

Alternatively, click the Menu button at the bottom right of the map to open various export settings. From here it’s possible to send someone who’s not signed up to Bubbl a link to the map so they can read it, grab the code for the map and insert it into a web page, or export the information as an image or a simple HTML web page. As we mentioned in the previous step, Bubbl has collaborative features that make it useful for groups, but it’s also an interesting and useful tool for individuals planning an event or project.