In the first couple of posts in my series on MindManager 2017’s new features I looked at HTML 5 export and dashboard maps. I’m going to look at a couple more new features shortly, but first I wanted to add a short post on some other new tricks you can do using both these features to selectively export certain aspects of your maps. The following is an expanded version of a comment I posted on a thread relating to HTML 5 export on the Mindjet community forum.

1. How to export a map to HTML 5 with a user-accessible filter. To export a map with a filter that can be turned on or off in the exported map, first create the map and then create and apply the filter, selecting show or hide matching topics as desired. Export the map to HTML 5 (see my earlier post on HTML 5 exporting). The resulting web page should include a button in the top toolbar which allows the user to toggle the filter on or off.

Example map

Example map filtered for export

Filtered exported HTML 5 map with user accessible filter button visible

2. How to export a map to HTML 5 with a permanent filter. Create the map, filter it and create the HTML 5 export file as described above. Make sure the filter is active in the exported map then follow the instructions here or in my post here to edit the HTML 5 file to remove the toolbar container line from the HTML file and resave it. The edited map export should now open in the filtered state minus the toolbar containing the button which allows users to apply or remove the filter. Therefore, while technically the whole map has been exported, there isn’t an easy way for end users to access the unfiltered map.

Filtered exported HTML 5 map with user accessible filter button removed

3. How to export a map to HTML 5 showing only selected branches. This is where dashboard maps come in, which means you will need 2017.1 or better to do this. Create the map and then use the new dashboard map feature to make a new map, selecting only the branch(es) you wish to export – see my post here if you need help to do this. Then delete the button to the right of the dashboard topic that links the rolled up branch(es) back to the original map, expand the map to show all sub-topics (if desired) and export as an HTML file. The dashboard map will be refreshed every time it is opened. Whenever the relevant branches in the source map are edited the changes will be reflected in the dashboard map and will therefore appear when the HTML file is re-exported.

Dashboard map with branches selected from the example map

Exported HTML 5 dashboard map with selected branches

4. Combining selected branches and filtered maps – or perhaps not. It would seem logical that you could combine these features – but alas this doesn’t seem possible at the moment. Dashboard maps seem to have an uneasy relationship with filters, especially when filtered dashboard maps are saved and reopened. This bug seems to extend to attempts to export filtered dashboard maps; the unfiltered map is exported even if the filter was applied at the time and when you click on the filter button the HTML 5 map seems to duplicate subtopics rather than remove them.