JMindMaps is a simple application that allows creating, saving and loading mind maps in a custom XML format.
When you open JMindMaps a window appears with the canvas on the left and the toolbar on the right.
You can create new nodes of the map by double clicking in the canvas area, or by selecting "Add node" option on the toolbar, and then click on the canvas. Remember to go back to "Select node" mode, if you want to operate on the items on canvas.
After you have inserted few nodes you can change their title, add description or image to a node. To edit node title simply click on the placeholder and enter the node title text. Adding an image or a description is done by hovering the mouse cursor over a node and selecting appropriate option if you want to add image or description. You can click the image button to add image. You will be then prompted to open an image from disk. When adding a description a placeholder will appear. You can edit it the same way you edit the node's title.
To make a connetion between existing nodes just hover over a node you want, press the mouse over the chain icon and drag it to another node, then release the mouse button.
You can also create new nodes using the chain button. If you click and drag this button far enough from the node the cursor will change into crosshair. Releasing a button will yield a new node attached to the one from which the drag came from.
Every image you add to a node will be stored using absolute path to the filesystem. The images are stored in the toolbar on the right in the "Images" tab. You can use these images to assign them to different nodes. Just select the node you want the image to change and choose an image from the toolbar "Images" tab. Here you can also browse for more images if you want to change the selected node image.
In order to access existing nodes on the canvas you can switch to the "Nodes" tab on the toolbar. Clicking a node will cause the canvas to move to the clicked node.
There is also a possibility to undo and redo an action. Simply press CTRL + Z to undo an action and CTRL + SHIFT + Z to redo an action. Take note this won't change node text. The redo and undo feature only changes the layout of the map - the undo work on events such as: new node addition, node deletion, node reposition, image change, and connection addition and removal.