Living Mindmap

A polished, directly editable mindmap view for ordinary Obsidian Markdown notes.

Usage

Open a Markdown note and run Living Mindmap: Open as Mindmap, or choose Open as Mindmap from the document's three-dot menu.

On desktop, use the ribbon's brain-circuit icon or the command palette. On mobile, open the ribbon from Obsidian's sidebar or use the command palette.

Commands and controls

Selected nodes

These commands apply after clicking a node. Use Shift-click or a selection rectangle to apply formatting and deletion to multiple nodes.

Input	Action
Double-click or F2	Start editing the primary selected node
Tab	Create a child
Enter	Create a sibling at the same level
Ctrl+B / Cmd+B	Toggle bold formatting on the selected nodes
Ctrl+I / Cmd+I	Toggle italic formatting on the selected nodes
Delete or Backspace	Delete the selected nodes and their descendants
Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z	Undo the latest mindmap change
Ctrl+Y / Cmd+Y	Redo the latest mindmap change

Inline editing

These commands apply while the text editor is visible inside a node.

Input	Action
Enter or Tab	Save the edit without creating another node
Shift+Enter	Save and create a sibling
Shift+Tab	Save and create a child
Ctrl+B / Cmd+B	Toggle bold formatting on the selected text
Ctrl+I / Cmd+I	Toggle italic formatting on the selected text
Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y / Cmd+Y	Redo
Escape	Cancel editing

On Linux and Windows, use Ctrl. On macOS, use Cmd.

Mobile and tablet

Tap a node to select it. The action rail appears along the upper-right edge of the screen.

Input or control	Action
Tap a node	Select the node and show its actions
Double-tap a node	Edit its text
Drag an empty area with one finger	Pan the map
Pinch with two fingers	Zoom in or out
Edit	Open the selected node's text editor
Add child	Create and edit a child node
Add sibling	Create and edit a node at the same level
Delete	Delete the selected branch, with confirmation when it has descendants
Undo / Redo	Move backward or forward through mindmap changes
+ / − on a node	Expand or collapse that branch

While editing, use the on-screen controls for bold, italic, child, sibling, and Done. These controls work without a hardware keyboard.

Canvas navigation and selection

Input	Action
Click a node	Select only that node
Shift-click a node	Add or remove it from the current selection
Left-drag an empty area	Select multiple nodes with a selection rectangle
Right-drag an empty area	Pan the view
Mouse wheel	Zoom in or out

Drag and drop

Dragging a parent moves its complete descendant subtree. Dragging one node from a multi-selection moves the selected sibling branches together.

Target area	Action
Center of a node	Make the moved branches children of that node
Top or bottom edge in Horizontal layout	Reorder siblings
Left or right edge in Vertical layout	Reorder siblings

Context menu

Right-click a non-title node to convert it between a Markdown heading and regular list content.

Toolbar

Control	Action
Fit map	Fit and center the complete mindmap in the viewport
Collapse/expand	Collapse every branch or expand them again
Compact branches	Toggle between globally aligned levels and local branch spacing
Branch colors	Toggle distinct colors for top-level branches
Layout	Switch between Horizontal and Vertical layouts
Dimensions	Adjust node width, hierarchy gaps, and sibling spacing

Settings

Mind-map preferences are global and stored in the plugin's data.json, not in note frontmatter. Toolbar changes update the same global settings immediately.

Setting	Purpose
Layout	Choose Horizontal or Vertical rendering
Maximum node width	Set the width at which node text wraps
Spacing mode	Align levels globally or compact each branch locally
Branch colors	Color top-level branches and their connectors independently
Horizontal hierarchy gap	Set the distance between hierarchy columns
Vertical hierarchy gap	Set the distance between hierarchy rows
Sibling gap	Set the minimum distance between sibling subtrees

Node text always wraps at the configured maximum width. Shorter nodes keep their natural compact width.

Enable Compact branches in the toolbar to keep parent-to-child gaps fixed within each branch. Disable it to align every depth into global columns.

Enable Branch colors in the toolbar to give each top-level branch its own node and connector color.

Author

Created by Chansocheat Tieng.