automatic placement mode

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I recently discovered Freemind. Their user interface is HORRIBLE, but, they
got something nailed down real good: 
1- you don't have to worry/think about placement of thoughts, visual
layouting, and generally wasting time moving things around ending up with a
messy mindmap
2- their entire app can be used with the keyboard only

So I would like a mode for labyrinth to create thoughts and they get
automatically positionned -- the user, in this mode, cannot change the
placement of thoughts (for technical reasons I would think).

This leads to much quicker and cleaner creation of mindmaps, with the only
drawback being that it somewhat limits freedom of designing the mindmap
(but I have not missed that part). I can create in a few minutes a mindmap
that would take me hours in labyrinth.

What are your thoughts on this?

Original issue reported on code.google.com by nekoh...@gmail.com on 2 Apr 2008 at 2:32

[GoogleCodeExporter]

actually, we could even change the way the user interacts with the gui 
completely in
this case. It could be designed like this:

- a sidebar on the left allows entering thoughts in hierarchical order, maybe 
using a
gtk treeview or sourceview
- a pane at the bottom allows editing the details of a particular thought
- a "preview" area on the right shows the result as a mind map in real-time

So, it could look like this:

_______________________________
|     |                        |
|     |   mindmap area         |
|     |                        |
|     |                        |
|     |                        |
|     |                        |
|------------------------------|
|  comments on a thought       |
|                              |
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Where the user only interacts with the left and bottom panes, and then he can 
export
the mind map afterwards.

Wouldn't it be awesome?

Original comment by nekoh...@gmail.com on 5 Apr 2008 at 7:48

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I implemented the treeview sidebar with a11y in mind. But your ideas could be 
added
too, yes.

Original comment by matthias...@gmail.com on 9 Apr 2008 at 5:12

• Added labels: Type-Enhancement
• Removed labels: Type-Defect

[GoogleCodeExporter]

oh, I just took a look at that sidebar. Indeed I guess it could be a starting 
point.
As for that sidebar itself, I have a few usability issues with it:
- it does not remember if it was left open (this needs not be a map-specific 
setting,
but a global labyrinth setting I would assume?)
- it does not remember its width
- you have to manually unfold everything all the time

Do I need to file them as bugs?

Original comment by nekoh...@gmail.com on 10 Apr 2008 at 2:43

[GoogleCodeExporter]

No you don't. And you are right from a usability standpoint it is not that 
good. Oh,
and it doesn't look quite right with no margin at the left side.

I will take care about those points you mentioned.

Original comment by matthias...@gmail.com on 13 Apr 2008 at 3:52