GSoC 2010: Mind Mapping in KOffice

Hi guys. I'm GSoC student Cyril Oblikov. And this is the first post about my project - Mind Mapping in KOffice. Mid-term evaluations deadline coming soon, and I'd like to describe what is done for this moment.

A key element of mind map is tree which layouts shapes with text. I decided tree may be usefull not only for mind mapping, but for some other things. So I started working on TreeShape plugin. Plugin makes it possible to layout any KOffice shapes in tree structure and manage it.

As tree can work with any KOffice shape, I prefer using Ellipses or Rectangles (this simple shapes are well suited for debugging).


Let us see, what tree plugin can do right now:

• There are four types of layouting shapes: OrgUp, OrgDown, OrgLeft and OrgRight. Also layouts can be combined.
• Keys 1,2,3,4 change type of tree's layout.
• You can add new children (by pressing <Tab>) and neighbours (by pressing <Enter>).
• Trees can be moved from one parent to another. Just select tree and release mouse over the new parent. As you can see this way is not very comfortable, so currently I'm working on more interactive movement.
• It is possible to undo/redo children moving, adding and deleting.

And this is in turn in to-do list:

• Some new layout types similar to XMind ones.
• Saving/Loading trees.
• Indicators - icons attached to shapes which display such usefull information as readyness, priority, etc.
• Comfortable docker widget to control trees.