A smooth user experience is the result of relentless attention to many small details. Here’s one that’s being discussed right now at Mindjet:
When you open a map in MindManager 6, and expand or collapse some topics in order to see what’s there, and you close the map again, you get a "Save changes?" dialog. We’re considering changing this so that if all you do is expand or collapse, and then close the map, the Save Changes dialog would not appear; that is, the expand/collapse info would not be saved. Essentially, we’d be treating expand/collapse as "view" information, like scroll and zoom.
You’d still get the dialog if you made a more substantial change (like editing a topic), and expand/collapse info would still be saved whenever you saved the map. So to save a particular expand/collapse state, you’d simply save the document manually before closing the window, instead of having the system prompt you to do it.
The benefit is that if you’re "just looking", you avoid a dialog, and you don’t have to wonder if you’ve made a change without realizing it. The drawback is that you might sometimes forget to save the map with the expand/collapse layout you wanted. (Remember, this would happen only if you had made no other changes.)
What do you think about this proposal? Does it depend on the kind of map you’re dealing with, or what you’re using it for? We’re also considering a user-settable option for this behavior, but whether that happens or not, we still need to make the right decision regarding the factory setting.
If you feel strongly one way or another, please speak up!