1. Open VisiMap Pro and you will see an ellipse in the centre labeled "Untitled". This is known as the map centre.

Double-click it and you will see an rectangular edit box appear. Type in your main subject topic here and press the Enter key: you will see the words you have just written inside the map centre shape. The shape has also adjusted to accommodate your text.

 You will also now notice a rectangular 'selection highlight' around the oval. This means that the map centre is now your central point of departure.

Just start typing your first branch topic. Notice that you have immediately created a new branch.  Do this again as many times as you like, to create a number of first level topics (called 'primary branches') and as long as you keep the map centre highlighted (indicated by the dotted highlight) you can add branches indefinitely just by typing. What you have here is something like the chapters of a book: the main topics.

Go to the first branch (it is at the top right of your map) and click once on it. Note that this branch is now highlighted instead of the map centre. Just start typing again, pressing the Enter key after you enter each secondary topic name. Now you are creating a second level of headings, or 'secondary branches'. You have a series of sub-headings.

So far you are looking at a map outline, but that is just a starting point. You may now want to add some explanatory or extended text under one of the topics. Go to your first subheading and click on it. Note again that the rectangular selection highlight indicates the position you are in. Below the ruler in the middle of the window there is a blank space for you to start typing text. Try typing something. Now move to a level 2 branch. You will see a small note image pinned to the level one branch to let you know that there is some text ('branch notes') attached to it.

You can go on with this process until you have a more extensive map structure, with textual notes sections beneath it.  Let's suppose you want to change the layout. Go to the View menu at the top of the main VisiMap Professional form and choose "Text Outline Map". This is a quick way to impress your more linear friends who don't like anything graphic. They won't know how you got to this point.

If you don't like the typeface you are seeing, you can change it effortlessly in the same way that you would for any Windows program. Just go to the second toolbar down and try it. The various levels of branches have pre-set styles but you can vary them if you want to and create your own. (I wouldn't recommend this artistically!  It's just demonstrating what is possible.)

Colour creates attention. A map with coloured branches will be more pleasing to look at and also help to distinguish different sets of information visually. Try clicking on one of the branches at the first level to highlight it and then clicking on one of the colours in the colour palette positioned near the bottom of VisiMap Professional's main form. If you click with the primary mouse button (that's the left-most mouse button, unless you have configured your mouse for left handed use, in which case it's the right-most button) you will produce a different branch colour. If you click with the secondary mouse button (that's the other main mouse button, naturally) you will instead fill in the shape.

Want to add a picture for interest?  Any branch will accept just about any sort of clip art or photograph you would like to use. Click on the tool bar button bearing the small  image with the letter a and the geometric shapes (this is towards the right of the second row of tool bars). This will open a menu of several alternative sources of pictures that we can add. This time, choose "Select" from the menu in order to choose a clip art picture contained in a file somewhere on the hard disk drive of your computer. When you find a picture of interest, select it and press OK to close the picture selector and add the picture to your map.

 If you don't like the picture displaying beneath the branch and prefer it to be on top, click on the picture with the secondary mouse button and change its placement. You could also have used the Placement button on the picture tool bar for this. In many cases you will want to adjust the image size using the percent button.

Now let's add a link to another document. Click on the branch you want to host the link with the secondary mouse button to pop-up a menu of all kinds of actions. Locate and click on the "Add Link" item. This presents you with a form of several options. For now, press the button with an ellipsis to the right of the "Target file" box to browse for a document file. For illustration purposes, it doesn't matter what file you select here, but try looking for a word processor document, say, and select it. When you select a file and press OK, you will see that VisiMap suggests a name for it, and automatically shows you a small icon representing the file type. Change the name if you wish, and press OK to dismiss the Add Link form. You will then see the link appear directly beneath the branch you added it to. if you click the link, you will see VisiMap Professional open the linked document in your word processor.

It's easy to re-order the branches of your map if you decide that you would like to. To move a branch, just use your mouse to drag and drop it elsewhere in your map. As you drag the branch around, you will see a small cursor image indicating where it will be placed (relative to the branch under the cursor) if you drop it at that location. A stop sign indicates that you can't drop the branch at that location: in that case, move it over another branch of your map until the cursor image changes. You can also use the "Reorder" option from the Branch drop-down menu.

Finally you may wish to have VisiMap Professional transfer your map to another application. Before you do so, you must first save your map to give it a filename. Click the button near the top left of the tool bar area and choose a suitable name for your map file. This will create a file of the name you specify, with an extension of .mmp.

Now locate a familiar icon on the Quick Export Bar, (not all of the buttons shown in the program will necessarily be available in your copy - it depends what other supported applications you have installed)  ...

... and click it. VisiMap Professional will then go about converting your map into a different format and open it for you in the application you chose.

You have now familiarised yourself with some of the key features of VisiMap Pro, but you have only scratched the surface of what it offers. There are a number of ways you can progress from here. Here are some suggestions: