Mind Mapping Workflow

New mind mapping workflow is added in this Android patch 1.8.0. This workflow is to simplify the creation of mind map. You can create a mind map by choosing the mind map option when creating a new file.

To begin, you start by drawing your central idea shape and then type in the central idea immediately afterward. From the central idea, you can simply draw out branches any way you want either with straight, curve, or multi-step lines.

It is easier to edit branches looks and feels by redrawing the connector line again. For example, drawing a straight line on a curved connector will act as a quick replacement command. You can re-route children node by simply selecting the start point of the connector and drag it to other parent node. Finally, to draw link between existing nodes you can just draw line connecting them.

Here are some additional mind map specific controls

The current implementation is still in beta stage as it is still missing some advance mind mapping features such as auto layout, more styling option, mindmap format, and more. Please help us improve them by sending your suggestions to support@drawexpress.com

PD

Color Workflow and Palette

Hello, this is Peter Duong the author of DrawExpress.  One user had reminded me that I haven’t updated this blog for a while.  At that time, I was updating features here and there.  However I felt that I wasn’t working on anything exciting to talk about.   You can follow my changes log to get an idea of what have been done since.  Anyways, the “Features and Roadmap” page is turning out to be close to the changes log.  Now, I think it is better to discuss about some of the major pain points and design decisions instead. 

So looking back at all the features added recently, I feel that some of them aren’t solved properly yet.  Although, it provides the added functionality, however it is still lacking in the user experience aspect of DrawExpress.   So I decided to take a step back to look at them and come up with better a solution before moving forward. So for the next few blogs I am opened to discussion and hopefully getting some insights from you.

Here is a list of things that I have in minds:

• Color workflow
• Line and curve
• Custom Library
•  Project and file organization
• File sharing and synchronization

For this post I am going to discuss about the color workflow.  Right now the coloring workflow is a bit confusing between the gesture and the style menu.   For those wanting a better visual diagram this is an area that will need improvement both in the UX and the coloring options.  I am still in favor of leaving in the gesture option but it will need to support the ability to change text and stroke.  Right now you can use gestures for fill and the menu for text and stroke.   

Also, the color palette and theme is really rigid and will need to be customizable.  I do not think it is necessary to create an open ended color mixture every time you want to change the color.   However, an ability to replace some of the default colors on the bar with your own favorite would be better.  I must admit that the default colors set aren’t well thought out.

Please feel free to leave your feedback regarding to this topic here or email me at support@drawexpress.com.   I’ll be updating this blog with more implementation details later.

Regards,

PD

Features and Roadmap

Update March 28:

We are tuning the coloring gesture and the delete gesture to make it easier.  This upcoming patch we'll let user reroute connector between shape or sequence. In addition, we are making changes to the color style so we can support more themes.  We do have plan to make theme and color palette customizable at a later update.  Also, we are also working to improve text to support better input and more fonts. 
 

Update January 17:

Many users have asked us for more shapes, so we are reworking the shape engine to support this better.    The shape engine will let us add new shapes faster and also possibly let user create their custom library in the future.  These shapes are not associated to a gesture yet so they'll be selectable from the image library instead.
 
Update December 18:

We'll be making a series of changes to our graphic framework for future development.  Hopefully it doesn't break anything.  Please let us know if you are running into any problem.

Update November 15:

We are working on detecting and drawing curves.  We hope to introduce it with the upcoming patch.

Update October 24:

We are making to change add more styling to diagram.  This coming patch we'll introduce a dark color scheme to the diagram. We'll add more selections in the future.

Update September 22:

Upcoming update will have custom image import from photo gallery.  We also made some additional algorithm improvements to our connector strategy and gesture recognition.

Update September 10:

Android and IOS version are now available and with Dropbox's support.  We have a minor patch to address some minor file compatibility issues between the two platforms.  This minor patch is also included crow's foot notation for ER diagram. 

There are a couple of changes we are planning for our upcoming version:

1) We are planning to change current connector drawing strategy to improve its flexibility.  
2) We are making change to insert image option to pave way for custom library in the future

We'll discuss it in greater details when we are closer to releasing these changes.

Update August 8:

We have been working on the IOS version and we are almost ready to release the first version as soon as the Apple Developer Center is back online.  In the meantime, we have made some minor adjustments to the Android version to keep the two platforms in sync.    

1)    add ability to view/import .de file directly from email attachment (available to full version)
2)    change shape scaling pivot from center to top left
3)    save recently used email

Unfortunately for Blackberry user, the file intent used in 1 doesn’t work.  We’ll see if there is any other workaround for the problem in the future patch.

Update May 29: We'll support SVG export with our next release.  

Update May 4:  Next release will include textbox (double tap) and read-only lock mode.  Single touch panning is enable while in locked mode.

Update April 4: We are exploring ways to allow diagrams to link with each other. 

Update Mar 26: We are looking to improve our text inputs:

• support more ISO language codes
• support italic ( .i. tag)
• support text underline (.u. tag)

Update Mar 21: Upcoming release will be focused on additional drawing features:

•  round rectangle corner 
• drawing line arrow
• line coloring
• drawing circle

Update Mar 12: Here are some potential additions to our next release:

• import DE file from external Download directory to project workspace.  This allows sharing editable file with others or transfering file between devices.
• PNG scallable option - better image quality for smaller scalled image size
• delete empty project

Update Mar 05: We are working on the recognition for two additional process flow shapes: event (hexagon) and document.  Also, we are debugging memory issue from certain devices when switching back and forth between DrawExpress and other apps.

 
Update Feb 27:  Our next release will include a tutorial button that will let you link to our website tutorial slides.  We will have a support email option inside the app aswell.  Finally, we'll implement a global clipboard feature that will let you copy objects between files. 

 Update Feb 16: Finally, the first release is out of the way and now we can focus on what's next.  The following picture show branches of our current features and upcoming features.  Those in yellow are the one in development.  We'll put out further details when we are closer to complete some of these items.  If you like to provide feedbacks please feels free to send an email or leave a comment.