No MindNode File Support in DDTG 3?

No image export like jpg, png or gif?

Freemind is XML I think, and that might look like text, but can be parsed into a mindmap if software exists that can do that and the DT(TG) staff can somehow incoporate it. It’s on their list of possible developments in the future I understand.

What you can do is store your Mindnode docs in DTTG and edit them with the new open-in feature of DTTG.

From the the manual, page 32:

Open In and Sharing Data: The row of icons
lets you send data to the share extensions
of other apps. Tap to sharte or long-press
to show a context menu with one or two
options: Share with app or Open in app. The
share option copies data or the file to the
receiving application. Any changes to the file
in the external application have no effect on
the file in DEVONthink To Go. Note, when
sharing data, the receiving application is
responsible for how it interprets the incoming
data.
The Open in option allows the receiving
application to open the file in place without
generating copies. This allows you to edit
a file in an external application without
having to search for it first in the file provider
within the other application. Edits made in
the external application should be shown in
DEVONthink To Go when you switch back to
it.
Note: In both cases above, the receiving
application must support the sharing
options. If you don’t see the application or
desired option, contact the developer to
inquire if they’ll support sharing in these
ways.

“When you use the open in MindNode option from the DDTG share sheet you can edit the file in MindNode. All the changes will save to that file in DDTG.”

Thanks for the very helpful workaround. I’ve tested it twice and it does work as you say. It modifies the file in DTTG which in turn syncs to DT.

It’s a bit awkward and I would have never thought of doing it that way, but it does work!

I don’t get a “Share with app” or “Open in app” option when I long press the file, but I do get a simple “Share…” option (with the icon with the arrow pointing up from the box) which opens the sharing panel from which I select MindNode. I can then make changes in MindNode, with back to DTTG, the sharing panel kind of greys out and “blinks”, then the edits are included in the document and sync as such to the file in DT.

So that works. Thank you!

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Thanks for your reply.

The options don’t show up when long-pressing a file, but when long-pressing the icon of your preferred app – in this case Mindnode – after having shared the file from the share arrow. It’s well hidden.
When you long-press the Mindnode icon (in the row of the share sheet), there should be the option to “Share with app” (which creates a copy that is unrelated to the one stored in DTTG) and “Open in app” (which saves any edits back to DTTG).

But you seem to have this working now if I understood correctly.

Thank you, I found the “Open in App” option by long pressing on the MindNode icon in the share sheet. It worked as you indicated. Strangely, I get exactly the same result without long pressing and selecting the “Open in App” option, but just by selecting the MindNode icon which also saves any edits back to DTTG. OK …

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Files app can probably preview it due to quicklook and the Quicklook Preview Extension and Thumbnail Extension

I would assume DEVONthink To Go is using quicklook to preview files and there is a bug with custom file formats causing quicklook to not be used. Or not as before 2018, document viewing on iOS was pathetic.

APIs back in 2018 WWDC

Quicklook Preview Extension and Thumbnail Extension…. Ios 12?

I think it’s @eboehnisch you should ask. I’m just a visitor that read his comment, noticed you mentioned quicklook and ‘connected the dots’ :grinning:

Thanks to everyone who responded. I wasn’t so interested in getting a preview in DTTG as I was having the ability to open it in MindNode and make changes to the file in DTTG which would sync to DT.

I appreciate everyone providing insight into how to get that done!

Well, as DEVONthink To Go supports Quick Look for all unknown files, whatever is provided should be used. And: Have you seen any QL extensions out in the wild? Just curious.

That’s the hard part to check. I’m assuming if one goes into the files app and it can view a non standard file type, there’s an extension.

I can’t even get that far in DEVONthink. I tried to add via files and via share menu. Not sure why it’s stuck wanting to download the file in my global inbox (or any location)

Could you, maybe, send me such a MindNode document for my tests, best by email? Thanks.

…chipping into this quite late, but one way I’ve found to use MindNode and DEVONthink together on the mac is as a form of ‘visual organisation’ (while everyone is fighting over whether roam/obsidian/etc means DT needs a visualisation layer).

I organise it myself, putting a MindNode document in a few key groups as an entry point.
The nodes on the map get links to DEVONthink groups, so I can just click one and find myself in the right place. It works surprisingly well, particularly with quickview (and I can’t remember if the links work in quickview or not on macOS, but it’s not a huge overhead to open a working map).

I think this could be really useful with DTTG, but what would make it antiuseful would be having to export an alternative mindmapping format (at which point the spatial structure is lost, making the map almost useless) or having to remember to bump out a PDF every time I make a change.

However, I’ve found it a useful mechanism to add structure and links to DEVONthink groups.

If these would start showing up on iOS, that would be useful, but most of my serious work happens in front of a Macbook rather than an iPad.

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Sent.

I also removed the mindnode app and could no longer preview the file in the Apple file app. I think it’s safe to say that the app included a quicklook extension.

Great, thank you. I think I have an idea…

Mysterious! Enigmatic!

I have some potentially useful info on this topic: I downloaded and tried KeepIt yesterday out of curiosity for where that app has gotten to in the past few months. I think, even for non-power users, DTTG is still better (especially sync), but that’s not why I’m writing. What I found was that KeepIt was able to provide previews for MindNode files.

On a related note, I have started using the PostIt app, and it has the same issue as MindNode, showing a preview in the Files app and KeepIt, but not DTTG. One interesting thing in my KeepIt test was learning how useless those previews are for these two apps if you can’t pan and zoom — I couldn’t read anything because of the dimensions of the preview. But, it sure was pretty.

Hopefully this helps you on the road to solving this problem. For now, I am more certain that just having some sort of indicator in the preview section of DTTG for files that can’t show a preview would really help (and is really all that is necessary, aesthetics aside). Now that the bug around being able to click-off a file has been fixed, it’s even more important, as the state change isn’t that noticeable without a preview image, with only some of the controls in the header changing.