Focus Map
Build visual mind maps of any topic, see how ideas connect, branch out, and relate to each other on an interactive canvas.
1What Focus Map is for
Some topics just don't fit a flat list. When concepts connect, like a chapter, a biological system, or a proof, you need to see the relationships, not just the items.
Focus Map is a visual canvas: start from one central idea and branch outward. Each node is a concept, each line shows how things relate. Zoom out for the whole picture, or into a branch for the detail.
Put “Cell” in the middle, branch to Nucleus, Mitochondria, and Membrane, then branch those again, the structure does half the explaining for you.
2Creating and editing a map
Every map starts from a template. Blank gives you a single root node, your central concept; the others start you off with a mind map, hierarchy, concept map, process, timeline, or cause and effect to fill in.
- Pick a template, then type your topic into the root node.
- Use Child to add a deeper branch, or Sibling for an idea at the same level.
- Double-tap any node to edit it; drag nodes to rearrange the layout.
Color and Shape change how a node looks, eight shapes from a rounded pill to a diamond or a hexagon, without moving it or resizing its slot. Delete removes a node, and Fit and Tidy put the whole map back in view and in order.
3Arrows, links, and text boxes
Branches say what belongs under what. They cannot say “this causes that”, or “these two are the same idea seen twice”, and those are usually the relationships worth drawing.
Link joins two nodes anywhere on the map. It remembers the nodes rather than the spot, so it follows them when you drag either one, and Tidy never leaves it pointing at empty canvas. Arrow draws a free arrow between two points for anything a link cannot say, and Head puts an arrowhead on a branch's own connector when direction matters.
Every arrow can carry one head or two, so a one-way influence and a mutual one look different at a glance. Text box drops a caption straight onto the canvas for a question, a worked figure, or a note to yourself, with no node and no branch attached.
On a biology map, branch to Light reaction and Calvin cycle as usual, then link the two with a single-headed arrow and park a text box beside it reading “ATP and NADPH”. The branches show the parts, the arrow shows the flow.
Select an arrow or a link and the toolbar switches to its options, one head, two heads, or delete. A text box opens for editing the same way.
4Using maps for revision
A finished map is a great revision tool: cover a branch and rebuild it from memory. If you can explain the topic from the root outward, you know it.
If a branch stumps you, that's a signal, it may need cards for recall, deeper notes, or a Mistake Log entry. Each branch gets its own color, so “the blue branch is respiration” reads at a glance.
Collapse the “Photosynthesis” branch, talk through it from memory, then expand to check. The gaps you find are exactly what to revise.
5Power features
Bigger maps get extra help. Tidy re-flows the whole layout cleanly, Fit brings every node back into view, and collapsing a branch tucks its children away until you need them.
Spark grows a node into the sub-topics that belong under it, up to eight at a time, and it reads what is already there so a second Spark on the same node adds what is missing instead of repeating itself. It needs a node with a real topic in it, so name the node before you Spark it. Spark is on the phone apps and the web, and costs a couple of AI credits.
Export hands the finished map to anything else you use: the phone apps share it as an image, the web saves it as a PDF for printing or handing in.
A map built by converting a notebook page keeps the full original line behind each shortened label, so if a node reads too tersely, Use full text puts the whole sentence back.