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Dendra manual

Everything the app does, in the order you are likely to need it.

What Dendra is

Dendra is a mind map editor: one central bubble, branches growing out of it, and as much colour, detail and structure as the idea deserves. It runs in any modern browser at dendramaps.com and as an app on iPhone and iPad. The map is the same in both, and it keeps working with no network.

Where the name comes from

Dendron is Greek for tree. That is the shape of every map here: a trunk in the middle and branches that split as the thinking goes further.

The same word gave us dendrites, the branches a neuron grows to reach its neighbours. So the name points at both ends of the job — the tree on the screen, and the tree inside the head that the screen is trying to copy.

Quick start

1. Open the app to return to your last map. A new library starts with the Welcome to Dendra example. Choose Edit to make changes.
2. Tap or click the central bubble to select it.
3. Press + in the bottom bar and choose Child node or Sibling node. The new bubble opens straight into text editing.
4. Press Enter for another bubble on the same level, Tab to go one level deeper.
5. Rename the map in the title field at the top of the screen.

The map saves itself as you work. The Undo and Redo buttons at the bottom go back and forward through everything you did in this map.

Explore lets you navigate without changing the map. Select a bubble and use the information button to read its text, notes, links and images. Folding branches in Explore only changes your view. Existing maps open in Explore; new and imported maps open in Edit.

The canvas

• Move the view: drag the background, or scroll with a trackpad or wheel.
• Zoom: the + and − buttons on the right, Cmd/Ctrl with the wheel, or pinch on a touch screen.
• Fit: Fit in the bottom bar brings the whole map back into view when you get lost.
• Select: tap or click a bubble. Arrow keys move the selection to the bubble in that direction.

Bubbles

In Edit, select a bubble. On a computer, a small bar appears over it. On a phone, use the information button in the bottom bar for its properties:

The same fields, with more room, live in the Node panel, which the Node button in the bottom bar opens. To change the text, double click the bubble or press F2; on a phone, select the bubble and press the pencil button.

A long press (or right click) on a bubble opens a menu with all of it in one place, plus Sticky beside it. The same long press on the background offers a new sticky, a new bubble, the map tools and fit to screen. Stickies are loose notes that float on the canvas and belong to no branch; drag them anywhere.

Completing instead of deleting

The ✓ button files a bubble away and lifts its children into its place, so the branch does not collapse with it. Finished bubbles go to Tools › Completed, where you can read them or put them back — colour, icon, note, due date and images come back too, but the children stay where they were promoted. The list keeps the last 200.

Tools › Due dates is the other review list: every bubble with a deadline, in date order, in this map.

Moving branches

• Drag a bubble between two siblings to reorder it. A line shows where it will land.
• Drag a bubble onto another bubble to move the whole branch under it.
• Space folds or unfolds the branch under the selected bubble. A folded bubble shows the number of children waiting inside it.

Layouts

Tools › Layout changes the shape of the whole map:

Arrange automatically keeps the map tidy after every change. Turn it off and Arrange now tidies once, leaving you free to nudge bubbles afterwards.

Tools › Theme offers Midnight, Paper, Forest and Sunset. Paper is the one to pick before exporting something to print.

Your maps

Maps at the top left opens the library: every map with its date, plus open, duplicate and delete. New starts an empty one. The most recent maps also sit next to the button on wider screens, one tap away.

Saving, account and sync

Without signing in you are a visitor: the app opens on the welcome map and nothing is kept. Whatever you touch as a visitor travels into the account the first time you sign in — nothing is lost, but do sign in before building something you care about. The account is free and takes one tap: Microsoft, Google or Apple, in ••• › Account › Sync account.

With an account, maps live on the device and in your account, and every device signed in with the same email sees the same library. A mark in the top bar tells you when that is not happening:

• Not syncing · sign in — there are changes with nowhere to go. Tap it to open the account section.
• Sync failed — the last attempt did not go through. Your work is safe on the device; Sync maps now tries again.

If two devices change the same map while apart, the version edited last wins and the app says so; no duplicate copy is made. Different maps changed on different devices simply merge. Deleting a map deletes it everywhere, and an old device coming back online cannot resurrect it.

Two different emails are two different libraries. To bring them together, sign in with the same email on both — and export the side with unique content first, because merging keeps the newest version rather than making copies.

Sharing and collaborating

••• › Map › Send a copy puts the whole map, compressed, inside a link. Nothing is uploaded: the map travels in the link itself. Whoever opens it gets a copy in their own library, and from then on the two maps go their separate ways. Very large maps do not fit in a link; the app says so and suggests exporting JSON instead.

••• › Map › Collaborate is the live version: a room where several people edit the same map at once and see each other's changes. The map owner uses People with access to manage that map's invitations. The administrator must also enable global collaboration access for each person. Stop collaborating closes the room and leaves you with the map.

Administration

••• › Account › Admin is available on the website and iOS only to the administrator, after the server confirms access. It opens a separate management page, not a panel over your map. You can also open Management directly; the server still checks your account.

Use the side menu on a computer, or the bottom navigation on a phone: Overview shows the totals, Accounts shows the account directory and plans, and Access manages global collaboration permissions. Back to maps returns to the map you were working on.

It shows known accounts, cloud map totals and active Pro subscriptions, with test subscriptions counted separately. The administrator can add or remove global collaboration access and edit collaborator names. Removing global access keeps the account and existing map invitations; it prevents new collaboration authorizations. It does not cancel purchases.

The initial account total may be incomplete: identifiable accounts are recovered from existing data, and the others appear when they sign in again. Unused invitations are not accounts. Admin data is not available offline and is cleared when signing out.

Export and import

Under ••• › Files:

• JSON — the full map, and the only format that can be imported back. This is your backup.
• SVG — vector drawing, for slides or printing at any size.
• PNG — an image, for pasting anywhere.
• PDF — one page with the whole map.
• Obsidian — Markdown notes for an Obsidian vault.
• Import JSON — brings a map file back in as a new map.

Imported and shared maps are cleaned on the way in: sizes, colours and links are checked. If anything had to be left out, the app tells you exactly what and how much.

Free and Pro

The free version covers three maps and does not put images inside bubbles. Dendra Pro removes the limit, allows images, and syncs across devices — web and iOS.

With Pro, paste an image from the clipboard while editing a bubble's text and it lands inside the bubble; tap it to see it full size. Images are shrunk before being stored, so a map stays small enough to sync and to share.

Pro is bought in the iOS app, monthly or yearly, and renews until cancelled in your Apple account settings. On the web, sign in with the same account and Pro unlocks there too. There is no separate purchase on the web.

On the computer and on the phone

It reads and edits best on a computer. A big screen shows the branches far enough out to see the shape of the whole idea, the keyboard builds a map faster than any menu (Tab, Enter, arrows), dragging a branch to a precise spot is easy with a mouse, and long notes are simply less painful to type. If you are going to build or reorganise a map, do it there.

And yes, the phone works too — it is the same app and the same maps, not a cut down version. The bottom bar holds the common actions, the panels slide up from the bottom, pinch zooms, and a long press opens the menu of whatever you pressed. Reading a map, ticking something off, adding a bubble that just occurred to you, fixing a date, showing the map to someone at a table: all fine on a phone.

With an account, both are the same library, so the usual rhythm is build on the computer, carry it in your pocket, and let the two meet on their own.

Keyboard shortcuts

Working offline

Dendra can open without a network, but private maps stay locked until the server confirms your account. Losing the connection locks the private view; saved changes stay on the device in that account's library. Connect again and choose Check account again. Visitor maps do not open any saved private content.

Each account has its own maps and history, even on the same device. Older device maps whose owner cannot be confirmed are kept separately, never automatically opened or uploaded. Signing in recovers that account's maps from the cloud.

Getting help

••• › Help has Show intro again, which replays the four step tour, and Send feedback, which opens your mail app with the app version and device already filled in. Tell me what is missing or what went wrong.

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