mm2markdown

An XSLT file to transform Freeplane mindmaps into Pandoc Markdown.

Installation

1. Download mm2markdown.xsl
2. Put it in the Freeplane xslt folder: Freeplane\resources\xslt
3. Restart Freeplane

Usage instructions

1. Create a mindmap following the guidelines laid out below
2. When you are ready to export to markdown, in Freeplane select File>Export, and then pick "Markdown (.markdown, .md)" from the "Files of Type" selector.
3. From there you can open the file in a text editor, make final edits, then use the magic of pandoc to convert to many other document types
4. See mindmaps/basic-test.mm for an example mindmap. You can then look at the markdown export in output/basic-test.md, as well as how pandoc converted that markdown to pdf (output/basic-test.pdf).

Mindmap guidelines for successful conversions

Root node attributes become YAML document metadata

• The only content the root node should have is attributes. Do not put any text in the node, attach any notes, etc.
• Create one attribute for each of the metadata elements you want. Use the attribute label for the metadata field name, and the attribute value for the metadata value, e.g. label=title, value=Once Upon a Time in the West.

Node ordering

The position of your Freeplane nodes determines the ordering of your markdown sections.

• Level 1 headers: Top right level 1 node appears first, then all sibling nodes positioned below it. The top left level 1 node follows after the last right side node, followed by the other left side nodes from top to bottom.
• Level 2..n nodes: These will appear as sub-headers of their parent nodes, in order from top to bottom.