This article is about Mentegraf, a free, open-source software tool designed to help writers and researchers create mind maps.
Writing a book is like keeping hundreds of ideas up in the air at the same time. Especially if, like me, you’re grappling with the historical development and concepts of information theory, complexity and evolution. People, concepts, references, chapters, debates… they’re all interconnected, but most of these connections exist invisibly, inside our heads. I designed Mentegraf to make this invisible web visible, so as not to lose the thread. In other words, it was born out of necessity.
Mentegraf is not a mind-mapping tool. Mind maps branch outwards from a central point and have a hierarchical structure. Ideas and concepts, however, are not hierarchical. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is connected both in physics to space, time, matter, energy and gravity, and in epistemology to abductive reasoning and paradigm shifts; none of these connections is a ‘sub-branch’ of the other. I designed Mentegraf to model this kind of multifaceted, network-like relationship: nodes and links.
The application offers ten different node types. For me the types are person, concept, book, idea, term, document, chapter, event, location, organisation. Each has its own icon and colour. Connections are also categorised by type: influences, contradicts, builds upon, contains, parallel, discusses. Each connection has a strength (ranging from 1 to 5), which is reflected in the thickness of the line. So, when you look at the map, you see not only what is connected to what, but also how and how strongly they are connected.
I developed Mentegraf whilst writing my forthcoming book *Leap! The Hidden Logic of Intuition* (title subject to change, and the book is in Turkish for now). The map, comprising 146 nodes and 235 links, brought the book’s backbone into view: which concepts are central, which are peripheral; which sections are closely interconnected, and where bridges are missing. Seeing the big picture of what you are writing allows you to discover both structural gaps and unexpected connections.
The application is a desktop programme built on Electron. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. It can be used offline. It supports both Turkish and English interfaces. One of its most powerful features is the ‘Publish’ button: it converts your map into a single HTML file. This file is an interactive web page powered by D3.js. It includes network simulation, search, filtering and a details panel. It opens in a browser, can be shared, and can be embedded on your website.
I have released Mentegraf as open-source and free. It could be useful for a writer, a researcher, or anyone planning a complex project. But its main aim is this: to make your thought process visible to yourself. Because the hardest part of thinking is seeing the structure of what you’re thinking.
Whether you’re conducting academic research, writing a novel, or pursuing your hobbies, give it a try and let me know how it goes.
You can download the Windows installation file here: https://github.com/afifs/mentegraf/releases/download/v2.0.0/Mentegraf.Setup.2.0.0.exe
For open-source code: https://github.com/afifs/mentegraf