With Present, you can turn any Mindmup map into an engaging, interactive presentation with just one click. No need to create slides or rebuild your content.
Choose from three presentation modes, customize the appearance and animations, and navigate your map freely while presenting.
This guide covers everything you need to get started.
1. Getting started
- Open any mind map in Mindmup.
- Click Present in the top-right corner of the map editor, or press P.
- Your presentation opens in Cinematic mode by default.
- Open Present settings in the top-right corner to customize your experience.
You can change modes and settings at any time without leaving the presentation.
Click End when you’re finished to return to your map.
2. Choose your presentation mode
Present offers three modes, each designed for a different presentation experience.
Cinematic
Bold, cinematic presentation focused on one idea at a time.
Cinematic transforms your map into a series of clean, visually engaging slides.
Topics appear progressively with smooth transitions, keeping your audience focused on the current idea.
Best for: Storytelling, project pitches, brainstorming, and presentations where you want to introduce ideas gradually.
Map Tour
Immersive, spatial tour that moves naturally through your map.
Map Tour presents your actual mind map, smoothly panning and zooming between topics while preserving the visual relationships between ideas.
Best for: Explaining complex relationships, walking through workflows, teaching hierarchical concepts, and presenting larger maps.
Chapters
Structured, contextual presentation with more information in view.
Chapters balances focused topics with additional context, keeping related information visible as you progress through your presentation.
Best for: Detailed project presentations, educational lessons, research findings, and larger maps with multiple sections.
Presentation steps
Next to your selected mode, you’ll see the total number of steps your presentation contains.
A step represents one advance through the presentation.
The count may change depending on your selected mode, presentation flow, and map structure.
For example, Cinematic may introduce ideas individually, while Chapters may display multiple related ideas together.
3. Presentation views
Cinematic and Chapters offer three viewing options, accessible from the controls at the top of the presentation.
Full Screen: Displays your presentation without the original map canvas. Ideal for focused, distraction-free presentations.
Split View: Displays your presentation alongside the original mind map, providing additional context as you move through your ideas.
You can drag the divider between the two views to resize them, giving more space to either the presentation or the map.
Picture-in-Picture (PiP): Displays a smaller presentation window over the map canvas, keeping both accessible without splitting the screen.
Note: Map Tour uses the map canvas directly, so these additional viewing options aren’t necessary.
4. Customize your presentation
Open Present settings in the top-right corner to adjust the following options.
Appearance
Theme: Switch between Dark and Light presentation themes.
Branch colors: Assign distinct color accents to your map’s main branches, making it easier to distinguish sections as you present.
Disable this for a more minimal appearance.
Motion
Animations: Enable or disable animated transitions between presentation steps.
Gentle / Quick: Choose between smoother, more relaxed animations or faster transitions.
Bounce effect: Add a subtle spring-like motion to supported transitions, or disable it for a more restrained appearance.
These options allow you to adjust the presentation’s pace and visual style to suit your audience.
5. Presentation flow
Choose how Present moves through your map’s hierarchy.
Follow each path to the end (Default)
Present follows one path through your map, exploring its subtopics before returning to the next path.
For example:
Project Planning → Research → User Interviews → Surveys
Once that path is complete, the presentation returns to explore the next path.
This works well when you want to fully explain one subject before moving on.
Show all siblings first
Present introduces topics at the same level before moving deeper into their subtopics.
For example:
Project Planning → Research → Design → Development
Once those main topics have been introduced, the presentation moves deeper into their individual subtopics.
This works well when you want to establish the bigger picture before exploring the details.
Tip: Switching between these options may change the total number of presentation steps.
6. Choose what content to show
Under Content in Present settings, you can control which additional elements appear.
Show folded branches: Include topics hidden inside collapsed branches of your map.
This lets you present their content without manually expanding those branches in the editor.
Show notes: Display notes associated with the topic currently in focus.
Notes appear alongside their respective topics rather than remaining visible throughout the entire presentation.
Show images: Include images from your mind map in the presentation.
Disable this for a more text-focused experience.
7. Navigate your presentation
Present includes navigation controls at the bottom of the screen.
Start Present: Click Present or press P.
Next step: Click Next or press →.
Previous step: Click Previous or press ←.
Restart presentation: Click Restart or press R.
Open/close Map Outline: Click the Outline button or press O.
Recenter map view: Click Recenter or press C.
Zoom map canvas: Hold ⌘ and scroll, or pinch on touchscreens.
The navigation toolbar also displays your current step and the total number of steps, such as 5 / 30.
A progress bar at the top provides a visual indication of how far you’ve progressed through the presentation.
Map Outline
Click the Map Outline button in the bottom navigation toolbar to view your map’s complete hierarchy.
From here, you can:
- Browse all topics and subtopics.
- Search for specific topics.
- Click any topic to jump directly to that section of your presentation.
This is particularly useful when you want to revisit an earlier topic or skip ahead during a discussion.
Press O to quickly open or close Map Outline.
8. Explore your map while presenting
Whenever the original map canvas is visible, you can interact with it just as you would in the Mindmup editor.
This includes Split View, Picture-in-Picture, and Map Tour.
Pan and zoom
Click and drag to move around your map.
To zoom, hold Command (⌘) and scroll.
On touchscreen devices, pinch to zoom in or out.
This allows you to explore different parts of your map without leaving Present Mode.
Jump to any topic
Click any node on the map canvas to jump directly to that section.
Your presentation updates to the selected topic, and you can continue presenting from there using the normal navigation controls.
Recenter your view
If you’ve manually moved around the map, a Recenter button appears in the top-right corner.
Click it, or press C, to return the canvas to your current presentation position.
This makes it easy to explore your map freely and then return to where you left off.
9. Tips for better presentations
A few simple practices can help you get more out of Present:
- Keep topic labels concise. Short, clear labels work particularly well in Cinematic mode.
- Organize related ideas together. A well-structured map naturally creates a more logical presentation.
- Choose the right mode. Use Cinematic for focused storytelling, Map Tour for exploring relationships, and Chapters for presenting more detailed information.
- Use Split View for context. Keep your map visible when your audience needs to understand how ideas connect.
- Experiment with presentation flow. Try following each path to the end or showing siblings first to see which better suits your content.
- Use Map Outline for flexibility. Jump between topics during interactive discussions without following every step in order.
10. Availability and Mindmup branding
Present is available to all Mindmup Starter and Premium users.
Starter users can enjoy the core presentation features for free, although presentations include Made with Mindmup branding.
To remove the branding, upgrade to Mindmup Personal or another eligible paid plan.
Once upgraded, you can disable Show Made with Mindmup in Present settings to create unbranded presentations.
11. Present is in Beta. Help us improve!
Present is currently in Beta, and we’re actively refining the experience, improving existing features, and exploring new possibilities.
We’d love to hear what you think, including what works well, what doesn’t, which features you’d like to see, and anything you think we should change or remove.
To share feedback:
- Open Present settings in the top-right corner.
- At the bottom of the panel, click Share feedback.
- Tell us what you think!
Your feedback helps us decide what to improve and build next.
Happy presenting!
The Mindmup Team