What Is the Best Way to Create a Mind Map in Word?

Have you ever felt the need to declutter your brain and calm down the chaos within before starting a new project? This is why Mind Maps are used as the perfect way to map out your thoughts and get everything streamlined.

Where can you create Mind Maps?

The most common way of making Mind Maps is through Word. Almost everyone has used Word at least once in their lifetime and is familiar with the platform. What most of us don’t know is that Word can also be used to make clean and effective mind maps for your project management, articles brainstorming, organizing your thoughts, etc.

If you are looking to enhance productivity, keep your thoughts and ideas in check, and save some time, then mind mapping is the path you need to take! This article will guide you on different ways through which you can create a mind map in Word and a few tips for mind mapping.

Table of Contents

What Is a Mind Map?

How To Create a Mind Map in Word?

3 Tips For Creating a Mind Map in Word

Limitations Of Creating a Mind Map in Word

An Easier Way to Create a Mind Map with MioCreate

Before starting with your project or article, there are often different thoughts and ideas coming into your mind from every which way. And if you don’t write them down, you can start to forget some of them while the remaining ones end up confusing you.

This is the reason why mind maps should be used since they help increase productivity and creativity. The brain views the information in a clean, concise, and sequenced manner, which makes it much easier and quicker to learn and pick up various points.

It is a highly efficient way to organize and declutter the chaos in your mind first before starting out with the project. You can use it to summarize your ideas, share your thoughts and pointers with someone in a brief manner, and give an overview of the topic.

People who are used to mind mapping usually do it simply with a pen and paper or maybe on a whiteboard. However, doing it on a digital platform can save you time, is easily erasable, and can be easily sent to multiple people.

You can even use shapes and different colors when you create a mind map in Word to make it more attractive so that the brain is excited to retain information.

It is quite easy to create a mind map in Word and does not require any special designing skills. Word is equipped with efficient drawing tools and shapes which make mind mapping much better.

Here are a few steps through which you can create a mind map in Microsoft Word:

Create Mind Maps in Word Using SmartArt Graphics

Step 1: Launch Microsoft Word on your computer.

Step 2: Go over to the Black Document and click on it to open a fresh document.

Step 3: Head on over to the Layout Tab at the top.

Step 4: From there, click on Orientation.

Step 5: Once that is done, select Landscape.

Step 6: Again, from the Layout tab, click on Margins and then select Narrow.

Step 7: Go to the Insert tab at the top.

Step 8: Select the SmartArt option present there.

Step 9: A tab will open, and from there, you are required to select Heirarchy.

Step 10: A bunch of options will appear on the screen, but you should select Horizontal Heirarchy.

Step 11: From here on out, you can begin mind mapping and can enter your main idea, a few topics, and subtopics.

Adding Shapes To Your Mind Maps

Shapes can also be used to create a mind map in Word using the following steps:

Step1: Follow steps 1-6 mentioned above.

Step 2: Write down the main idea of your topic, move it to the middle, and increase the font size and font type if you wish.

Step 3: Once that is done, click on the Insert tab.

Step 4: From there, click on Shapes and pick out any shape that you like the best.

Step 5: Make the shape over the main idea of the page.

Step 6: Next up, choose some other shapes for the topics as well as the subtopics.

Step 7: At last, add arrows or straight lines to build a connection between the main idea, topics, and subtopics.

Once you explore the SmartArt option, you will see much more that can be used up to your need. You can create a mind map in Word to summarize presentations and present them in a meeting.

Not just that, you can also use it to make an overview of a novel, summarize an article, outline a research paper, write a report, plan a project, and visualize a concept.

Do you want to get much more productive with your mind mapping? Then aside from guiding you on how to create a mind map in Word, we will also tell you a couple of tips on how to increase its productivity.

Spread Out Your Points

Instead of simply writing all your points down in a simple straight line down the page, what you can do is make shapes and use colors on them. This will make your notes much more attractive, easily understandable, and easily accessible. It will also engage different parts of your brain into paying attention to the mind map so you will pay more attention.

Make A Personal Color Palette

We waste much of our time deciding which color would best suit the outline of the mind map or would perfectly complement the other headings. So, to avoid that and to save some time as well as increase efficiency and consistency, create a color palette for yourself.

Change The Default Font

Isn’t it annoying when you constantly have to go back up to the toolbar to change the font while mind mapping? To save some time, you can change the default font of your system in Word by following these steps:

1. Click on the Home tab at the top.
2. At the bottom of the toolbar, you will see an option called Font.
3. Click on it and change the Font, Font Style, and Font Size to the ones you wish to set as default.
4. Down at the bottom of the pop-up window, you will see a default option. Click on it. 

Like any other old software, Microsoft Word is also getting old and is finding it hard to keep up with modern times and new technologies and apps. It is still great software, but you should check out its limitations below before you decide to create a mind map in Word:

Limited Flexibility

Microsoft Word is everything but flexible in its functionality. There are other softwares one can use instead of this to get more flexibility. The options given in Word are the only ones you can use without altering them in the slightest.

Time-consuming Editing

Microsoft Word consists of so many options that it takes time to choose the right tools for your mind mapping. Once that is done, it takes way too long to edit what you have written, and it gets frustrating by the end. Furthermore, some of the functions in Word are not quite intuitive, which is why people have to wait a couple of seconds to get the effects they want in their mind mapping.

Limited Customization Options

Even though there are tons of options in Word, from shapes to lines to text–based maps to SmartArt Graphics, they are still not enough. Word is a software that is simply for writing your articles or preparing your reports, projects, or presentations. It is not the ideal tool one should use for mind mapping.

This is where MioCreate comes into the picture like a knight in shining armor, overcoming the drawbacks of Microsoft Word and bringing much better tools. It is a tool that gives people the ability to create mind maps in much more intuitive and creative ways.

MioCreates makes it easier to share the work with your colleagues to increase efficiency. It is also much better and faster as compared to Microsoft Word. So, now you don’t have to create a mind map in Word! Here are a few steps through which you can create a mind map in MioCreate:

Step 1: Open up the MioCreate website and log in.

Step 2: You can either use one of the existing templates or create a new board present on the main page.

Step 3: You will be led to a black page with plenty of tools at the bottom. From here on, you can explore the website and start mind mapping for your project.

How Does It Compare with Word?

• Once you are on the site, you will see that MioCreate is much more accessible than Microsoft Word. The tools are hidden in Word and in separate places, whereas on MioCreate, they are all present at the same place, which is at the bottom of the page.
• MioCreate also offers a Voice Room on the same page as your mind mapping. This allows you to invite your friends and brainstorm new ideas with them.
• This feature can also be used to work with your friends or colleagues on a project. Unfortunately, Word does not offer anything even close to that.
• People can also use MioCreate to present their mind maps to a group of people, whereas Word does not have any such feature.

Advantages

• MioCreate allows people to come together from different places through the Voice Room and brainstorm ideas and thoughts.
• It helps to improve communication among your colleagues and increases work efficiency and output.
• MioCreate helps to bring different teams together to work towards one aligned goal.
• It will help you to plan out your ideas in a productive and creative manner so you can complete your work more efficiently.
• Its wide variety of tools allows you to fully customize your mind maps, making it highly with its options.
• All the tools are accessible to you at the same time, so you won’t have to move to different areas. This would help you save tons of time.

Conclusion

Microsoft Word might attract people with its fancy tools, but it is not great for your time management if you want to create a mind map in Word. This is why you should use MioCreate when you need to mind map the next time for a project.

It helps to build meaningful and good relationships in the workplace and helps you save up a lot of time. Apart from that, it consists of plenty of tools to help you get your ideas and thoughts in order and is an easy-to-use software that even beginners can use.