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Manually Generate a Mind Map from Excerpts

💡Completing your excerpts is only the first step. Many learners run into this kind of confusion: they have excerpted a lot of content, but the cards are scattered across the mind map with no clear way to organize them; or they want to organize the notes from a textbook into a clear framework but don't know where to start. MarginNote 4 offers three paths for turning document excerpts directly into a structured mind map. Whether you take notes as you read, have already accumulated a large number of excerpts, or are working with a textbook that has a clear table of contents, there is a matching approach:

My situation Recommended path
Reading a document and building a mind map at the same time Path 1: Excerpt and generate the mind map at the same time
Already have excerpts and want to organize them into a mind map Path 2: Convert existing excerpts into a mind map
The document has a table of contents and you want to quickly build a framework Path 3: Generate a mind map from the document's table of contents in one click

1 Preparation

Before you start, complete two settings to make sure your excerpts appear smoothly in the mind map.

1.1 Create a study set and add documents

💡A study set is the basic unit for organizing documents and mind maps in MarginNote 4. Only when a document is added to a study set can its excerpts be linked to the mind map.

To create a study set and add documents, follow these steps:

  1. On the home page, click the ➕ New button in the top-right corner, choose to create a new study set, and give it a name
  2. On the study set home page, click ➕ Add and import the documents you want to study (for details, see Create a study set: start theme-based learning)
  3. Once the documents are added, click to enter the study set and you will see the linked document and mind map interface

Animated demo: creating a study set Animated demo: creating a study set

Five ways to add documents Five ways to add documents

The linked document and mind map interface The linked document and mind map interface

1.2 Adjust the mind map and document linked view

After entering the study set, it's a good idea to first set up the display layout of the document and mind map, so you can watch the mind map change while you excerpt.

  • Layout adjustment:
  • Click the "..." button in the top-right corner to open Study Set - More, then check the document position that suits your habits:
    • Document on the Left
    • Document on the Right (default)
    • Document at the Bottom
  • You can also drag the document area directly to the left, right, or bottom.
  • Display ratio adjustment: drag the view adjustment button between the document and the mind map to change how much space the document takes up.

For more settings related to the linked view (such as horizontal/vertical layout, displaying multiple documents, and so on), see Mind map and document linked view.

Using settings to adjust the document position (here the document is on the left) Using settings to adjust the document position (here the document is on the left)

Dragging to adjust the document layout Dragging to adjust the document layout

Adjusting the document display ratio Adjusting the document display ratio

2 Path 1: Excerpt and generate the mind map at the same time

If you've just opened a new PDF and are about to start studying from scratch, you can follow Path 1 to excerpt and build the mind map at the same time.

💡This is the most common way to work: as you read the document, your excerpts are automatically added to the mind map, building your knowledge framework in real time.

2.1 Configure excerpt settings

Before you start excerpting, complete two key settings to make sure your excerpts appear automatically in the mind map.

Excerpt tool settings

  1. Click the excerpt tool settings in the top-left corner of the document toolbar (shown by the icon above)
  2. Check Auto Add to MindMap
  3. Click MindMap Insertion Position and choose how cards are grouped according to your needs | Insertion position | When to use | | ----------- | ------------------ | | Group (by document table of contents) | Intensive textbook study; cards are automatically grouped by chapter according to the table of contents | | Group (by document) | Reading multiple documents; cards are automatically grouped by document | | Last Position | Building freely; cards are added near the position of your last excerpt |

    For detailed usage and scenario examples of the three insertion methods, see Excerpt tools and their automation.

The specific setup steps The specific setup steps

The 3 MindMap insertion positions The 3 MindMap insertion positions

Take Group (by document table of contents) as an example: once the setup is complete, start excerpting in the document, and the excerpt cards will be automatically sorted into the corresponding table-of-contents sections while the mind map framework is generated in sync.

The settings page The settings page

The excerpting result with Group (by document table of contents): when you excerpt, a card is also automatically created for the table-of-contents section it belongs to, and the excerpt card is automatically grouped and inserted into that table-of-contents card The excerpting result with Group (by document table of contents): when you excerpt, a card is also automatically created for the table-of-contents section it belongs to, and the excerpt card is automatically grouped and inserted into that table-of-contents card

2.2 Choose an excerpt tool and start excerpting

After finishing the setup, choose a suitable excerpt tool to excerpt content in the document, and the cards will be added to the mind map automatically in the way you configured. MarginNote 4 offers four excerpt tools for different types of content:

Tool When to use
Text excerpt Text content such as paragraphs and sentences
Box-select excerpt Areas such as images, formulas, and tables
Lasso excerpt Irregularly shaped areas
Extend-note excerpt Creates an editable extend-note area inside or beside the document; comes in three excerpt forms

For detailed steps for each tool, see Excerpting: capture the key points of the text. Excerpt tools can also be configured with automation, so that as you excerpt you can simultaneously set tags, colors, and more; for details, see Excerpt tools and their automation.

The four excerpt tools The four excerpt tools

3 Path 2: Convert existing excerpts into a mind map

If you have been studying a document for a while and have built up a batch of excerpt cards, you can add them to the mind map in the following two ways.

3.1 Convert a single excerpt

💡Suitable when you only need to add a few individual excerpts to the mind map.

Animated demo: adding a single excerpt to the mind map Animated demo: adding a single excerpt to the mind map

Follow these steps:

  1. In the document, click the excerpt you want to convert
  2. In the pop-up menu, click Add to MindMap
  3. The excerpt card will immediately appear in the mind map

3.2 Batch-convert multiple excerpts

💡Suitable when you need to organize all the excerpts of a document at once.

Animated demo: adding multiple excerpts to the mind map Animated demo: adding multiple excerpts to the mind map

Follow these steps:

  1. Click Card Grouping Board in the mind map's side toolbar (shown by the icon below)

Card Grouping Board 2. Click the Card Source drop-down menu at the top and, under the Documents category, select the document you want to organize; at the same time, set Grouping to MindMap Status, and the board will filter out all the excerpt cards of that document by whether or not they have been added to the mind map 3. In the board, find the cards that are Not in MindMap, batch-select the cards you want to add to the mind map, and add them (same steps as in 3.1)

4 Path 3: Generate a mind map from the document's table of contents in one click

💡For documents with a clear table-of-contents structure (such as textbooks and reports), you can turn the table of contents directly into a mind map framework, and your excerpts will be automatically sorted into the corresponding chapter branches of the table-of-contents mind map.

For example, when you excerpt text from Chapter 1, MarginNote automatically creates a card named after Chapter 1 and inserts the newly created excerpt card into that card as its child node.

The automatically generated table-of-contents cards correspond one-to-one with the chapters The automatically generated table-of-contents cards correspond one-to-one with the chapters

4.1 Confirm the document's table of contents

Page Finder

Click the Page Finder button in the top-right corner of the document (shown by the icon above) to open the Table of Contents view and confirm that the document has a table of contents.

💡Tip: If the document has no table of contents, you can create one manually, or click the AI TOC button at the bottom to let AI generate the table of contents automatically. For details, see Manually & automatically generate a document table of contents.

Viewing the document's table of contents Viewing the document's table of contents

You can use AI to generate the table of contents You can use AI to generate the table of contents

4.2 Convert the table of contents into a mind map

Click ... in the bottom-left corner of the Table of Contents view → Convert to MindMap, and the table of contents will be converted into a mind map card tree.

If you set the MindMap insertion position to Group (by document table of contents) (see 2.1 Configure excerpt settings), subsequent excerpts in the document will be inserted automatically into the table-of-contents mind map tree. This way, the card structure in the mind map is as clear as the document's table of contents, and even without opening the document you can easily locate the cards for a target chapter in the mind map.

Converting the table of contents into a mind map Converting the table of contents into a mind map

The result of converting the table of contents into a mind map The result of converting the table of contents into a mind map

Animated demo: document excerpts are automatically inserted into the matching branch of the table-of-contents mind map tree Animated demo: document excerpts are automatically inserted into the matching branch of the table-of-contents mind map tree

5 How to use the mind map effectively once it's generated?

Once the mind map is generated, you can go further by viewing it side by side with the document, tidying up its layout, and using it to review.

5.1 View side by side with the document

💡Navigate back and forth between the mind map and the document: click a card to jump to the original text in the document, and click an excerpt in the document to locate the corresponding card.

Link Control

Click the Link Control button (shown by the icon above) to switch to Two-Way Linking mode

  • In the document, click an excerpt highlight or an extend note, and the mind map will automatically jump to the location of the corresponding excerpt card
  • Click an excerpt card in the mind map, or click the ">" button in the top-right corner of the card and then Document Position, and the document will automatically jump to the page where the excerpt is, highlighting or box-selecting the excerpt's location

For detailed usage of mind map and document linking, see Mind map and document linked view.

Animated demo: viewing a card from the document Animated demo: viewing a card from the document

Animated demo: click a mind map card to jump from the card to the document Animated demo: click a mind map card to jump from the card to the document

Animated demo: click ">" in the top-right corner of the card and then Document Position to jump from the card to the document Animated demo: click ">" in the top-right corner of the card and then Document Position to jump from the card to the document

5.2 Organizing and laying out the mind map

After you finish excerpting, you can rearrange, zoom, expand and collapse levels, or adjust the branch styles of the mind map to make its structure clearer and easier to read. For details, see mind map rearranging, zooming, tree expansion/collapse, and 10 branch styles & sub-mind-map collapse

5.3 Review with the mind map

A mind map is not just notes — it's also a review tool. You can test how well you've mastered the material through active recall and self-testing, and you can use backlink positioning to quickly find the original text within the mind map context. For details, see Mind map review ①: active recall and self-testing methods and Mind map review ②: mind map context (backlink positioning)