In this post, I want to share with you how to create a mindmap easily using markdown or Rmarkdown.

Using markdown

What you need to do is only inserting a code block markmap (meaning markdown + mindmap) as below:

```markmap
- A tree
  - Branch 1
    - [Leave 1 with a link to a website](https://markmap.js.org/)
    - Leave 2
      which is very long
    - Leave 3 with `a code here`
  - Branch 2
    - Leave a with an equation: $x = {a\over b}$
    - ~~Leave b which is not needed anymore~~
```

Then you will get the mindmap as below:

- A tree
  - Branch 1
    - [Leave 1 with a link to a website](https://markmap.js.org/)
    - Leave 2
      which is very long
    - Leave 3 with `a code here`
  - Branch 2
    - Leave a with an equation: $x = {a\over b}$
    - ~~Leave b which is not needed anymore~~

Please not that Mindmap can be written in markdown, but needs to be supported by a flexible platform, for example Wowchemy hugo template with a webpage output.

Using Rmarkdown

Mindmap feature has not been incoporated into Rmarkdown yet, unfortunately … However, a package named “mindr” can help to convert Markdown (’.md’) or R Markdown (’.Rmd’) texts, R scripts, and directory structures, into mind map widgets or files (’.mm’), and vice versa. You just need to make sure that you choose the output: html_document. How to do so? After installing “mindr” package, you can search “markmap” in Help tab to know how. In summary, there are 2 steps:

• Step 1: Create a source text which could be an .Rmd or .md or R script file with the structure below (only text, no YAML):

```
# Branch 1
  ##  Leave 1
  ##  Leave 2
# Branch 2
  ##  Leave a
  ##  Leave b
```

Name the file as you want, for example: “input_text.Rmd” and keep it in the same directory as your second file below.

• Step 2: Create a normal .Rmd file with HTML output. Then insert the code below:

```{r} 
input_txt <- readLines("input_text.Rmd", encoding = "UTF-8")
markmap(input_txt, root = "A tree")
```

That’s it. Let try it and good luck!

Additional materials:

1. https://wowchemy.com/

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1a_9xfX6J8&t=44s

3. https://markmap.js.org/

4. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/mindr/mindr.pdf

5. https://app.datacamp.com/workspace/w/26603c9c-e3cf-4cc8-a61e-4bf82719bbd1/edit