Mind Map View: How to Close Without Deleting After Update to 3.5.35 (MAC Os 26.2 (25C56))

[Krakouille]

Hi,
I’ve just updated Aeon Timeline to the latest version (3.5.35) on macOS, and since this update I can’t figure out how to close a mind map view without deleting it, so that I can reopen it later.

This confusion appeared after the update. In previous versions, I remember being able to hide or close a mind map view and then open it again later, but in the current version I can no longer find how to do this.

In addition, I also can’t find where to manage or access the list of existing Mind Maps in the current interface. I’m not sure anymore where Mind Maps are listed or how they are meant to be reopened once closed. When I click on “Add Tab” , I don’t see any option to select or reopen an existing Mind Map — only to create a new one.

Could you please clarify whether these features still exist, and if so, how to access them in version 3.5.35?

Thank you very much for your help.

Best regards,
Emmanuel

[AeonRob (Rob Steep)]

Hi @Krakouille, with the ability to have multiples of any view in v3.5, your mindmaps will now all sit in the tab bar instead of the dropdown as they did previously. The tabs you create will remain there until you choose to delete them, and you can rename all your tabs and drag them into any order you like.

Each type of view has a distinctive icon to help you tell what’s what. Look for the 3 connected boxes to identify your mindmaps.

If you have many tabs or are using the app in a small window, you may need to check under the “More” dropdown to see them all.

I hope that helps

[Krakouille]

Hi @AeonRob

Thank you for your explanation — I understand now that, in v3.5, Mind Maps are represented as tabs and no longer listed in a separate dropdown as in previous versions.

However, this doesn’t fully address my use case, so I’d like to clarify why being able to close, reopen, and manage Mind Maps independently of tabs is important for me.

I was about to significantly increase the number of Mind Maps in my project to explore different structures and perspectives. In addition to that, I already have one very complex Mind Map that I actively need, but which I used to keep closed most of the time, only opening it when necessary.

Before the update, this workflow was important because an open, complex Mind Map introduced noticeable latency when switching between views. This latency still exists in v3.5 when switching tabs, which makes it impractical to keep complex Mind Maps permanently open.

With the new system:

• If I delete a Mind Map tab, it appears that the Mind Map itself is permanently lost, since there is no way to reopen it later.
• If I have all Mind Maps open as tabs, performance degrades (latency when switching between tabs), and the tab bar quickly becomes unmanageable.
• I don’t actually need all Mind Maps open at the same time — I want to create many, but only open a few when needed.

Additionally, because of this new workflow, I’ve accidentally created several empty Mind Maps (e.g. Mind Map 1, Mind Map 2, Mind Map 3, etc.) that are now useless. However, I don’t see a clear way to simply “close” a Mind Map tab, as “deleting” a Mind Map tab appears to permanently remove the Mind Map view, with no way to reopen it later, which feels unexpected.

Overall, the update looks really great across the application, but this new Mind Map/tab system currently makes it difficult to:

• Scale the number of Mind Maps in a single project
• Manage performance with complex Mind Maps
• Cleanly remove unused or accidentally created Mind Maps
• Safely close Mind Maps without fear of losing them

Could you please clarify:

1. Whether there is (or will be) a way to reopen a previously closed Mind Map tab.
2. How users are expected to delete unused Mind Maps under this new system

Thanks again for your time and for the continued development of Aeon Timeline — I really appreciate the direction of v3.5 overall.

Best regards,
Krakouille

[SCN (Steve)]

I’ve spent weeks with 3.5 beta, and I’ve come to love the ability to create custom tabs and keep them ready for me to view as needed. I even set up Stream Deck buttons to select them as I’m writing.

You wrote:

Could you please clarify:

1. Whether there is (or will be) a way to reopen a previously closed Mind Map tab.

You just select the tab you want to view.

2. How users are expected to delete unused Mind Maps under this new system

Like this:

It sounds to me like your issue isn’t necessarily with the ability to create multiple custom instances of the Mindmap tab — which would be rather ideal for your needs, I would think — but with latency.

I’ve spent a lot of time with vers. 3.5 beta. I have 14 tabs. I’ve never experienced noticeable latency, nor do I recall latency being an issue during the beta discussions. That doesn’t mean there isn’t an issue, though. You might consider sending your file to support. The team is always happy to see what’s going on.

[Rebecca]

Hi @Krakouille,

Thanks for your thoughtful and detailed message. We really appreciate you taking the time to explain your workflow and concerns.

Am I interpreting this correctly: in 3.4 you were already seeing noticeable lag when switching into your large/complex mindmap, and that same lag is still happening in 3.5 when switching tabs?

If so, could you let us know roughly how many items/nodes are in the complex mindmap? That will help us look into the performance issues.

Before the update, this workflow was important because an open, complex Mind Map introduced noticeable latency when switching between views. This latency still exists in v3.5 when switching tabs, which makes it impractical to keep complex Mind Maps permanently open.

By permanently open, do you mean in your workflow you would ideally be able to switch to athis complex mindmap more often, but due to lag from switching views/tabs that isn’t feasible? Or do you mean you want to have it always shown on part of the screen use split views?

1. Whether there is (or will be) a way to reopen a previously closed Mind Map tab

If a tab has been deleted, the only reliable way to restore it is to immediately undo the deletion.

If you need to recover information that was in a deleted mindmap, you can check the app’s backups to see if there are any that contain it. The app’s automatic backups can be browsed from File > Manage Backups.

If recovering data is a concern for you, please let us know and we can send more information about available backups.

2. How users are expected to delete unused Mind Maps under this new system

Steve’s instructions for this are correct, this is done by clicking the down arrow in the active tab, and selecting Delete Tab.

---

Thanks again for all the details. We really appreciate your time and feedback, and I know I’ve thrown a lot of questions in.

If it’s simpler to explain with screenshots or videos, you can email support@aeontimeline.com if there’s anything you’d like to share privately.

[Krakouille]

The small latency is only somewhat annoying, but the main issue is really the “new” tab philosophy and how it affects my workflow.

My ideal workflow with Mind Maps:
Ideally, I would like to open in a tab only the Mind Map I need. This is especially important if I want to work with multiple Mind Maps (e.g., Family Tree, Job Tree, etc.). Keeping all tabs open permanently becomes impractical.

I also have many Mind Maps created in other applications (like XMind) that I want to import and internalize into Aeon Timeline. If every Mind Map must remain as an always-open tab, creating dozens of Mind Maps would result in too many open tabs, which negatively impacts workflow. I only need to open tabs when necessary.

Problem with the tab system for Mind Maps (from my perspective, of course)
If I understand correctly, in v3.4, a Mind Map tab was treated as a view, not a file. In v3.5, it seems that a Mind Map tab behaves as if it were a file, which is confusing and limiting. This prevents effective management of multiple Mind Maps because it forces every Mind Map to occupy a permanent tab, even when not in use. Ideally, Mind Maps should have a concept similar to files within a “Mind Map section”, which can be opened or closed on demand, rather than being permanently tied to a tab (from my point of view).

[SCN (Steve)]

@Krakouille

My ideal workflow with Mind Maps:
Ideally, I would like to open in a tab only the Mind Map I need. This is especially important if I want to work with multiple Mind Maps (e.g., Family Tree, Job Tree, etc.). Keeping all tabs open permanently becomes impractical.

This is baffling to me. The way 3.5 works is that you must select a particular tab to view it, select another tab to view that, and so forth. You cannot view two or more tabs at a time unless you make a custom tab using split view, in which case, yes, you’ll see more than one view inside that custom tab. Is that what you’re doing?

So, to boil it down, you can view only the Mind Map tab you want without “opening” (viewing) other Mind Map tabs.

That said, I’ve been writing for seven hours, and my brain is getting a little wonky. It’s entirely possible it’s me, not you.

[Krakouille]

Hi @SCN Steve

Thanks a lot for taking the time to explain — I really appreciate it, especially after such a long writing session.

You’re right, and I do understand what you’re describing . Yes, of course, I can always switch between tabs to view only one Mind Map at a time. But that’s not really the point for me. My expectation (based on previous versions) was more about avoiding an accumulation of tabs altogether, especially since I was planning to create a large number of Mind Maps in my project (which, given how version 3.5 works, I probably won’t do).

Having too many tabs open in an application tends to slow things down, because it becomes harder to quickly find the tab I need — a bit like a web browser when you have dozens of tabs open.

So for now, I’ll continue to keep my many Mind Maps outside of Aeon Timeline. It’s a bit of a shame, because having them directly in Aeon would have been a real gain and would have avoided creating the same item twice (once in my external mind-mapping tool, and once again in Aeon).

Have a good day !

[SCN (Steve)]

@Krakouille, you wrote:

So for now, I’ll continue to keep my many Mind Maps outside of Aeon Timeline. It’s a bit of a shame, because having them directly in Aeon would have been a real gain and would have avoided creating the same item twice (once in my external mind-mapping tool, and once again in Aeon).

If it’s down to how to manage a number of custom tabs, I get it. I have 14 right now, and likely will be adding more as needed.

I found a solution. I use a Stream Deck device, which sits next to my keyboard.

This is my default Aeon Timeline view, which automatically displays when Aeon Timeline is the active app. The highlighted buttons represent the custom tabs I most commonly view, plus an “All Tabs” option to show all available custom tabs:

If I select “All Tabs,” I get an expanded view of my available custom tabs, plus a few placeholder buttons to make it easy to add new custom tabs I create:

These buttons are quite easy to set up for the first nine shortcuts, because a button is assigned to the related keyboard shortcut. Easy peasy.

The challenge is that even though Aeon Timeline allows any number of custom tabs, it assigns keyboard shortcuts to the first nine:

But I have 14 custom tabs. How could I make Stream Deck buttons for the custom tabs that weren’t assigned keyboard shortcuts? I found a way, which I previously documented: How to extend shortcuts beyond the first nine custom tabs - Mac & Windows (Desktop) - Aeon Timeline

My solution, which uses AutoHotkey, works only in a Windows environment. As you’re on a Mac, I’m sure you could do something similar with Keyboard Maestro or other Mac-friendly automation tools. (AI is pretty good at helping with stuff like this.)

Anyway, I just wanted to suggest a path to help you achieve your goal of moving your other mindmaps into Aeon Timeline and still make it easy to see and select any custom tab.

[Krakouille]

I really appreciate you sharing your experience, and it’s also very helpful to know about the limitation of only nine shortcuts in Aeon. I was actually considering using a programmable keyboard like the ZSA Moonlander (https://www.zsa.io/moonlander) for this kind of workflow, so your feedback is especially useful.

[SCN (Steve)]

That’s a cool-looking keyboard!

[stuart]

I personally don’t see any value in having additional shortcuts for these. I have more than 9 views in my main timeline but do not visit them all enough to merit memorising what the shortcut to each would be. And I doubt I could memorise more than a few anyway. The fact that there is a show next/previous tab command is good enough for me if I want to switch between tabs with my keyboard. Though in a timeline app such as this I am mainly using my mouse anyway to navigate and explore the content of the different views.