Export a MindManager Map to Microsoft Excel
Mind map users need to deal with the rest of the world, which lives in lists and spreadsheets. Even MindManager users themselves often have a need to look at their map context in a less graphical format for analysis or printing.
Map2Excel is a simple no-frills macro for exporting a map or portion of a map to Excel. It can be launched as a macro or using the new m2e GyroQ tag. If you select the central topic or nothing is selected, the whole map is exported; otherwise the children of the selected topic are exported.
The macro prompts the user as to whether to export the map in tabular format, with parent information for each child topic included in each row, or in outline format:
| Tabular Format | Outline Format |
|---|---|
|
|
The macro and GyroQ tag can be downloaded from the export tools section of newly reorganized MindManager Macro Library. The GyroQ Tag used to more conveniently launch the macro is optional and can be installed by pasting its packed text into the GyroQ input box. The easiest way to get both is to run the setup program, which will install them along with MindReader, Mark Task Complete, and other tools.
Entries 
Bernhard said,
May 18, 2009 @ 2:04 am
Very nice tool. Something I will use quite often.
There seems to be a little issue with the text length. If the text in MindManager gets too long the macro runs into an error in the subroutine at that following lines.
If sheet.Columns(colnum).ColumnWidth<Len(t.Text) Then
sheet.Columns(colnum).ColumnWidth=Len(t.Text)
End If
I guess the issue is that Len(t.Text) is longer than the allowable column with in Excel. Not sure how to fix it but though.
ActivityOwner said,
May 18, 2009 @ 6:58 am
Thanks for the catch Bernhard. I uploaded that sets the maximum column width at 80. I don't the precise maximum but that seems like a reasonable starting point. It is on the wiki and in the beta setup (setup112.exe).
Bernhard said,
May 19, 2009 @ 9:44 am
That worked and actually allows modification of the maximum column width – a nice additional feature. Thanks for the update.
Andyman said,
November 13, 2009 @ 3:07 am
Great macro – I use it a lot for exporting my "TO DO" lists.
BUT it would be even greater with the following feature extensions:
- Icon markers (Priority level and Completion status are especially important for a project manager)
- Text markers (Especially "Resources").
Please keep up the good work. Thanks!
ActivityOwner said,
November 15, 2009 @ 11:08 pm
Hi Andyman — Good suggestions. I modified the Map2Excel macro so that it now has the option for "extended information".
If you choose this, it puts the priority, completion status, and resources in the first few columns.
What is more interesting with this version is that is now also includes hyperlinks to the topic and, if present, the link present on the topic.
This could be a good way to jump back to maps or, if you are working from a dashboard, to the underlying map.
The new code is in the "beta" ao-setup program as well as in the wiki. It can be run directly or called by the "m2e" gyroq tag.
http://activityowner.com/installers/ao-setup-beta-download.php
Steve said,
January 16, 2010 @ 1:52 pm
Am excited by this and trying to trial however I get this message. I have pasted the code into the macro editor and saved it. I have also saved the ao_common macro in the same way and in the same directory.
I have added the macros to the MM Macro tool.
—————————
Mindjet MindManager
—————————
An error occurred while trying to access the macro:
C:\Documents and Settings\Steve\Local Settings\Application Data\Mindjet\MindManager\8\macros\Map2Excel.mmbas
Please check that the macro is valid.
—————————
OK
—————————
ActivityOwner said,
January 16, 2010 @ 3:15 pm
Try opening the macro inside the macro editor and hitting the play button and seeing where it points out the error being. The error will be listed in the lower left corner of the macro window. It could be you have some stray text text at beginning or end.
Steve said,
January 16, 2010 @ 4:49 pm
Thanks. Without really knowing what I was doing I merged the macro with the ao_common macro to create a single macro and everything works fine. Great results – thanks.
Thuy Tran said,
January 18, 2010 @ 3:20 am
Hello there,
I am having a need of exporting a large Mind Manager map to Excel for data analysis. I've installed Map2Excel macro (setup133.exe), then open the map I want to export, select Macro button on the ribbon, navigate to Map2Excel macro file and Run. It prompts an error below:
An error while trying to access the macro: C:\Program Files\Mindjet\MindManager 8\AO\ao_map2excel.mmbas. Please check that macro is valid.
Do I miss any steps before calling Map2Excel macro? Please help advices. Many thanks.
ActivityOwner said,
January 18, 2010 @ 9:14 am
Sorry — there was a typo in the macro ('uses "ao_common.mmbas" should be '#uses "ao_common.mmbas" at the top).
A fresh setup (setup134.exe) has been uploaded with corrected macro.
Thuy Tran said,
January 18, 2010 @ 11:40 pm
I have added "#" as instructed. Now the Welcome to Mindmap.mmap file is being converted to Excel topic by topic visually. How fantastic the macro is! The tabular format really meets my need of data analysis. Thanks a ton.
George said,
February 17, 2010 @ 6:39 pm
This is way cool!!! TY TY TY
Mike said,
March 8, 2010 @ 6:38 pm
Great tool. Very helpful. I am in need of going the other direction. From Excel to MM8. I cannot seem to find anything besides a very basic macro. Is there some other tool you may have that does this?
Thanks!
Mike
ActivityOwner said,
March 8, 2010 @ 9:16 pm
Hi MIke — What would your input Excel file look like and what would you want it to turn into on the MindManager side? It is pretty straightforward to go from MindManager to Excel in a defined way, but the reverse requires some definition/predictability on the Excel side.
thorsten said,
March 26, 2010 @ 11:20 am
Hi,
I have added the macro in my MM7 (company laptop, no admin rights) but it doesn't work and prompts the error message:
————————
An error occurred while trying to access the macro:
C:\Documents and Settings\MYHOME\Local Settings\Application Data\Mindjet\MindManager\7\macros\Map2Excel.mmbas
Please check that the macro is valid.
————————
When I open the macro in the editor and press the play button, it stops at the entry
————————
'#uses "ao_common.mmbas"
————————
Can you please give me a hint what to do next? I have no clue about macros.
Thanks
Thorsten
ActivityOwner said,
March 27, 2010 @ 1:16 pm
Hi — Sorry for delay in reply. It looks like you need to also download ao_common.mmbas into the same directory as the macro.
http://wiki.activityowner.com/index.php?title=Ao_common.mmbas
thorsten said,
March 29, 2010 @ 3:10 am
Hi AO,
no problem, your reply arrived just in time. : ) Thank you very much for your support. Now it works great.
Thanks again and
Best wishes,
Thorsten
Jorik said,
April 16, 2010 @ 3:32 am
Hi,
I get the same error message as Thorsten:
————————
An error occurred while trying to access the macro:
C:\..\..\..\..\Mindjet\MindManager\8\macros\Macro_map2excel.mmbas
Please check that the macro is valid.
————————
Now when I open the macro in editor and play it, it stops at the line:
————————
Dim excelapp As Excel.Application
————————
Can you please help me???
Thanks,
Jorik
Jorik said,
April 16, 2010 @ 4:07 am
I don't know if it's possible, but maybe it is because I have mindmanager 8 in stead of mindmanager 7 like all people above! Or I have a newer version of Excel?
Hope to hear from you soon!
Thanks alot!
Jorik
Jorik said,
April 16, 2010 @ 5:59 am
Nevermind,
I changed:
————————
Dim excelapp As Excel.Application
————————
Into:
————————
Dim excelapp
————————
Now it works!!!! :D
Great Macro, thanks alot!!!
Jorik
ActivityOwner said,
April 16, 2010 @ 7:37 am
My guess is that the problem is that you need to go into macro editor for this macro and choose "edit", "references", and check off the right Microsoft Excel object library. Interesting that it works with your modification to the "dim" statement!
Morten Bonde said,
May 7, 2010 @ 7:37 am
Hi there, this is a great macro and great support too (Thanks millions!!)
Is there any way I can get the macro to also export the topic notes?
Cheers,
Morten
ActivityOwner said,
May 7, 2010 @ 7:20 pm
Good suggestion. I have added notes export to the latest beta version in the setup.exe and to the wiki.
Note that it only exports extended information for the final children topics in the map. Notes (and other extended information) in parent topics isn't exported.
Annie said,
June 24, 2010 @ 5:38 am
I am looking for a tool which can import data from Excel to MindManager. So the data is presented from Tabluar/Outline format into MindManager Map format. Can anyone help?
Thank you.
ActivityOwner said,
June 24, 2010 @ 6:17 pm
Hi Annie — Are you looking for tools that do precisely the reverse of what is shown above for this tool? I'm not familiar with anything out there right now.
I think macros could be written to do this, but it would take several hours and I don't know when I'll find the time. I'd also need to figure out how to connect up to a particular existing spreadsheet rather than just create a new spreadsheet as is done here.
The "next action" on the blog is to do some programming tutorials, so perhaps this could be the example we use.