I have composed a map as the image for the Cabre Facebook Page. Facebook have some guidelines for this: What are the dimensions for my Page’s cover photo? . The cover photo will be displayed 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall. If you submit something smaller: it will be stretched, something bigger and you will have to select part of the image. How do you compose a map in MindManager so it fits?
Here is my method which can be applied to situations where you require a map which will export to a specific image dimensions:
- Create a rectangle of 851 x 315 pixels with a light colour background in your image software. Better still use the thickness of the rectangle’s line for the margin around your map.
- You also need to black out the area your Profile Image appears in the bottom left 230 x 125px.
Click the image on the right and download it.
- Save this image to your Background Images folder. Set up a Package Folder for this if you haven’t got one.
- Create a new map > right click the background > Background >
- Assign image from library or
- Background Properties > Select Image
- In Background Properties select the Center Tile option, increase the Transparency if you wish.
- Return to the map view and you will now see the space you have to fill.
- Add floating topics at the top left and bottom right of the background image. I found these characters in the Wing Dings font set: . Move the arrow tips until they touch the background image corner. You could also use a floating arrow image.
- Create your cover image with MindManager.
- Hide the background. Right click background > Background Properties > 100% transparency.
- Export the map image at 100% zoom. Tip: If there are no photos on the map: use PNG or GIF. With photos JPG. Don’t use BMP. You will get best resolution and minimum file size.
- Crop the image in your image editing software using the arrow points as the edges of the cropped image.
- You should now have an image 851 x 315 which you can upload to Facebook.
Download my Facebook image map template file. This has the background image and the floating topics.
This works similarly for Biggerplate cover images in the Trainer directory. The image size seems to vary depending on browser and image size/
MindManager maps place the central topic in the center of the image which may not be where you want it. For the Biggerplate image I added an offset a rectangle above the required image area which “pushed” the central topic towards the top of the cropped image I then uploaded to Biggerplate.
If you have a better process please tell me.