Open a mind map without XMind, FreeMind or MindManager

What it shows

• Every sheet, as an outline. An XMind file can hold several sheets; each gets a tab. The outline folds and unfolds branch by branch, or all at once, and branches folded in the original start folded here. Search looks through topic titles, notes and labels, ignoring accents and case, marks each hit and opens the branches it sits in.
• A diagram. Each sheet is drawn as a plain left-to-right tree of boxes and curved lines, up to 300 topics. Bigger sheets are shown as an outline only, and the page says so, because a 2,000-box tree cannot be read on a screen.
• Everything attached to a topic. Notes as text (formatting dropped, line breaks and list bullets kept), Freeplane’s details text, labels, FreeMind attributes, markers and icons named in words (“Priority 1”, “Task half done”, “Red flag”), comments from XMind 8 with their author, pictures stored inside the file shown in place, attached files offered to save under their own names, and links written out with a Copy button. Links are never opened for you, so a link in a stranger’s map cannot send you anywhere.
• The extras around the tree. Floating topics, callouts and summary topics are kept in the outline and marked as such. Relationships (the free arrows drawn between any two topics) are listed as “From → To” with their label, and each summary is listed with the sibling topics its bracket covers. A link that jumps to another topic, even on another sheet, is shown with that topic’s title.
• File facts. The program and version that wrote the file when it records one (XMind 8 stores it in meta.xml; XMind 2020 and later in metadata.json, where it signs itself “Vana”, its internal code name), the format, the number of sheets and topics, the author, and the created and modified dates where the file has them. FreeMind and Freeplane stamp every node with its creation and change time, so the dates of the oldest and newest node are shown.
• Exports that open anywhere. The whole map, every sheet, in three forms you can save or copy: Markdown (one heading per sheet, nested bullets, notes as quoted lines, markers and labels in brackets), OPML 2.0 (one <outline> per topic, notes in the _note attribute that outliners such as Dynalist, WorkFlowy and OmniOutliner read, and the first web link as url), and tab-indented text (titles only, one per line), which Freeplane, MindNode and many other mind-map apps turn back into a branch when pasted.

The formats it reads

XMind 2020 and later, XMind Zen (.xmind)

A ZIP holding content.json (a list of sheets, each with a rootTopic and its children), metadata.json, manifest.json and a resources/ folder of pictures and attached files named by their SHA-256. These files also carry a stub content.xml: opened in XMind 8, they show one topic, “Warning”, telling you to use a newer XMind. This page reads the real map from content.json.

XMind 8 and earlier (.xmind)

A ZIP holding content.xml (an <xmap-content> with one <sheet> per tab), meta.xml, styles.xml, comments.xml, META-INF/manifest.xml and an attachments/ folder. The Revisions/ folder of older copies is not shown.

FreeMind and Freeplane (.mm)

Plain XML starting <map version="1.0.1"> (FreeMind) or <map version="freeplane 1.9.13"> (Freeplane), one <node TEXT="…"> per topic. Rich notes are HTML inside <richcontent TYPE="NOTE">; they are turned into plain text here. Arrow links between nodes become relationships. Many other programs export this format, so a .mm from elsewhere usually opens too.

MindManager (.mmap)

A ZIP holding Document.xml, whose root is <ap:Map>, with pictures and attached files in bin/. Topic text, notes, hyperlinks, priority, progress, stock icons, text labels, pictures, attachments, floating topics and relationships are read.

What this cannot do

• Edit the map. It only reads. Nothing can be changed, and it does not write a .xmind, .mm or .mmap back. Take the OPML or Markdown into a program that edits, or ask the sender for a change.
• Look like the original. Colours, fonts, branch shapes, themes, hand-drawn styles and layouts (fishbone, timeline, org chart, matrix) are not reproduced: the diagram is always the same plain tree. Positions of floating topics are ignored.
• Open a password-protected XMind file. XMind’s “Encrypt” or “Set password” stores the map encrypted inside the file. This page recognises such a file, says so plainly and shows the password hint if one was saved, but does not decrypt it, even with the password. Ask the sender to export it without a password.
• Show pictures that are not in the file. FreeMind and Freeplane keep pictures as separate files beside the .mm and only store their path; those paths are listed, not shown. The same goes for links to files on the author’s computer.
• Read everything every program adds. Audio notes, equations, task dates and resources, MindManager’s spreadsheet-like topic tables, XMind’s Pitch slides and custom sticker artwork beyond their pictures are not shown. Files from before the .mmap format (the binary .mmp of MindManager 6 and earlier) are not read.
• MindManager, honestly. No MindManager-made sample with a licence that allows sharing could be found to test with, so the .mmap reader was built from the element names MindManager’s files use and tested on files written to that layout. If a real file opens with topics missing, the exports will be missing them too.

Useful to know about mind-map files

Peeking inside by hand

.xmind and .mmap files are ordinary ZIP archives. Copy one, rename the copy to .zip and open it: the map is content.json or content.xml (XMind) or Document.xml (MindManager), and the pictures sit beside it. A .mm file is plain text and opens in any text editor.

Getting it into another app

XMind imports Markdown and OPML, and reads FreeMind and MindManager files directly. Freeplane opens FreeMind files natively. Outliners such as Logseq, Obsidian (as Markdown), WorkFlowy and Dynalist take the Markdown or OPML. If an app only accepts pasted text, use the indented text.

Why a topic shows “(no text)”

Mind-map programs allow empty topics, often as placeholders or as holders for a picture. They are kept, so the number of topics matches the original.

Why the counts include extras

The topic count includes floating topics, callouts and summary topics, because they are topics in the file. The real XMind 8 test file this page is checked against has 40 topics on its first sheet, including one floating topic with three children and one summary.