Thoughtree GuideCustomize the Appearance
How to choose a theme and change per-topic formatting (shape, colors, fonts)
You can change a map's appearance through two entry points: themes and formatting. A theme switches the whole map's colors, shapes, and line styles all at once; formatting changes the look of only the topics you've selected.
Choose a Theme
A theme is an appearance preset for the whole map. It switches colors, shapes, line thickness, and more all together.
- With a map open, open the Inspector from the toggle button in the top right
- Select the Layout tab at the top of the Inspector
- Open the theme dropdown at the very top. Each entry has a thumbnail (a sample of its background and accent colors)
- Choose the theme you want
Your choice is applied immediately. There's no need to confirm or apply it separately. If you don't like the result, ⌘Z (Undo) reverts it as a single action.
The theme dropdown lets you choose from the built-in themes Sapling, Aurora, and Sketchbook.
New maps use Sapling by default. Maps imported from iThoughts (.itmz) keep whatever theme they had on import; the default theme isn't applied to them.
Switching themes preserves any formatting you've changed on individual topics (described below).
Change a Topic's Appearance from the Style Tab
The Style tab changes the appearance of only the topics you've selected. It doesn't include map-wide settings.
- Select the topic(s) whose appearance you want to change (multiple selection is supported)
- Open the Style tab in the Inspector
The Style tab has the following fields.
| Field | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Shape | The topic's shape (rectangle, rounded, oval, circle, etc.) |
| Fill | The topic's background color |
| Text Color | The color of the topic's text |
| Font | The font family |
| Size | The font size |
| B / I / U / S | Bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough for the title (macOS only) |
When multiple topics are selected, a field shows its shared value if all selected topics agree, or "—" if they don't. Changing a value here applies it to every selected topic at once.
The Shape, Fill, Text Color, Font, and Size rows each have a reset button (an arrow icon) that restores the theme's default.
How Color Rows Work
Rows for choosing a color — Fill, Text Color, and Boundary Line color (see Layout Settings) — share a common layout.
- On the right side of the row, a round chip shows the current color, next to a label showing where that color comes from
- Custom: you chose this color yourself
- Theme: it's using whatever color the current theme assigns, unchanged
- Auto: there's no explicit setting; the color was calculated automatically from context
- Tapping the row (clicking, on macOS) opens more detail, offering three choices:
- Automatic (Theme Color) — clears the custom setting and reverts to a color based on the theme and context
- Choose from the list of swatches
- Custom… — specify any color you like
The Boundary Line Color Sometimes Has No Effect
Many themes, including Sapling, render a boundary (the frame around a branch) as a fill rather than a line. In these themes the Boundary Line color control is disabled with an explanatory note — what you actually see is a color automatically calculated from the fill color of the topics inside the boundary. Switch to a theme that draws boundaries as lines, and the control becomes available again.