KMind Zen vs KMind2: What Is Different Between the Old and New Versions

Let us start with the kernel. KMind2 was built on the open-source mind-map library. The current version of that library only supports a single root node, so I manually modified it to force KMind2 to support multiple roots. But it does not support adding nodes after summaries, which means it does not support infinite summaries. Its product scope was also limited to being a SiYuan plugin, so once you leave SiYuan, it is no longer usable.

KMind Zen uses a completely new kernel. It is not based on any mind map library. It natively supports multiple roots and infinite summary levels, supports smart themes that automatically adapt to light and dark modes, and improves performance and interaction.

Its positioning is a new independent product. Based on the same kernel, KMind Zen provides a SiYuan plugin, Obsidian plugin, Skill, Web App, standalone clients, and more. This means that even outside SiYuan, you can still edit, view, and share maps at any time.

KMind Zen source files use the .kmindz.svg and .kmindz.png suffixes. They are essentially SVG or PNG images with mind map data embedded inside. The obvious benefit is that you can open them directly to preview the map, and when you import them into any KMind Zen client, they can be edited losslessly. This greatly lowers the barrier for sharing.

KMind2 used element-ui as its UI library. The advantage was fast development. The downside was that element-ui is a heavy UI library designed for single-page web apps. As a plugin, style leakage was hard to avoid, and some styles could affect SiYuan itself. I spent a lot of effort isolating it. Another plugin author even opened an issue because their plugin also used element-ui and conflicted with KMind2, but I did not have a very good, or very convenient, way to solve it.

KMind Zen does not use any heavy UI library. Every UI element is self-controlled and follows the same design system, which gives me much more control. As a plugin inside note-taking software, it is also less likely to conflict with external styles. It is lighter in size, while making no compromise on features.

Because the KMind series first met users as a SiYuan plugin, let us start from the SiYuan plugin perspective.

KMind2 integrated several SiYuan workflows: Dock maps, doc-tree maps, one-click SiYuan document-to-map conversion, map mirror blocks and node mirror blocks, widget-style map insertion into SiYuan documents, PDF annotation jumps, and MOC features.

KMind Zen has basically reimplemented KMind2's SiYuan integration in a more elegant way, with a strong focus on performance and smoothness. The newly introduced block map feature replaces KMind2's widget-style map insertion in a cleaner way, and one-click SiYuan document-to-map conversion now supports richer conversion types.

KMind Zen also provides notebook-level MOC maps, so you can quickly view the distribution of your articles as a mind map.

SiYuan documents and document blocks can be dragged directly into a map and turned into doc cards and block cards. You can freely add child nodes to those doc cards and block cards.

The Dock is ideal for quickly creating maps and keeping map drafts close at hand.

You can use the SiYuan document tree to manage maps directly, just like managing SiYuan documents.

After enabling MOC mode, you can view your document structure as a mind map. It supports quick drag-and-drop document repositioning, and editing a node edits the corresponding document name.

After enabling notebook MOC mode, you can also quickly export an image for sharing.

Block maps let you insert a secondarily editable mind map inside a SiYuan document as a block.

You can view the content of a single document as a mind map, with support for outline mode and full conversion mode.

When reading a PDF, copy an annotation and try pasting it directly onto a node.

Mirror blocks let you insert a mind map mirror block inside a SiYuan document.

The KMind Zen mind map app itself has many more interaction details and design ideas. Let us talk about those next time.

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