Is it possible to power filter by topic level?
There are a number of workarounds that I can use to achieve the same effect (progressively hide all topics at the level of interest or apply a topic styles and then filter) . But, I was hoping that there would be a more direct way.
Ideas?
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Posted 2 years ago
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What do you want... Why do you want it... etc. The more info we get the better.
Else you may get the answers you already know,
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In MM 2018 we have Conditional Formatting and Fade Views etc.
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I am not on 2018 yet, but, hope that will not be too long.
The issue centers around filtering before exporting to Word. I have large maps that captures various types of information at specific levels of the map. This is to help understand specific user group information. However, I need to create a executive level summary word document at the "main topic" level (in this example) and screen out the details. (eg hide everything below the main topics)
I have written my custom macros to create csv/excel exports for whatever details are needed at the lower levels. However, I was hoping that there was a easier way filter out the "dimensions" (which all start at the same topic level) without repeated power filters to hide each dimension.
Alex Gooding, Champion
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But I added flags (icon markers) to the maintopic level -Ofcourse you can use any marker here-

Next I did a Powerfilter and selected the flag.
I choose SHOW (instead of Hide) and the result is this

When I export to word I now just get the top level as I think you want.

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I like the concept and applied a topic style (in a similar manor) to all the dimension level topics to make the filter hook invisible. To do this, I created scripts to add the topic style and then remove them as needed. I am sure that I could do the same with an icon.
However, there are quite a large number of dimension level topics and I can see some performance hit in applying the style in one go. So, I needed to accomplish this in sequential sections of the map to do it effectively. It works but I am not sure how much this may impact filtering with even more data added.
Unfortunately, I do not think that I would be able to add something visible that the power filter can leverage. If there is characteristic of a topic that is not visible that I filter on please let me know.
Thanks for the idea and any addition thoughts you may have!
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I don't understand why you would need to create scripts. I have never done that in almost 20 year of MM use.
Alex Gooding, Champion
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If you have the Select command showing in the ribbon and you want all the main topics only you can click on any main topic, then click on the Select command and choose Select Siblings. This should highlight all the main topics and then you can add or remove icons on the fly.
Alternatively if you want to permanently attach something to filter on that you can hide easily you could always add a comment to each topic you want to select (assuming you are not using comments as part of the review process). Simply add comments to the appropriate topics (from the Review tab on the ribbon) - the content of the comment doesn't matter as you are filtering on whether there is a comment or not.
Once all the comments are in place you can hide them (using Show/Hide under the View tab) but you will still be able to filter for topics with comments using the Power Filter.
Personally I think the WordX add-in is a better option, but there you go.
Alex Gooding, Champion
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As a variation on adding comments, another option is to add labels. These still exist at the end of the ribbon under the Insert tab, unloved and it would seem neglected by the MM Help file.
Like Comments these can be hidden but are still filterable in the invisible state, based on their existence and not content, which makes them ideal candidates for "invisible" markers. In fact they are a better option because they are very unlikely to be used for anything else...
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I agree. I think the add-in is going to be the practical solution. There are hundreds of branches that need to be hidden (which is why the doing it manually either by icon or comment is not going to work ... thus the macro).
Thanks all for the suggestions!
Alex Gooding, Champion
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I would also be concerned however at the size of your map; you talk of hundreds of branches and of a performance hit when you try to apply a style to selected topics. In my experience a map this size runs the risk of freezing or becoming unstable, especially during filtering operations. You might want to think about breaking the map up into multiple maps using linked maps and/or the dashboard map feature (available from MM2017.1 onwards and improved in MM2018).
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I completely understand concerns regarding the design of the map. That is why refined the design and prototyped it with basically twice the size and structure that I have now. Power filters are consistent at about 20-26 seconds (on a 32bit system). That has been very stable and workable for me over the past year plus. However, my concern about performance was about have to live with the addition of a very large number of topic style instances on top of what I have now to filter as needed. That is another reason why I did the script so that I could apply and them remove without having to keep the overhead.
I did note a second or two longer filter time when I apply the style. But, now that the structure and size matured it is a mater of how much effort there is to make the word extract. Scripting has been great for detailed and extensive sub level content (which execute in 2-10 sec).
All in all I found ways to make things work without boxing me into a corner. Of course, this community has been a great source of reference.
Alex Gooding, Champion
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In that case I would definitely recommend looking at WordX, though I would trial it on a copy of your map first to make sure it doesn't impose too great an overhead.
There is one limitation of WordX. It doesn't let you choose topics by level before applying the export styles. You have to either select topics manually, based on filters, or let WordX apply styles to all topics.
If you do the latter WordX will apply styles automatically by matching Word header and paragraph styles from the Word template you have chosen. This is similar to MM's Word export, but uses actual Word styles.
The great advantage of WordX is that after the styles have been applied you can select all topics to which a particular header style has been chosen - for example if you are using default styles then choosing topics with a Level 1 heading will select all main topics, and so on. You can use this approach to select a layer of topics and then clear the WordX icons from them, thus excluding then from the export process.
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If you have a large map - and your management needs an executive level summary word document at the "main topic" level - you should really consider a different approach.
Think of it as "Portfolio / Program Management" where you may have many projects leading to a corporate result.
There you gain huge benefits using the Map RollUp function.
Goto Avanced Tab => Dashboards => Map Rollup. That will show the status of a map in a new dashboard map that you can use as Excutive Overview and export to Word etc.
However you have to have maps to RollUp from first.
You get those by -in your current huge map - Right-Click each maintopic and Select Sendto New map. It creates a new map for each project.
(I suggest you delete the info from te orginal main map / you can always combine them again via the LinkedMaps view)
Now you can use the rollup function for each of them .... et voliá .
Spend about 20 minutes to get the hang of it and you have saved hours of your time each time you need to inform your Management.
As you see no need for scripting etc.
Alex Gooding, Champion
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There is however a way to have your cake and eat it too. While it is more common to use dashboard maps to review data from specific branches in one or more other maps, you can also in effect create a "shadow" dashboard map of the whole source map by rolling up the central topic. You can then apply filters to this second map and even delete whole branches or levels without affecting the original map.
The one limitation is that filtering has to be reapplied every time the dashboard map is refreshed to show changes in the source map. On the other hand if the dashboard map is saved with subtopics deleted it retains this status when next opened, though these deleted topics will reappear whenever the dashboard map is refreshed.
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