What are the tall, thin cones that sometimes appear?

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TallCones.jpg
SecondaryParents2D.jpg

These are secondary parents of the topic they stand behind. There will be one parent that is a direct part of the hierarchy you are viewing, and sometimes there may be more.

In the image here, the cones with names ringed in red are examples. "Concerts" and "Rock" are both children of "Music" and "Entertainment". The 'Scape is centered around Music at present, and these secondary parent are there to remind you that "Concerts" and "Rock" appear under "Entertainment" as well. If you were looking for something under Music, but couldn't find it, the Entertainment cones would remind you that it might be worth making Entertainment into the Current Topic and searching there.

The equivalent for the 2D Map is shown here as well.

You will only see these if the option to suppress them is off. To check that, go to the Tools Menu, press Options (or just press Alt+O at any time), and click on the Appearance tab. In the 3D environment (or 2D Map) adjustments area, you'll see a checkbox "Suppress secondary parents". Ensure that this is unchecked.

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