The Mind Mapping Software Weblog

How to storyboard complex documents using mind mapping software

Storyboards (as defined by Wikipedia) are a series of illustrations displayed in sequence for the purpose of previsualizing an animated or live-action film. In recent year, businesses have adapted them as a means to plan ad campaigns, visualize business processes and many other applications. So it's not surprising that mind mapping software can be used to help businesspeople to "storyboard" complex documents and reports.

In the Mindjet Blog, Tim Bombosch reports on how he used MindManager to save him (and his company) 60-80 hours of work on a technical documentation project that he recently finished. His comments on the benefits of utilizing mind mapping software to "storyboard" this complex project are quite instructive:

"Creating complex documents such as policy guidelines, reports, project plans, marketing requirements documents or technical documentation is hard work. Not counting the research, thought, and actual writing, the mechanics of producing a document is typically about 30% of your total effort," he explains. "I had to interview my subject matter experts, gather lots of data, understand the technology, consult with my end users, create procedures and validate my results. All of that work doesn’t include the time I need to write and produce a document."

Utilizing MindManager, Tim was able to simultaneously gather and organize his source information, and streamline the ultimate process of writing a server technical manual. "By using MindManager to gather and organize my information, to turn my map into a 'storyboard' for a large and complex document, I am able to significantly shorten the time it takes to author a publishable document. Not only that, but by freeing myself of the mechanics of authoring during the early stages of my project, I could focus more of my attention on gathering good data, improving my thought processes, and validating the information with my intended audience. Better output, less time."

I like these last comments. Because he didn't have to worry as much about the mechanics of writing a manual from the mountain of information he had gathered, he was able to focus more attention on refining his thought processes, validating the accuracy of key pieces of information and other "front end" tasks that are critical to the outcome - a high-quality finished product. What's remarkable is that in most cases, the quality of output is directly proportional to the time invested. In other words, a smaller amount of time invested usually yields a poor quality of finished product. Conversely, more time generally (but not always) results in a higher-quality product. At least that's the conventional wisdom. Tim has managed to accomplish the seemingly impossible on his technical documentation project - better output and less time. I think that's pretty compelling!

Please note: This isn't intended to be a commercial for MindManager - you can accomplish much the same thing with almost any mind mapping software program. The idea here is to open your eyes to what's possible - tackling a large, multi-faceted project - with mind mapping software, using Tim's experience as a great example. It's also one of the few examples I've seen where a user of mind mapping software has actually quantified the savings it provided on a specific project.

ActiveWords releases add-in for MindManager

ActiveWords Systems, the developers of the popular ActiveWords software, have recently launched an add-in for MindManager. ActiveWords lets you set up word "triggers" which, when you type them in any context and press a trigger key, carry out the action you associated with the trigger word.

What does this mean to MindManager users? Using the ActiveWords MindManager add-in, you can easily:

• Quickly and easily open specific MindManager files
• Quickly manage your map view options (switch among map/outline/presentation views), show/hide notes and task information for topics, view specific levels of detail within your map, zoom to specific magnifications and more)
• Manage topic actions, including adding labels, notes, date stamps, comments and hyperlinks to them, inserting topics, subtopics and parent topics, attaching files to topics and more.

Using ActiveWords with MindManager, you can significantly increase your productivity because you can invoke these functions using only your computer's keyboard. It's like a built-in set of keyboard shortcuts that can be used to streamline map production - very cool! If you're still not sure exactly what this program can do for you, the ActiveWords website contains a brief demo that shows it in action (click here, and then on the link entitled, "See How ActiveWords Works with MindManager Pro 6").

I have downloaded ActiveWords and the MindManager plug-in, and will be trying them out next week. I'll let you know what I think!

DeliciousMind = del.icio.us + MindMap

A developer who is a big fan of the social bookmark application del.icio.us and the open-source mind mapping software program FreeMind has created a "mashup" of the two called DeliciousMind. It enables you to easily import del.icio.us bookmarks and display them in the nodes of a visual map, complete with hyperlinks. I'm not a user of FreeMind, so I haven't had a chance to check it out, but it does sound mighty intriguing!

10 ways mind mapping can help creative minds

Linda Dessau, writing in her blog, recently posted an interesting post on 10 ways that mind mapping can help creative minds. She is speaking specifically about its benefits for writers, but there are lessons here for the mind mapper in all of us (with my comments added):

Connection: Mind mapping provides a visual guide to the connections between ideas; you can see all your many ideas laid out in the same place. [It's a gestalt experience, seeing all of your ideas visually laid out in relation to one another. This format makes it much easier to see connections between related ideas than if they were displayed in a linear fashion, say in a document.]

Creativity: Opens the floodgates and calls on your senses, not just your thinking mind; mind mapping is a visual and tactile process, gets you away from the computer and back to using paper and pen. [In this blog, we're focused on mind mapping software - which is still a highly visual process.]

Awakening: Lights numerous sparks, evokes new ideas and challenges you to be open to them. [Indeed - it's a great exploratory tool. And moving an element from one branch to another - which some people call "refactoring" allows you to consider an idea in a whole new context, a powerful experience that can lead to additional ideas!]

Confidence: Shows you the breadth of your work and ideas, immediate visual feedback of your efforts. [This is especially valuable if you use mind mapping software to collect and display the results of a group brainstorming session. The group tends to get energized when they see their collective contributions displayed visually on screen.]

Practical: Gets you into action and moving forward; "dump" now, organize later. [This is perhaps one of the biggest benefits of mind mapping software: You can do a mental core dump onto the screen, and then reorganize your thoughts to an almost unlimited degree later. This can give you an amazing amount of creative momentum.]

Forgiving: Non-intimidating and non-judgmental; there's no wrong way and no wrong answers on a mind map; bypasses the inner critic. [If you can reorganize a visual map as much as you want, there is no need for your mind to be critical of what you've placed in a map. I've often found that when I'm stuck on a project, mapping it helps me to get my brain going on it. It's tremendously liberating!]

Structure: (Michael) Gelb (in his book, How to Think Like Leonardo DaVinci) provides basic "rules" and these rules are explained, not just decreed; mind mapping provides a form for your formless ideas.

Passport: Provides access for you and your ideas into the left-brain world; helps you to help left-brainers understand your ideas.

Safe House: A place for your ideas to live while you're contemplating them; nothing gets lost; no fear of forgetting; you don't have to know what you're going to do with them yet. [I like this point - you can easily create a "pending" topic and place within it those ideas you haven't decided what to do with - and then reconsider them later.]

Infinite: You can stop your mind map and start again; you can re-do it so it's a closer interpretation of your current thought process; you can add to it or scribble things out and write over them. [Indeed, mind maps are an infinitely flexible medium for recording, editing, rethinking and organizing your ideas. You can walk away from a "work in progress" map and return to it a few days later, and continue to work on it with fresh thinking. You can also utilize them to track the progress of a project from conception to completion.]

I came away from Linda's post re-energized about all of the things that mind mapping makes possible, and how fully it employs both sides of our brains. As she points out: "There's no reason we have to settle for scattered thoughts just because we're creative. And there's no reason to settle for a mediocre trickle of ideas because we desire a structured finished product. We can enlist both parts of our brain to work together and watch our creativity pour forth AND take shape."

What's new in Inspiration 8

I don't know how this one slipped by me, but in early February, Inspiration Software introduced version 8 of its well-regarded Inspiration mind mapping software. As usual, this program continues to be focused primarily on educational users, but still offers much for business users to like. New and notable features added to Inspiration v8 include:

• Inspiration Web Resources: An online library of over 1 million symbols, plus on-demand training resources,
• Integration of video and sound clips into Inspiration maps,
• Enhanced export and transfer capabilities,
• A built-in thesaurus to assist writers,
• A symbol auto-arrange feature (this has been needed for a long time - I'm glad to see that the developers finally addressed it!), and
• An enhanced "rapid-fire" brainstorming tool, which now gives you the option of connecting new ideas to existing ones, or allowing them to be free-floating ideas (which you can connect to your existing map later).

Watch for a review of Inspiration 8 on my InnovationTools website in the near future; I'm now contacting the developers to obtain an evaluation copy of it.

NovaMind Software releases universal version of NovaMind 3

NovaMind Software has recently announced the release of their new Universal version of NovaMind, and completion of the transition from NovaMind 2 to NovaMind 3. NovaMind 3 can run natively on both a PowerPC-based Mac and on Apple’s new Intel machines. In addition, the developer has incorporates a number of other improvements, including:

• A Universal Spotlight importer,
• Quicker indexing of NovaMind files for Spotlight searches,
• A Universal version of the Branch Proposal creativity enhancement system, and
• Numerous layout and usability enhancements, which are detailed on the NovaMind news page.

NovaMind 3.0.19 is available as a free update for all registered NovaMind 3 users, and there is a 30 day free trial download available.

The ResultsManager chronicles

ResultsManager is a personal planning system from Gyronix that integrates with MindManager. It follows the principles of David Allen's popular Getting Things Done (GTD) system, and is a powerful tool that can help you to continuously track you commitments, responsibilities, projects, tasks and ideas. So it should come as no surprise that someone has developed a blog to share their experiences in implementing ResultsManager - Walter Terry's Taming Chaos weblog. Definitely worth checking out, if you're looking for a way to succesfully battle Information Overload!