The Mind Mapping Software Weblog

Using mind mapping software to enhance personal productivity

In a recent Mindjet webinar, marketing expert Roger C. Parker shared his personal productivity tips for working with MindManager. During the hour-long webcast, he explained the cornerstones of personal productivity and the strategies he employs to get a remarkable level of productivity out of MindManager.

During his presentation, Roger outlined how tools, templates, training and shortcuts are the keys to his personal productivity. He characterized MindManager as a "working environment" that permits a trial and error approach to refining your ideas. "It enables you to create mental hooks for ideas, and to break big ideas into bite-sized chunks," he explained.

A big part of how he works with MindManager involves the use of templates, which he has created to streamline much of his writing and consulting work. Templates don't just define text styles, colors and other design elements of your maps. He emphasized that they are also templates for content. He shared several examples (including the one above right) of how he designs "starter" maps, with main topics that represent the essential information that needs to be collected for an expert interview, writing a book or other type of project. These topics serve to jog your brain at the time you're implementing a project, and enable you to work faster and more efficiently, with less stress.

Roger showed how the MindManager 7 quick access toolbar (the skinny horizontal icon bar just above the ribbon toolbar) can be extensively customized with the commands you use most often. It can also be moved below the ribbon bar, to make it easier to access. Who knew that you could do this? I didn't! To customize it, just click on the down arrow at the right end of the quick access toolbar.

Roger is also a big fan of keyboard shortcuts as time-savers. This includes not only universal Windows shortcuts like Ctrl-Z for undo, Crtl-X for cut and Ctrl-V for paste, but also program-specific ones (and MindManager 7 has a whole bunch!). One of the most practical is Ctrl-F1, which toggles the ribbon toolbar on and off. This immediately opens up more screen real estate when you're working with large maps. If you use this tip in combination with the customized quick access toolbar, you may be able to work most of the time with the ribbon toolbar hidden!

Roger C. Parker is one of those people who has figured out how to integrate MindManager at a very deep level into their daily work - and has increased his productivity by an order of magnitude as a result. I strongly encourage you to view this webinar!

Price reduced on my new e-book for one week only

When I wrote my Power Tools & Strategies for Mind Mapping Software, my goal was to gather together the best tips, techniques and practices into one convenient resource, to help many users of mind mapping software to take their skills to the next level. In line with that mission, I have decided to reduce the price of my new e-book from $29.95 to $9.95, for one week only. This special price will only last until 11:59 p.m. Central U.S. time on Monday, October 1, 2007.

So if you have been thinking about investing in this valuable resource guide, there’s no time like now! To order Power Tools & Strategies for Mind Mapping Software Second Edition at this special price, please click here.

MindMapper 2008 is launched

MindMapper 2008, which I previewed for you last week, was introduced earlier today. As I mentioned in my review of this program, I consider it to be the most improved mind mapping software program of 2007. Click here to see what's new in the 2008 version, and here to see how the Basic, Standard and Professional versions compare - and what makes them different than the previous version, MindMapper 5.0.

If your job involves any sort of gathering, sorting and working with knowledge, then MindMapper 2008 should be on your short list of mind mapping programs to evaluate and consider for purchase.

Please participate in my new survey of web-based mind mapping tools

During the last year, web-based mind mapping software applications have grown in their level of functionality and popularity. To better understand how people are utilizing these tools and what the potential impact of this type of online tool is likely to be, I've decided to conduct a brief survey on this technology. This survey covers issues like these:

• Which tool offers the best functionality?
• What features matter most to you?
• What are the biggest benefits of web-based mind mapping tools?
• What are the shortcomings of this emerging technology?
• And more!

Please click here and take a few minutes to complete this brief, 11-question survey. I look forward to your thoughts!

MindMapper 2008 is the "most improved" mind mapping program of 2007

MindMapper from SimTech Systems is one of those visual mapping programs that has been around for years, but has never attracted a lot of attention. All the while, its developer has been steadily adding features and functionality to it. The latest version, MindMapper 2008, is currently in beta testing; I recently got a chance to test drive it. What I discovered is an application that has many new capabilities that extend it well beyond traditional mind mapping - and provides some innovative new features that should meet the needs of today's knowledge worker.

A major theme of this new release is what its developer calls "personal knowledge management" - the ability to move beyond visual mapping and idea creation to the creation of knowledge. To that end, it incorporates some amazing functionality:

• In addition to standard radial maps, MindMapper 2008 supports the creation of flow charts and concept maps.
• It enables you to visually diagram your computer's folder and file structures.
• An auto-paste feature which, when turned on, automatically pastes any text you highlight in another application into your current map. This could be a boon for users who are conducting research, trying to gather bits and pieces of information and knowledge from various sources.
• You can conduct a web search from within your MindMapper map. You simply create a new topic or highlight an existing one in your map, then click the "PKMS" icon in the toolbar and select "search." MindMapper inserts the topic name into the search engine, and the results are quickly displayed in your browser. I experimented with this feature, and thought it was very cool!Combined with the auto-paste feature, I can see how this could really be used to streamline information gathering! From within your map, you can invoke your favorite search engine to find pertinent information, and add it to your map just by dragging your mouse over it. Nice!
• You can extract specific themes and subjects from your map and view the results in a hyperlinked document. You can search other maps for specific contents, and extract them to the current map.
• You can sort your map via wide range of conditions and rules - even text colors and schedule!
• MindMapper 2008 makes it easy to add project task, scheduling and resource info to your map topics. It includes summary pane with customizable columns and a Gantt chart view for visualizing your tasks (see picture, above right).
• A new auto-focus feature keeps the current topic in the center of the screen to let you move more efficiently, without constantly having to reposition the map in the workspace.
• You can send the current map to Microsoft OneNote via MindMapper 2008's expanded export capabilities. With more and more knowledge workers using OneNote as a personal knowledge repository, I think this is an important feature!
• MindMapper 2008 offers some nice map navigation functionality. For example, you can select an area of your map with your mouse, which zooms in on that region of your map. But right clicking that map selection gives you access to additional options, such as saving that section of your map as an image file - nice!

MindMapper 2008 is quite possibly one of the most improved mind mapping programs I have seen this year. Its new feature set is really quite impressive. According to my contact at Simtech Systems, this new version should be available in mid-September - which means any day now. Please watch this blog, and I'll let you know when it's officially launched!

Bulgarian students develop intriguing mind mapping application

I was recently contacted by Stefan Dobrev, one of four Bulgarian students who used Microsoft's development tools to create a new mind mapping software program called Bookvar. They created this intriguing application for the 2007 Imagine Cup, a global software development competition for students that is sponsored by Microsoft. The theme of this year's competition was education. Bookvar didn't make it to the final round of judging, but it was intriguing enough that these four talented young people were interviewed by Microsoft's Channel 9 video news network.

I found a couple of things to be intriguing about their efforts:

• Embedding images in a Bookvar map is accomplished via drag and drop. The program incorporates an image search function, making it easy to find images from the web. In the typical mind mapping program, you add a topic, and then attach an image to it. Bookvar turns this model on its head. When you drag an image or video clip into your map, the program creates a blank gray bar at the top, where you can then type in your topic name.
• Multiple people can collaborate on a map at the same time; topics are colored according to who submitted them. Microsoft's Sharepoint services can be used as the collaboration platform.
• Bookvar includes a file viewer that was built using Microsoft's Silverlight multimedia development platform (their competitor to Adobe's Flash).
• If you have multiple maps open in Bookvar, switching between them invokes a cool 3D effect that looks like a cube turning. Cool!

Bookvar was created exclusively for the Imagine Cup, but the team does hope to develop it further and eventually commercialize it. You can read more about it in the Bookvar Blog, which includes the Channel 9 video interview and video clips of the team's presentation to the Imagine Cup judges.

In his e-mail to me, Stefan indicated that the team is looking for educators who are using mind mapping to present their curriculum. They hope to team up with several teachers or professors to build some educational case studies around Bookvar, and use that to obtain funding from the EU's Leonardo da Vinci Programme, which aims to improve vocational education and training throughout Europe using innovative ways of education. If any readers of this blog are interested, you can contact Stefan at stefan.dobrev@gmail.com.

I applaud the efforts of this young team, and wish them much luck in their plans!

SmartDraw 2008 debuts with powerful new auto-drawing features

Earlier this week, SmartDraw.com announced the availability of the newest version of its flagship business diagramming and mapping software, SmartDraw 2008. It offers numerous improvements that are designed to help businesspeople create charts, graphs, diagrams and mind maps more quickly and easier than ever.

In general, this new version of SmartDraw can do much of the heavy lifting of drawing business diagrams for you, and focus on your content instead. Case in point: If you're using SmartDraw 2008 to create an organizational chart, you can click on buttons that say "add employee below" or "add employee to the left," instead of dragging and dropping new rectangular boxes to your diagram.

You can now create numerous types of charts and graphs in SmartDraw 2008, including those cool USA Today type of charts, where different sized images are used to represent data points.

Of biggest news to the readers of this blog are the enhancements to SmartDraw's mind mapping capabilities. Topics can now be added using keyboard shortcuts, and you can quickly switch between map and GANTT views of your information. In addition, in SmartDraw 2008, you can create decision trees and cause and effect diagrams.

If you need an all-purpose business diagramming tool, but only rudimentary mind mapping capabilities, then SmartDraw 2008 is worth a look. In the arena of business diagramming, it's the best, in my opinion. But in the area of mind mapping, however, it's strictly a lightweight application.

Cayra, a new desktop mapping program, is announced

I can't believe how crowded the market for mind mapping software is becoming. Between desktop and web-based tools, it seems there is something new introduced almost every month. The latest entrant in this horse race is Cayra, which is currently at release 0.8.2. It's built around the Microsoft .NET framework, and claims to combine mind mapping, concept mapping and topic mapping. The screenshot (above right) looks quite colorful and elegant.

Features announced at this time are these:

• Automatic and manual positioning of topics
• The ability to export maps to web page and image formats
• The ability to import MindManager and FreeMind maps (with plans to export to these popular formats in the works)
• Support for keyboard shortcuts
• Notes can be added to topics
• A window displays a linear list of map "nodes" (topics) - which may be useful for finding a specific topic in a map that is larger than the workspace
• Support for "clouds" (I assume this means you can assign text tags to specific topics in your map, to add context to them and as an aid for searching and filtering your map's contents)
• At appears, based on looking at the screenshots on the Cayra website, that you're not limited to one central topic, which means you can express more complex relationships between topics

I just found out about Cayra this morning, so I haven't had a chance to download it and play with it. It looks interesting, but still appears to be in the early stages of development. The developer is aggressively seeking feedback from beta testers; you can download Cayra here.

XMIND 2008 is announced

The developer of XMIND, one of the newer entrants in the field of desktop mind mapping software, has just announced that a new version, XMIND 2008, will be launched on September 30, 2007. It offers a host of new and improved features, including these:

• 6 map structures, including mind map, logic chart, organizational chart, tree chart (a mind map with subtopics arrayed in different directions), 2-D chart (with topics and relationships displayed in rows/columns) and fishbone (cause-effect) diagrams.
• Support for floating topics
• Boundaries for grouping topics
• Rich text formatting on notes
• Map themes
• Markers (percentage completion) and legends (which show which markers are used in a map and what they mean)
• Labels, which appear below topics and add context to them.
• Powerful map filtering capabilities
• A presentation mode
• The ability to record "audio notes" within XMIND that can be attached to topics (neat!)
• "Map shots" - the ability to select a region of your map, and drag and drop it as an image to other documents (cool!)
• Search the web from within your map (see screenshot above right), and add search results to your map quickly and easily
• Search for images from the web, and add them easily to your map
• Toolbars can be dragged and dropped to different locations within the workspace, so you can customize it to your needs

It looks like the developers of XMIND have been extremely busy during the last few months! I have obtained a link to download a pre-release version of XMIND 2008, but haven't had a chance to install it yet. I'll let you know what I think after I have had a chance to play around with it. But based on what they have announced on the XMIND features page, it looks to be a pretty impressive release!

WiseMapping: A new web-based visual mapping application

WiseMapping.com recently launched a new web-based mind mapping application, which is currently undergoing beta testing. A quick look at the demo workspace revealed the following features and functionality:

• Support for numerous topic formatting options, including topic shape, color, text font and style
• Good support for keyboard shortcuts
• The ability to share maps with others, as read only or read/write (collaborate)
• The ability to "tag" maps so they can be more easily found by others
• The ability to embed an image of the map on any web page (similar to the way you can embed the YouTube video viewer on your site or in a blog)
• The ability to export your maps in SVG (scalable vector graphics), Freemind or PNG image file formats.

I have sent an e-mail to the developer, asking a number of questions about WiseMapping. I'll let you know what I find out!