About three years ago, I bought MindManager, a mindmapping application, to use with my tablet pc. It worked well, I mapped away with keyboard and ink and made some very good-looking mind maps. It was handy for structured writing, brain storming or particularly for notes if I was putting together a talk. Later I moved onwards and upwards to a Mac while MindManager stayed back on my pc. As I would rather touch a badger carcass in the woods than a Windows machine on a daily basis, the poor, but very pricey, application has been neglected.
An email from MindJet this morning, offering extra goodies if I opened my wallet again, persuaded me to have another look and I downloaded the Mac version. It is still a phenomenally well-appointed bit of software and my old mind maps still look pretty but now it just seems too much app for too much money.
I then considered Tony Buzan’s iMindMap as a cheaper option but, while I understand the advantages of thinking organically, I didn’t want my mind maps to look quite as creepily organic and I really don’t like the sketchy clipart.
For now I will stick with MindMeister, the online (offline too via Google Gears if you pay the premium) alternative. It is fast, it looks good, I can quickly add ideas from the Mac dashboard or even from the search box in FireFox, sharing is easy and - I really love this bit - if I want to know when a colleague or client has updated a map, MindMeister will even send me a Twitter.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Vic Gee // Nov 22, 2007 at 8:45 am
“Creepily organic” - I like that! There’s a web based one that you might find moderately creepily organic as well: mapul.com
Want some more? You could take a look at these:
bubbl.us :- Collaborative mind mapping (radiant format not enforced)
comapping.com :- Collaborative (but, for people who like free-format mind mapping, rigid) left-to-right mind mapping
glinkr.net :- Concept mapping and mind mapping (shared but not collaborative)
mindmaps.kayuda.com :- Collaborative mind mapping and concept mapping
mappio.com :- Unusual mind mapper where the user edits indented text to change the mind map
mind42.com :- Collaborative mind mapping
mindomo.com :- Collaborative mind mapping
wikimindmap.org :- Make mind maps from WikiMedia articles
wisemapping.com :- Collaborative mind mapping
webofweb.net :- Collaborative mind mapping
But MindManager has something that others don’t - add ons like Gyronix ResultsManager (I have nothing to do with them) that can make mindmaps into seriously useful tools for managing projecs.
Regards
Vic
http://www.mindmapsearch.org
The master list of mind mapping sites
2 Jennifer Goddard // Nov 22, 2007 at 9:14 pm
How can organic be creapy?? isn’t nature organic
Trees aren’t stiff and linear - they are individual, natural and organic. Mind Manager is sooooo linear and structured that it looses the impact/benefits of Mind Mapping.
MindGenius (http://www.mindgenius.com.au) is middle of the road in the organic stakes - I like it because I can turn a Mind Map into an Organisation chart as well as drill down to specific branches. In MindJet I have to create a new file once the Mind Map gets too big
ImindMap (http://www.imindmap.com.au) takes a bit of time to draw the map but they look great and very engaging if you are presenting
I vote to use software that works like my ‘creepy’ organic brain - not the boring structured linear approach.
cheers from downunder
Jennifer
http://www.buzan.com.au/
3 Andrew Wilcox // Nov 23, 2007 at 12:44 am
As a MindManager user on the PC for ten years I can share your frustrations. The on-line versions of mind mapping software are bringing in a new group of users. I hope that Mindjet will be in that space soon.
l don’t consider MindManager Pro 7 overpriced. Last night, I produced a 239 topic map of a live debate and printed it to A3 ten minutes after the debate finished! The interactions with the audience afterwards indicated that I will earn many times more than £200 for my efforts that evening.
Leave a Comment