Living with Maxthink
Posted by jkolman
on 8/18/2004
jkolman
8/18/2004 8:10 am
I've used this program for almost 20 years, found the Windows update horrific and still find it a pain in the ass to transfer data to and from Windows. Are there any other hardcore users out there to discuss how to make life easier?
srdiamond15
8/18/2004 6:14 pm
MaxThink is the only outliner I have tried that felt I couldn't use without a manual. It is also the only outliner I've tried that lacks one, apart from the list of shortcuts.
From what I have gleaned from tinkering with it, its essential approach is like BrainStorm (www.BrainstormSW.com). It automates keeping you in a focused hoist mode, which I think is an excellent approach to outlining. The only reports I have heard about the Windows version of MaxThink have been like yours, so I'm not eager to put down $200, which I guess you have to do to find out how to use it. Do you happen to know anywhere online where I can find either a manual or a description of how the program works. I'm extremely curious about it, but not enough to treat figuring it out as an exercise in inductive logic.
In answer to your query, if Maxthink is really cumbersome, you might try BrainStorm, which is wonderfully executed if less elaborate. I'd be interested in your opinion about the similarities in the strategies the two programs seem to implement.
srdiamond
From what I have gleaned from tinkering with it, its essential approach is like BrainStorm (www.BrainstormSW.com). It automates keeping you in a focused hoist mode, which I think is an excellent approach to outlining. The only reports I have heard about the Windows version of MaxThink have been like yours, so I'm not eager to put down $200, which I guess you have to do to find out how to use it. Do you happen to know anywhere online where I can find either a manual or a description of how the program works. I'm extremely curious about it, but not enough to treat figuring it out as an exercise in inductive logic.
In answer to your query, if Maxthink is really cumbersome, you might try BrainStorm, which is wonderfully executed if less elaborate. I'd be interested in your opinion about the similarities in the strategies the two programs seem to implement.
srdiamond
srdiamond15
8/19/2004 5:41 pm
I took another look at MaxThink. Except for those aspects of its design it shares with BrainStorm, I can't say I'm impressed. Novel features abound, but many seem to be efforts to cope with the limitations at the foundation of the program. (One reviewer claims the program was _written_ in Visual Basic. Is that true? Is Visual Basic even a respectable language for serious programming, as opposed to writing macros?) MaxThink is a strictly one-window affair (with two panes), whereas BrainStorm can open multiple "models," open two windows on the same model, and split a window.
One of my strongest prejudices concerning outlining programs concerns the availability of the undo function over organizing commands. The programs that have unlimited universal undo--something integral to today's software that everyone using Office has come to expect. Not to have _any_ undo command in a program that's supposed to encourage exploration seems completely careless. Unless I somehow missed it, MaxThink offers no undo command AT ALL. (Amazingly, an undo command for reorganization is something ADM 3 still lacks.
BrainStorm has a universal unlimited undo. Other programs similarly blessed seem confined to the Microsoft products (Word and OneNote), NoteMap, and that seems to be it: Word, OneNote, NoteMap, BrainStorm.
srdiamond
One of my strongest prejudices concerning outlining programs concerns the availability of the undo function over organizing commands. The programs that have unlimited universal undo--something integral to today's software that everyone using Office has come to expect. Not to have _any_ undo command in a program that's supposed to encourage exploration seems completely careless. Unless I somehow missed it, MaxThink offers no undo command AT ALL. (Amazingly, an undo command for reorganization is something ADM 3 still lacks.
BrainStorm has a universal unlimited undo. Other programs similarly blessed seem confined to the Microsoft products (Word and OneNote), NoteMap, and that seems to be it: Word, OneNote, NoteMap, BrainStorm.
srdiamond