More on Brainstorm
Posted by 100341.2151
on 9/19/2004
100341.2151
9/19/2004 12:26 am
I downloaded Brainstorm recently and tried it out. Having used Grandview for so many years, I didn't immediately find Brainstorm to offer much new - apart from being a Windows program. In particular, I wasn't persuaded that it is easier to use or more useful than GV at the preliminary brainstorming stage. It is a lot more nimble than NoteMap, however...
It has one interesting feature, though. The "Write Textfile" exporting facility allows the creation of tab-indented text files. These can be imported perfectly by Grandview - and presumably many other outliners - as fully-fledged outlines.
Now if only I could persuade myself that BS offered a crucial advantage over GV at the early stages of project planning, it might be worth buying - despite the rather high cost...
Derek
It has one interesting feature, though. The "Write Textfile" exporting facility allows the creation of tab-indented text files. These can be imported perfectly by Grandview - and presumably many other outliners - as fully-fledged outlines.
Now if only I could persuade myself that BS offered a crucial advantage over GV at the early stages of project planning, it might be worth buying - despite the rather high cost...
Derek
sub
9/20/2004 11:39 am
[ Now if only I could persuade myself that BS offered a crucial advantage over GV at the early stages of project planning... ]
In addition to Stephen Diamond's comments to Ted Goranson ( http://www.atpm.com/10.09/e-mail.shtml ) about the unique features available in certain Windows outliners, here is my personal list:
- Software assisted clones (Namesakes): the program recognises identical entries and links them together
- Focused operation: like Hoist and Collapse collaborating
- Intuitive Mark and Gather reorganisation
- Unrestricted Undo, tens of thousands of levels etc
Overall, I find that Brainstorm is a discrete but powerful tool that doesn't get in the way of your creative thinking and offers a straightforward approach to organising and re-organising.
In sorts, precisely what I myself had been looking for in the initial brainstorming / planning stages. Then, to get a bird's eye view of the data, I just Select All / Copy / Paste to Freemind and get a full mind map of the data.
alx
In addition to Stephen Diamond's comments to Ted Goranson ( http://www.atpm.com/10.09/e-mail.shtml ) about the unique features available in certain Windows outliners, here is my personal list:
- Software assisted clones (Namesakes): the program recognises identical entries and links them together
- Focused operation: like Hoist and Collapse collaborating
- Intuitive Mark and Gather reorganisation
- Unrestricted Undo, tens of thousands of levels etc
Overall, I find that Brainstorm is a discrete but powerful tool that doesn't get in the way of your creative thinking and offers a straightforward approach to organising and re-organising.
In sorts, precisely what I myself had been looking for in the initial brainstorming / planning stages. Then, to get a bird's eye view of the data, I just Select All / Copy / Paste to Freemind and get a full mind map of the data.
alx
jackcrawford
9/20/2004 8:40 pm
> Now if only I could persuade myself that BS offered a crucial advantage over GV at the early stages of project planning.
If you're looking for more structured project planning (i.e. the full goals/tasks/resources/timing etc), the best app I've seen and still use is Project Kickstart (www.projectkickstart.com). It is a mature product with hot links to MS Outlook, MS Project, MindManager, WBS Chart Pro and lots more.
It does have a crude outlining capability but you wouldn't use it for that. It shines as a tool for working up a formal project plan.
Jack
david
9/21/2004 7:18 am
I think that BrainStorm's information gathering tools, especially 'Magic Paste' make it easy to collect information from all over - websites, Acrobat documents, other programs.
The manipulation features are many and various and the keyboard shortcuts are lightning fast. Throw and Retrieve, for example. And what about selecting a bunch of items in any sequence and move them so they arrive in their selected sequence? There's more, of course.
Output-wise, the tabbed outline is good, as you say. But it's even neater if you choose the 'clipboard' option. Then just paste into the destination program.
In a few days, a new version will add a plain HTML outline format. (As opposed to the present JavaScript/table-driven replica of the BrainStorm environment.) This is good for any program which readily understands HTML. Brainstorm Software is providing a .dot file for Word users, which turns the clipboard tabbed output into a ten-level outline with different type-styles at each level.
The manipulation features are many and various and the keyboard shortcuts are lightning fast. Throw and Retrieve, for example. And what about selecting a bunch of items in any sequence and move them so they arrive in their selected sequence? There's more, of course.
Output-wise, the tabbed outline is good, as you say. But it's even neater if you choose the 'clipboard' option. Then just paste into the destination program.
In a few days, a new version will add a plain HTML outline format. (As opposed to the present JavaScript/table-driven replica of the BrainStorm environment.) This is good for any program which readily understands HTML. Brainstorm Software is providing a .dot file for Word users, which turns the clipboard tabbed output into a ten-level outline with different type-styles at each level.