XMind

Posted by Jon Polish
Jan 30, 2014 at 08:16 PM

Can I get some feedback on XMind 2013 Pro? I have asked for a refund because I am underwhelmed by the feature set. As an aside, I don’t understand why, in order to try the pro features, one has to purchase the product first. Seems a bit backward.

Anyway, the major issues I have are these:

1. Filtering. Extraordinarily limited.
2. Search. Also very limited.
3. Printing selections or exporting selections. As far as I can see, it cannot be done.
4. Gantt chart. Now here is something I really thought was a great idea. However, I find that it is poorly implemented. For example, the entire map is seen in the gantt chart, not just the tasks. This makes it very cluttered and difficult to navigate. This would be alleviated if you could select a topic on the map and have the corresponding entry highlighted in the gantt. But you cannot. I may be mis remembering, but I think this does not work the other way around either (gantt topic highlighted does not take you to the topic in the map.
5. Outline. Complaints are similar to the gantt chart.
6. Inconsistencies with the interface.
7. No reminders?????
8. No import of folder structure.
9. Its voracious use of memory.

I already use TheBrain, Freeplane and Axon. XMind does have strengths especially with its attractive interface, easy hoisting (drilling down), and decent exporting. I also like that, like TheBrain, you can link or add attachments to the map.

Did I throw the baby out with the bath water, because I just don’t get it. Freeplane is, well, free and although its interface could use a bit of work it is far more powerful and has a better feature set. You can even hoist by applying a filter to the selected node and activate its descendants.

So what don’t I get?

Thanks.

Jon