I'm really enjoying many of the posts that I'm discoverng on this site! Thank you.

I thought some of you iPad users might find this fairly new app of interest. It's by the same people who make the windows version of Inspiration - also a mindmap/outlining tool. One thing I like about both, is that you're not limited to just hierarchical mindmaps. You can also create non-hierarchical concept maps as well, complete with links that can be labeled, creating clusters of triplets like: Node1 'Includes' (or 'Is A', 'Causes', or any other lnk label) Node2.

I really like their windows product and waited in anticipation for it to be ported to the iPad. It's great except (for me) it has two major flaws. 1: It doesn't seem to import, which would have been a great feature for me to input already created mindmaps for further elaboration, and 2: it doesn't work with their windows product (?!?).

Still, it is compellng and useful as a stand-alone... even if isolated.

You can download a free 'lite' version here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/inspiration-maps-lite/id510031612?mt=8&uo=4

The full app is here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/inspiration-maps/id510173686?mt=8&uo=4

Bill

PS: just reread my post and it sounds a little markety. Sorry about that. I don't work for, or get commission or anything from them. Just love these types of tools :-)

You're right, Inspiration is/was a wonderful application on Windows (and Mac). But I'm most disappointed that the iOS app isn't desktop-compatible - seems a weird decision. I've still acquired it, of course, because it'll probably evolve (as such a lot on iOS seems to do - the most awkward apps are sometimes transformed into truly amazing works of art). Also very good on iOS (not least because it's free, while the desktop version is ridiculously expensive) is the Mindjet client for MindManager. And remember, other applications can handle MindManager documents on the Windows desktop (e.g. the very impressive open-source XMind).

Cheers,
Bill

I've recently downloaded Inspiration 9 for the n-th time and while it's got a lot of worthy features for some reason the fonts look awful on my screen and I just can't bring myself to shelling out money for something that's so hard on my eyes. Someone else mentioned that here as well before. If they're selling this software to kids, I would expect them to look after their eyes even more than any other software maker...

I'm surprised. I've used Inspiration for many years with no font trouble. I normally use Times New Roman with a font size of 12. Have you tried changing the font size using the "mountain" icons in the lower left corner above the box with the font name? Good luck!
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Dr Andus wrote:

I've recently downloaded Inspiration 9 for the n-th time and while it's got a lot of
worthy features for some reason the fonts look awful on my screen and I just can't bring
myself to shelling out money for something that's so hard on my eyes. Someone else
mentioned that here as well before. If they're selling this software to kids, I would
expect them to look after their eyes even more than any other software maker...

Cassius wrote:

I'm surprised. I've used Inspiration for many years with no font trouble. I normally
use Times New Roman with a font size of 12. Have you tried changing the font size using
the "mountain" icons in the lower left corner above the box with the font name? Good
luck!

It could be that my two monitors are too ancient but I don't have this problem with any other software. Basically the font is all fuzzy and I have to zoom in (with the mountain) massively before the edges start becoming sharp.

Dr. Andus,

Why not try contacting Inspiration? Maybe they have a solution.

Cassius wrote:

Why not try contacting Inspiration? Maybe they have a solution.

I thought any outliner developer worth their salt would be reading this forum? :) But I did send them an email anyway, out of curiosity. I'm not all that pressed regarding this at the moment. The main reason I'm interested in Inspiration is because of its ability to toggle the display of the inline notes in the outline, which I wish was a standard feature in all outliners.

Cassius wrote:
>Why not try contacting Inspiration? Maybe they have a solution.

The Inspiration people got back to me impressively quickly. However, the reply is negative. They have made rendering of both the text and the images anti-aliased " to improve scaling of images in Presentation View" in v. 9. There isn't a way to disable that effect on the text.

Dr Andus wrote:

The Inspiration people got back to me impressively quickly. However,
the reply is negative. They have made rendering of both the text and the images
anti-aliased " to improve scaling of images in Presentation View" in v. 9. There isn't
a way to disable that effect on the text.

----
Why not ask them if Version 8 will work with your OS and, if so, cold they let you try a trial. I don't think Ver 9 added much that you would miss.

One nice thing about Inspiration is its ability to do a fairly good job of importing from Word or rtf and exporting to Word or rtf.

After what seems like a very long hiatus the folks at Inspiration released version 3 for iOS. Free for existing owners. A few nice tweaks. This app has always looked better on iOS than other OS. The outliner mode is basic but functional — folding, indentation, drag to move. I’m glad to see life in this old product.