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Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Nov 27, 2012 at 04:58 PM
Do you also find VUE faster and more responsive?
I use CMap Tools only for diagrams that are to be presented. There’s a simple workaround for the question marks in arrows (just drag them under the topic) so that doesn’t bother me.
But like Daly, at the first stages I have found nothing better than pen and paper, especially when I collaborate with others. The PC is too much of an attention grabber to let me focus on the conversation.
Dr Andus wrote:
>I like CMapTools but I prefer VUE because VUE does not force you to have
>to label your arrows as CmapTools does (it displays ugly question marks
>in the middle of the arrows if you leave them blank).
Posted by Dr Andus
Nov 27, 2012 at 05:14 PM
Alexander Deliyannis wrote:
Do you also find VUE faster and more responsive?
Definitely, if you’re referring to launching it. CmapTools takes a long time to launch. However, I never had problems with CmapTools being slow in the concept-mapping process itself.
>I use CMap Tools only for diagrams that are to be presented. There’s a
>simple workaround for the question marks in arrows (just drag them under
>the topic) so that doesn’t bother me.
Sure, but that’s a loss of momentum when it comes to concept-mapping as brainstorming, which needs to be as hassle-free and fast as possible.
>But like Daly, at the first stages I have found nothing better than pen
>and paper, especially when I collaborate with others. The PC is too much
>of an attention grabber to let me focus on the conversation.
I thought that in the past but VUE is already very quick if you use the “rapid prototyping” mode and if you figure out its minor quirks such as what to click on or not to click on to avoid unnecessary nodes being created.
The reason I switched from paper and colour pencil/pens is because 1) VUE can be almost as quick if not quicker (if you use a text expander), 2) you have unlimited space (not the case with paper), and perhaps most importantly 3) you can more easily find and organise them on a PC, then free floating pieces of paper or notebooks in a messy office. I say that as someone who has an A3 size artist sketchpad and a box of 120 Faber-Castell colour pencils :)
Posted by Dr Andus
Nov 27, 2012 at 05:18 PM
Dr Andus wrote:
>The reason I switched from paper and colour pencil/pens is because 1)
>VUE can be almost as quick if not quicker (if you use a text expander),
>2) you have unlimited space (not the case with paper), and perhaps most
>importantly 3) you can more easily find and organise them on a PC, then
>free floating pieces of paper or notebooks in a messy office. I say that
>as someone who has an A3 size artist sketchpad and a box of 120
>Faber-Castell colour pencils :)
Another benefit is the ability to rearrange a map and modify an old map, which you can’t do on paper without wasting time with an eraser or starting all over again or ending up with a very messy picture.
Posted by Jon Polish
Nov 27, 2012 at 06:20 PM
Scapple’s ability to work tightly with Scrivener is its appeal. I like VUE quite a lot and use its ability to visually display relations contained in csv files. It is also a wonderful brainstorming and planning tool. Dr. Andus, are you able to drag the map or selections to the cork board in Scrivener as Scapple allows? Can you do the reverse?
Jon
Posted by Dr Andus
Nov 27, 2012 at 06:39 PM
Jon Polish wrote:
Scapple’s ability to work tightly with Scrivener is its appeal. I like
>VUE quite a lot and use its ability to visually display relations
>contained in csv files. It is also a wonderful brainstorming and
>planning tool. Dr. Andus, are you able to drag the map or selections to
>the cork board in Scrivener as Scapple allows? Can you do the reverse?
Sure, if it integrates with Scrivener like that, then I can see its appeal. But I don’t have a Mac and I don’t tend to keep too many images in Scrivener for Win.
Instead, I save a VUE map as an image file (JPG or PNG), and then drag and drop it into ConnectedText (from my Dopus window). For just a section, it would have to be a screenshot (with Greenshot) and then do the same. It involves a few more steps but it’s still fairly quick, as Dopus is always open in the background for me, as is CT. I suppose the same process could be followed with Scrivener.