just stumbled over this amazing piece of software!

it has a huge array of amazingly interesting ways to display your data
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12285943/YouMinds_Composer_Possibilities.jpg

+ tagging

+ unlimited custom fields/metadata

+ unlimited FIELD COMBINATIONS
(use @fieldname to access the value of another field and combine it with another!!)

+ drill down views

+ instant search (either into a list or right on the graphical canvas)

+ task management (with progress icons)

+ tables as collapsible nodes

+ calendar (+ Gant chart)

+ amazing presentation mode

+ statistics

and a simple DOUBLE-CLICK on any shape with sub-items under it,
will auto-hoist you into that item as the new center,
while at the top automatically maintaining a bread-crump navigation,
so you can keep navigating unlimited levels DEEP into it,
without ever having to scroll at all, and neither loose sight of where you are.

and the whole program is completely FREE !!

available for both WINDOWS + MAC

you have to check it out

i just began experimenting with it myself,
and already am finding it extremely fluid & versatile,
surely to become one of my favorite visual tools of all.

see here:
http://www.composer.youminds.com/tour.html

greetings
donleone

just discovered (under the Screen Presentation Tab),
you can have many more views of your data like:

- Outline Mode View

- Walk Through Mode (a kind of auto-hoisting flat list)

- Mind-map Mode

- SlideShow Mode

- Review Mode (sequential going through it all)

so that apart from the purpose of presenting,
you can also use these views for yourself
to get a different perspective.

there are also so many visual designs
that really can make it look very appealing
and motivating to work on/with,
which each style full customizable
down to almost everything.

- attachments are supported too (seems linked only)

- cross-connections can be established
similar to theBrain either direct line based
or via an instant pop-up search box.

- there is a comments/revisions sidebar that can be turned on/off
similar to how the comments feature works in Word

- wow! full MDI support, just open new editor in tab and drag side by side

just thought to add these discoveries too...

greetings!

here also a quick screenshot of its MDI ability:
(left outline view / middle blocks map / right notes pane)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12285943/YouMinds_MDI.jpg

- you can turn to show/hide cross-connections off
(so my former theBrain problem is thus nicely avoided)

- you can also export to like 20+ formats out
among of PDF / Webpages / PowerPoint Slideshow + mediaWIKI :-)

- even has an internal browser in its own tab

greetings!

Very interesting indeed - thanks for bringing it to attention.

Looking at it very, very briefly, I have a concern - which is also, I notice, raised by reviewers - about the sparseness of its documentation, especially when the software itself has so many options and controls. Is it very intuitive to use?

you can also drag & drop websites on it

and it will auto-create a nicely organized pinboard
with the title + description + icon of it auto pulled

looking like this:
http://www.composer.youminds.com/img/pinboard.png

and you can include any module into any module
so that you can work in a notebook view,
and just in one line of it include a whole collapsible mindmap,
or in a mindmap brach include a whole popup notebook module :-)

furthermore, you can also sort all the items (including the tables)

group and ungroup things

AND CREATE CLONES TOO !!!!!!!!!! wow

to create clones, just copy an item, and then right-click and "paste as a reference"

and ALL the changes in one, will be instantly reflected in ALL "references"

so amazing software !!

Hugh wrote:

Very interesting indeed - thanks for bringing it to attention.

Looking at it very, very briefly, I have a concern - which is also, I
notice, raised by reviewers - about the sparseness of its documentation,
especially when the software itself has so many options and controls. Is
it very intuitive to use?

sadly no full help file,

but if you press F1 everything you hover over
gets a context popup help that is pretty useful,

and yes,
for something soo powerful
(= unlimited clones / unlimited custom fields / field combinations / MDI and what not)
its about the easiest visual software i ever tried !

i sure will use it.

I've just downloaded and installed it. Sounds very interesting (although complex). Will take a closer look this weekend.

furthermore, just discovered:

YouMinds is able to do FULL internally saved attachments
(and links to external files of course too)

so to attach a file,
you just simply drag it unto any shape
where you want it to be,
(or else right-click add attachment)
and then you get presented with this screen:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12285943/YouMinds_Attachment_Options.jpg

and i on purpose tested it, with even a 1GB attachment, and it took it in 20s copied!

amazing!

and it's all stored inside a single database file of one file per project.

furthermore, the software is actually in some diagrams "smart" too.

going in these, beyond just static shapes & lines.

for example,
depending on which diagram you choose
there are additional custom programmed options
just for that shape alone!


some "smart" examples are:


in the IDEA BOX diagram,

boxes have an option to be made visible & hidden with a single click
(for brainstorming purposes etc.), and if hidden the whole placeholder gets
automatically crossed over.


in the NOTEBOOK module
you can create side-pages like in OneNote,

and listen to this (!!) = you can have a Scrivenings View too !!!
that combines all the pages into ONE VIEW like this
and that just like in Scrivener,
you can fully edit in that view as-well !!

so from this "Pages View":
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12285943/Notebook_Module_PageView.jpg

to a "Scrivenings View" like this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12285943/Notebook_Module_ScriveningsView.jpg

so amazing! (this guy took the best of everything and combined it best he knew :-))


then have a look at this SLIDESHOW module
(pages stack-able into itself :-)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12285943/YouMinds_SlideShow_Module.jpg


- and for those calender fans, it provides a Google Calender Sync too.


- then there is also a "bookmarks" feature
(in form of a drop-down menu)
which is a kind of a favorites collection
that goes exactly back to the edit position
as you had it when you bookmarked it.

- also every single view, regardless of which one,
has uniformly in the top left corner an "outline panel" pop-up button,
in which all the items used on that view can be quick accessed,
and also in which their quick hierarchy can be observed.

- furthermore, the optimal view for MDI purposes seems to be to
"minimize" the 3rd right notes & tool panel (as per my former MDI screenshot)
and make it slide in automatically only when needed,
leaving thus full screen-space for the visual and/or 2 windows in parallel.

- you can even insert ENTIRE FOLDERS and it will automatically replicate
the folder structure with shapes AND for each file show also a shape with full image previews !!
(very useful if exactly here, you press to LINK instead of internally save,
so that you can use then YouMinds as a kind of meta file manager dashboard
just like people have been doing with TheBrain for a long time)


- finally, some handy Shortcuts discovered:

Backspace = zooms into a shape (auto-centering & blending out all others)

Shift+Backspace = goes back 1 level up

Return key (not enter) = adds a sibling next to it

Ctrl+Return key = adds a child item

Shift+Return key = adds a new item in-between

Alt+Return key = edit the description of a shape

Alt+Shift+Return key = Opens Properties panel of an item/shape


that's about it friends,
i am definitely moving
into this software :-)

H Donleone

Thanks for bringing that up. It looks really interesting (judging from your screenshots and the tour on the website). I'll look into it next weekend.
First I was a bit cautious: Such a "monster" of a tool - for free (reminds me of Curio, and that costs $100). But the developer seems to be a serious guy (just look at his Xing profile).
Have you contacted him?

Regards, Franz

Franz Grieser wrote:

H Donleone

Thanks for bringing that up. It looks really interesting (judging from
your screenshots and the tour on the website). I'll look into it next
weekend.
First I was a bit cautious: Such a "monster" of a tool - for free
(reminds me of Curio, and that costs $100). But the developer seems to
be a serious guy (just look at his Xing profile).
Have you contacted him?

Regards, Franz

funny you ask, i actually tried to contact him just before via e-mail,
in thought to suggest (or donate something perhaps)
for a possible feature development,
but have not yet received a response.

Truly, this really is "the" Curio alternative,
and in some parts even more flexible than it,
for example, i am not aware that curio supports "cloning"
but this amazing freeware tool does!

Not sure I would replace Curio with YouMind, though YouMind is intriguing and worth exploring. Thanks for pointing this out, @donleone.

I am attracted by the motivation of the developer(s) behind very complex freeware or open source software. The ideas are frequently highly original and energetic -- in a sense the technology version of "outsider" or "visionary" art. If Tinderbox, for example, had been open source would it have kept pace with developments in OS X instead of falling behind for years until it was forced to catch up to avoid extinction.

donleone wrote:

Truly, this really is "the" Curio alternative,
and in some parts even more flexible than it,
for example, i am not aware that curio supports "cloning"
but this amazing freeware tool does!

Paul Korm wrote:

Not sure I would replace Curio with YouMind, though YouMind is
intriguing and worth exploring. Thanks for pointing this out,
@donleone.

my quote said "alternative", and not "replace" ;-))

obviously curio is a native mac app integrated,
and this a "max it to the full possible" freeware,
but which is exactly great for fanatics like me,
since windows users for a long time
had virtually no "alternative" whatsoever
to the flexibility of a Curio kind,
but now they do.

just a quick tip on cloning,
that otherwise might
drive someone crazy:

say you got many "clones" of blocks etc. made
(or as YouMinds calls it "references")

and you want now to delete 1 clone/reference,
then DON'T just delete it or you'll immediately delete
ALL the clones including the source all-together :-))

(but which can be very useful to mass "trim" branches,
in the style of TheBrain gardening etc.)

But if you really want to just delete THIS ONE CLONE,
then you have to first click on its icon and select "UNLINK"
and then you can do with it what you want and delete it,
without effecting any of the others.

greetings
donleone

Wow, that is pretty impressive. I haven't had a chance to play yet, but I've downloaded it!

I'm enjoying my trial of Curio, too, but have been a bit disappointed by the search function. Excellent in Curio's own text/notes; not so good in PDFs (it finds text, but doesn't list hits or highlight them, unlike e.g. Growly Notes, Yojimbo et al. Although the speed is very impressive – better than Growly Notes, which doesn't appear to index stuff; on a par with Yojimbo, which is also pretty darn quick). I may wait a bit before investing!

Hmmm ... well, not sure I would use YouMind as an "alternative" to Curio either. Horses for courses. Just an opinion.

donleone wrote:

Paul Korm wrote:
Not sure I would replace Curio with YouMind, though YouMind is
>intriguing and worth exploring. Thanks for pointing this out,
>@donleone.

my quote said "alternative", and not "replace" ;-))

obviously curio is a native mac app integrated,
and this a "max it to the full possible" freeware,
but which is exactly great for fanatics like me,
since windows users for a long time
had virtually no "alternative" whatsoever
to the flexibility of a Curio kind,
but now they do.

FYI it looks like YouMinds Composer 5 was just released.

Release notes:
http://www.composer.youminds.com/dwl/releasenotes.html

Pro version is $119
http://www.composer.youminds.com/pro.html

Thanks, Yosemite, I'll take a look (haven't really finished playing with 4 yet, but still...)

Don (and all interested)-

I peek in to this OS forum from time to time.

I am just testing CT vs RightNote and I have been using theBrain, since September 2014.

i just noticed your posts about "YouMinds" and I believe you also are familiar with "theBrain".

It seems like one rationally must go with one or the other.

Which of these mind mapping PIMs has emerged as a favorite for you? And if you like YMs, have you ID'd an efficient data transfer methodology from TB??

One has to finally settle on 1 PIM and just commit and I value the intelligence of this forum.

Best, Qalisto

donleone wrote:

just a quick tip on cloning,
that otherwise might
drive someone crazy:

say you got many "clones" of blocks etc. made
(or as YouMinds calls it "references")

and you want now to delete 1 clone/reference,
then DON'T just delete it or you'll immediately delete
ALL the clones including the source all-together :-))

(but which can be very useful to mass "trim" branches,
in the style of TheBrain gardening etc.)

But if you really want to just delete THIS ONE CLONE,
then you have to first click on its icon and select "UNLINK"
and then you can do with it what you want and delete it,
without effecting any of the others.

greetings
donleone