Forum Posts Feed
Southbeach Modeller vs TheBrain
< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >
Posted by TempusFugit
Mar 21, 2016 at 12:13 PM
Paul-
Thanks for the info.
While I didn’t DL a trial of the rather pricey MJ, it looks like it doesn’t do an important thing that TB does - and that is enable those “Jump” links to many other tangential Thoughts which when clicked really give you that “neural network” imagery which for me is Key to TB.
For Mind Mapping I have tried Freeplane and Freemind and find Xmind to be my visually-favored variant of the Freemind source code.
As for ConnectedText, I wish Eduardo would beef up the Navigator and allow sequential expansion/contraction of levels for each Topic. That would simplify things.
My workaround for dating in many apps that are weak is to use Searchable Tags that correspond to ISO Week Numbering (this is week 12). I tend to think in Weekly increments. 52 tidy blocks of time within which to execute tasks. More granularly, I use ToDoList, which for a free Win app is phenomenal in hierarchical tasking.
I may have to give Vue from Tufts U. another go.
Yes, you are right about TB’s sub-optimal Export capabilities. I am not a subscriber and will have to wait for v. 9 through normal upgrade channels. Hope the de-bugging is not elongated.
-TF
###
Posted by Dr Andus
Mar 21, 2016 at 06:08 PM
TempusFugit wrote:
>As for ConnectedText, I wish Eduardo would beef up the Navigator and
>allow sequential expansion/contraction of levels for each Topic. That
>would simplify things.
Not sure if I fully understand your requirement but if you’re talking about unfolding/refolding outbound links by double-clicking on a topic in the Navigator, it is possible to set up that behaviour by changing some of the options.
Posted by TempusFugit
Mar 21, 2016 at 08:01 PM
Hello, Dr. A.
My desired outcome with CT is to assign an F-Key to make Topic Links either expand out or contract to the Parent. In case of expansion, to more than just the current capability of the first level of the Topic.
It would be great to enable also expansion of Links to 2nd, 3rd and even 4th Levels. [One can do this in “TheBrain”]
I realize that, given the current UI layout of Nav in CT, with many Topical links, this could be a messy affair with some Projects, but one could remedy this by making Nav an independent, full size window.
If you know a Tweak, would be all ears!
Best regards,
>TF
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dr Andus wrote:
TempusFugit wrote:
>>As for ConnectedText, I wish Eduardo would beef up the Navigator and
>>allow sequential expansion/contraction of levels for each Topic. That
>>would simplify things.
>
>Not sure if I fully understand your requirement but if you’re talking
>about unfolding/refolding outbound links by double-clicking on a topic
>in the Navigator, it is possible to set up that behaviour by changing
>some of the options.
Posted by Dr Andus
Mar 22, 2016 at 04:21 PM
TempusFugit wrote:
>My desired outcome with CT is to assign an F-Key to make Topic Links
>either expand out or contract to the Parent.
As far as I can tell that’s not currently possible, as Navigator seems to be more configured for mouse use. So it’s a double-click instead. But you could request it as an option at the CT forum.
In case of expansion, to
>more than just the current capability of the first level of the Topic.
>It would be great to enable also expansion of Links to 2nd, 3rd and even
>4th Levels. [One can do this in “TheBrain”]
Yeah, currently it’s manual, you just need to keep double-clicking on individual topics.
>I realize that, given the current UI layout of Nav in CT, with many
>Topical links, this could be a messy affair with some Projects, but one
>could remedy this by making Nav an independent, full size window.
Yes, for Navigator to be of good use, it’s better to make it a full sized window, ideally on another monitor.
FWIW, here is my setup:
In Options, I have “Double click expands/collaspes topic” selected. And in the Navigator I have “Vertical outline” view set. To me that gives the cleanest result, when there are many links. Then I just click away, if I want to expand to further levels.
Another visualisation option is to add the following to the footer of the project, so it is displayed in every topic:
[[$GRAPH:(($CURRENTTOPIC))|Height=300|Width=600|Levels=1]]
This then displays the outbound links from the current topic at the bottom of the current topic, as a star-shaped graph. The levels displayed can be adjusted.
Posted by moritz
Mar 29, 2016 at 05:16 AM
I was a long time (ten years) user of TheBrain. Ultimately, with the new subscription model, I didn’t renew my professional subscription after years without significant updates.
TheBrain is still a unique tool, and there is nothing quite like it.
Thanks to this thread, I discovered Southbeach Modeller. What a silly name. Just search the web for Southbeach and Modeller - I was looking for YouTube videos. Don’t go there. Not safe for work.
Having said that, besides the poor product marketing and promotion, Southbeach is a fantastic piece of software. I immediately fell in love with it. Can you spell CRIMP?
Differences between TheBrain and Southbeach: They are opposites, in that TheBrain doesn’t require any order or specificity in relationships between nodes. This lack of specificity to a modelling notation that supports the task of “world building” very well - capturing concepts and associations (relationships).
Southbeach Modeller, in turn, is based on argument mapping: The fundamental abstraction is that of “good” and “bad” elements. Relationships follow systems thinking principles (and beyond) in that polarity and impact between nodes play a central role.
Possible applications (with a grain of salt, this is just my personal history):
The Brain serves as an excellent container to capture thoughts, references, etc. when venturing into a new (research) domain. I’m still tempted to pick it up again for that purpose (my perpetual v8 Pro license), despite my annoyance with the author and the ever fluctuating roadmap, stability issues.
Southbeach Modeller - any strategy or ideation process will greatly benefit from it. Its expressiveness is unmatched by tools that are as (relatively) user-friendly. The report generator is ingenious (often, graphical models are not acceptable for executive reviews and group collaboration - this is a life saver). It doesn’t really work as well as TheBrain as a tool to collect facts and serve as a large-scale reference database. DevonThink might be a better candidate for that (striking a balance with its associative inferences between TheBrain and Evernote).