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Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jan 30, 2008 at 02:16 PM
Pierre Paul Landry wrote:
>Does anyone know if FreeMind supports multiple parents ?
>Does FreeMind have as
>many map types as XMind ?
I do not believe FreeMind supports multiple parents, and as far as I am aware FM supports only one type of map. While I admire FreeMind, it doesn’t compare to XMind in terms of functions.
Steve Z.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jan 30, 2008 at 03:34 PM
True on both counts. Freemind is strictly a mindmap implementation program, and mindmaps only have one parent per child. To complement for this, they have associations among items in different areas of the map, i.e. ‘cousins’. As far as I know in Freemind such items can’t be identical, i.e. clones of each other, in which case they would in fact have multiple parents.
The most versatile program I can think of in these terms is Personal Brain. Inspiration is another popular program that supports concept maps as well (along with Cmap Tools which was already suggested) that have no such limitations.
The main reason for suggesting that you don’t focus on Xmind is popularity and accessibility. MindManager is certainly expensive but it’s also the most popular, judging by the available third party add-ins. Freemind is completely free, so no one would mind installing it if the don’t have it. Xmind is a recent entry in a market full of lesser known contenders. See the links at left in http://mindmapping.typepad.com/ to get an idea of what I am talking about.
Pierre Paul Landry wrote:
>>Does anyone know if FreeMind supports multiple parents ?
>>Does FreeMind have as many map types as XMind ?
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>I do not believe
>FreeMind supports multiple parents, and as far as I am aware FM supports only one type
>of map. While I admire FreeMind, it doesn’t compare to XMind in terms of functions.
Cheers
alx
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jan 30, 2008 at 04:42 PM
Regading XMind, one of the map styles I find especially intriguing is the “2D Chart.” Essentially it turns your map or section of the map into a table. I haven’t seen this on other mind mappers, although I haven’t investigated them too heavily. The 2D chart is a wonderful way to view data after you’ve captured it. The program goes further. You can add labels to each item… So, for instance, you might put together a project plan broken down into stages and tasks within those stages. You can then label the project tasks by who is assigned to them. When you go to 2D mode, the table adds columns representing the labels, so you would be able to see tasks by stage and by who is assigned to do them in the table. Very handy. Do other mind mappers do this kind of “map?”
Steve Z.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Feb 1, 2008 at 05:58 AM
I commented on this feature here http://www.outlinersoftware.com/messages/viewm/3290 regretting the fact that each mind map program seems to offer an extra way of looking at your data, but none offers all the posssible ways. The 2D chart for me is quite similar to the table view in i2brain, and similarly useful for project management, much as the timeline in OpenMind which, however, has no table view etc etc etc.
alx
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>Regading XMind, one of the map styles I find especially intriguing is the “2D Chart.”
>Essentially it turns your map or section of the map into a table. I haven’t seen this on
>other mind mappers, although I haven’t investigated them too heavily. The 2D chart is
>a wonderful way to view data after you’ve captured it. The program goes further. You
>can add labels to each item… So, for instance, you might put together a project plan
>broken down into stages and tasks within those stages. You can then label the project
>tasks by who is assigned to them. When you go to 2D mode, the table adds columns
>representing the labels, so you would be able to see tasks by stage and by who is
>assigned to do them in the table. Very handy. Do other mind mappers do this kind of
>“map?”
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Feb 16, 2008 at 09:29 AM
For the programmers among us (I imagine Dominik for one already knows it) I just saw that Xmind is an Eclipse application: http://www.eclipse.org/community/rcpcp.php
alx