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Your choice of mind mapping software
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Posted by Cassius
Oct 19, 2006 at 04:05 AM
Steve D. said, “Then there’s the counterposing of mind map’s to hierarchies, where “mind maps” actuall enforce a stricter hierarchy than outlines, as each branch must be subordinated to a single ultimate element at the center.”
While I do not use mind mappers, I’d like to point out that in Personal Brain, ANY node can become the ” ... ultimate element at the center.”
Years ago, I suggested to the developer that it add an option that allows the inclusion of a direction arrow on any link between nodes. At the time, it indicated no interest, but a couple of years later I was told that the “corporate” version now had that option. I do not know if it is in personal brain.
My interest in “The Brain” is its usefulness in diagramming a system, such as all the parts/functions of a government agency. Any part of the system can make its node “the center” and see the rest of the system from its perspective.
-c
Posted by Graham Smith
Oct 19, 2006 at 06:49 AM
Stephen
>In subsequent posts you clarify what you are looking for.
In truth I am not sure what I am looking for, as I do use many of the other features for other things, but my requirements for mind mapping are very simple as I don’t find a mind mapping aproach to “everything” all that useful, and I fail to see the appeal of large mind maps.
>I think Buzan was onto something when
>he noticed the particular usability of radial outlines for core outlining. On the
>other hand, some of the factors he emphasized have struck me as pure distraction. I do
>not think the use of color automatically interests the brain to justify gratuitous
>coloration.
I think the emphaisis on colour and pictures is based on aiding memory, as Buzans real interest is in learning and memory. However, like you, I find them more of a distraction and don’t use them - but maybe we are both wrong :-)
>Since you know Visi-Map, I would suggest you check
>out Visual-Mind.
Its actually years since i used Visi-Map, but based on your comments, I think I will revisit Visi-Map and have a look at Visual Mind.
Thanks,
Graham
Posted by Stephen R. Diamond
Oct 19, 2006 at 07:08 AM
Graham Smith wrote:
>Have you read Tony Buzan, and how the concept of mind maps evolved?
No.I did read the Wikipedia article on mindmapping yesterday.(Someone in this forum had posted a reference.) I gathered from that article that they were called mindmaps before Buzan. It also seemed to be implied that the name might have come from the fact that radial outlines had as one of their typical uses displaying some kind of mental associative structure, in which case I suppose _those_ maps would be mindmaps. Does Buzan present a different account?
Posted by Graham Smith
Oct 19, 2006 at 07:13 AM
Jack
>I do my brainstorming in text mode, using an outlining
>program. However, I do find it useful to then switch the view to a graphical one and
>observe the connections and patterns. I might edit a little in graphical mode and then
>go back to text.
I suspect I am rather similar in this respect, in that I find myself doing a lot of thinking in advance of booting up the computer. If by the time I get to the computer I have a basic set of ideas worked out, then I find an outliner is the tool I want to use, but I still like the visual over view of the mind map.
On the other hand, if my pre-boot up thinking session has failed to give me a basic idea of how to approach what I am writing, then I find a mind map the best brainstorming tool
>So far, I’m aware of only 2 programs that do this
>in a more than rudimentary way - Mind Manager (version 6) and Inspiration. I would
>dearly love to use Inspiration but it is a bit clunky and really designed for another
>market. So I use Mind Manager - a behemoth for sure.
Well, conicidence you will see from my list that I tend to use the same two program. There is a lot to like about Inspiration, and I have the Palm version as well, but as you suggest it has its issues. MindManager is probably the best compromise that I have found so far, but its slow to launch and heavy on resources.
Graham
Posted by Stephen R. Diamond
Oct 19, 2006 at 07:23 AM
Cassius wrote:
>While I do not use mind
>mappers, I’d like to point out that in Personal Brain, ANY node can become the ” ...
>ultimate element at the center.”
Maybe I should look at PersonalBrain, but it would seem to me the significance of being able to look at things from various centers depends on there being the possibility of various centers. I mean, if you took PersonalBrain and built within it a strictly hierarchical outline—one and only one element that everything else ultimately falls under—being able to look at things from different vantage points could only mean being able to center on non-central branches. (Something like a hoist.) I gather that in PB, however, you can construct any kind of web, so nothing is necessarily central and nothing is necessarily ultimate. You can do this also with an outline structure that allows the most liberal cloning of topics, as in UltraRecall. If I’m not completely off base, PersonalBrain has more affinity with certain outliners than with mindmapping in the strict sense.