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Your choice of mind mapping software
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Posted by Stephen R. Diamond
Oct 19, 2006 at 07:44 AM
Graham Smith wrote:
>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 :-)
Visi-Map has an auto-coloring option that I sometimes do use. It simply applies one of eight colors, in sequence, to each main subtree. I don’t know if that helps with anything significant, but I don’t find it distracts because it merely reinforces the branch structure. Maybe sometimes that’s good, sometimes not, but it’s an option.
Visi-Map may not be doing great commercially because the trend in mindmapping, it seems to me, is to create diagrams more like what one might draw. Hand-drawn mindmaps seem to be regarded by many as the gold standard, and computer-created maps a second-best expedient. The more ways to individualize the look of the map, for the most avid mindmapping enthusiast, the better.
Whereas my personal take is that mindmapping only became particularly useful with its computerization. I admit, I haven’t read Buzan much, so there’s a good chance I’m missing something in the conventional process. But my overwhelming impression is that the process of mind-mapping would be horrendously difficult with pencil and paper. I mean, how would you relocate a branch? Do you erase, having made your mark with colored pencil? Cross-out; hardly producing a visually compelling result; or what?
So the upshot is that I go for programs that do as much automatically as possible. What I don’t like about Inspiration is that it forces you to do to much, which may actually be good for educational purposes.
Posted by Graham Smith
Oct 19, 2006 at 08:47 AM
Stephen
>Does Buzan present a different account?
Not especially, but the wikipedia account doesn’t really explain how Buzan came to supporting this approach through his studies into memory and learning.
Although a bit pseudo-scientific the televison series he did many years ago was impressive where he demonstrated that the more bizarre the mind map (colours and pictures) the better people were able to remember things. However, in that particular example he was using mind maps as a learning tool or a tool for taking lecture notes.
I still think of “MindMaps” in the fairly restrictive manner presentedby Buzan in the early days rather than the all encompassing radial diagramming business tool it seems to have become, even though they may well present the diagram in a mind map style.
Graham
Posted by Stephen R. Diamond
Oct 19, 2006 at 08:49 AM
Graham Smith wrot
>I find it useful for particular applications. Initial
>brainstorming and when I want a one page overview of something - such as a lecture where
>I can scan my entire lecture with a single glance.
>
My usage is a little different. For pure brainstorming, I still most prefer BrainStorm. I find that mindmapping is useful only if I compress branch titles into tight informative phrases. That is an analytic process that takes me outside brainstorming.
I use mindmapping to explore and clarify the relationship between the items I have brainstormed, If I employ brainstorming. I find maps particularly useful to find to find gaps in information or argument. When I don’t brainstorm, I might write thoughts in the notes pane of a branch, compress that information for use in a topic, and erase the inforamiotn in the notes pane, which serves only an intermediary purpose.
Posted by Graham Smith
Oct 19, 2006 at 08:57 AM
Stephen
>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,
Mind Genius does this as well
Graham
Posted by Derek Cornish
Oct 19, 2006 at 01:37 PM
Graham -
>Interesting you haven’t had a reply, which tends to support the idea that they maybe have moved onto other things.
I got a friendly reply from the developer when I told him about the yahoo groups discussion, but he didn’t subsequently take part in that discussion. As you say, that may indicate that VisiMap is on the back-burner, at the least. I notice that VisiMap’s own support forum has been closed, too.
For those who know little or nothing about “mind mapping” (moi, for example), I found the comparison at http://www.cul.co.uk/software/istruct.htm to be a useful start.
Derek