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Your choice of mind mapping software
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Posted by Graham Smith
Oct 19, 2006 at 04:17 PM
Stephen
>For pure brainstorming, I still most prefer BrainStorm. I find that
>mindmapping is useful only if I compress branch titles into tight informative
>phrases.
I think we may be using the brainstorming in a slightly different way, as I only use mind mapping where one or two words are all that is needed for each branch. I may occasionally add a note if I feel something needs explained.
So if I was preparing a lecture on animal behaviour I might have a branch called “communication” and then sub-branches called “sound”, “vision”, “chemical”, electrical, etc. I may then further extend each of these sub-branches with one word headings. This would be thrown together rather quickly and would be refined by moving branches around to try and create the lecture structure.
I would then turn then turn that into an outline, which may be in Brainstorm or NoteMap and write the lecture notes. The same outline would also form the basis of the PowerPoint. But then I would use the Mindmap, probably modified now to match the final presentation, to keep my place during the lecture, and make sure I dodn’t miss any key topics or sub-topics.
If I was brainstorming something that was based on writing paragraphs wherr I had no particular order in mind, then I would use Brainstorm, but then by the time I start to write paragraphs, I normally have a structure in mind.
>I use mindmapping to explore and clarify the relationship between the items I have
>brainstormed,
I suspect that I am using the visual relationship in the mindmap to prompt me to think about the topics that need to be included. In some respects this is against the idea of brainstorming.
I think its rather nice to have the option of different tools.
Graham
Posted by Graham Smith
Oct 19, 2006 at 04:21 PM
Derek
>back-burner, at the least. I notice that VisiMap’s own support forum has been closed,
That is a shame. I have just downloaded it and it is rather attractive in its simplicity, while still having some failry powerful options.
Graham
Posted by Derek Cornish
Oct 19, 2006 at 10:04 PM
Graham -
> That is a shame. I have just downloaded it and it is rather attractive in its simplicity, while still having some failry powerful options.
I’ve just been looking at VisiMap and was impressed, too. As I have somewhat different requirements, though, I thought I’d better start a new thread before talking about them.
Derek
Posted by Wes Perdue
Oct 20, 2006 at 12:34 AM
Derek -
>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.
Thanks for the link. I read their review of MindManager Pro 6 and decided I to re-evaluate it. I’ve been fiddling with NovaMind and VisiMap the past few days, thinking I need to finally settle on a visual mind-mapping tool, but I’m probably just looking for another CRIMP fix.
I tend to use Brainstorm or ActionOutline for brainstorming, so I come from the text-oriented POV.
I evaluated Inspiration in the past, both on the desktop and on the Palm, but ran into bugs and annoying quirks.
NovaMind’s maps are indeed quite visually pleasing.
VisiMap does seem a more complete program, and it does have the ability to toggle between outline view and map view, which is nice. I have one complaint so far: it doesn’t use anti-aliasing when drawing lines on the screen, and I find the jaggies distracting.
Which brings me to MindManager. It seems to fit me better than any other mind mapping tool I’ve evaluated. The keystrokes for adding nodes to the map are intuitive: enter for a sibling and insert for a child - just like AO, which I’ve been using forever. It creates beautiful maps. I may end up purchasing it this time.
- Wes
Posted by Derek Cornish
Oct 20, 2006 at 06:36 AM
Wes -
Like you I mostly do text outlining so mind mapping hasn’t in the past grabbed my attention. I use Inspiration as a text outliner fairly often and it does grow on one, although the child-friendly aspects are a little irritating. I was surprised to find how useful it can be for simple diagram drawing as well as mind mapping. In fact I may experimenting with a lot of diagram drawing over the next few months, so it will be a good excuse to explore the field further. I’ll take a look at NovaMind.
MindManager certainly looks the most polished of the programs I have briefly scanned, and has a lot of the features I could persuade myself that I need :-). But I’m reluctant to buy it for the current project - or at least until I’ve played around with these type of programs for longer.
Derek