I am looking for a mind map software for brainstorming to sort out my new ideas and connect the dots with each other before writing. Any recommendations?!
I've heard Freemind spoken well of, but I've never used it. MindNode (Mac only) is very clean and simple. My favorite Mind map was The Brain. The feature that hooked me was jump thoughts. That's a way to link a node to to any other node in the mind map with an automatic back link. You could see that best in their demos. Curio is like a notebook of whiteboards, sort of. Each page (idea space) in Curio could be thought of as a mind map, and there is a mind map object (figure, in Curio-speak) you can add anywhere you want. I'd like to hear what you find.
Good recommendations. Thanks I have come across SimpleMind and XMind: SimpleMind is simple and easy to use. However, it's very limited in terms of functionality. XMind is completed to use and very limited. However, I am still looking for a simple to use mind map with a clean interface. I downloaded MindMap and started to play around with its features. It looks fully features mind map software. I still need more time to discover its features before I decide weather it fits to my needs or not. Is it still available? Any link to look at it?! You mean a notebook and mind map at the same time? Any link to look at it?!
The Brain can be found at TheBrain.com. I stopped using it when version 9 came out. At that time, it was still written in Java, and I lost some files. I must hasten to point out that TheBrain has been rewritten in the interim. Curio can be found at Zengobi.com, and it’s pretty cool. It uses a model of idea spaces (canvasses/pages) with figures on them. A figure is a text bos, index card, mind map, Kanban stack, list, image - many different types of figures are supported. It’s like OneNote in some ways, but much more.
I have come across Scapple. Its from the same company which built Scrivener. I haven’t tried it yet since it’s a paid software. Have anyone used it before? Any recommendations to get it?!
I've used "coggle.it" for a few projects. It's a free site. Not real fancy, but it's all I need. Edit: I guess there's a paid option too. Eh, sorry but I don't pay monthly fees for software. I hate that trend. The free option worked perfectly for me. I always wind up with something that looks like a festive dendrite.
MindNode is starting to improve its outline view. As of the current release, outline view works fine, but it’s a minimal function outliner. It remains primarily a mind map, but that may change with future releases.
I've used it. You are allowed to try it on a trial basis for free. Think they give you 30 days before they want you to buy it. I have no idea how it compares to others because it's the only one I've ever used.
Full Disclosure, I'm a software Geek. I own Scapple ($15 US), Free Mind (open source, Free), and the free version of xMind 8. Of the 3, I enjoy using xMind the most. It's structured in a way that suits me. Free Mind is perfectly adequate, and fully functional but I like xMind a tiny bit better. Scapple is an odd duck. It is as much a free form note taker as it is a mind map tool. Its big advantage is that it can sync with Scrivener.
I just mentioned Freeplane in another thread (I read that one first). It works pretty well for me, and I like it better than others I've tried.
Have you tried Google? https://www.freeplane.org/wiki/index.php/Home http://www.freeplane.org/doc/freeplane_all_languages.html
Living in a cave as I do, until I encountered this thread I wasn't even aware of the existence of mind mapping software. At my age, I'm not sure I'm ready to invest time in learning something so totally alien to me when there are programs that I know I need to learn for career advancement (or, more accurately, to alleviate career regression), but the software I need to learn is currently too expensive for me to contemplate, whereas there are several free mind mapping programs available. Could you post a bit about which others you have tried, and what you think the strengths and shortcomings are for each?
Thanks. I have tried searching it on the app store and didn’t find it. It seems doesn’t work on iPhone.
I just started with Freeplane (actually Freemind, but Freeplane is a more active fork). The others I've looked at are "View Your Mind", and Xmind. Xmind has a paid version,which I don't like, and I just thought VYM is ugly. I already know some Freeplane keyboard shortcuts, and am pretty familiar with it, so I didn't really look too hard at the others. Freeplane has good drag-and-drop support, I like that you can include hyperlinks easily, and there's a respectable variety of export formats, like from map to spreadsheet. Freeplane has more features than I'll ever use, but I like that they're there. Probably your best bet would be to try the different programs and see which one suites you. They all do pretty much the same thing.
I checked out the other thread and it looks just like the one I recently downloaded and tried, called X Mind. Personally I'd much rather do it on paper. My friend and I used to call it making a road map, and it's so much more personalized when you make it yourself. The computer ones all look identical and every item is the same, none have any emphasis or a personal touch. This isn't one of mine, I grabbed it off the internet, but compare: Which is more memorable? I can say from experience that working with a hand drawn one, developing it, is fun and even gets exciting at times, and helps you think about the tone or atmosphere of the story. A bland computerized image with bland text on it doesn't do that for me. But I'm sure there are a lot of capabilities it has that you can't do on paper, like adding all kinds of info and imagery etc. A matter of personal choice.
The hand-drawn mind map looks great, but you can't move stuff around once it's on paper. Plus, for me, the process of drawing would be tortuous, and the result ugly and pretty useless. I have no artistic talent, or even legible handwriting! Also, I just thought of this: you can't hide a node if it's on paper. With Freeplane or whatever, You don't have to look at it if you're not working on it.
You don't have to be able to draw. Just make ovals around words and connect them with lines. Any decoration is completely optional. Anyway, just my choice, and for some projects the computer version might be more useful. And as the one above shows, even the ovals are optional really. You're free to express yourself however feels right. As for making changes, we used to get really creative, jamming small words into spaces, gobbing white-out on over some entries and writing over it after it's dry. Road maps are a lot more fun after several layers of changes. Tape another piece of paper beside it and extend it, or at some point you might need to create a new one if you've made too many changes. Or maybe make some form of outline or index-card system.
AS I tell people in the photographic forums, "Use what works for you. In the end, we will judge you on the quality of your work, not your tools." I'm much smarter as a photographer than I am as a writer.
Many writers at NANOWRIMO (National November Writing Month use and recommend Scapple by Literature and Latte, the makers of Scrivener. I have both and found them to be useful tools but have not replaced Word or Gray Matter.
