Mind Map Articles

MindManagerX5 Pro

$296.65 (single-user edition; volume discounts available)

Mindjet

MindManager’s interface lets you concentrate onorganizing your ideas instead of fussing with program settings.

MindManager is both the most powerful and most expensiveof the programs I examined. That said, anyone who needs a truly professional-levelidea-mapping tool will find their money well-spent.

MindManager’s edge is twofold. One, it has an outstandinguser interface, so you spend less time wrestling with the program and more timeactually collating ideas. Two, it integrates broadly with third-party applications  notjust Microsoft Office, but other apps often used by those who use mind tools inthe first place such as SalesForce.com.

You w ill probably want to start with the program’sBrainstorm mode. Here, you just type in as many ideas relevant to your topic aspossible, in no particular order, and then organize them into tentative categoriesand hierarchies. As you get a better grip on the topic and move things around, anidea keyword might become a category or vice versa. The more you work with it, themore the ideas organize themselves and shake themselves out. (The one hard partof the program is the object styling tools; see the review of MindMapper for a comparisonof details.)

There are other ways to view the map, too. Outline modemost directly resembles the outline function in Word and PowerPoint. Presentationturns the whole map into a PowerPoint-like presentation, unfolding each node ofthe map like a flower blooming to illustrate each idea. It’s better than goinga slide at a time because you can always see the whole thing at a glance.

You can link and manipulate multip le maps together andin groups (a multimap), and you can also make links to external files or URLs. Onehandy feature is a Repair Broken File Hyperlinks tool, which iterates through allexternal links in the document and ensures they’re still valid.

MindManager’s integration with Office works a numberof different ways. Aside from being able to export maps to apps such as Word orPowerPoint, you can import a Word outline into MindManager as a map, synchronizea map’s to-do and completion data with a Project timeline and even synchronizecontact data stored in a map with Outlook. Another package lets you integrate withthe SalesForce.com’s line of CRM products, a powerful feature only this programsupports.

You can export a finished map in a wide variety of formats:Web pages (in either a static or dynamic, CSS/DHTML-driven style), bit-mapped images,Metafile vector images, XML, and many more. The Pack And Go feature compiles themap fil e and any externally linked files into one self-extracting ZIP archive (noZIP utility needed).

SimTech Systems

MindMapper isn’t quite as polished and upmarketa program as MindManager, but it’s a lot more affordable ($179 to MindManager’s$299) and most of its functions are comparable to MindManager.

Start the programand you’ll see a map with links to the program’s how-to tutorials. Thesetutorials are among the program’s best features. If you know nothing abouthow idea-management software works, you can fire up a Flash-based tutorial thatwalks you through how to create a map and populate it, how to work in outline mode,and how to do advanced grouping and linking among objects.

MindMapper actually has a few features MindManager doesnot. For one, you can view the outline and map view for a given map simulta neouslyin side-by-side panels. Click a node in the outline view and it assumes focus inthe map, with all lower-level nodes in the tree temporarily removed from view. Thisis a nice way to drill into a map and look only at what you need.

It’s also easy to modify the general look of themap. With one click you can choose whether subjects radiate outward from the centralnode, appear in a tree next to it, or are arranged in some other fashion. MindManagerhas similar object-styling tools, but they’re a little less straightforwardto use at first glance; you have to create general styles and then apply them (oruse a pregenerated style), and the style-creation tool is a little arcane.

MindMapper’s presentation mode has some nice commonsensetouches: For one, you can open a pane that shows a preview of what the automaticallygenerated slide view of the presentation will look like. There’s less integrationwith other programs, but the integra tion features are unique; for instance, theAuto Paste Mode (used with Word) lets you select blocks of text and convert themautomatically into new nodes in the map. You can also import and turn PowerPointdocuments into diagrams.

The program’s export functions let you save a mapto most common graphics files, XML, and of course HTML. Exporting a map to HTMLproduces a simple two-panel document with a tree diagram in the left-hand pane.Click any of the nodes in the tree and the node, with all relevant links and otherfeatures, appears in the right-hand pane.

FreeMind 0.8

Free/open source

freemind.sourceforge.net

CPU Rating: 2.5

As the name might imply, FreeMind is a freeware/open-sourceidea-mapping tool written in Java to run nearly anywhere (Windows, Linux, and OSX packages are available). The feature set is nowhere nearly as robust as the otherprograms discussed here; there isn’t any integration with external programs,and the UI isn’t that sophisticated. However, it’s free, and for peoplelooking to get their hands on an idea-mapping tool just to learn the road, it’snot a bad place to start. It’s also continuously evolving, so many of the criticismsI have here are slowly being addressed.

The user interface is simple enough: Like the other programsdescribed here, it surrounds the map with a number of toolbars with various functions.You can mark map nodes with icons or surround selected nodes with a cloud to indicatea common association. If you don’t like where a node is positioned, you candrag it around, and also control the direction of branching for a particular childnode. Right-clicking a node and then dragging to another node creates an arrow link,and you can also manipulate the path of the arrow to keep it from being overwrittenby other elements.

FreeMind does have a few features that the other programslack. The most notable is the ability to create password-encryptable nodes. Mostof the good features are things found in other programs, but implemented well,for instance, automatic formatting of the map or being able to track revisions tonodes. You can import maps created in MindManager X5 into FreeMind with most ofthe map features kept intact. You also can export maps (or parts of maps) to dynamicor static HTML, an OpenOffice document, or a static image.

There are still some things missing, though. There isn’ta real presentation mode, and the program lacks productivity functions such as taskassignments or calendaring. Still, it’s hard to argue with the price tag, andthe program’s amazingly rapid development is worth watching. When version 1.0hits, it should be a keeper.

by Serdar Yegulalp

MindManager For Dummies

If you’re still confused about mind mapping, consider“MindManager for Dummies.” Aside from covering the feature set of MindManagerin its Standard, Business, and Enterprise releases, there are detailed real-worldexamples of how to communicate ideas with the program.

The HistoryOf The Mind Map

Mind maps are one of the manyways you can represent ideas, and representing ideas symbolically goes hand-in-handwith the history of the human race. Porphyry, a Greek thinker of the 3^rdcentury B.C., devised one of the earliest versions of the mind map to illustratethe concept categories formulated by fellow philosopher Aristotle. That said, mindmaps themselves are a relatively new invention (circa 1960 or so), spawned fromthe convergence of several ways of representing ideas.

The Venn diagram. In the 19^thcentury, British mathematician John Venn created the Venn diagram as a way to graphicallyrepresent relationships among sets of things. Mind maps aren’t Venn diagramsper se, but they use one of the key conceits of Venn diagrams: that you can grouprelated ideas together spatially. MindManager and MindMapper both make explicituse of this concept by letting y ou create clouds of related ideas on your map.

The concept map. An early version of the mindmap, called a concept map, was originally developed by learning experts in the 1960sas a way to facilitate learning. One of the widely touted advantages of the mindmap, which comes directly from concept maps, is that it uses both sides of the brainat once (the perceptive and analytic halves) and therefore engages the brain morecompletely. (This hasn’t yet been borne out by study, possibly because mind-mappingis still a relatively new technique, but it`s an intriguing notion.)

The flowchart. Originally pioneered by 20^thcentury efficiency experts and computer scientists, flowcharts became a popularway to show how you could do a particular thing. Mind maps use the basic idea ofthe flowchart layout (using lines to illustrate connections among discrete elements)and pushed it into a different direction. Because ideas don’t have a s tartor a finish, the mind map can, in theory, begin anywhere and end anywhere.

Make Mind Maps Work For You

Mind-mapping programs areonly going to be as good as the people using them. Because many people aren’tused to the way mind mapping works, here are some hints to help you open up yoursynapses and make the most of any mind mapper.

1. Get your sea legs first. Mind mappers aren’tquite like word processors, presentation programs, or databases. They retain a fewfeatures from each of those applications, but they’re ultimately not like anythingelse out there. For that reason, the more direct experience you have with an idea-mappingprogram in any context, the better. If you’re going to use a mind-mapping programto organize some major work effort at some point, try using it first to sort outideas for a personal project. That way you can see how the program’s workflowapplies to your own way of thinking and then put that to use for more serious worklater.

2. Train yourself to brainstorm. When we writedown sets of ideas, most of us tend to force ourselves to precategorize everything.With a mind mapper, you can come up with the ideas in any order, without even havingto decide categories for them first. The more you do this for any subject,the better you get at it. Don’t worry about throwing out too many ideas orwhether they’re absurd; you can always pare them down later.

3. Use questions as well as statements to feed yourmap. Most people start creating a map by tossing out static, closed-ended statements,such as, “This needs to be done.” Try using questions as well as statementsto create parts of the map. A question such as, “Do we really need to do thisparticular part of the project?” could spawn a whole subsection of the mapin which many unquestioned assumptions about what you’re working on get putto the test. This, in turn, means more raw materials to pu t into the map.

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Balanced Scorecard mind map. Frame Approach.

Balanced Scorecard is a strategic planning approach that describes companies goals in four perspectives - "Customer", "Business Process", "Financial" perspective and "Learning and Growth" perspective.We created a Balanced Scorecard mind map to support creation of scorecard for personal or business needs.

In this article you will find out more about Balanced Scorecard concept. Also, you can download a sample Mind Pad map that is a basic for building your own scorecard

Overview - Balanced Scorecard with Mind Pad

Let me explain what is Balanced Scorecard designing in Mind Pad and why it`s better that tools for balanced scorecard and what valued does it add.

Designing Balanced Scorecard in Mind Pad

Balanced Scorecard is a conception (not method) that allows to represent company`s goals. For designing Balanced Scorecard it`s reasonable to apply a mind mapping or concept mapping information representation approaches.

Normally mind (or concept) map deals with topics. In Mind Pad we used so called Frames. Think about frame as an object with special properties set.

Use special model for representing Balanced Scorecard information. It allows creating topics with properties: "Goal", "Measure method", "Action", "Action Feedback" and others. Click to see all properties of "Goal" object.

In Mind Pad it`s easy to link some strategic goal with a person card. It looks great and simplify the information about related person. Read more about person map.

Use special color styles designed for Balanced Scorecard building. It`s an easy way to make your map looks professionally. Click to see big balanced scorecard map.

Using Balanced Scorecard with Mind Pad

Now, let me show how to benefit from using BSC_Goal object in Mind Pad.

1. I`ve add to the map a custom designed BSC_Goal object. It has all properties I need to describe some specific company goal for perspective. My goal is "Improve access to business-critical information".
2. First, I wish to describe the measurement method. I put into "Measure method" property the following text: "We will evaluate the number of requests by one employee"
3. Now, I`m describing my goal: "The number of employees that can access strategic information", the goal value is "80%".
4. It`s a time to act. I put in "Action" property the value "We will start promoting company entire network".

I built this goal of my balanced scorecard map. And after some time I`m getting back to it as I have some results:

1. First, now I know what is the problem, why most people wasn`t able to access business-critical information. My IT stuff reported that "We should provide a direct access to company network from the web". Let`s put this into "Action feedback" properties.
2. Also, guys from IT did some work to improve access to business information. I evaluate the progress as 10% and put some ideas in "Progress Description" property: "Guys from IT released a wireless access to entire network".

So this example shows how you can manage your goals with Balanced Scorecard map. It`s easy because topics represent just the short summary and if you need details - you click at topic and browse for more values.

Click to see big image of contact map

Also, you can view the old version of Balanced Scorecard built with Mind Pad. It doesn`t use object-oriented frames approach so the map is biggest and harder to understand. Compare it with new one to learn the benefits of frames approach.

Why we work with Balanced Scorecard

Balanced Scorecard is what makes company more effective as company employees know about strategic goals, know how their job is linked with strategic goal. In 2004 we have designed a Strategy2Act product that allows to build and balance scorecard.

Now we are releasing Balanced Scorecard in mind mapping technique. We used Mind Pad product to describe the sample mind map and show how to create a company/personal balanced scorecard.

What is Balanced Scorecard

The Balanced Scorecard is a business management concept. This concept allows to transform strategy into action. It`s a not a set of rules or methods, it`s a conception that allows to share your strategy and vision with others.

Learning and Growth perspective (strategic goal) in Mind Pad. Pay attention to properties of this frame objects. Note: you can put information about goal description, measure way, current and target state.

There are three important things you should know about Balanced Scorecard:

• It?s a concept (not a set of rules, tools or methods);

• It helps to connect your strategy with real action;

• It lets to describe companies? strategy, vision and mission;

Basing Balanced Scorecard concept every strategic goal must have a success factors. For every factor you can have a measure way and target value.

Goal. As you can see at this picture Employee Satisfaction goal is linked with Learning and Growth strategic goal. You should show the progress for this goal. "Progress Description" and "Progress" properties were designed for this task.

The balanced scorecard suggests to view the organization from four perspectives:

Then you should develop success measure ways and assign a target values.

Why use Balanced Scorecard

The Balanced Scorecard is another great way to let your employees know about your strategy, mission and vision. People will not just ?know? about your strategy, but will be able to answer question:

Use Balanced Scorecard to transform your strategy into action.

Special

• For building balanced scorecard maps purchase Mind Pad with special price 49$. Purchase Mind Pad.

Related topics

• Total Quality Management (TQM) . Quality assurance through statistical methods is a key component in a manufacturing organization. Learn how to mind map TQM.

• SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Use Mind Pad to support your SWOT analysis.

• Six Sigma is a quality program for improving business processes. Describe your process and Six Sigma topics with Mind Pad.

Balanced Scorecard

Installation

Please, read first how to install this model in Mind Pad (www.mind-pad.com):

1. You should install Balanced Scorecard model.

Open Mind Pad Model folder, for instance:

C:\Program Files\Mind Pad\Models

Copy Balanced Scorecard.mdm to that folder;

2. You can copy additional graphics to Image Library.

Open Mind Pad Image Library folder, for instance:

C:\Program Files\Mind Pad\ImageLibrary

Copy BSC Images to that folder;

3. You can copy additinoal grapgics to Style Library

Open Mind Pad Styles folder, for instance:

C:\Program Files\Mind Pad\Styles

Copy BSC Styles to that folder;

4. Now you can open sample map balanced-scorecard.mprj file.

Evaluate Mind Pad