Last fall, I conducted a survey of mind mapping software users, which was the largest research of its kind ever performed in this fast-growing software genre. The results were quite significant: It showed, for example, that mind mapping software increases the productivity of its users by an average of 20 percent! It’s now time for [...]

Simple, web-based mind mapping tools seem to be gaining in popularity lately. Earlier this week, I told you about Thinkature. Now I’ve just discovered another online visual mapping application: Bubbl.us. It uses several keyboard commands (Enter and Tab) to enable you to add topics and subtopics, while the mouse can be used to drag and [...]

I have just finished writing a review of NovaMind version 3.2 for Windows on my InnovationTools website. Among the highlights: Discussion of the program’s new Office 2007-esque "ribbon" toolbar – the first for mind mapping software program to introduce this productivity enhancement Lots of great new and improved features for business users Plus several unique [...]

If you’re using MindManager 6 on the Tablet PC platform, there are a number of things you can do to optimize this popular mind mapping application to give yourself more room to work. Chris Pringle explains how in this blog post.

Here’s an interesting web-based collaboration tool that has some of the characteristics of mind mapping software: Thinkature. This tool features a virtual "whiteboard" where you can add topics, move them around the workspace and join them together to show relationships between ideas. Anyone you’re collaborating with can create and manipulate objects in the workspace, and [...]

Mindjet Labs has created a new MindManager 6 add-in that enables users to send maps to a OneNote 2007 notebook as an image that can be sketched on and annotated, and OneNote pages can be sent to MindManager as hyperlinked topics. This add-in addresses a need that MindManager power users have been wanting for some [...]

Nick Duffill shares a very cool way to do outcome-based planning — to visualize our relationship with a business event, such as solving a problem, launching a product, delivering a presentation or establishing a new process. Most mind mapping software programs, he points out, tend to cluster topics on the right and left sides of [...]

On January 9th, SmartDraw.com announced a major update to its new SmartDraw 2007 business diagramming software. Release 8.1 now fully supports Tablet PC and Microsoft’s new Vista operating system, and also features a new Mind Mapping Smart Panel (above right) that makes it easier than ever to add details and ideas to visual maps using [...]

Thanks to many of you, my first mind mapping software survey, conducted last fall, was a great success. I’m now beginning to brainstorm questions for my next survey. And I’d like your help! Please use the comments section of this post to tell me what YOU would like to know about the business use of [...]

I just got word from Chris Griffiths, the managing director of Buzan Online, that a new video featuring Tony Buzan (the inventor of mind mapping) has just been released on YouTube.com. In this 5-minute video clip, Tony clearly explains why mind maps have curved branches, the importance of only placing one word on each branch, [...]