Here is a summary of the differences:

Concept maps

• Are commonly used to organize and represent tacit knowledge.
• Usually contain general concepts at the top of the map, with more specific concepts arrayed hierarchically below.
• Connector lines usually contains keywords or phrases that summarize the relationship between the topics they connect. Such as topic a “causes” topic B.
• Topics may be cross-linked with each other to depict more complex relationships between topics. Topics in mind maps may only have one parent; in a concept map, a topic may have multiple connector lines, each one representing a different relationship.

Mind maps

• Tend to be more flexible and personal than concept maps.
• Are used to slice and dice the map’s central topic or concept in multiple ways.
• May contain images and color, to make them more visually stimulating
• Topics may only have a single parent

Check out this informative article for more details, as well as a wealth of information about mind mapping and other visual thinking  techniques on the Wikit website. This page contains an index of all of the articles on this extensive wiki – very impressive!

In general, the brainstorming mode of mind mapping software is designed to make it quick and easy to enter a succession of topics or ideas, using only the keyboard (no mouse manipulation required) and without regard to exact placement of each topic. After all, you have complete freedom to move them around later. This ability to enter multiple topics quickly is especially helpful if you’re facilitating a group brainstorming session for your work, and your team mates are shouting out ideas to you one after another. Brainstorming mode lets you capture them quickly, without the program getting in the way.

Several programs also offer a countdown timer, which enables you to set a time limit on individual or group brainstorming. Sometimes, this can be a catalyst, helping you to generate more ideas, faster. In a group setting, however, it has a more practical use: To ensure that a team doesn’t spend too much time on any given challenge they’re trying to solve.

Here’s how the functionality of brainstorming mode compares in the major mind mapping programs that have it:

ConceptDraw MINDMAP inserts each of your ideas as free-floating topics, which gives you a lot of freedom in grouping and arranging them. The program’s brainstorming view (shown above – click image for larger version) also contains a countdown timer, which enables you to set a time limit on your ideation sessions. Ideas can be added using only the keyboard, which makes ConceptDraw MINDMAP an ideal program for group brainstorming sessions, where the meeting facilitator must be able to add a number of ideas quickly, without the program getting in the way.

MindManager contains a brainstorming mode that is ideal for group ideation. You can quickly add ideas in a form field at the top of the brainstorming workspace, using only a keyboard; the program inserts them into your map as floating topics. . This view also contains a countdown timer, so you can set a time limit on your brainstorming sessions. MindManager’s brainstorming panel also enables you to easily create groups – “buckets” into which you want to logically group your ideas. You then drag and you’re your floating ideas to attach them to group topics.

Inspiration: For many years, Inspiration has included a very useful “RapidFire ” brainstorming mode, which enables you to quickly enter items into your map using only the keyboard, using only the “Enter” key. New topics can be linked to the central one, or can be free-floating. This gives you much greater freedom when arranging your map after the brainstorming session. You’ll know when you’re in RapidFire mode, because as soon as you click “Enter,” the program inserts a cool red lightning bolt after your topic, and you can immediately enter another one while Inspiration places the last one in your map.

NovaMind 4 offers a branchstorming mode which you can enable from the context menu on a branch in Windows and from the tool palette on the Mac version. It operates in a way that is very similar to the RapidFire mode of Inspiration. In addition, an optional Suggesterator module can be used to provide you with keyword stimuli during the ideation process. It does this by displaying a list of words that are closely related be selected topic in your map – something like an electronic thesaurus. You can utilize this tool to identify other categories or subjects for inclusion in your mind map, and to provide valuable momentum for your brainstorming session. In NovaMind 5, you can add topics anywhere just by pressing Enter/Return. If you have just added a floating topic, it will add another, so that makes it very easy to create unconnected ideas.

iMindMap has a “speed mapping” mode that enables you navigate your map using your arrow keys to select the branches to which you want to add new ideas, and then add a succession of ideas using only the keyboard. To enter ideas in this mode, you first first select a topic; when you start typing, a text box pops up to capture it, while below it a blank branch is created. When you hit the enter key, your text is added to the branch and another text box appears, ready to capture your next idea.

MindMapper 2009 takes a unique approach to brainstorming: It enables you to create a series of brightly-colored floating topics called “memo notes” that resemble Post-It notes. These can be added to your map workspace using the shift-left mouse button combination. The mouse is still required for this program, but MindMapper gets style points for enabling you to record your ideas in a colorful, playful format. In addition, MindMapper offers a count-down timer, so you can set a time limit on your brainstorming sessions; it also can count upwards, so you can see what your elapsed time is – how long you’ve spent brainstorming ideas.

XMind takes a slightly different approach: Its brainstorming mode removes all of the toolbars from the screen and inserts a countdown timer in the upper right corner of the workspace. All of the program’s keyboard shortcuts still function, along with its right-click, context-sensitive menu. You don’t have to use the mouse if you don’t want to. If you’re in a group brainstorming session, I can see how reducing the amount of visual clutter projected onto the screen in the meeting room may help participants to stay focused on the task at hand – generating ideas to solve a specific business problem.

Other programs, such as MindApp, say they have a brainstorming mode. But actually, what it supports is inserting a floating topics by double-clicking in blank areas of the workspace. Not exactly a specific “mode” for ideation, but still somewhat streamlined.

If capturing ideas on the fly is important to you, then definitely check out these programs. I recommend that you download trial versions of several of them to see what works best for you.

1. Links and attachments: First, the mind mapping software you select ought to support a wide variety of links and attachments – including web pages, files, folders and, ideally, links to individual e-mail messages. If you think about it, when you’re conducting research and capturing ideas and knowledge in a mind map, a lot of that information tends to be embedded in the text of e-mail messages, received as we collaborate with others, as we request information from our teammates.  And being able to pull that content into your mind maps is extremely powerful.

2. Topic notes: In software-produced mind maps, notes are an excellent way to capture extended thoughts without cluttering up the visible part of your mind map. Yet you can still “drill down” to them with a single mouse click. A note can contain anything from a single sentence to several paragraphs.  So if you’ve got some additional thoughts or ideas that you want to capture that are longer than a few words, you can record them in map notes. If you’re writing a report, a book or other lengthy document, notes give you a practical way to begin fleshing out the major points of it. Later, you can export what you’ve collected to Microsoft Word; the topics become headings and the notes become paragraph text – your document is already half-written!

3. Content filtering: If you are planning large, complex projects, which will produce large, complex mind maps, the ability to filter their content is critically important. One of the most practical ways to filter map content is based on tasks.  If you apply such a filter, only the topics that are tasks will be displayed – enabling you to clearly see what needs to be done, and by whom. That’s very powerful.  Another example is to filter your map’s content based on an icon or symbol, which could correspond to a particular person on your team or a certain segment of your business. The key benefit here is focus: Filtering temporarily hides everything else, so you can focus in on the information you need to be more organized and productive.

4. Export formats: The ability to export to multiple formats, such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Project, PDFs and web pages, is also very important when you’re considering which mind mapping program to buy. Often, what you’re producing in your mind map is not the end result.  You may use it to organize all of your material and then export it to PowerPoint or Word, where you’ll finish it up.  The other thing to keep in mind is that there are some linear thinkers out there who don’t feel comfortable with mind maps, so for them you may want to convert your map into a more conventional, palatable format – such as a Word document.

5. Keyboard shortcuts: Most mind mapping programs require you to use toolbar buttons to add content to your map.  But when you’re brainstorming, whether individually or in a group, you need to be able to capture ideas quickly, without the program’s users interface getting in the way. That’s where keyboard shortcuts come in. They enable you to quickly create new topics and sub-topics, into which you can type your ideas without restricting your creative “flow.” One of the marvelous things about mind mapping software is you can just do a “brain dump” – capturing ideas on the fly without respect to their structure – and then rearrange them later.

If you’re a current user of mind mapping software, what features and functionality do YOU think are absolutely critical? What should prospective buyers look for (no commercials for a particular program, please!)?

By default, most mind mapping programs utilize a white background for the maps they produce. While this provides an excellent contrast for the map itself, it can get rather boring to look at visually. To add visual impact to your maps, you may want to consider adding a background image or pattern (click on the image above to view a PDF of the Gettysburg Address – as a mind map!). There are several reasons why you may want to do this:

• To help your mind map get your audience’s attention, especially if you’re making a presentation from your mind mapping program.
• To enforce consistent branding of the mind maps produced by your company. If you’re a consulting firm, for example, you may want to create a simple map background and incorporates a screened back logo. If you create a custom map template that incorporates this background, then each of the maps that your team produces will include it – ensuring that each one clearly communicates your firm’s brand to your clients and prospects.

Here are some tips on how to incorporate backgrounds into your mind maps:

Where can you find background images? Many mind mapping software programs ship with a selection of images that are specially designed for this purpose. In addition, you can utilize any image from your computer’s hard drive, or purchase inexpensive stock images from a website like iStockPhoto.com. Check your program’s help file for instructions on recommended sizes of images for map backgrounds, tiling (using your image as a background pattern) and other options.

Use a color gradient effect: If you want to keep it simple, consider adding a gradient of a solid color as your map background. This effect can add a whole new level of depth to an otherwise flat mind map.

Relevance to your map’s topic is always a good thing: Try to make the map’s background relevant to the content of the map. For example, if you created a mind map that summarized the content of a book you read, you could include a screened back photo of the cover in the map.

Branding your mind maps: If you want to add a corporate logo to your map background, I recommend positioning it in one of the four corners of the map, where it is least likely to interfere with any of your map’s content. You may need to experiment with image size and placement (in other words, placing your logo in one corner of a large white or colored rectangle) to get this to work right.

Tile effects: If you want to “tile” your logo in a repeating pattern as the background of your maps, I strongly recommend that you start with a black-and-white image of your corporate logo, and then use your favorite image editing program to screen it back 70 to 80%. This should convert it to a very light gray, something like a watermark. This is exactly the effect that you are going for. This will help to ensure that your logo is clearly visible, yet it shouldn’t interfere with the content of your mind map.

Test, test, test: Finally, if you plan to share such a map with others, I strongly recommend that you print it out both in black-and-white and color, so you can verify if there is enough contrast between the map background and the content of the map itself. You may discover that your background image or pattern conflicts with elements of your mind map when it is printed out in black-and-white, or that a solid background color may obscure the color of your map’s connector lines, topics or other elements.

If you have a creative technique that you have used to add background images to your mind maps, please share it in the comments area below. I’d love to hear from you!

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Brainstorming: Floating topics are a great way to quickly record a series of ideas in a mind map and keep the creative flow going, without getting bogged down in where each one should fit. In fact, one program’s brainstorming mode works this way by default. When you are conducting a brainstorming session with ConceptDraw MINDMAP, you enter ideas into a dialog box that is superimposed over the map’s workspace. It deposits each idea as a floating topic, which you can arrange and embellish later.

Map legends: In a mind map, a legend tells you what each icon used in the map means. Typically, these are positioned above or below the mind map as a floating topic. Sub-topics are then added for each icon contained within the map, with the topic name explaining what each icon means.

Parking lot: When you want to add an idea or piece of information to your mind map, but aren’t quite sure where it fits in the hierarchy of topics and sub-topics, you can temporarily “park” it in an open area of the workspace as a floating topic. You can figure out what to do with it later. This “parking lot” concept is especially useful when recording the outcomes and decisions arrived at in a business meeting, where information tends to come at you quickly and often in an unstructured way. Don’t forget: Most programs that enable you to create a floating topic also enable you to add sub-topics, notes and other embellishments to it. So don’t be afraid to fully describe your uncategorized idea before moving on to other parts of your map.

Instructions: If you are sharing your map with others and need to explain how it’s organized, a floating topic is a great way to do that. It lets you convey instructions to your collaborators – without cluttering up the structure of the map itself.

Show opposing forces: Sometimes it’s valuable to depict opposing forces in a mind map, by creating two main topics (“pro” vs. “con” for example), and having sub-topics fan out in opposite directions (see the image above right for an example). According to Michael Deutch, writing in the Mindjet Blog, these types of maps can be useful for depicting:

• Pros and cons
• Actions and reactions
• Strengths and weaknesses
• Ideal situations vs. reality
• Compare the perceptions of opposing parties in negotiations
• List “what we know” vs. “what we don’t know”

How do you use floating topics? Please share your ideas in the comments area below.

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One way to improve the quality of your mind maps and the effectiveness of how they communicate your intended meaning to others is to include a legend in them.

A legend in a mind map serves the same function as one does a geographical map: it defines what each symbol and icon means, so that the person reading them can interpret these marks with the proper meaning. In a mind map, legends typically define the meaning of icons or symbols attached to topics. Unfortunately, because most developers of mind mapping software don’t automate the production of legends, most users of these productivity tools don’t realize it’s possible to add them to their maps, or how to create them.

Where should legends be used?

Legends should be used on any map where you are utilizing symbols or icons. This is very important, because your map needs to be immediately understandable by anyone with whom you share it. The meaning of each symbol or icon may have been abundantly clear to you at the time you created your map, but remember: you have the advantage of knowing the entire context of your map, because you’re the one who created it. Others viewing this map may be confused by the meaning of these small graphics and, as a result, may not take away the full meaning that you intended when you added them to your map.

How do you add a legend to your mind map?

Typically, a legend is formatted as a floating topic at the top or bottom of the map; a series of subtopics radiate from it, each one containing an icon or symbol, with the topic text providing the meaning. For best results, I recommend placing the legend above the map, because people tend to read top to bottom, left to right. If the first thing they see looking at your mind map from the top down is the legend, they will fully read it first, which will help them to understand the mind map itself.

When in doubt, include a legend in your mind maps. The people with whom you share them will appreciate it!

Today’s mind mapping software supports a remarkable number of link types, which can vastly increase the power of your visual diagrams. Here’s what’s possible, along with some tips on when and how to utilize them:

Links to files: Using this feature, you can easily keep track of many types of information that is related to the project you’re working on, including, documents, spreadsheets, presentations and any other type of file. These links function much like a desktop shortcut: When you click on the link icon, the file will open. Use this feature to save time when you must keep track of key documents or files.

Links to folders: This works like linking to files, except your map displays the contents of a folder on your PC, and each file is a live link. This could be very useful as part of a personal dashboard, especially if you tend to store all of your critical files in a single folder.

Links to web pages: Often, the information or knowledge you need to gather is located on external web sites. Using the URL linking feature of your mind mapping program, you can easily create bookmarks to these key resources and organize them along with the rest of your research.

Links to e-mails: An increasing amount of the knowledge and information we must work with is embedded in e-mail messages. Accordingly, several mind mapping programs enable you to import the content of individual e-mail messages from Microsoft Outlook into your map, or point to external representations of them.

Links to applications: If you want to take linking to its logical extreme, you can even create links within your map to frequently-used programs. You simply create a file link to the executable file (.exe) of the program that you want to open from within your mind map. This could be especially useful if you start your day by opening a master map.

Links to other mind maps: Of course, you can also embed links to other mind maps in the map you’re working on. This can come in useful if you need to divide a large, complex map into several smaller, linked ones, or if you’re using a master map (an index of all of the maps you have created).

Other types of connections

Mind mapping software also enables you to pull information into your maps. While technically not links (which tend to point away from your map to other assets and resources), these tools can connect your maps to even more valuable data (click on the map above right for a complete picture of examples of all of the link types):

Ranges of cells from spreadsheets: Several programs now enable you to connect your maps to an Excel spreadsheet, and display a range of cells from it within your map. This can be especially valuable if you’re trying to create a business dashboard to help you stay up-to-date on key business metrics.

RSS feeds: Several leading mind mapping programs enable you to set up RSS feeds, which enable you to connect a wealth of news, blog updates and other structured information into your maps.

Database connections: At least one leading mind mapping program gives your the ability to connect to a database, create a simple query against its contents, and insert the results into your map.

In short, today’s mind mapping software enables you to connect to an amazing variety of data and resources, which can help you to add more value to your mind maps.

Note: This post is based on content from the best-selling e-book, Power Tips & Strategies for Mind Mapping Software Second Edition, which is a comprehensive collection of applications and best practices for users of mind mapping software.

If you were to ask every manager on Earth to list their five least favorite managerial activities, all of them would include “putting out fires” on their list. We all know what it’s like to have to put out a fire – a fire starts when somebody screws up and suddenly your project is in jeopardy. You, being the person in charge, inevitably have to swoop in and put the fire out, and putting it out requires a lot of last minute scrambling, long nights, weekends in the office, and plenty of stress.

Fires occur because of poor communication. Perhaps someone doesn’t understand why what they’re doing is important or who is actually responsible for what. But somewhere along the way some part of a major project or assignment falls apart and you, the manager, are the lucky one who gets to put it back together. It gets worse: bad communication is endemic, so you’re going to be putting out lots of fires. You move from crisis to crisis, fixing care of one urgent, mission-critical screw-up after another. You’re stressed, you have too much to do, you can’t go home early, it becomes harder to schedule vacations, and on and on.

But wait a minute – we identified the disease responsible for creating crises: bad communication. Rather than treat the symptoms of bad communication, the fires, why don’t you start treating the disease of bad communication? How can you communicate in a manner that makes your specifications absolutely clear and easy for your co-workers to remember?

A better way to communicate

How can we communicate both clearly and memorably? Do we simply repeat ourselves more? Communicate slower? No.

Instead, we should communicate visually. We’ve all heard the expression “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and it’s true – what takes one thousand words to explain correctly can be described much more easily using a simple picture.

Not only is it easier to communicate something using a picture, but it’s also much easier for people to remember things that have been communicated to them visually. Psychologist Jerome Bruner of New York University has studied the art of communication, and his studies have shown that:

• People remember 10% of what they hear;
• 20% of what they read; and
• 80% of what they see and do.

Most people are visual learners; a recent study by the U.S. Federal Government suggested that up to 83% of human learning occurs visually. The study also indicated that information which is communicated visually is retained up to six times greater than information which is communicated by spoken word alone.

Managers’ problems can’t resolve their mis-communication problems with their teams by merely speaking more or writing more – you can’t scale failure into success. Instead, we should augment what we’ve been trying to say with pictures. It’s that simple.

What can be communicated visually?

Let’s say that you’re managing a project for your company; like any project, you have to come up with a project plan before your team can begin work. Most folks simply use their project plans to provide answers to the six classic questions:

• Who?
• What?
• When?
• Where?
• Why?
• How?

However, in project manager speech, these six questions usually look something more like this:

• Who is responsible for this?
• What needs to be done?
• When will this be done?
• Where will we focus our efforts?
• Why is this important?
• How are we going to do this?

So, how can you be sure that your answers are clear and easy to remember? By communicating visually. For instance, if the project you were managing were a construction project, you might answer these questions using the graphics pictured above right.

None of these graphics are particularly difficult to produce with today’s visual diagramming software. These types of graphics are called “business graphics” because they are simple and easy enough for the average businessperson to use; you don’t need to be an artist to be able to produce clear business graphics which communicate your plans clearly and memorably.

They help to focus the brain, which prefers colorful objects to black-and-white ones.

They leverage your brain’s powerful associative capabilities. Images tap into our imagination at a much deeper level than words alone can.

Words and images together multiply your intellectual power. It’s the combination of the two that make mind maps such a rich visual medium for creative expression.

Images are an excellent memory aid. Simply put, they tend  to be more memorable to your brain than words do – as the old saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Buzan has this to say on the benefits of incorporating images into your mind maps:

“They make use of a massive range of cortical skills: color, form, line, dimension, texture, visual rhythm and especially imagination – a word taken from the Latin imaginari, literally meaning to picture mentally. Images are therefore more evocative than words, more precise and potent in triggering a wide range of associations and thereby enhancing creative thinking and memory.”

Where can you find images to use in your maps? My favorite source is iStockPhoto.com – a collection of over 3.2 million low-cost, high-quality, royalty-free images and illustrations. I use their pay-as-you go credit system; points can be purchased in bundles from 10 to 1,500. I pay just under US1.00 per image for some truly outstanding images – well worth it, in my opinion. Plus what makes it really useful is that contains numerous images that can be used to visually describe not just things, but concepts – such as creativity and success. Google Images is a free and nearly inexhaustible source of images, but be careful using them. Some of them may have copyrights or royalty fees associated with them.

Using color in your mind maps

Like images, color adds meaning and context to your mind maps. Most mind mapping programs enable you to change the colors of topic backgrounds, topic text, branch lines and map background. These settings allow you to personalize your map, and make it more colorful and appealing to yourself and others. A few programs come with color “themes,” which can be used to apply a complementary group of colors to specific elements of your maps. This can be real time-saver compared to adding color to each element of your map individually!

Colors can be used to “code” the content of your mind maps. For example, action items can be colored green, while concerns or problems could be colored red. The meanings of these colors are deeply embedded in the minds of most Western cultures (just think of a traffic light, where red means stop, yellow means caution and green means go).

One caveat when it comes to using color and images

You should definitely incorporate color and images into all of your maps, to make them more visually engaging. But be careful not to overdo it. It’s easy to get carried away with these elements, which may waste your time without adding any more value to your map. Ideally, your use of color and images ought to reinforce the meaning of your map; if an image or color doesn’t add to the message that your map is trying to convey, then you may want to consider eliminating it.

In his excellent book, The Mind Map Book, Tony Buzan offers some valuable tips to help you decide what words to use for your map’s first-level topics – which he calls “basic ordering ideas.”

He recommends that you ask yourself these open-ended questions:

• What knowledge is required?
• If this were a book, what would its chapter headings be?
• What are my specific objectives?
• What are the seven most important categories in the area under consideration? (According to brain science, the mind can only hold at most 6 to 7 thoughts consecutively. So you should try to limit the number of basic ordering ideas to this number)
• What is a larger or more encompassing category into which these fit?

Buzan also recommends questions that begin with the popular “5W & H” words: Who? Where? What? When? Why? and How?

Here are some additional tips from Buzan on the types of words that tend to make effective basic ordering ideas:

• Divisions: chapters, lessons or themes
• Properties: characteristics of things
• History: a chronological sequence of events
• Structure: how things are formed or arranged
• Function: what things do
• Process: how things work
• Evaluation: how good, beneficial or worthwhile things are
• Classification: how things are related to each other
• Definitions: what things mean
• Personalities: what roles or characters people have

These questions and word types will help to catalyze your thinking and will help you to develop more effective mind maps. Why not give them a try?