One of the shortcomings of software-produced mind maps is that key information is sometimes hidden several levels deep in our maps, within contracted topics. Developer Olympic Ltd. decided to do something about that. The company recently launched a new add-in for MindManager 7 and 8 called Power Markers that speeds up access to the information in your maps.
Power Markers adds a “hot list” task pane to MindManager, where you can see the topics in your map grouped by map markers. While MindManager enables you to filter map contents based upon map markers, it doesn’t gather them together into an outline where you can see all of the resources in one place, all of the tasks that various people and departments are responsible for, and more.
Power Markers also rolls up selected map marker groups to the main topics of your map, so that you can always see the navigation route to important information without filtering, even when the topics themselves are hidden. This capability is best understood by looking at the image above right, which shows how each topic in the path down to the fourth level where the marker is located is colored pink.
You can roll up any kind of marker – tasks, priorities, resources, labels, icons and colors. You can even have Power Markers prioritize them so that the “worst” or “best” markers are rolled up, giving you instant insight into the status of your map. If you’re trying to use MindManager to create an executive dashboard, then you’ll appreciate this functionality.
In short, Power Markers helps to make the critical information in your mind maps visible and actionable.
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The Mindjet Blog » 100+ Reasons to Mind Map
Catherine Franz · 816 weeks ago
Kyle McFarlin · 816 weeks ago
The more you live and work in the maps, the more meaningful those markers become for you. While MindManager has a nice filtering feature, it is often hampered by similar items appearing in a spatially-separated fashion throughout the filtered map. So even though you've filtered, it can still be a pain-in-the-ass to get the full picture. Also, as is pointed out at their website, filtering can hide a lot of critical map information.
The Power Marker roll-up feature appears to give you a nice, streamlined list, faciliting much greater control and insight into status. Basically, it's giving you a database-like report of marker status in the map without you having to filter. So, even if the benefits can feel a bit vague in a blog post, assuming the product performs, the advantages will become crystal clear in the first somewhat complex map you use the product in.
Catherine, that was a bit stream-of-consciousness - I hope it helped.
Ralph Thompson · 708 weeks ago