Twitter intergration has finally come to the world of mind mapping software, thanks to CS Odessa’s new MindTweet plug-in for ConceptDraw MINDMAP 7. This new tool enables you to brainstorm, organize and send Twitter messages from within the program.

MindTweet is available from the ConceptDraw Solution Park; it’s a free download. The app installs a new Twitter icon in the program’s main toolbar. Before you can use MindTweet, you must login to your Twitter account and authorize the app to communicate with it. Once that’s done, all you have to do is select a topic in your mind map, click on the Twitter icon and a dialog box pops up, containing the text of your tweet. It also displays the number of characters left out of the 140 maximum that Twitter allows. You can then edit your tweet as needed and send it. Before doing so, if you check the “done” box in the corner of the dialog box, MindTweet will automatically add a checkbox icon to that topic – giving you a visual indication that this tweet has been sent.

This app is the ultimate in simplicity. But how is it useful?

If your job involves managing social media for your organization, it’s a godsend. MindTweet enables you to brainstorm ideas, themes, keywords and entire tweets using ConceptDraw MINDMAP’s brainstorming mode. I can see how this could be very useful in small group brainstorming sessions. You can also use the program’s presentation mode to share your proposed tweet campaign with your boss or coworker, and annotate the map with their suggestions. You can categorize and organize topic tweets, noting priorities and adding notes for future reference. Icons can be used to denote tweets that are ready to send out, priority or order of tweets to be sent, and those that need additional work.

In other words, you can design an entire Twitter campaign and then send your tweets out – without leaving the mind mapping program.The radial format of a mind map makes it very easy to see the visual sequence of tweets you intend to send out. This approach is ideal for brand-building campaigns, where you want to be able to tell and build upon a consistent story over a series of tweets.

I’ve been using Twitter for several years now. To the best of my knowledge, there isn’t any program or online service that gives you the end-to-end power and flexibility that the ConceptDraw MINDMAP/MindTweet combo does. There are certainly many tools that enable you to write and schedule tweets, but nothing that gives you a palette upon which to brainstorm and organize an entire campaign like this.

A few shortcomings

There are three main features that I wish MindTweet offered, but I have to remember that this is a version 1.0 product:

First, MindTweet should have a link shortening tool built into it. If you have a long URL, you must use a link shortening service like bit.ly to generate a shortened URL, and then paste it into your tweet. This isn’t currently handled within MindTweet, but should be, in my opinion.

Second, it would be great if you could schedule tweets from within MindTweet, by turning topics into tasks and assigning a start date and time to them. But then you’d have to keep ConceptDraw MINDMAP open all the time, or would need to have tweets stored in an online repository. Perhaps future integration between MindTweet and HootSuite?

Finally, it would be very cool if MindTweet added a Twitter logo icon to the program’s symbol library. Why? So you could use it to differentiate between those topics that are tweets and others that are simply background information or raw ideas.

Conclusion

All things considered, MindTweet is a great effort by CS Odessa. It’s wonderful to see a developer who isn’t afraid to take the lead and develop an app that brings such valuable social media integration to the table. I can’t wait to see how MindTweet evolves – it should be quite interesting!

IdeaMapper’s method of creating visual maps seems a little unusual at first – until you realize that it is primarily designed as a tool to support brainstorming. You don’t add topics to the central topic in the traditional way, by dragging your finger outward from it or clicking some sort of an “add topic” icon. instead, you randomly add keywords in the app’s workspace, and then connect them with lines.

The effect is much like the brainstorming mode of ConceptDraw MINDMAP, where the brainstorming mode allows you to add your ideas as free-floating topics to the workspace. It’s only after you exit the program’s brainstorming mode that you decide what the relationships between all of your topics should be.

When you’re ready to connect your ideas, you select a colored marker from the “tray” at the bottom of the screen, and then drag your finger between the topics to be selected. The fun, colorful interfaces encourages creativity and play. You can select from 25 line colors from a “box” of markers at the bottom of the screen. In addition, four more markers are laying horizontally in the tray that you can “pick up” and use.

IdeaMapper is a little hard to get used to at first, because it behaves differently than any other mind mapping app available today. But as I played with it more, I decided that there is a simple brilliance to this methodology. Why? Because it does a better job of encouraging free-form brainstorming than other mind mapping apps, which tend to inadvertently force you into considering where your idea “fits” within the context of the topics you’ve already added to the map. In other words, if developing breakthrough ideas is your goal, then I believe IdeaMapper will do an excellent job of supporting this objective. When it comes to brainstorming ideas, you want your ideas to be freewheeling, unconstrained by any limitations. IdeaMapper’s simple approach enables this process.

Some solid thinking has gone into this app’s functionality: When you select the “add a keyword” tool, it stays “locked” on, which enables you to add multiple ideas in rapid succession. That’s cool, because it ensures that IdeaMapper doesn’t get in the way of your creative “flow.”

You can draw a line by connecting a keyword to another keyword, or a keyword to the end of a line. Curiously, when you add a connection line, the formerly free-floating text “jumps” onto it. IdeaMapper’s tapered topic lines have an organic look to them, which adds to the app’s creative appeal. You can also add symbols or images from the iPad’s photo library to your map. Icons in IdeaMapper are free floating; they don’t seem to be attached to a parent topic, but may be positioned anywhere. The disadvantage of this approach is that these graphics don’t “follow” when you move a map branch. You need to drag and drop them to the new location manually.

Moving topics in IdeaMapper Is accomplished by tapping on a hand icon. When you tap on the end of a topic line, a box appears at the end of it. Dragging your finger over the iPad’s screen moves the topic. In practice, this works fairly intuitively. However, it was a bit confusing to me that I couldn’t toggle this “hand” tool on and off.

Moving around the workspace is done using a two-finger drag gesture. This works quite nicely, because it prevents you from inadvertently moving your map around the screen. Zooming, as you would expect, is done by pinching two fingers closer together to zoom out, and farther apart to zoom in.

Exporting your mind maps is somewhat limited, with only “mail as a PNG image” and “save to photo library” supported. Hopefully, at some future date the developer will add support for some sort of native mapping format, so you can take visual maps created in IdeaMapper and continue working on them in a desktop- or web-based mind mapping application.

In conclusion, IdeaMapper shows a lot of promise with its intuitive and fun whiteboard metaphor for mind mapping. I give the developer a lot of credit for utiilizing a visual thinking metaphor that most businesspeople are already familiar with – th eubiquitous whiteboard. However, IdeaMapper is still a little rough around the edges in terms of features and functionality. But, like any iPad app, hopefully it will grow and improve in the months and years ahead. Idea Mapper costs only US$4.99 in the Apple AppStore; you can learn more about it on its AppStore web page or on its Facebook page.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/idea-mapper-for-ipad/id387650616?mt=8#

http://www.facebook.com/IdeaMapper

MindWave enables teams to collaborate on a mind map that anyone can add to or edit, and which can be “played back” like any wave so that new participants can see how it was constructed. Mind maps can also be downloaded and developed further in the desktop version of ConceptDraw MINDMAP.

MindWave 2 improves the application’s functionality in a number of ways:

• It opens with a “getting started” map to introduce new users to its functionality, so they can begin collaborating on mind maps more quickly within Wave.
• A horizontal scroll bar makes it easier to work with mind maps that are wider than the right-hand pane in Google Wave. This is important, because MindWave doesn’t appear to have a zoom feature. In practice, however, I found this horizontal scroll bar to be so thin that it was hard to see. Plus, your map doesn’t “float” within the workspace the way it does in desktop- and web-based mind mapping software. You must scroll downward to the bottom border of the MindWave application, where the wave of discussion begins, to access this miniscule navigation control.
• Web addresses are automatically reformatted to URL links
• New keyboard shortcuts have been added

If you go to the MindWave page on the CS Odessa website, it provides full instructions on how to install this gadget. Best of all, Google Wave is no longer invitation, only, so anyone can try it out.

Judging from the buzz on Twitter during the last couple of months, a large number of people are intrigued by the idea of creating mind maps within Google Wave. It’s good to see that at least one developer of mind mapping software continues to push a head in this brave new world of collaboration. I’m still not sure I quite understand how to use Google Wave, but recognize that it is still a work in progress and will continue to evolve in the months ahead.

This new plug-in gives users of ConceptDraw MINDMAP immediate access to the entire contents of their mind maps as well as project data stored in ConceptDraw MINDMAP or ConceptDraw PROJECT. Search results from these programs are viewable from the Google Desktop page.

CS Odessa cites research that knowledge workers spend up to 40 per cent of their time looking for information they need to do their job. Time spent searching for documents, re-creating documents that already exist, and shuffling through unstructured information costs organizations millions of dollars every year. Until now, content contained in mind maps was essentially invisible to programs like Google Desktop Search.

I believe this is a great move by CS Odessa; let’s hope that other mind mapping software vendors also take steps to ensure that the contents of mind maps created in their applications are also searchable in this manner.

The user interface: What you first notice when you open ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6 is the extensive collection of toolbars – two rows at the top of the workspace to control map management, map views and formatting, plus one down the left-hand side that contain buttons for topic management and drawing commands. Dialog boxes for accomplishing common tasks are arrayed in nested tabs on the right side of the workspace.

Unlike its contemporaries, the developers at CS Odessa haven’t upgraded to the popular Ribbon UI toolbar design. The result is a bit overwhelming from a visual standpoint – with the 3 toolbars visible, I counted over 60 buttons! You can reduce the visual clutter by deselecting them in the “view” menu.

While ribbon toolbars also display a lot of toolbar buttons, at least they are gathered into logical groupings. Some people hate Ribbon toolbars, but with the typical high-end mind mapping program packing a ton of functionality, I think it makes sense from a usability standpoint. I believe that CS Odessa should seriously consider moving to a Ribbon UI to keep ConceptDraw MINDMAP’s feature-rich interface under control.

Full-screen mode: New in version 6 – if you click on the F5 key in Windows, the entire user interface disappears from view and your computer screen displays only the mind map. Sort of like an instant presentation view!

Improved PowerPoint export: One of the slickest aspects of ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6 is the flexibility it gives you when exporting maps to PowerPoint. Version 6 adds an outline mode, which automatically parses out the text from your map into separate PowerPoint slides. You can select from a handful of existing templates provided by CS Odessa, or select your own. I tried this, and it worked flawlessly – no weird formatting or other glitches.

In addition, you can export your map as a slide show. This preserves the format of your mind map, but carves it up into a number of separate screen shots. I did this with a simple mind map and the program created one slide that showed the entire map. The second slide displayed only the first level topics, and successive slides then drilled down into the details of each branch – very logical and easy to follow, especially for people who may not be familiar with visual mapping.

The PowerPoint export dialog box gives you a number of additional settings that tells the program how to handle floating topics, notes and slide numbering. You can also tell the program whether to group sub-topics as bullets or numbered items, and whether or not to create separate slides for each sub-topic. Finally, you can select the level of depth of topics you want displayed within each slide. Very flexible!

Automatic generation of hyperlinks: In version 6 of ConceptDraw MINDMAP, you can drag and drop folders and web page URLs from your browser to a map topic. In the case of folder links, the program behaves exactly as you would expect; when you release the mouse button over a topic, a link icon appears at the top edge of the topic shape to show that it contains a link. Unfortunately, I discovered that web links don’t work quite as intuitively. Instead of creating an embedded link, the program automatically creates a sub-topic displaying the web address. That looks messy, especially if the URL is a long, “ugly” one. The other bit of weirdness I discovered when trying this is that you must have a topic selected first, before you drag and drop the URL. Otherwise it will attach itself to your map’s central topic. This functionality seems to be a bit rough around the edges, in my opinion.

One-click navigation: One of the problems when working with large, complex maps is that it’s hard to read topic names without zooming in and having to scroll up and down and side to side. ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6 gets around this limitation with a clever bit of programming. To get a close-up view of part of your map, simply hold down the left mouse button to select a region of it. After a short pause, that selection zooms to fill the workspace. When you release the mouse button, the program returns to its previous view. This worked very well for me, but I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong at first. I’d select part of my map, but nothing would happen. It turned out that I wasn’t waiting long enough; the program takes 1-2 seconds to render and display the zoomed-in view.

Tighter integration with MINDMAP Project: ConceptDraw MINDMAP and its new companion Project application now use a common file format, so data can be moved from your mind maps to CS Odessa’s project tool without any loss in formatting.

Snow Leopard support: Some mind mapping software vendors have been scrambling to accommodate the latest release of the Mac operating system, code named Snow Leopard. ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6 already supports it.

Multi-lingual support: ConceptDraw MINDMAP now supports English, German and French language settings – from within the program. I tried this, just to see how it worked. I changed the program’s language from English to German; a message informed me that I would need to re-start the program for this change to take affect. Sure enough, it worked great. If you work in a multi-lingual office, this may be an advantage. Most mind mapping software developers sell localized versions of their programs. If you want a program with a French interface, you buy the French version – you can’t change to a different language on the fly.

New file format permits greater integration: Effective with version 6, ConceptDraw MINDMAP utilizes a new .cdmz file format, which contains a zip archive of your map in an XML-formatted document, which is available for further processing. CS Odessa made this change in response to requests from a number of value-added resellers and large corporate users, so they could integrate the data from their mind maps with other applications. The new file format also made it easier for CS Odessa to more closely integrate all of its ConceptDraw Office visual mapping and diagramming family (which includes ConceptDraw, ConceptDraw MINDMAP and ConceptDraw PROJECT.

Improved keyboard shortcuts: Most mind mapping programs enable you to add topics, hyperlinks and other basic elements to your maps using keyboard shortcuts, but how many enable you to move topics in this manner? ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6 includes expanded support for keyboard shortcuts, which now make it possible to take notes in a meeting without ever having to touch a mouse. To demote a topic one level in your map, for example, you simply select it and use the Ctrl + right arrow key. To promote it one level higher, use the Ctrl + left arrow key. Very slick! What I found lacking, however, was any mention of keyboard shortcut support in the program’s help menu. I couldn’t find it there, anyway.

Conclusion

ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6 has historically been one of the best mind mapping programs available, with many features designed to appeal to business users. Unfortunately, I found this new version to be a little rough around the edges, and a little dated in terms of the user interface.

For more details on the improvements in ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6, please see the product update page on the developer’s website.

NovaMind Platinum with the optional Suggesterator add-in

NovaMind excels at creating engaging, colorful mind maps. By default, each branch in a NovaMind map has a different color. Although it doesn’t have a specific brainstorming mode, you can enter ideas quickly and easily into a NovaMind map. You simply type your topic name, and then hit the Enter key twice – this adds your new topic to the map and opens another one at the same level. The program also provides excellent support for adding images to increase the visual appeal of your maps.

What makes NovaMind Platinum especially well-suited for brainstorming, however, is an optional Suggesterator module (only available for NovaMind Platinum), which 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. The Suggesterator opens in a separate panel within the NovaMind interface; to add suggested keywords to your map, you simply select them and click on the “add child branches” button.

You can view a video that shows how the Suggesterator works here.

MindManager 8 plus theRealizer 2 add-in

By itself, the MindManager 8 is a fairly good application for capturing and organizing ideas. It 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. This view also contains a countdown timer, so you can set a time limit on your brainstorming sessions. MindManager inserts them into your map as floating topics. When you’re done recording ideas, it’s time to group them. 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.

Another way to brainstorm within the MindManager environment is by installing an add-in program called theRealizer 2. It installs as a separate panel on the right side of the MindManager workspace, and walks you through a simple step-by-step process to define your challenge, generate ideas and prioritize them. The program installs with a set of predefined challenges, to which you can easily add your own. Brainstorming is done via a series of randomly displayed “idea cards, “which help to stimulate your thinking in some fresh new directions. You can also add, edit or delete the program’s collection of idea cards to customize it to your specific needs.

I think theRealizer is an excellent creative catalyst, and I like the fact that you can customize it with your own challenge statements and idea cards. To help you better understand how this program works with MindManager, I recommend that you view this video.

Visual Mind plus theRealizer 2

This marvelous brainstorming program is also available as an add-in for Visual Mind. You can learn more about it here.

iMindMap 4.1

iMindMap, which was developed by the Buzan organization, provides a very organic visual mapping experience, which lends itself well to brainstorming. Like NovaMind, each branch you create in iMindMap is randomly assigned a color, adding visual appeal to your idea maps. There’s also something engaging about dragging new branches out from existing ones, much like the process of hand drawing a mind map. In addition, when you create a new map in iMindMap, the program asks you to select an image for the central topic – which helps to provide greater visual stimulation than a plain text central topic.

ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6

ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6 is a business-focused mind mapping program that offers a terrific brainstorming mode. It 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.

What’s especially nice is that you can continue to add sub-topics to the main topic of your map while in brainstorming mode. This enables you to set up topics and then drag your ideas to attach them to the appropriate ones. 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.

Which mind mapping program do you prefer for brainstorming?

• Your project data is maintained in both mind map and GANTT chart formats.
• From the GANTT view, you can select a person to whom tasks are assigned, right click and send them a mind map of their assignments (in JPG and ConceptDraw MINDMAP formats). Nice!
• Generate a full set of visually-oriented project reports, including project status, task status, completed tasks, tasks in progress, milestones and a work breakdown structure (WBS).

Several competing mind mapping software developers (OpenMind, for example) offer integrated GANTT charts and project management tools. But this is the first time that CS Odessa has moved to integrate its existing visual mapping and project management programs into a single program that offers the best of both worlds to their customers.

Software for process mapping

Doug: I was asked today to recommend a software tool to help a company map out the work processes for its advertising executives.  The reflexive response was “Visio.”  However, something gnawing away inside me suggests this might be a good mind mapping application.  Have I lost my marbles and entered the realm where everything looks like a mind mapping application?  If I haven’t lost my mind could you suggest a place where I could turn to demonstrate this makes sense?

Chuck: If you’re planning projects, then mind mapping software can be an excellent “front end” tool to help organize them. On the other hand, if what you’re doing is purely business process mapping, then I’d recommend Visio or SmartDraw, which is a great, less expensive alternative.

ConceptDraw MINDMAP

Stuart: I don’t recall seeing much about ConceptDraw MINDMAP, yet I have it on my Mac and like it better than others I have used including MindMatters. Are you familiar with it?

Chuck: Yes, I am. It’s a good program, which I last reviewed here. It is powerful enough to handle the needs of most business users, plus it enables you to do some unique things as far as adding vector-based drawings to your maps – because ConceptDraw MINDMAP is produced by the same developer as the powerful ConceptDraw vector illustration program.

Which mind mapping software is best for me?

Jawn: I’m lost in this ocean of choices. Do you have a guide on which software is best suited for me?

Chuck: Yes, there are too many mind mapping software programs on the market today, with more being introduced on a regular basis. The best software for you depends upon what you want to get done. Some programs are better suited for brainstorming, while others have some strengths in the area of project management. I would start with a clear picture of what you want to DO, then download the trial versions of the programs that are focused on those areas. You really need to do this in order to figure out which one is the best match for your workflow. If you’re completely new to the concept of mind mapping, you may want to start out with a free program like FreeMind or XMIND, or one of the new genre of web-based mind mapping tools, which are free or available at an inexpensive subscription fee. You can find reviews of many of the best mind mapping tools here and a comprehensive list of links to these tools on the resources page of this blog.

Boundaries for non-contiguous topics

Glen: Do you know of any mindmapping software that enables you to draw a “cloud” around topics in more than one parent link? (in other words, a cloud that extends across several branches that may not be adjacent to one another in your map).

Chuck: No, unfortunately, I don’t know of any mind mapping tool that is capable of doing this. As I understand it, what you want to do is show that these disparate topics are related. You can accomplish this using relationship lines.

Send me your questions

Got a question for me? You can submit it using the contact form on this blog.

Full screen mode: in full screen mode, the program’s toolbars are hidden, maximizing the amount of space available to show your map. This new mode should be especially useful for presenting your mind maps in meetings; maps are fully editable in full screen mode via keyboard shortcuts, enabling you to annotate and add notes to them during the meeting.

Drag-and-drop hyperlinks: The newest iteration of ConceptDraw MINDMAP supports dragging and dropping of hyperlinks from a web browser onto a map topic. You can also drag-and-drop files onto topics to create file links.

New format for sharing mind maps: When you e-mail your map, the new version of ConceptDraw MINDMAP automatically generates an e-mail with your map converted to a PNG file format. This image format enables others to view your maps with multiple pages represented.

To read the official news release announcing the new version of concept draw off this and improvements to concept draw mind map, please click here. For more information about this mind mapping program, please click here.

• Outline mode exports your mind map content into a slide presentation based on selected parameters.
• Map/slide show mode exports your map into a map view within a single PowerPoint slide.

In addition, the standard set of ConceptDraw MINDMAP map templates now includes a strategy map, a report that is used to display the key performance measures that have an impact on your organization. It visually depicts the relationships between the objectives and key performance indicators used by the organization.

Other improvements include these:

• You can now attach multiple symbols to a topic
• You can organize multi-paged mind maps when created with the “send to new page” function by naming mind maps based on the main idea.
• Additional performance and reliability improvements have been made for both the Mac OS X and Windows platforms.