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.

Using MindWave, you can easily insert a new map into your wave, invite others to collaborate with you and then co-edit it in real time.That means you can use it as a tool for planning simple projects and for small group brainstorming.

MindWave supports Wave’s playback function, which enables you to see how a mind map was constructed, and who added what content to it. This is ideal for new users, who may not be familiar with mind mapping.

Mind maps built within MindWave can be downloaded and developed further using CS Odessa’s ConceptDraw MINDMAP software for Windows and Mac OS X.

Thankfully, MindWave supports a number of keyboard shortcuts, including:

• Shift+Enter to add a new topic.
• Double-click on a topic adds a sub-topic.
• Paste a word or phrase to add a new topic.
• Paste a column of words to add many topics at once.
• Drag and drop organizes your mind map.
• Press Delete or Backspace to remove a selected topic.
• Arrow keys navigate you through the map.

I added MindWave to a wave in my Google Wave account, and found that it installed easily. Creating a new map and adding topics to it was also a breeze; it behaved exactly as I would expect it to. The shortcut keys are non-standard, but then again you’ve got to remember that you’re working on an extension that has to play well within another, larger application. So CS Odessa had to select hot keys that don’t interfere with Wave’s functionality.

The only limitation I foresee with MindWave is that the maps you create within it must, of necessity, be fairly simple. You’re constrained in terms of space to only one-third of the browser – because the other two panels are used by Wave for managing waves, folders and users.

Still, MindWave is a great little applet that is stable and intuitive to use. Kudos to CS Odessa for taking the lead and producing this neat little application to support one of the web’s most compelling new collaboration tools.

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.

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.