Earlier this week, Mindjet announced that it will release the newest version of its flagship mind mapping program, MindManager 9, in early August. Here’s a summary of what’s new in MindManager 9, and why it’s important to you as a business user of mind mapping software.

Earlier this week, Mindjet announced the launch of version 1.2 of Catalyst, its slick web-based mind mapping and collaboration application. This release offers a number of new capabilities that may be quite useful to business users.

Mindjet recently announced a new version of MindManager 8 that enables real-time synchronization of data between SharePoint and your mind maps.

Earlier this week, Mindjet launched a Mac version of MindManager 8 that users of this visually-oriented operating system can be proud of.

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 PowerMarkers that speeds up access to the information in your maps.

StrengthsMapper is a new add-in for MindManager that helps companies seeking an edge in today’s turbulent business environment to build stronger teams. Based upon the principles of Strengths Based Management, this innovative program helps individuals and teams to visually map out a plan for personal and professional growth and development.

If you’re considering purchasing a mind mapping program to do presentations, the commercial software programs available today vary significantly in their capabilities. Here is some the functionality you should look for, along with brief descriptions of the 3 programs that I think do the best job of enabling map-based presentations.

Michael Deutch, writing in the Mindjet Blog, recently announced some significant updates and enhancements to MindManager Web, the web-based version of the popular mind mapping tool. This update includes over 100 usability improvements.

TPAssist Limited recently announced the launch of a new MindManager add-in called TPAssistCapture, which enables you to quickly capture ideas, tasks, notes and next actions and send them to the mind maps that you use to manage them. I recently evaluated this program, and was pleasantly surprised with its power and flexibility.

Lately, Mindjet evangelist Michael Deutsch has been doing a lot of experimentation with MindManager 8 (cue the creepy music and diabolical “BWA-HA-HA-HA” laugh). In several recent posts, he has shared his experiences in getting his employer’s mind mapping program to integrate with a variety of popular Web 2.0 services.