• Financial capabilities, which enable you to do cost management within your mind maps
• The ability to export the current project and task information to a format suitable for generating pivot tables and charts in Microsoft Excel
• The ability to publish to Microsoft Project, which extracts information from the current map and its sub-maps to produce a single project Gantt chart
• Integration with Mindjet Connect, the software developer’s collaborative workspace product
• Numerous small enhancements to TPAssist’s existing task management and roll-up capabilities.

The TPAssist blog contains detailed information on each of these capabilities.

What makes this site unique?

In many respects, NovaMind Connect is similar to Mappio, BiggerPlate and other map sharing websites. But what makes this one truly unique is that, if you are using NovaMind 4.5 or a newer version, you can upload files directly from the program to your account on the Connect site. You can also link to any branch on any document uploaded to Connect, which means you can refer to these map elements via a permanent URL in e-mails, blog posts and other online tools.

Other features of NovaMind Connect include:

• The site acts as handy backup repository for your mind maps, and gives you a way to view and download them from any web browser
• You can be notified when your friends post new maps
• You can notify your friends when you post new maps or update existing ones
• You can attach comments at the document level (NovaMind documents may contain multiple maps), the map level or even the branch level
• Rating maps enables the best maps to percolate to the top of the map list – giving the community of users a great way to find and learn from well-designed, effective mind maps
• A sizeable “tag cloud” on the home page of NovaMind Connect can be used to quickly find maps on specific topics.
• You can share specific map records from the site on social networking sites like Digg, Del.icio.us, Facebook, StumbleUpon and Reddit.

NovaMind Connect is a well-designed, easy to navigate website. Each map can have a sizeable description, which makes it easier to understand what a map is about before you view it. You can download any map as a NovaMind file, PDF or JPG image.

Who can participate?

Only users of NovaMind who have a valid license key can sign up for an account on NovaMind Connect. Unregistered users can search for maps and view them, as well as view profiles and comments. However, you cannot rate, comment, upload, make friends, send or receive messages or receive notifications until become a member.

NovaMind founder Gideon King wisely waited until he could amass a sizeable collection of his own maps before launching NovaMind Connect. The result is that the site already contains an amazing variety of high-quality mind maps. In fact, it does a great job of showcasing the many cool visual effects you can incorporate into NovaMind maps. Wow!

If you’re a current user of NovaMind, then you should definitely sign up for an account. There’s a lot to see and learn from here!

This enhancement enables teams to share files in addition to maps, storing all project resources in one centralized location. Any user with view-only or edit access can download these files, but only people with edit access can attach or delete files, for added flexibility.

• Does technology really make you more efficient?
• What single thing enhances your productivity the most?
• How can software help you organize your ideas, make better decisions, and reduce stress?
• Which mind mapping software is the best?
• What other categories of productivity software should you explore?

Roger’s a BIG fan of mind mapping software, and utilizes it to plan and implement his many book and report publishing projects. See his s blog for more details, including the call-in time and number.