TheBrain Technologies, developer of the popular Personal Brain mind mapping and personal information management tool, recently released version 7 of the program, which has now been rechristened as TheBrain 7. It features enhanced ways to connect and link information within the program’s highly visual user interface.

According to the developer, TheBrain 7 contains over 50 new features and enhancements, including:

Animated, curved links, which make it easier to understand the relationships between pieces of information in your mind maps, plus expanded preferences for formatting topic links. Line widths of up to 15 pixels wide are now supported in version 7. I spent some time working with TheBrain 7, and found that the curved versus straight links of its predecessor don’t make that big of a difference.

Expanded linking and relationship mapping: Links in TheBrain 7 can now have arrows embedded within them to show directionality. Links can also contain notes and attachments, in addition to labels, colors and thickness attributes. This enables TheBrain 7 to be used for concept modeling and enables you to better understand how and why items are connected to each other. Advanced link properties, including direction, one-way links, notes, and attachments, are not available via the Web client.

Maximize plex button: TheBrain 7 workspace – which its developer calls the “plex” – now contains a 4-headed arrow in the upper right corner of the workspace. Clicking on it causes the program’s toolbar and its properties dialog boxes, which line the top and bottom of the screen, respectively, to disappear from view. This enables you to see more of your brain, which should be useful when working with large files or when using TheBrain 7 on a smaller screen.

Calendar improvements: TheBrain 7 can now display multiple-date events, with a black horizontal line spanning multiple days.

Improved integration between the cloud and the desktop program: TheBrain 7 offers tighter integration between the desktop and cloud-based versions of the program. When you first open TheBrain 7, it automatically connects with TheBrain’s online service, and displays all of your local and online brains in a single list, with a screen shot of each. Beneath the file name, TheBrain 7 displays whether a brain is located locally, online or both.

Improved performance and new database back end: Personal Brain never put any limits on how many thoughts a mind map could contain. Users have created maps with as many as 10,000 topics. For version 7, the software’s database back end has been rewritten for improved performance when users are working with large, complex maps.

Pricing for TheBrain 7

TheBrain 7 is offered in two editions: Free and Pro. TheBrain Free is offered at no charge and does not expire. Anyone can link ideas and web pages on their desktop and in the cloud. It doesn’t allow you to add file attachments to your brain, and only provides basic reports and no Outlook integration or printing capabilities. The Pro version offers greater options for formatting your maps, advanced search, secure cloud backup and more. TheBrain Pro is available now for US219; a Pro Combo option enables you to access the program’s cloud services, upgrades and a perpetual license at US$299 the first year, with $159 per year renewals.

Conclusion

If you are a previous user of Personal Brain, I’m not sure if I can categorically recommend that you upgrade to TheBrain 7. If you work with large files with thousands of links or need to create concept maps or other visual diagrams with more “intelligent” links, you may want to consider it. Otherwise, I’m not sure it offers a big enough leap in functionality and cosmetics to make it worth the investment. As I indicated earlier, I’m on the fence regarding curved versus straight topic links. I just don’t think it brings that much new to the table.

A new outline view, which creates a visual hierarchy of topics and sub-topics, similar to a text outline (see screen shot at right). This outline can be expanded or collapsed one level at a time or on a case by case basis, which gives you a lot of control over how much or how little information you display in the workspace. Considering the sometimes-confusing nomenclature of PersonalBrain (gates, relationships, pins, etc.), this is a welcome addition to the program.

Tags are now centrally managed, making them easier to use and easier to apply consistently to your maps. In addition, you can easily switch to a map view that displays only tagged topics in both the workspace and any reports you generate from PersonalBrain.

A new Presentation Mode displays your map full screen, without any toolbars or dialog boxes.

New import options: PersonalBrain 5 can now import MindManager and Freemind maps, as well as Word outlines, Outline Processor Markup Language (OPML) files, Web Ontology Language (OWL) files (used in semantic web applications) and Internet Explorer and Firefox bookmarks. The ability to pull data from other programs into PersonalBrain maps should definitely be attractive to many users.

User interface enhancements: The menus have been reorganized in PersonalBrain 5 to make key commands more convenient. Also, the “plex” (the program’s map workspace) can now be panned using a keyboard command, rather than just the mouse. In addition, the mouse wheel can be used for both scaling and scrolling of thoughts.

Spotlight integration: The OS X version of PersonalBrain 5 supports Spotlight integration, which means you can now search inside file attachments contained inside your Brain or externally linked.

Outlook support: You can now drag content from Microsoft Outlook into your maps. Considering the amount of ideas and knowledge that get passed around most organizations in the form of e-mail, this is a much-needed addition to PersonalBrain 5!

You can download PersonalBrain 5 beta here, or purchase version 4.5 now and receive a free upgrade to version 5 when it is released.

Enhancements in version 4.5 of PersonalBrain include:

• Advanced search and indexing: PersonalBrain features a powerful search that lets users shift focus to anything that comes to mind in seconds. Live search results appear as users type, prioritized based on usage data. As users’ Brain files become larger and more complex, I’m sure that this enhancement will be appreciated by many people.
• Improved distant thought view: PersonalBrain’s display engine has been enhanced to enable users to view second generation thoughts, which helps to provide them with greater context of their current location and where they can go when navigating large Brain files.
• Merging Brains and copying thoughts: In version 4.5, users can merge the contents of one Brain into another and use sophisticated copying functions to leverage a set of thoughts and relationships in new contexts.
• Excel and Word import and export: Information contained within Word, Excel and other applications can now be imported into PersonalBrain. Exporting your Brain’s contents into Microsoft Word only takes a few steps, and should be a boon to people who need to create complex, multi-faceted documents, such as book writers and executives preparing detailed business plans.
• Multiple levels of undo and re-do editing: Users can now re-consider their actions when adding items to their Brains, even undoing multiple steps in one mouse click.

This program just keeps getting better and better. I can’t wait to play around with version 4.5. I hope to get my hands on a copy soon, and will let you know what I think!