Many diagramming software programs today are like Swiss Army Knives – they can create almost any kind of diagram you could imagine, including mind maps. But mind mapping isn’t usually their strong suit. If you try to use Visio, SmartDraw or other similar programs to create mind maps, here are the shortcomings you will run into:

1. The map creation process is time-consuming: The process of dragging and dropping a shape to the workspace, typing text into it and then adding a connector line is too slow to capture the “flow” of ideas when you’re brainstorming alone – and completely inadequate for a group brainstorming session, where the ideas may come fast and furious. Contrast that to the typical mind mapping program, which enables you to use keyboard hot keys to quickly add topics. A number of the programs actually have brainstorming modes, which are designed to enable you to quickly add a succession of ideas to your map, helping you and your colleagues to keep the creative “flow” going.

2. No ability to attach documents, links and notes to individual topics: This is where a lot of the value of mind maps in business resides. If you’re working on a project or conducting research, you can attach many different types of resources to your mind maps – in effect, creating a flexible visual database of all of the resources you’ve collected. Diagramming software enables you to create a set of shapes and connect them to each other in different ways. That’s all.

3. Limited ability to expand and collapse branches: One of the unsung capabilities of mind mapping software is the ability to expand and collapse branches, either on an individual basis, or by level. This enables you to see a high-level overview of your topic (with the lower-level branches closed) AND drill down to the details (with all of the branches opened) within the same visual document. Diagramming software only does this on a rudimentary, topic-by-topic basis.

4. Limited ability to export your map’s contents to other formats: Most mind mapping software enables you to export all or part of your maps to other types of productivity software, such as Word, PowerPoint and Project. This enables you to utilize it as a “front end” tool, where you gather and organize your information in skeletal form and then export it to one of these other applications to put flesh on the bones. Diagramming software can’t do this. At most, you can export your diagram in a view-only, image-based format, such as a JPG, GIF or a PDF. I just tried this in SmartDraw, for example. Exporting a simple mind map to Word opens a new document and simply copies the map into it as an image. You can’t really output your diagrams in a format where you can still manipulate its elements.

5. No ability to import data: A number of the high-end mind mapping programs enable you to pull data from other applications into your mind maps, such as Excel spreadsheet ranges, e-mail messages from Outlook, RSS feeds and the results of SharePoint searches. Diagramming software is self contained. This limits the number and type of business applications for which you can utilize it. If you want to create an art element that will be placed within a report, that’s fine. But if you want something you can interact with, a diagramming program won’t help you.

6. No project or task management capabilities with a mind map: Most mind mapping software enables you to treat selected topics as tasks, adding start and end dates, status (percentage complete), priority and any resources assigned to it. Some of these programs enable you to convert your project map into a Gantt chart, where you can see a visual timeline of your project and any dependencies.

7. Not easy to embellish topics: Mind mapping software enables you to embellish topics with images, symbols and icons – which add visual interest to our mind maps, but more importantly, help us to visually classify the information contained in our mind maps. Mind mapping software ships with hundreds of symbols and icons, which you can use to designate urgent items, priority levels (A,B,C or 1,2,3), flag items as needing additional research or attenion, and more. Diagramming software doesn’t usually contain such symbol libraries.

So there you have it. Clearly, diagramming software leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to mind mapping. If you think you’re going to need to do both mind mapping and other types of diagrams, then I would consider investing in both types of software. I personally use SmartDraw 2012, and highly recommend it for producing many types of business diagrams.

In this report, we’ll analyze each of the major mind mapping programs and outline the capabilities they offer. I’ll also compare the pros and cons of each developer’s approach to exporting, and what this implies in terms of how much reformatting you’ll need to do in PowerPoint.

This valuable report covers the following Windows-based mind mapping programs:

• MindManager 9
• MindGenius 4
• NovaMind 5
• iMindMap 5
• Xmind 3 Pro
• Visual Mind 11
• ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6
• MindView 4
• MindMapper 12

This report is only visible to members of the Mind Mapping Insiders program. To sign up for it, please click here. You’ll be opening yourself up to a wealth of advanced strategies and techniques that will help you to become a better visual thinker, problem solver and project manager.

• 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.

Most people have sat through more mind-numbing  PowerPoint presentations than they care to think about.  Most contain too much text and not enough visuals to  capture and retain the audience’s attention. That’s why  mind mapping software, with its organic visual  appearance, is a compelling alternative for presenting  your ideas.

Most of the top mind mapping software programs now  offer a presentation mode, which enable you to walk your  audience one branch at a time through your map’s  content in a very focused, engaging way. To do this  effectively, however, there are a number of key things you  need to keep in mind:

Building your presentation

1. Good organization of your map content is a must. Remember: many people in your audience may not  have seen a presentation made with mind mapping  software before. Once the “wow” factor wears out,  you need to be able to persuade or inform them with  map content that is well organized into a natural  progression or “flow” that your audience can easily  follow.

2. Try not to make your map too complex, because the  average person can’t keep more than 3 to 4 key  points in their mind at one time. That’s why  PowerPoint slides with more than 3-4 bullet points  are famously ineffective. Presentation expert Cliff  Atkinson calls this the “eye of the needle” effect: if  the typical human brain can only handle a limited  number of “chunks” of information at that time, then  we need to plan our presentations accordingly.

Atkinson recommends formatting your mind map as  a right-facing tree, starting with a top-level topic and  then drilling down into successive levels of detail. The  key is to break your presentation down into digestible  “chunks” that the minds of your audience members  can easily process. Mind mapping software is an  invaluable tool for deconstructing your presentation  topic into its component parts. Also, formatting your  map as a right-facing tree makes it easier for you to  envision the flow from broad overview to the details of  your presentation, and will ultimately make it easier  for your audience to follow the progression of what  you’re trying to say.

3. Be sure to incorporate color and images into your  mind map, to add visual interest and engage your  audience. The brain loves color and images, and  you’ll get better audience attention if you make them  part of your map. After all, you would never dream of  making a PowerPoint presentations with black-and-  white slides, would you? Then why would you do so  with a mind mapping program?

4. Limit the number of levels of topics in your map,  since each one will open as a separate step in your  presentation. That’s the functional equivalent of  incorporating too many transitions into a single  PowerPoint slide – where you may have to click your  mouse numerous times to get all of your slide’s  content to display. It tends to annoy audiences and  breaks the flow of your presentation too much. So try  to avoid it.

5. Know your audience: Finally, as with preparing any PowerPoint  presentation, know your audience and plan  accordingly. A presentation made to your firm’s  president shouldn’t contain as much detail as one  made to middle level managers, for example.

Pre-presentation preparation

6. Be sure you’re familiar with your program’s presentation mode controls. What if a member of  your audience asks if you can go back to particular  topic on screen? Could you do it? Like a good Boy  Scout, you need to “be prepared.”

7. Test everything: If you’re going to use file or web links in your map-based presentation, you should remember to test  them beforehand, in the location where you will be  making the presentation. This will help you to verify  several things: First, that the Internet connection is  working; second, that your links are properly  formatted (for example, if a web link is improperly  formatted, it may not open during your presentation,  or you may get a “page not found” error – how  embarrassing!); and third, that your map and  presentation controls are displayed properly at the  native resolution of the projector or web conferencing  application that’s being used to display your  presentation.

A recent experience of mine helps to illustrate the  importance of advance preparation. Recently, I was  one of two speakers in a webinar, and I was using  MindManager 7 to support my presentation via  WebEx. Much to my shock, when I entered the  program’s presentation mode, the presentation  control bar was hidden behind the Windows toolbar -  which meant I had a major problem. Fortunately, I  discovered this before it was my turn to present, and  I quickly changed the settings of my laptop’s toolbar  to “auto-hide” – and I was able to successfully give  my presentation. But I should have tested this before  the webinar started. You can never be too careful  when it comes to presentation technology. When you  least expect it, it can bite you in the butt!

8. Annotation adds value to your presentation: If you’re presenting to a small group, don’t forget that  many programs that have a presentation mode also  enable you to annotate your map with additional  topics, notes and other resources. It’s a great way to  record team member feedback during the meeting.  When the meeting is over, you can e-mail the  annotated map to the people who attended your  meeting, as a set of visual “minutes” of the meeting.

Conclusion

If you take these steps to prepare a solid, well-organized  mind map and test everything prior to your meeting as I  have recommended, you should be able to deliver a  presentation that will “wow” your audience, and will help  them to retain your key messages.

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SmartDraw.com has just launched SmartDraw 2009, a new version of its popular diagramming and mapping software that features a wealth of improvements – including the ability to animate or “sequence” your diagrams when exporting them to PowerPoint, and several new mind mapping enhancements.

What is sequencing and how does it work?

Sequencing in SmartDraw 2009 is the ability to reveal parts of your diagram, one mouse click at a time, so as not to overwhelm your audience. For example, sequencing could be used to display each quadrant of a 2×2 matrix and its contents, one at a time, in much the same way as you can control how individual text and image elements are transitioned into a PowerPoint slide.

This new functionality is available via a new PowerPoint tab in the SmartDraw 2009 ribbon toolbar. Many types of diagrams in SmartDraw 2009 are “pre-sequenced” so they will display their contents in the most advantageous way possible when you export them to PowerPoint. You can also manually tweak what appears at each step in your diagram’s sequencing by selecting a “frame” number from a drop-down list and then manually editing your diagram’s content in that step of the animation. The “what’s new” page on the SmartDraw website contains a brief video demonstration that clearly depicts how this works. It looks very simple and intuitive to work with.

Enhanced mind mapping capabilities

For a number of years, SmartDraw has been able to create rudimentary mind maps. With each new version, the developer has added new capabilities to create this type of diagram, and SmartDraw 2009 is no exception. The upgrade page contains a video that shows how these new capabilities work:

Automatic styling: This new capability, which can be toggled on and off, automatically alters the size and shape of topics to correspond to the level they are within a map. For example, let’s say you drag and drop a sub-topic from the fourth to the second level of your mind map. The topic’s shape, color and font style changes to match the style of other second-level topics.

Promote and demote commands: The mind map dialog box in SmartDraw 2009 now includes buttons that enable you to promote and demote topics within your map, one level up or down.

Show and hide detail: Topics which have sub-topics now display an icon. Clicking on it collapses the levels below it. This is pretty rudimentary functionality for most mind mapping programs. I’m surprised it took SmartDraw this long to add it to this program.

Export to outline: Another new button in the mind map dialog box exports your map to a text (.txt) format, with topics indented based on their level within your mind map. SmartDraw says this makes it easy to share your map with others – but actually it only shares the information that you have gathered and organized. I’m still not sure if you can actually export a mind map in other formats. I’ll have to take a closer look at this when I receive a copy of the program from the developer.

Other new features

While sequencing is the most important new feature in SmartDraw 2009, it’s not the only one. Here is a summary of some of the other new and improved capabilities of this robust diagramming program:

• Smarter flowcharts: You can now insert split paths in your flowcharts (where one step in a process splits into 2 or more sub-processes) with a single mouse click.
• Enhancements to project management charts: SmartDraw 2009 enables you to insert dependencies into Gantt charts, group tasks, add milestones and assign resources to tasks.
• Smarter organizational charts: Similar to the functionality in a mind map, you can now click an icon to hide or show branches within your organizational charts.
• 3D charts: SmartDraw’s bar and area charts can now be rendered in 3D, a big plus for presenting data in business presentations.

Conclusion

From what I can see, SmartDraw 2009 looks like a worthy upgrade to this powerful diagramming program. I hope to get a copy to play around with soon, and I’ll let you know what I think. I wasn’t that impressed with SmartDraw 2008, and the way its new diagram wizard tied my hands behind my back. Hopefully this new version has corrected that!