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.

Easier, more powerful reports with display filtering: A new reports quick-pick menu enables generating most reports with just two clicks. Powerful custom reports using multiple criteria can now be defined utilizing multiple types, tags, and attachment criteria. In addition, custom reports can be named and saved for future use.

Faster, more flexible visualizations, including improved animation and maintaining a memory of the last view that was in use when the file was closed. In addition, on mouseover of a link, if either one of the links is off-screen, it is displayed on screen while the link is highlighted. Also, the layout stabilizes and reacts faster to input such as repositioning of thoughts or linking and unlinking of thoughts.

Streamlined user interface: Many menus and other user interface elements have been cleaned up and refined. Version 5.5 also offers a new tags user interface that displays tags in multiple columns for more efficient use of dialog box real estate. In addition, default notes styles let you easily modify colors and fonts for all notes within your Brain.

Revamped calendar with recurring events and more: The event creation and editing user interface has been overhauled and the entire events system rewritten to enable additional capabilities, including recurring appointments and additional fields on every event to record the appointment location, description and percent complete. In addition, reminders in version 5.5 are now optional and can be set to occur at a customizable amount of time in advance of the event.

Keyboard shortcuts for virtually every command: Most commands in PersonalBrain 5.5 can be accessed by keyboard commands, which are now user-configurable.

Integrated screen-capture capability: This is a convenient method for grabbing any portion of your screen for use as a Thought icon. From the Thought menu, select Capture Thought Icon. PersonalBrain minimizes and a selection target appears on your desktop, which you can then use to select any area of your screen. I used this feature to select a desktop icon, which was instantly added to the presently selected topic in PersonalBrain.

Thought spellchecking: In the new version of PersonalBrain, when you create a thought, misspelled words are automatically highlighted and can be right-clicked to view. Words can be added to the program’s dictionary, which is also used to spell-check thought topic notes.

Expanded preferences: Expanded preferences allow fine tuning of the user interface, including options for wander speed, size of “distant” thoughts (when this option is turned on, you can view two levels of child thoughts instead of one), spacing between thoughts and much more. PersonalBrain 5.5′s export capabilities are also improved; you can now export thoughts, attachments and notes into a flat or hierarchical set of folders with a single command.

There are many more updates included in PersonalBrain 5.5, which is a free upgrade for users of version 5.0. For more details, please see the PersonalBrain 5.5 updates page.

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!