The developer of XMIND, one of the newer entrants in the field of desktop mind mapping software, has just announced that a new version, XMIND 2008, will be launched on September 30, 2007. It offers a host of new and improved features, including these:
- 6 map structures, including mind map, logic chart, organizational chart, tree chart (a mind map with subtopics arrayed in different directions), 2-D chart (with topics and relationships displayed in rows/columns) and fishbone (cause-effect) diagrams.
- Support for floating topics
- Boundaries for grouping topics
- Rich text formatting on notes
- Map themes
- Markers (percentage completion) and legends (which show which markers are used in a map and what they mean)
- Labels, which appear below topics and add context to them.
- Powerful map filtering capabilities
- A presentation mode
- The ability to record "audio notes" within XMIND that can be attached to topics (neat!)
- "Map shots" – the ability to select a region of your map, and drag and drop it as an image to other documents (cool!)
- Search the web from within your map (see screenshot above right), and add search results to your map quickly and easily
- Search for images from the web, and add them easily to your map
- Toolbars can be dragged and dropped to different locations within the workspace, so you can customize it to your needs
It looks like the developers of XMIND have been extremely busy during the last few months! I have obtained a link to download a pre-release version of XMIND 2008, but haven’t had a chance to install it yet. I’ll let you know what I think after I have had a chance to play around with it. But based on what they have announced on the XMIND features page, it looks to be a pretty impressive release!
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