Another new web-based mind mapping tool: MindMeister

Web-based mind mapping tools must be all the rage these days. In recent weeks, I’ve reported on Bubble.us and Thinkature. Now there’s MindMeister, a web-based mapping application that actually provides more than just simple mapping capabilities. With this well-designed app, you can:

• Change topic color and add symbols/icons to map branches
• Cut, copy and paste map elements
• Undo and redo buttons in the application’s toolbar
• Freely move map branches from one location to another
• Use the insert key to add new branches and the delete key to remove them, just like on many desktop mind mapping software programs
• View recent revisions to your map, and perform "roll backs" on them – especially useful when collaborating with others!
• Export your maps to a Rich Text File (RTF) outline or a GIF image file (it would be nice to be able to export to XML, so you could import a map created in MindMeister into one of the popular mind mapping programs like MindManager)
• Invite others to collaborate on or simply view your map

Click here for more details on MindMeister’s capabilities and some of the thinking behind it.

For an application that is still in a private beta stage, it’s surprisingly polished and well-behaved. Everything works just as you would expect it to. For example, if you drag a topic to the right or left of another one, the second topic displays a highlight box, to show that it will become the parent of the topic you’re dragging.

At first glance, MindMeister looks very promising – certainly the best of the three web-based mind mapping applications I’ve seen so far. I look forward to seeing how MindMeister will improve in the weeks and months ahead!