Brainstorming and writing occupy the better part of my day - both for work and my personal projects. Getting
thoughts captured, organized, and structured is critical to virtually every project I touch. I've used a number of
"thought managers" over the years, ranging from a purely analog approach with index cards, post-it notes, and
whiteboards to a variety of outliners, journals, and project management tools.
While all of these tools have their merits, none provided the flexibility and visualization I need to manage multiple
stakeholders, topics, and actions. And, while I had been familiar with the concept of mind maps for some time, it
wasn't until I joined VanDyke Software about three-and-a-half years ago that I became aware of
MindManager - a mind mapping tool developed by Mindjet.
The most recent version of this amazing application is X5 Pro and it is a substantial upgrade from the older version of the program. I conducted an interview with Mike Jetter, the founder of Mindjet back in September and we discussed many of these changes. Suffice it to say that this is a very mature, stable, and well-conceived piece of software.
There are a number of mind mapping tools available but I have never even been tempted to switch from MindManager for two long-standing reasons and third, more recent one.
-
No other tool offers better integration with Microsoft Office applications. MindManager has excellent hooks into Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Project that make it a very natural extension of the Office suite. The Outlook connection, in particular, is critical to how I get things done (no big surprise, right?).
-
MindManager was designed to be an extensible application and I have found the combination of the core program and Gyronix ResultManager (covered in the next article) to be an ideal environment for mapping, monitoring, and communicating my projects and commitments. A number of add-ins are available for the program.
-
The most recent reason is all about my use of the Tablet PC. Simply stated, MindManager X5 is one of the best Tablet PC applications available today. Sketching out a mind map is a natural use of the Tablet PC and Mindjet has been absolutely brilliant in their implementation.
There are two editions of MindManager for the PC and one for Pocket PC devices. The big difference between
MindManager X5 ($199) and X5 Pro ($299) is Office integration. The Pro version allows synchronization with Microsoft
Office Outlook and Project, export of MPX files (for Project), offers review and collaboration tools, and has built-in
PDF publishing capabilities. A comparison chart is
here. MindManager Mobile for the Pocket PC
platform ($49) allows you to carry your mind maps with you wherever you go.
There are less expensive and even free mind mapping tools available, but for total Office integration and maximum
productivity, MindManager is my tool of choice.
1. Have you tried Freemind? It's an open-source mind mapper.
I have never tried computer-based mind mapping before, but I was inspired by you so downloaded Freemind. I am very very impressed. I will definitely use it in future.
Sadly, Mindjet is out of the question, due to its price.
(If you do try it, check out the beta version first, which is more stable.)
Posted at 6:18AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Iain