Discussion on:

Mind mapping with MindNode for the Mac

I am an organization fanatic.
I have downloaded and tried several freeware mind mapping applications.
But like To Do List software, various Office Apps, and numerous text and HTML editors, I don't use them much to record my day-to-day thoughts, plans and inspirations. Plain old paper and pen are still closer to hand and easier to use.

Those apps don't come into play until it is time to save my ideas in some sort of semi-formal way, or communicate ideas to others in learning or business environments.

I like the idea of making a straight line between my mind and my computer. But so far, existing implementations of the idea fail with just too much mechanics in the way. Until the hardware/software computing system becomes as simple to use as pen and paper, I don't see giving up those as my first recourse for keeping informal notes.

I have been using mind mapping software applications for years now, and find them to be indispensable for the work that I do brainstorming ideas, planning workshops, and for information management. I have been writing about these tools at my blog http://assistivetek.blogspot.com

Regards
Brian

Whilst broadly similar in principle, I have found concept mapping more flexible. For example, you don't need follow a hub and spoke model.

The folk at The Institute for Human and Machine Cognition have some good tools to drive the process too.
http://cmap.ihmc.us/

Vincent,

Thanks for the article.
For sometime now I've been using FreeMind as my mindmapping tool of choice. I use mindmapping quite often to gather my thoughts for big projects, analyzing issues or the like.
The main advantage of FreeMind is that it is available on multiple platforms, as I use a PC at work and a Mac at home. So it allows me to get my thoughts together on my private device while relaxing on the couch and then sending it to my work PC for use the next morning. Unfortunately it isn't available on the iPhone - perhaps I should make a recommendation on the iPhone forum

Regards,

Maarten.

Vincent,

Thank you so much for this information. I use xmind on my MAC for Mindmapping. Thank you for this information on Mindnote. I will tweet it out from tweeter to my mind mapping friends!

Bob Roman
http://twitter.com/BobRoman