It has been a number of years since I had initiated putting together a mind mapping conference here in New Jersey, and today I was talking to my good friend and visual mapper Wallace Tait about the possibility of setting up a mind mapping conference so that we convene and share ideas. With the economy in its current state we need to bring innovation and ideas to the work that we do whether it is in the public or private sectors. What better way to kick-start this year then by planning to convene interested participants who want to explore how we can put mind mapping to use in the work that we do.
I have spoken to Wallace about the idea for an Unconference -whereby we pick a time and place and build the agenda the day of the conference based on your needs. This model has worked really well in the educational marketplace and is one that could work well for us. At the Unconference we could learn about new and innovative ways that people are using mind mapping in the work that they do, whether it is academic, personal, or business related. In this spirit, it would be great to have some corporate sponsorship that could take care of some of the expenses and be a host for the day. I for one think that a mind mapping conference is long overdue and hope that some of the leading companies in this arena will find value in this idea and step up to the plate to make this a reality. I know that Wallace and I are willing to put the time in to see that it happens. If you are interested in making this a reality please feel free to contact me. All the best and Happy Mind Mapping!
Over the last couple of months I have been pondering and reflecting on the use of my mind mapping tools and how to best integrate them into my mobile lifestyle. More and more, I find that I am accessing my iPhone and iPad and need to have access to my mind maps for projects, to-do lists and brainstorming sessions. While I still rely on my desktop applications for doing the critical creation of my mind maps, I want to be able to access the information on my mobile devices wherever I am. Several years ago, I moved a lot of my mind maps to the web using Comapping, which I have used to teach my graduate courses. Comapping produces great embedding code and works wonderfully within Moodle. My students get the benefits of a prepared visual agenda-complete with links and file attachments which are easy to navigate. The only flaw in using Comapping at this time, is that it is Flash based and can't be accessed using an iOS device.
Looking at the options, I now needed to evaluate mind mapping tools that would give me the flexibility of being able to create them on my computer but have the capability to view them on my iPhone and iPad. Being a long time Mindjet MindManger user, I can use the desktop version for the mind mapping creation and upload it to my free Connect account which can be accessed from any iOS device with the Mindjet app. This is a new workflow for me but so far so good. My MindManager maps are stored on line and can be quickly accessed via my iPhone. Likewise, I can also choose to save my mind maps from my computer to my Dropbox account which is tightly integrated with the Mindjet app on my iPhone and iPad. One of the nice advantages of use the Mindjet Connect account with my iOS apps is that the maps are always synchronized and I don't have to be concerned if I am working on the latest version. In a pinch I can also access my Mindjet Connect account from any computer connected to the web and create mind maps which I can than access from my iPad or iPhone-which is really great!
I have also revisited MindMeister which I had used for a time several years ago and am very pleased with the features and the fact that it is web based and I can access my maps from my iOS devices. Unlike, MindManager, MindMesiter is all web based which gives me added flexibility of being able to create and access my mind maps with a browser and a connection to the web. With MindMeister, I can attach files and links which makes it a wonderful digital repository for my work. MindMeister creates a graphically rich mind map which can be embellished with icons and images to jazz it up. One of the really nice features of MindMeister is the ability to create embedding code which makes it easy to share out my maps-and works well in Moodle. Using the MindMeister app I can access my maps from any iOS device which has proven to be really helpful on several occasions.
Based on my workflow-I still tend to do more creation of my mind maps using a laptop computer which is just fine- but having access to the information and my files on the road from my iPhone or iPad is really indispensable. As developers of mind mapping application begin to think through their strategies for future product development they need to enter into the formula ways for users to access their information from mobile devices. I trust that some of the leaders in the mind mapping space will announce apps shortly that will give end users more choices so that they don't have to leave their maps trapped on the island of their desktop or laptop. As always, I'm interested in learning how the mobile platforms have impacted on your mind mapping workflow.
PS: I have just begun to utilize MindGenius and the MindGenius app on my iPad and will share my experiences in the next week or so.
Over the years I have written countless articles about how I use mind mapping in the work that I do, but one of the areas which may be overlooked is in the writing process. As part of my consulting business I am often asked to write project proposals for new work as well as status updates on projects that I may be working on. While man of us may be inclined to open up Microsoft Word and start writing, I have always found it easier to structure my thoughts using mind mapping software.
As part of the process, having the ability to brainstorm what I am going to include is a natural using mind mapping software. Having the ability to move my ideas around the mind map helps me to organize my ideas and structure the content that I will include in my final report. Once I have completed the brainstorming phase, I move the ideas around the map until I am satisfied with the content. Next, I begin to attach notes to my topics to flesh out my ideas. The notes will serve as the content for my report once I have exported the mind map into a Word document. After adding notes to each of the ideas in my mind map, I am now ready to utilize the export feature to Microsoft Word- which quickly generates a structured proposal or status report. Many of the leading mind mapping applications allow you to export directly to a PDF file format. I prefer to first export the report to a Microsoft Word document first so that I can make any final edits and changes before converting it to a PDF file.
Utilizing mind mapping tools to help generate and structure the report gives my proposals and project updates a unique look and feel that sets me apart from other consultants. The cover sheet of my report includes the mind map along with a table of contents which allows the reader to easily navigate to a specific page in the proposal. Once my report is in Microsoft Word, I generally convert it to a PDF file for my client which ends the process. I might add, that for my final touch, I have been using Adobe Acrobat SendNow service to send my finished proposals which gives me the added feature of being able to track that it was received. So if you are looking for a way to help structure your writing then reexamine how you can use mind mapping software for this purpose- you will be glad you did.
San Francisco – September 13, 2011 — Mindjet®, the company that improves how people work together, today announced the release of Mindjet MindManager® 2012 Professional for Windows®, the most powerful version of the world’s leading visual information software. MindManager 2012 is designed for today’s professionals who need to spark ideas and collaborate with their teams for more productive outcomes.
MindManager 2012 is the most significant release in the product’s history including real-time co-editing, enhanced information maps and new desktop interface, plus new brainstorming features that guide users to unleash their team’s creativity. The innovative feature directs teams to:
Utilize predefined challenge questions to promote different ways of thinking about the subject
Use inspiration cards to generate hundreds of fresh ideas
Leverages MindManager’s powerful visual experience to refine concepts and plans
"MindManager 2012 has been designed to meet the needs of today’s professional who are constantly barraged with new opportunities and pressing business challenges,” said Blaine Mathieu, chief products officer, Mindjet. “The new guided brainstorming feature organizes an outpouring of ideas that can be quickly honed into real solutions for real business needs.”
In addition, MindManager 2012 integrates with Mindjet Connect®, Mindjet’s cloud-based service (see separate release) to provide open and full sharing of MindManager maps with anyone, anywhere, on any device.
“Through the Connect cloud-based service, MindManager 2012 customers can freely collaborate on maps with anyone,” said Mathieu. “The combination of MindManager 2012 and Connect is nothing short of the future of the collaboration for teams and businesses.”
For more information about MindManager 2012 visit the Mindjet blog athttp://blog.mindjet.com.
About Mindjet:
Two million individuals, small businesses and Fortune 1000® companies using Mindjet understand that working visually and collaboratively brings results. We set the standard in mind mapping and now our focus is to provide collaborative work management solutions that dramatically improve how people can work better together, accomplish goals more successfully and be more productive.
Forty-six of BusinessWeek®’s "World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies" rely on Mindjet to see the big picture – let us show you too
Acquires social collaboration innovator Cohuman for optimized team accountability and launches Mindjet Connect, a free online service to improve how people work together
San Francisco – September 12, 2011 — Mindjet®, the company that improves how people work together, today announced new Mindjet Connect® collaborative work management software to help groups working toward common goals get more done. Mindjet Connect is a cloud-based service that helps groups visualize their best ideas and plans, securely manage and share files, get teams on the same page and access information anywhere, at any time.
Forrester®’s Rob Koplowitz indicated in his 2011 report that 43% of information workers work from multiple locations over the course of a month, and that 42% work outside of the corporate firewall. Work is decentralized, moving faster and likely to keep changing at a rapid pace to keep up with the similarly frenetic pace of change in communications, business and technology. Mindjet Connect addresses the needs of this changing workforce.
"Work today is different. Individuals and teams are overloaded, increasingly virtual and knee deep in unstructured information, resulting in a lack of clarity, accountability and action,” said Scott Raskin, Mindjet CEO. “Mindjet Connect goes beyond document management and file sharing, and includes a powerful way to visualize information that provides faster insight and better results."
Mindjet also announced the acquisition of Cohuman® (www.cohuman.com), a social task-based web service that keeps teams in sync by making information more people-centric, organized and transparent. With social aspects similar to Facebook® and Twitter®, Cohuman gives people the ability to better coordinate with colleagues on projects and tasks.
"Where Mindjet Connect helps teams get on the same page, Cohuman helps teams stay on the same page,” said Raskin. “The combination of Cohuman and Mindjet Connect will further Mindjet’s vision to help people work better, together."
With these announcements, Mindjet is well-positioned to be the leading provider of collaborative work management software.
Two million individuals, small businesses and Fortune 1000® companies using Mindjet understand that working visually and collaboratively brings results. We set the standard in mind mapping and now our focus is to provide collaborative work management solutions that dramatically improve how people can work better together, accomplish goals more successfully and be more productive.
Forty-six of BusinessWeek®’s "World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies" rely on Mindjet to see the big picture – let us show you too.
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Mindjet, Mindjet Connect and Cohuman are trademarks of Mindjet, registered in the US and other jurisdictions. Forrester, Facebook, Twitter, Fortune 1000 and BusinessWeek are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc., Facebook, Inc., Twitter, Inc., Time Inc. and The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., respectively, registered in the US and other jurisdictions.
Context Discovery Inc. the developers of WikiSummarizer today released the Visual Summary View for their leading on-line summarization tool, WikiSummarizer. Now right within the browser you can get a visual overview of key information on any topic within Wikipedia without the need to own a mind mapping software application. The Visual Summary View will appeal to those users who like the graphic representation of the summary data. The Visual Summary View is interactive and allows the users to open and close nodes as they review the information. The Visual Summary View breaks new ground for summarization on the web with its ease of use and speed. For those users that prefer the outline view that can be accomplished by clicking on the Tree View in your browser. You will be happy to learn that WikiSummarizer- Visual Summary View also works on the iPad and can be exported to your favorite mind mapping app on the iPad. I have tested WikiSummarizer with iThoughtsHD and the Mindjet app without any issues. So take a look at WikiSummarizer and see what it has to offer.
I find myself spending more times these days creating and putting up more information on the web for both the classes the I teach and the workshops that I facilitate. As a result, I am always looking for tools that will make it easier for me to accomplish these goals. I spend a lot of time using various mind mapping tools to brainstorm and communicate the ideas and information that I will cover in my sessions. I tend to use MindManager 9 now to create a lot of my materials and have been looking for a way to quickly be able to output my maps on the web. Several years ago I had reviewed aHa!Visual Web Export and found it to be an easy to use solution for moving my MindManager maps to the web. Since moving to MindManager 9 , I had a chance to take a look at the aHa!Visual Web Export plug-in which was recently updated to work with the latest version of Mindjet MindManager version 9.
Installing aHa!Visual Web Export was extremely simple process. To export your MindManager 9 mind map to the web you Select from the File Menu Export as Web Pages and then you will see an option to Export using the aHa!Visual Web Export plug in. While there are lots of ways to customize how the map will render on the web page- it is easy enough to select the default options and save your outputted files to a folder on your desktop. Once you save the outputted files you can simply upload them to your server to display them. I found the process very easy to do and within minutes I was able to view my map on the web. All of your notes and web page links are live when they are exported. You can click on this link to view the output from aHa!Visual Web Export. I would highly recommend aHa!Visual Web Export if you are looking for fast way to share your MindManager 9 maps to the web.
As a consultant for IT Technologies and Architecture, I am using Mind Mapping for many purposes, e.g. for brainstorming when developing new products. Getting more and more familiar with Mind Mapping I realized that it not only perfect for complex tasks but also for organizing daily tasks which are only simple on the first glance.
Consider some kind of “normal” working day: You go to your desk and start working on your duties because you perfectly know what to do. But then all of sudden your business day gets out of control: One colleague wants some important information, the quality manager calls for an updated document, your manager wants a detailed status report you haven't even prepared and not to forget the meeting with a customer in just 5 minutes. And this is the “perfect” start for using mind mapping to avoid getting lost in your tasks.
The Structure
To get an overview over these many open ends, I use mind mapping to structure my tasks, the one I know will come as well as the one I cannot precisely assess. To find my way through them, I have structured my duties as follows: First, there are meetings, i.e. fixed dates which I have to attend. Second, I have to fulfill several tasks which most have a fixed end date but I can freely decide when to work on them. Third, some of these meetings or tasks have to be done on a daily basis while others are only relevant on a certain day. The mind map is structured accordingly as you can see in the screen shot.
On the other side, there are more variable duties which I organize in the “Task Stack”: This comprises all tasks that have to be done at some point of time, but not in the current week. At the beginning of the week, I check which of these tasks must be done in the current week. If so, a task is moved from the Task Stack to the Weekly Tasks.
Besides these regular tasks and meetings some other kind of duties appear in real life: “Unplannable Events” contain interrupts like support requests and “Optional ToDos” addresses some interaction on a more informal base, e.g. communication with colleagues or customers. These two categories help you e.g. to plan some buffer time in your business day according to the criticality and number of the entries here.
The Approach
There are two major steps which help me to keep on track during my business day. The first step is to gather all my tasks, meetings, etc. continuously. If possible, I assign a requested date and an estimated duration to get a better overview how much time it will cost me. This is an ongoing activity, i.e. new tasks, meetings, etc. are added each time I identify a new entry I cannot complete at this point of time.
The second step is to plan my current day. Therefore, each day I start with checking my daily and weekly tasks concerning their relevance for the current day. With this information, I am able to decide if my business day is already too crowded with entries and thus it would be better to cancel some of them. On the other side, I can also see if there is some time left and if it is possible to start some things in advance thus that I am prepared for the things that will come sooner or later. At the end of this, all tasks I am going to work on, are moved into the “Today” node of my mind map.
At the end of the day, I check back which of the entries I have completed successfully. Meetings which I have attended can be deleted – but first I check if not new tasks have been assigned to me in this meeting. If so, these new tasks are added to the “Task Stack”. Meetings which I couldn’t attend due to some unforeseen interrupt also cause a new task, e.g. asking for the meeting protocol or organizing a follow up meeting.
Tasks that have been completed are also deleted; in this case, no follow up activity is required. But very often tasks are only half ready. Then, I adjust the estimated duration and move the task back to the “Task Stack” hoping that I can finish it at one of the next days. Finally, at the end of the day the day my “Today” node is empty and all meetings and tasks are either finished or moved back to the task stack. Then, the next business day can come and its work can be assigned again...
This is only a short overview how mind mapping can help you by organizing your business day. This simple approach can also be extended, e.g. you can assign priorities, end dates etc. to your entries as you see in the screen shots. More, it is also possible to merge it with the widely known “Getting Things Done” method, but this would be another story… ---------- Jens Pipka- Bio
Working as senior consultant for IT Technology and Architecture since more than 15 years, I am struggling with the pitfalls of software development in all kind of projects. As a consequence, my focus lies on improving software development processes as well as the underlying development techniques. To break down complexity within my projects and identify applicable solutions, I use Mind Mapping quite often. It gives me a powerful technique and allows me to focus on the real important areas within software development – namely interacting within a team and managing technical complexity.
Hi I'm Max a 38 yearold nurse working in a pediatric intensive care unit on a highly specialized teaching hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark. Besides my work I am doing a Masters degree in Critical Care Nursing.
I was introduced to mind mapping while working in the e-learning industry in the United Kingdom some years ago. I have been using MindManager on and off ever since. But using mind maps has really become extremely useful to me now that I am focusing on highly complex issues in nursing. In my nursing practice, being able to mind map helps me to see the big picture and how events are connected. The dysfunction of one organ often affects other organs and starts a cascade of complications and things to consider. And this is the reason why mind maps and MindManager have become so useful for me. It can be difficult getting a quick overview of a particular situation or disease if you stick to text documents. With MindManager I can easily create a mind map and I can quickly go back and review it when needed. Also, it is very easy to alter the mind map as new treatments are introduced. Computer-based mind mapping has proved to be a huge benefit as my library is growing. It is relatively easy to relate two or more subjects (maps or topics) or even combine them. (I have never really been much of a pen & paper mind-mapper).
On a more practical level, I generally export my mind maps as PDF files and upload them to Dropbox so I can visit them while at work (where we don't have any sort of mind mapping software installed). I have also installed Mindjet for iPhone on my iPod which I carry in my pocket at all times while at work.
As a nurse working in a fairly complex an intense environment, I have found that mind mapping has introduced a way to ensure a quicker way to get an overview of a subject or situation. This is for the benefit of the patient but also for me as I feel a lot more confident because I can be fairly sure that I won't forget something important, 4 AM in the morning.
I would also like to see some of the principles behind mind mapping used in medical documentation. It can sometimes be a bit of a daunting experience trying to find the right information in the medical notes as the files just add up. I think it would prove to be a huge advantage knowing exactly what branch to look into (for example a branch covering cardiac issues or a branch covering surgical interventions).
I feel that both my knowledge of advanced nursing as well as using MindManager have really accelerated my learning and retention of information.
Thanks Max for sharing how you use MindManager in the work you do in helping your patients and let us know how you make out with yourfree license for MindManager 9 which I know you will thoroughly enjoy! Thank you Mindjet for sending me licenses for this give away!
MindManager Version 9 Demonstrates Business Productivity Benefits of Mindjet’s Next Generation Software
Tight Integration of Visual Information Mapping with Microsoft Office, Web Services and Core Business Systems Helps Business Professionals Work More Efficiently
San Francisco – August 10, 2010 – Mindjet®, the leading provider of software and web- based applications for visually organizing and managing information and ideas, today announced the general availability of version 9 of its visual information mapping software, MindManager. MindManager gives information workers the resources they need to see the big picture and all the relevant details needed for analysis and planning, within a single, easily edited view. MindManager, already used by over 1.5 million business professionals worldwide, is taking a quantum leap forward with this new release of its flagship product. This latest version greatly enhances the usability of Mindjet’s award-winning application, allowing it to integrate more seamlessly with users other MS Office applications, web services and collaboration platforms.
Business professionals are inundated by an overwhelming amount of content, communication and information that stifles productivity and creativity. With new features including an enhanced integration with the Microsoft ® Office suite, one-click Outlook integration and ability to connect with Microsoft SharePoint®, MindManager provides a single environment that professionals can use to unify and organize diverse information.Mindjet continues to accelerate planning, development and creativity to complete projects more successfully, accomplish more and improve communication.
"For people who have never used mind mapping software before, MindManager Version 9 promises to be the easiest version of this program to use, ever. For corporate IT departments that can't quite understand why they should deploy a visual mapping tool like MindManager, the SharePoint integration is the coup de grace," said Chuck Frey, author of the Mind Mapping Software Blog.
With this new release, MindManager becomes the one-stop destination for working on any kind of project. Within MindManager, users have access to tight integration with Microsoft Outlook and Office to keep the constant stream of information for a project organized in one easy-to-access location, a visualization and dashboard tool for any SharePoint environment with MindManager Explorer for SharePoint and collaboration tools, real-time map co-editing and web based document storage with Mindjet Catalyst.
Key Features in MindManager Version 9 for Windows:
·Microsoft Outlook® Integration – Features more powerful integration with Microsoft Outlook tasks, emails, notes, calendar items and contacts to easily bring relevant information from Outlook directly into your MindManager maps for greater access and visibility into your projects and work. Synchronized branches of Outlook tasks can be added to maps and visualized in MindManager’s integrated Gantt chart.
·Microsoft PowerPoint® Integration – Users can now easily use MindManager to research and map out presentations and then export their ideas from MindManager directly into PowerPoint slides to accomplish more, faster.
·Interactive Slide Shows – Unlike ‘broadcast’ presentations, MindManager introduces a new way to present and collaborate on concepts, strategies and plans. Users can launch interactive slide shows directly within MindManager to review selected portions of their map, solicit feedback and update their map content directly in each slide.
·Gantt Chart and Resource Views – Individuals can view task and project plan timelines in MindManager’s integrated and synchronized Gantt chart. Updates can be made to maps by adjusting the Gantt chart or by making changes directly into a map. The resource views highlight when individuals are over or underutilized in both your map and the Gantt chart.
·MindManager Explorer for SharePoint (sold separately)– Visualizes SharePoint content in MindManager’s easy-to-use dynamic maps. With bi-directional SharePoint integration, users can more easily discover, aggregate and update their SharePoint content from one or more SharePoint sites.
“Mindjet’s users have always understood the benefits of visually organizing information, data, content and documents and how this drives innovation and increases productivity,” said Scott Raskin, CEO of Mindjet. “The latest release of MindManager Version 9 reinforces the idea that organizing information in a visual manner will dramatically improve an organization’s productivity, creativity and business output. MindManager is now evolving from a product that makes project management easier and more organized, to the must-have tool that businesses and individuals use to capture, organize and present all of the information needed do get the job done right.”
MindManager Version 9 for Windows is available in three languages: English, German and French, and can be purchased through www.Mindjet.com for $349 for new users or for a limited time, $149 for an upgrade.
Mindjet provides productivity software that helps business professionals visually organize and act upon ideas, information and resources to drive productivity, team effectiveness and business innovation. Mindjet products include industry-leading software and online services centered on information mapping, as well as applications that incorporate Mindjet’s innovative visualization technology to improve the usability of leading business applications, including Microsoft SharePoint and Salesforce.com. More than 1.5 million people around the world use Mindjet software to clarify thinking, efficiently analyze information, increase team productivity, and make better-informed decisions.
Used by business professionals in 44 of BusinessWeek’s 50 “World’s Most Innovative Companies,” Mindjet solutions dramatically boost productivity and team effectiveness. Surveys across several industries show that Mindjet can increase productivity by up to 25 percent by making meetings, common communications and project management tasks more efficient and effective. Mindjet products are available for free trial or purchase at www.mindjet.com/products/overview, through salesforce.com AppExchange, and through an extensive partner network at www.mindjet.com/community/partners/overview. Mindjet is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia.
On the heels of the release of Mindjet MindManager 9, I am very excited to announce that I will be giving away 5 fully licensed copies of Mindjet MindManager 9. MindManager 9 is fast, fluid and now has integrated Gantt Chart & Resource Planning capabilities built right into the application.
So here is an incredible opportunity to land a free copy of Mindjet MindManager 9. Ok so what is the hook? To enter the Mindjet MindManager 9 GiveAway all you need to do is be a Guest Blogger and share how you are using mind mapping in your business or educational setting. If you would like you could create a screencast or video and demonstrate how mind mapping has had an impact on the work that you do. It is really that easy. Each winner will be highlighted on my blog which is a great way to give you and your company or school great exposure. To enter the contest please click here. If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment! Good luck!
Last night, Mindjet made an important announcement!
That’s right. MindManager, version 9, is coming! It’ll actually be here before you know it — August 10th to be exact.
And, more importantly, we’ve packed this release with capabilities that you’ve been asking for!
MindManager 9 is built around the following three major themes:
Accomplish more, faster: If you’re using MindManager to get your work done, and we’ve made it easier to bring relevant information into your maps with less effort. This will let you maintain perspective, work in context without having to constantly switch apps looking for the information you need to complete your work. For instance, you can tap into Outlook’s wealth of emails, tasks, notes, etc.. and bring in any or all of that information into your maps. Our new Outlook integration is built upon either pre-defined or simple-to-create queries that synchronize information with MindManager. You’ll setup your Outlook branch once and it’ll continue to refresh and present up-to-date content without any additional effort on your part. What will you do with that info? Make better plans, strategies and decisions!
Planning for everyone: We recognize that many professional project managers use MindManager for developing plans. But we asked the question, what about the rest of us? The marketers, developers, HR managers, etc… We need planning tools that let us build out quick lists of the things we need to get done in order to make any plan a reality. MindManager does just that. In MindManager, Version 9, we let you build out a plan and then, instantly, visualize it in our new integrated project schedule (Gantt chart). We also provide guidance by highlighting where trouble spots exist (e.g. if someone is assigned too many tasks to complete on any given day).
Communicate more effectively: We’re also excited about a brand new way to present your mapped concepts, strategies and plans. With the new MindManager slide show, you can create slides from any topic within your map. Unlike other presentation software apps which let you ‘broadcast’ your message, MindManager’s slides are still interactive, letting you collaborate instead of simply present ideas. Capture feedback, track new action items, and evolve your content while delivering your presentation.
Beyond these major improvements, we’ve also made many improvements including:
Enhanced usability and interface improvements
Significantly faster performance
Integration with Microsoft Office 2010
Improved integrations with Office applications
Brand new galleries of images, icons, and map templates
And much, much more…
Stay tuned for more news as we get closer to August 10th!
For those of you who have upgraded to the latest Mac OS- Snow Leopard you may have encountered some difficulties running your existing applications. While the software companies are well informed about these impending changes that may impact on their software sometimes it is hard to get the patches out the door exactly when the new operating system ships. You will be happy to know that Mindjet has recently released an update for MindManager 7 which will now allow you to run MindManager for the Mac under Apple's latest operating system called Snow Leopard. You can download the update by clicking here.
Likewise, I just received word from CS Odessa that announced that all of the current versions of their ConceptDraw productivity software product line now fully supports the Apple Macintosh OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard operating system. You can find the ConceptDraw Office Update by clicking here. So if you are using ConceptDrawMindMap with Snow Leaopard just click on the link and you will be mind mapping in seconds on your Mac with the latest and greatest operating system.
As I am gearing up for the fall consulting season, I am often asked to provide various schools and business organizations with proposals to give them a sense of how I can help them reach their goals. During the course of the year, I am providing a great deal of professional development and training professional staff on many different educational software titles and computer technologies. For the past year or so I have decided to practice what I preach and have been presenting my proposals visually in a mind map. As a result of this decision, I have found that it takes me half the amount of time to put together the proposal in a mind map but more importantly, the presentation to my clients adds a degree of clarity and conciseness which they all favorably comment on. Many of my clients are unaware of this modality and often comment what a great way to present the information without the need to plow through pages and pages of text.
One simple mind map convey volumes and is easily digested getting to the crux of the matter. Of course if you must, you can always export your map to Microsoft Word and present them with a traditional proposal. I recently created a proposal in MindManager 8 and then exported it as a Mindjet Player which I emailed to my client. For me having the Export as a Mindjet Player feature is the real killer feature in MindManager 8. Being able to open the Mindjet Player file with the free Adobe Acrobat 9 Reader makes it easy to share my mind maps. After emailing my client the mind map it wasn't before too long that I received an email back commenting how wonderful the proposal presentation was. For me it was a win-win situation all around! My proposals take me less time to prepare and my clients find the presentation easy to read and digest. So if you have the opportunity to prepare a proposal think about the prospect of delivering it as a mind map- you will be glad you did!
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Yesterday I had a chance to participate and present information about Context Organizer, in a virtual MindManager User Group Meeting at a Fortune 100 company. After presenting and being a participant in various webinars, I am still amazed at what can be accomplished without the need to be in a face to face meeting. The hour long meeting went very smoothly and when it was my turn to present I shared my computer desktop with the group and showed them how Context Organizer, a MindManager add-in can be used to summarize Word documents, web addresses, and PDF files right within a MindManager map.
I have posted about Context Organizer before and I have a couple of video demonstrations to show you the power of this tool. The MindManager User Group had selected to see a demonstration of Context Organizer in action because one of the member's of the group had been using it to plow through large documents with great success. You can think of Context Organizer as a "search engine for documents," in that it finds the most relevant keyphrases and information and succinctly summarizes it for you. If your work requires you to read through large documents or to do analyze web sites, PDF's or Word documents you really owe it to yourself to look at Context Organizer. Having the ability to access Context Organizer within MindManager is a real asset in how the information is graphically organized. For those of you who don't own a copy of MindManager 8 you will be happy to learn that Context Organizer is also a standalone product that can help you summarize documents and send the information directly to Microsoft Word.
As a postscript to this webinar, I should share with you that I used my recently purchased Acer Aspire Netbook to present from. You see when I went to use my Dell XPS laptop the virtual meeting platform did not support Internet Explorer 8, so my only option was to use my netbook. I am happy to report that my netbook worked just fine even with all of the heavy lifting. To complement my presentation, I also used Canson's Papershow product which is an ideal tool to use when you are doing a webinar. With Papershow I could share my ideas and write them down so that other could see them as if I was writing on a whiteboard. Everything I wrote down was shared and at the end of the webinar I could save it as a PDF file to email. Here is an example of what I wrote and shared with the group using Papershow. Papershow is a real natural-when doing virtual presentations or distance learning and is as easy to use as pen and paper.
It has been a number of years since I had initiated putting together a mind mapping conference here in New Jersey, and today I was talking to my good friend and visual mapper Wallace Tait about the possibility of setting up a mind mapping conference so that we convene and share ideas. With the economy in its current state we need to bring innovation and ideas to the work that we do whether it is in the public or private sectors. What better way to kick-start this year then by planning to convene interested participants who want to explore how we can put mind mapping to use in the work that we do.
