Are You Thinking About a Mindmapping Conference?

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!

MindGenius 4 is Released

MindGenius has been on the fast track with its development cycle and has released MindGenius 4 which is packed with some very useful features. MindGenius 4 adds a new Brainstorming mode which makes it very easy to record your ideas. MindGenius users will also like how the brainstorm session can be associated to a particular question n a Question set which can help to focus the session. Once you are done with the brainstorming session you can create a Question - Centric map based on what you brainstormed that is well organized using the questions as the primary node and the ideas the sibling nodes. This is an extremely useful feature and one that I know many mind mappers will find invaluable.

MindGenius 4 has now added a presentation mode to the product which makes it an ideal tool for developing and presenting your ideas. The Presentation view is easy to use and for those of us that have been PowerPoint to death- using mind maps for our presentations is a refreshing alternative. MindGenius had added lots of other features to the Project Management side of the software package which I will address in another blog post. But for now, download the free Trial of MindGenius and explore all of the new and exciting productivity features that have added to this new version.

MIndGenius Version 3.6 now with File convertor and Gantt improvements

FYI

On Monday June 28th, MindGenius will release Version 3.6 which will add some new features to the Gantt View as well as the ability to open MindManager (Version 7 and above) files and OPML formatted files into MindGenius. So if you are a MindGenius 3 users I would suggest that you go over to the MindGenius website and download the free upgrade.

Version 3.6 now with file convertor and Gantt improvements

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We are pleased to announce we are continuing the major development program we started with the release of Version 3 last year. Version 3.6, one of our regular maintenance releases, will be available from Monday 28th June and is free to all MindGenius Version 3 customers.

As well as routine maintenance work, MindGenius Version 3.6 includes functional updates to the Gantt View and the addition of a file convertor which allows users to import data from MindManager and OPML formats.

The Gantt view has been extremely well received since its release in March. User feedback on the Gantt View regarding the timeline being fixed units has been addressed with the addition of the ability to set the timeline scale to an appropriate unit of time such as Quarters, Months, Weeks, Days and Hours, as well as a zoom facility to scale the Gantt view to match your overall project duration.

In response to the number of organisations participating in a wholesale deployment of MindGenius to all desktops, we have developed the ability to be able to import maps from Mindjet’s MindManager. Any legacy maps held in the MindManager format can be seamlessly brought across into MindGenius and enable the entire organisation to move forward with MindGenius as the single map format, thus making the sharing of maps considerably easier.

OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) is an XML format for defining hierarchical data and is suitable for many different types of data lists and is used mainly to exchange data lists on the web. It is also used as a file format for certain iPhone/iPad applications such as MindNode & iThoughts.

Simply select File \ Open to import any of these file types into MindGenius.

This Import functionality has the ability to be extended to import from other sources and suggestions from our customers are very welcome.

Derek Jack, Company Director for MindGenius said:

“Fundamentally, MindGenius is a client driven business. Each release reflects the priorities placed upon us by our client feedback. We appear to have struck a chord with our recent addition of the GANTT functionality within the map. Many customers are enjoying the seamless integration between unstructured data gathering and planning, and then distilling this data into a fully functioning GANTT view. This latest 3.6 release is a reflection of the scale of adoption we have witnessed and the consistent feedback around key improvements we can make to this specific feature. We trust you will enjoy the new capabilities and openly encourage your continued feedback.”

MindGenius 3.5 -Gantt View

Last week I downloaded MindGenius 3.5 which added support for Gantt Charts right within the application. I have had the chance to develop some Gantt Charts using MindGenius and wanted to share my ideas about this new feature with you. Overall, you will find the implementation of Gantt Charts in MindGenius 3.5 to be easy and straight forward to use. Most of us who have been following the mind mapping arena have seen that almost all of the major applications have moved to including Gantt Charts as part of their solution. Mind mapping applications are a great tool for brainstorming and sharing information about new projects that are coming on-board. The visualization of the project makes it easy for everyone involved to see the project from another perspective by literally putting everyone on the same page. Likewise, mind mapping applications like MindGenius 3.5 makes it easy for the team, when you are ready to develop the Work Breakdown Structure.

In MindGenius you would build your project in the mind mapping view and then click on the Tasks Tab on the Ribbon to access the features associated with the Gantt Chart. You will find it easy to assign Start, End, and Due Dates for each task in your mind map by selecting them from the Calendar. You can also record what percentage of the task is complete, the priority for the task as well as the status for each of the tasks. You can also record the duration of the work completed and estimates for the how long the task will take to complete. If you intend to use your mind map to track your costs you can include a Cost and Quantity for each item in your mind map. If you decide to include the Cost and Quantity in your mind map you can then export and generate reports in Excel. Once you have entered Start and End dates and the other information you can view your Gantt Chart by clicking on the Gantt View Button from the Tasks Ribbon.

MindGenius displays a very traditional Gantt Chart with with your tasks listed down the left side of the page. If a task has multiple items associated with it, MindGenius treats the higher level task as a Summary Level task and each item under that a child task. Tasks and subtasks can be linked using the Linking tool that is provided. As far as I can tell MindGenius 3.5 only supports Finish to Start Dependencies and does not allow for lag time. The Gantt Chart is MindGenius 3.5 clearly shows what percentage of the task is complete and can be manually changed by the user as they update the progress of the project. I would have like to be able to change the color of the bars in my Gantt view but I did not see this as an option. Assigning resources to a task is rather easy in MindGenius 3.5 you simply select the person from the Resources pane. One of the strengths MindGenius 3.5 is the ability to quickly generate a Resource map by Tasks with a click of the mouse. This helps to quickly visualize who has which task assigned to them and the responsibility for the completion of the task.

Probably one of the most powerful features that is found in MindGenius 3.5 is the ability to filter the information in the Gantt Chart. There are some Quick Filters that let you quickly see the status of your project when you select one of the filters. If you find that the Quick Filter does not meet your needs you can open up the Filter panel and begin to customize it for your needs. There is also a Filter Builder for building more sophisticated filters if you need it.

All in all, if you have MindGeniu3 you should download the free upgrade to MindGenius 3.5 and begin to explore the Gantt View. For small projects MindGenius 3.5 could be just what you need to keep tabs on your projects. If you need to, you can quickly generate reports from within Excel or export you projects to Microsoft Project. Having access to the Gantt View is certainly a welcome addition to MindGenius 3.5 and one that users will find considerable value in using.

MindGenius 3 Released!

No sooner then I do a review of MindGenius 2.5, I find out that MindGenius Ldt., has just released MindGenius 3. When you first open MindGenius 3 you will see an who new look, complete with the adoption of the Fluid Ribbon Interface. MindGenius 3.0 is much more visually appealing to use but you should feel right at home with the common interface structure. MindGenius 3 kept many of the same conventions as in their previous version such as the Map Explorer and the Picture Gallery Viewer. MindGenius 3 has a clean and inviting look summoning you to jump in and use the program. If you are upgrading from version 2.5 you should be up and running in no time. While it may take some time to get used to the Ribbon, I found the organization of the commands on the Ribbon to be well thought out and relatively easy to find what I was looking for. The Welcome Map and the Getting Started Guide are two useful resources when you are just beginning to use MindGenius 3. Here are a list of some of the new features that you will find in MindGenius as provided by the publisher:

• Ribbon User Interface which allows for improved brainstorming, presentations, analysis and task management functionality and easier access to the most commonly used features and functionality.

• improved Analysis capability to help you sort your information and add quick filters to get a different view on your data eg by category, actions due/ over due, cost or task properties.

• MS Excel export for use with pivot table analysis, parts lists, costs, task management, and FMEA Analysis, allowing you to work with numerical values as well as words.

• Numerical fields added that allow you to record actual work hours, costs and quantities and undertake cost and quantity calculations.

• updated image library with a suite of pictures that can be used royalty free by all MindGenius users.

• ability to add and edit your own question sets in the Question Tool allowing you to undertake improved planning and brainstorming sessions and create frameworks for meetings and customer facing sessions.

• timer to allow you to keep on schedule in brainstorming, meetings and presentations.
  

One of the strengths that comes across in using MindGenuis 3 is the powerful filters and the ability to sort your maps by a specific category. MndGenius really shines in this area and makes for a valuable tool if you are doing consulting and looking how resources are being used in a project. With a click of the mouse you are able to create your map based on the Resources and see things through a different lens. You can watch this video to show you how to assign Resources with the Resources Dropper and how to quickly create a Resource Map within MindGenius 3. In this regards MindGenius 3 has redone the interface and allows you to quickly link resources with tasks on your map. Using the very familiar Eye Dropper you can drop resources in tasks make it easy to track them in a project. You will also find that there were some significant features added to the Task Ribbon. In MindGenius 3 you can now track Work Hours, and Cost for tasks that can then be Exported to Excel for further analysis. If you like you can also Export your Tasks to Outlook with a click of the mouse. Having exported some project information to Excel I was impressed with the formatting and the Report that was generated. Of course if I decide to, I could always export the project to MS Project to give me a full range of tools and a Gantt Chart.

One of the features which is unique to MindGenius 3 is the ability to create Question Sets. A Question Set is a series of prompts or questions that can be associated with a mind map. This is a great feature to use to help you to generate ideas and to get you to thinking about a topic is a new or novel way. While MindGenius 2.5 included this feature you were unable to edit the Question Sets and you had to use them in the standard way. In MindGenius 3 you can easily edit the Questions and use them as you see fit. These custom prompts and questions can help and guide users to be more productive when they are working through an issue and are mind mapping. These Question Sets can be very powerful frameworks for users when they are attempting to solve problems using mind mapping tools.

All in all, you will find MindGenius 3 to be an easy to use mind mapping tool that builds on it foundations and provides a good foundation for future development. While you will have to gauge for yourself the worth of this upgrade- I for one feel that users will find MindGenius 3 easier to use, more visually appealing and brings with it a clean new interface that should make users more productive.

MindGenius 2.5: An Overview

I had the opportunity several weeks ago to speak with Dustin Newport, Director of Business & Marketing for MindGenius about their flagship product MindGenius 2.5. I always find it interesting to learn just how these applications come about and their genesis. Dustin shared with me that MindGenius came about as the result of the work of the parent company Gael Quality Group, which is a large consulting company in the compliance and quality management field. In March 2008, MindGenius Ltd, spun out of the parent company into new quarters with a new vision of where they could take this exciting mindmapping application. For the past month I have been using MindGenius and find it to be a powerful, nimble, and straightforward mindmapping application that runs on Windows platform.

When you first start off using MindGenius you can select from a number of redesigned templates to start your mind map session. One of the features which is unique to MindGenius is the ability to use the Question Assistance when developing your mind map. With the Question Assistance turned on you will see a array of topics with questions to help jump start your creative thinking process. There are a number of different topics and associated questions for each of the topics in MindGenius. Once your select your template you are ready to start your brainstroming or planning session using MindGenius. MindGeniis sticks to the core of mind mapping application letting you quickly get your ideas out on the computer screen. As a user you simply start typing and a new entry box pops up to enter your idea. If you like you can format the entry within the dialog box and press enter to add an idea to your mind map. I found the means to enter and idea fast and fluid. To add a series of subtopics all you need to do is select the topic and start typing. MindGenius comes with a library of map markers that you can add to your mind map that can act as a means to create a new map based on the category of the marker. I found this to be a fast and efficient way to look at tasks in my mind map that are assigned to a particular category. Likewise, you can assign a resource to each topic or subtopic in MindGenius and then with a click of the mouse create a new map with all of the tasks sorted by Resource. When working on larger projects this is an invaluable tool to get the big perspective on who is responsible for each of the tasks in the project. MindGenuis does not have the capabilities at this time to visually display what percent of the task is complete. Another unique feature of MindGenius is the Map Explorer which is displayed on the left hand side in a pane that lets you quickly move about your map within an outline mode. As soon as you select a topic in the Map Explorer the topic comes into focus with all the associated subtopics. Having a Map Explorer makes it very easy to move through large maps and can be used to move through your maps when you want to use it for presentations. By simply using the down arrow keys you can move through your MindGenius map via the Map Explorer so that the focus is always on the specific topic or branch. Pairing up MindGenius with a data projector to present the information is a great way to communicate and share your ideas.

MindGenius is fairly typical of mind mapping applications and allows you to link to web sites, files, PDF's. I personally would prefer to be able to embed certain files in my mind maps or at least give me the option to choose between embedding or linking. MindGenius allows you to set boundaries as well as adding floating and call out text. You can also display relationships between ideas on your mind maps buy using the insert Relationship option. Likewise, it is easy to add a note to a topic or subtopic by typing into the Notes pane. If you choose you can also add a watermark to the background when printing your maps. When it is time to distribute your MindGenius maps you can use the free viewer or distribute it as an executable(.exe) file. You can also decide to export your map as HTML and upload it to your server so that others can view it on te web. Or better ye,t export it to the ubiquitous PDF format so that you can email it to your colleagues who can open it with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

MindGenius offers seamless integration of your mind maps into the Microsoft Office Suite of products. If you are interested in using MindGenius as part of your project management solution you will find outputting your mind map to Microsoft Project a snap. I found it very easy to move my MindGenius map right into Microsoft Project with all of the data completely intact. Once you start the export process to Microsoft Project you have an array of options as to what you would like to move over to Microsoft Project. You can click on this link to view an overview of MindGenius. You also have the option to export your maps to Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Visio.

MindGenius is an easy to use mind mapping application that you should be up and running in no time. MindGenius is a straightforward mind mapping application with some unique features that should make it a valuable tool in your arsenal for brainstorming, project planning, and business consulting. The Map Explorer feature along with the Questioning Assistance Pane add some unique functionality to this well thougth out application. My favorite feature which should be ideal for anyone using this tool for project planning is the ability to create a new map based on the resources or categories attached to a topic or subtopic. Overall you will find MindGenius an easy to use mind mapping application with a small footprint. I would hope that MindGenius will continue to build on their fine product and modernize the interface and refresh the graphics and the overall look of the program.

Click on this link to view an overview of MindGenius 2.5