Mind mapping is a “hot” thing these days. It is often touted as a good way to brainstrom, to make better decision, for problem solving, and for prioritizing and prioritizing plans. In addition, mind mapping is said to be a good way to take notes and prepare for writing and speaking assignments.
A mind map is an organic representation of your thought process. Whether you are trying to think up new ways to promote your product, pros and cons of an upcoming business decision, or whether or not you have enough information to make an important decision, mind maps are used by millions of people, individuals and businesses, worldwide.
(For more information on mind mapping, a good online resource I’ve found is The Thinking Business, a U.K. website.)
For those of us in the computer age, or those who don’t feel we have the artistic talent to draw a mind map freehand, there are computer solutions. One of the easiest computer programs I’ve found to use is for the Mac. It’s called, simply, MindNode, and is free to download and use.
When you open MindNode, you’ll see exactly what’s described in the literature about creating a traditional mind map. You’ll see a blank sheet. Or, almost blank. In the very center is a rectangle with the words “Mind Map” in the middle, and a dotted line, showing you how to create your first branch (by dragging or clicking on the plus sign located at the outside edge of every node.
Clicking produces a new node, located to the upper-right of the center node. Clicking again produces a new node to the lower-right, then upper-left and lower-left, should you keep clicking. Each of these new nodes is connected to the original by a line of a different color. You can branch off from these new nodes, which will then create a Child Node, connected to its parent by the same color line, to better keep your thoughts together.
Each of these nodes, by default, is called simply “New Node,” but you can (and should, obviously!), change the name by double-clicking the title and typing your thought in place of the highlighted text.
If you want something a bit more organic than the otherwise evenly-spaced nodes, you can click the plus sign and drag away, which will then place the new node at a location of your choosing. You can also drag any already existing node to where you want it, which will bring any Child Nodes along with it.
By using MindNode, you can easily organize your thoughts, and receive, quite effortlessly, a visual representation of what you’re thinking. Mind maps can be used, as mentioned, to organize a paper or speech, put onto paper the reasons why a decision is worthwhile or not, along with any number of organization charts.
As a program, I think MindNode is quite good. It doesn’t compare to something a bit more advanced, such as NovaMind, which can handle not only text, but graphics as well. Still, for what it is, I think MindNode is quite good, and quite useful. One of the things I appreciate is that MindNode doesn’t force you to use MindNode in order to view your mind map. You can export your mind map via the menu system to a graphic format, such as TIFF or PDF, or a text-based, such as saving it as a text HTML page or OPML, for further editing (although the graphic representation is lost, you can edit the text-based exported versions).
It would be nice if graphics were supported. I wouldn’t be looking for drawing capabilities, but as mind maps were traditionally graphic-based, it would be nice to be able to paste in a picture, if for no other reason than to lead to more creative and well-thought-out mind maps.
However, it’s hard to argue with free, and as a new program, I think MindNode acquits itself quite well. It has an easy-to-use, unobtrusive interface that gets out of the user’s way, along with a way of doing things that’s both logical and simple. There is a Pro version of MindNode in the planning stages, but for now MindNode meets my needs. If you’d like to download a copy for yourself, head over to the MindNode website and download a copy for yourself.
