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Review MindManager 7 September/October 2007 Table of Contents
Some
folks keep their ideas and thoughts neatly organized in their heads;
others need to see their ideas visually to stay sane. Mindjet’s
MindManager 7 is one of the easiest and most efficient mind mapping
software applications available today. While
MindManager can creatively capture your flitting brainstorms, it’s also
powerful enough to nurture sophisticated charts and diagrams. A meeting
leader can use MindManager to organize a group’s thoughts and ideas
(think virtual whiteboard), and you also can use the application to view
the strategic big picture of a large case while linking to important
documents directly from the application. The most
notable new feature in MindManager 7 is the adoption of the “Ribbon”
user interface that now pervades Microsoft Office 2007. Microsoft
adopted the ribbon as a way to better expose the underlying
functionality of programs. It replaces the standard “File, Edit, View”
menu bar at the top. The ribbon presents commands that are organized
into sets of tabs along the top of the application, and the tabs on the
ribbon correspond to tasks being performed by a particular application,
such as Microsoft Office or Excel. Where it previously might have taken
two or three clicks to find a feature buried in a menu, you can find
just about everything you need with one click in the ribbon. Although
the ribbon does require a short learning curve, it soon becomes second
nature. MindManager 7 continues to provide unparalleled integration with the
Microsoft Office suite. For example, you can easily export a mind map
out of MindManager into a Word document or a PowerPoint slide. You also
have the ability to establish links between MindManager “topics” —
individual text boxes in a mind map — and external data items, such as
Outlook appointments, tasks or specific Excel data ranges. If you make a
change to information on one side of a link, the other side gets updated
as well. MindManager maps can be entirely exported into several Officecompatible
applications including Word, PowerPoint and Visio. Maps can be exported
in Rich Text Format or PDF. They also can be imported as simple graphic
files (BMP, JPG, GIF) or Web pages. Creating
a map is fun and easy. You can either start from scratch with a main
topic box or you can select from a collection of styles and templates
included in the application. As you add subtopics and floating topics
you can customize your collection of boxes by changing fonts and colors.
The main idea of the map usually appears in a box in the center while
each topic shoots outward in a clockwise direction. You don’t have to
stick with this format, of course, so MindManager also provides a
horizontal or vertical outline if that is what you prefer. Adding
boxes to your map is as simple as double-clicking a blank space, or you
can click the “Topic” button from the “Home” or “Insert” tabs on the
ribbon. You can zoom in and out of your map by using the slider located
in the bottom right corner of the application. The “Format” tab on the
ribbon allows you to customize each topic box for font size, color and
so on. When you
have so many boxes on your map that you start to get lost, MindManager
provides a few tools to help, such as the “Filtered Map” or
“Focus on Topic” buttons. The “Filtered Map” button can hide
unnecessary boxes temporarily, and the “Focus on Topic” button brings
the selected topic to the center of the map. You also can click the
“Balance Map” button, which equally spaces your boxes if things get too
jumbled together. The
“Topic Sorting” feature allows you to sort subtopics alphanumerically or
alphabetically. If you get dizzy looking at the visual side of
MindManager, you can jump to the outline view, which squeezes your map
into a standard outline format. It can be helpful in studying a timeline
of events or a complex legal analysis. Presentation mode is a wonderful way to walk a group through a map. Engaging presentation mode displays your map in full-screen mode, automatically hiding the ribbon and collapsing your topics so the map isn’t overwhelming. You can use the buttons at the bottom to proceed and reveal each topic, or you can selectively expand single topics. A tiny “Timer” tool is handy to keep your presentation on time, or you can use the timer in a brainstorming session to make sure you don’t waste precious minutes on any particular topic. While similar tools on the market claim to help you develop a visual map of your thoughts, nothing gives you quite the freedom and flexibility that MindManager does. The fact that you can move boxes around at will and link to Web pages or files provides an incredible platform for developing visual diagrams and presentation flowcharts. Fortunately, you can explore MindManager for 21 days before you buy at www.mindjet.com to help convince yourself that it can become a unique and indispensable tool for gathering your thoughts in a visual map.
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