FreeMind may appear a bit antiquated at first, as the Mind Maps created are very ‘wiry’.  It gives you two options, bubbles or fork, for the appearance of your Mind Maps. I found this frustrating at first, as I am a puristic Mind Mapper at heart. I want to create organic, multicoloured branches. FreeMind is simply not the tool to do this.

There are however a number of options available to customise your Mind Map, including clouds, colours, fonts etc. You could easily create a Mind Map that is beautiful, colourful and unique and therefore appealing to ‘both sides of the brain’.

Use of FreeMind is extremely fast. I think it’s because it does not have the overhead of creating all the fancy stuff.

It is great for the management of information if you are not a puristic Mind Mapper, as you can get many words on a branch quite easily. You can therefore manage summary and detail information on the same map quite easily if you want to include paragraphs.

I suggest you try both FreeMind and XMind as they are both free and see which one you like, especially if you are new to computer generated Mind Mapping. Once you are happy with the concept of ‘drawing’ Mind Maps on your computer, you can evaluate the trial versions of the commercial tools and see whether they are worth their price tag.

To get FreeMind, go to the FreeMind Website, http://freemind.sourceforge.net

Xmind has a unique offering in that it offers a totally usable Free Version, as well as a Professional Version. The professional version has advanced features, but I have not tested it yet.

The Free Version actually contains enough features to get you started.

The interface is very user friendly and I was creating Mind Maps within a few minutes of installing the software without the need for a manual. It certainly does not feel like a free version, unlike so many other open source applications.

The default template is very similar to that of Mind Manager, which does not conform to the puristic Mind Mapping Principles, but it is very usable. I easily changed by Mind Map to have curved, tapered, mulitcoloured lines, which looks more like an organic Mind Map, as recommended by Tony Buzan.

I also imported one of my MindManager Mind Maps, and it imported it effortlessly. I had to rearrange some of the branches, but it was easy enough.

I suggest that you download Xmind today. There is a Windows, a Linux and a Mac version. Go the the XMind website, www.xmind.net to download the software. There are no obligations for you to buy the professional version and the software is a full version, not a trial version.

I like the software so much that I will be suggesting that our students use XMind for all the courses we provide.

Do it now! Download Xmind and become a part of the growing crowd using computer generated Mind Maps.

I actually purchased two versions, a Mac version and a PC Version, as I work in both environments.

As I mentioned before, I’ve been using MindManager for years and that, as time progressed, it seemed to move further away from Tony Buzan’s Mind Map principles.

I was initially a bit disappointed with the software. It looked great and produced beautiful ‘Buzan approved’ Mind Maps, but the interface was a bit clunky and the creation of Mind Maps were a bit different to what I was used to.

As I was an early adopter, I qualified for a ‘free’ upgrade to the latest version when it was released.

The interface is still a bit clunky, but it is much better.

The software has two main modes of operating, Mind Map Mode and Speed Mode.

In Mind Map Mode you are able to ‘draw’ your Mind Map. You use your mouse to draw your Mind Map by pointing your mouse to the center image and draw your branch by dragging it outwards. This is very similar to a hand drawn Mind Map, where you draw branches radiating out from the centre. The branch is naturally organic and a new colour is added for each branch.

Brilliant!

You then type your text on this branch. I often have to resize the branch as it does not adjust accurately enough to the text.

Even though this method of drawing your Mind Map is very similar to drawing a Mind Map by hand, it takes a while to get used to if you are used to using other tools that by default automatically draw your Mind Maps as you type.

You can let iMindMap draw your Map automatically in Speed Mode, but the Mind Map then loses its lovely organic appearance. The resultant Mind Map looks a bit mechanical. I tried to ‘fix’ it by switching back to Mind Map Mode and drag the branches into new positions. This just frustrated me, as I simply could not get the Mind Map to look like I wanted it to look quickly enough. I may as well have ‘drawn’ it from the beginning.

I use iMindMap for most of my personal Mind Maps since I acquired it. I still use MindManager for brainstorming and in the work environment, as it is much faster to create balanced Mind Maps than iMindMap.

If you are looking for a cheaper tool that satisfies all the Mind Map priniples, then iMindMap is the tool. You will be able to create beautiful, organic Mind Maps much easier than by hand. You can also reorganise your Mind Map much easier than a hand drawn one.

I hope that some of the clunkiness is removed in future versions, but you won’t be disappointed if speed is not your main critera.

I’d like to end with a rant, by stating that I’m disappointed that Tony Buzan put his name to a product, as it naturally excludes a lot of good products; thus defeating his purpose of global literacy. If his goal was to take Mind Mapping to as many people as possible, then a free open source tool would have been the best choice to achieve this. iMindMap could also have done what XMind did. They provide a free basic version for and a professional version with advanced features.

I do not have affiliations with any software vendor. So, while I have my preferences, I am not biased by any financial incentives. I feel that it is important that you know this upfront so that you can be assured of an honest review. Even Tony Buzan, the inventor of Mind Maps, cannot give you this unbiased view, as he endorses his own brand of software.

I won’t be going over the features of the software, as most vendors have documentation on their websites. I will simply give you my experience in using the software.

I am starting with MindManager as it is the first Mind Mapping software that I used. I started with MindManager 2, went on to MindManager 5 and I am now using MindManager 7.

Years ago, I presented the power of Mind Maps using MindManager to a group of people at the company I work for. The Company turns over nearly a billion dollars and is based in South Africa.

Today, Mind Maps are used people throughout The Company, including the directors and CEO.

This was made possible by the power of MindManager.

MindManager is therefore an enterprise quality product. It is fast, easy to use and easy to deploy. PDF and image generation are also not a problem if you want to share information with people that don’t have MindManager.

A free viewer is also available, which can view Mind Mapsin their native format. The interactive nature of the Mind Maps are maintained when you use the viewer.

We use Mind Manager for many things in the business, including:

• Meetings
• Documentation
• Minutes
• Project Management
• Brainstorming

In fact, we use MindManager whenever we can!

Many people, including myself, use Mind Maps as a ‘Portal’ to all our important information and documents. You can link to local documents, network documents, intranet pages and external websites.

That’s all the positives.

On the negative side is the fact that Mind Manager has moved further and further away from Tony Buzan’s visual concept of a what a Mind Map should look like.

His concept of a colourful, organic picture has been systematically removed from the base templates. In fact, MindManager 2 was far closer to Tony Buzan’s concept that MindManager 7. I still use a modified version of MindManager X5’s base template.

This has not stopped people from using it however. In fact, it may have increased the popularity of Mind Mapping among people that don’t know the Mind Map principles, as more text can be put on the branches.

Tony Buzan promotes the use of one word per line or branch.

I feel that Tony Buzan’s concept of one word per line works well for personal Mind Maps, as each word can generate numerous ideas. In a corporate environment however, it becomes more difficult to get everybody on the ’same page’ when required.

So, when I need to generate ideas I use one word per line.

When I want to communicate precisely and concisely with others, I use more words per line.

All in all MindManager is a great tool that will increase your productivity and serve you well, even though you won’t be creating organic works of art.

MindManager can be obtained at www.mindjet.com. A free trial is also available.