Best mind map site/software
- Thread starter satyesu
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I like Freemind. It's an old open source project, turned into Freeplane after awhile, which is more current but I don't like it as much.
But I use it for some very particular features so I can't promise it'll work for what you want.
XMind is another I've played with. Microsoft Visio works if you have money to buy it.
But I use it for some very particular features so I can't promise it'll work for what you want.
XMind is another I've played with. Microsoft Visio works if you have money to buy it.
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Can't remember if I've tried Scapple. I went on a run of trying a lot of them because Freemind runs off Java and can be a bit tetchy with both stability and exporting.
But I keep coming back to it. Biggest reason? Hotkeys. You can control the whole navigation and writing entirely on the keyboard. What I use it for is gamewriting. The mindmap lets me see the branching really well and lets me add notes without having to go outside the doc. So do tools like Twine, but with those I spend half the time fiddling with the controls. If I'm writing, I want to... just write sometimes.
Mind-mapping's become more and more popular as part of UX design and product development processes, but apps optimized for that all tend to come at it from this high-level organizational angle. Even Freemind is technically software for creating wikis and file archives. I'm using it outside its intended function, but because it's so lo-res it lets me do what I need to do with it, quickly.
But I keep coming back to it. Biggest reason? Hotkeys. You can control the whole navigation and writing entirely on the keyboard. What I use it for is gamewriting. The mindmap lets me see the branching really well and lets me add notes without having to go outside the doc. So do tools like Twine, but with those I spend half the time fiddling with the controls. If I'm writing, I want to... just write sometimes.
Mind-mapping's become more and more popular as part of UX design and product development processes, but apps optimized for that all tend to come at it from this high-level organizational angle. Even Freemind is technically software for creating wikis and file archives. I'm using it outside its intended function, but because it's so lo-res it lets me do what I need to do with it, quickly.
JayMass
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I actually wrote an article a while back about the top 5 mindmap software solutions for Windows and Mac/iOS. Shopped it around for a bit in search of a publisher, but nothing ever came of it. If I can dig up the article will share a cliff notes version of it here. More tk... 
I looked at several and keep going back to... Handwritten sticky notes. Pasted on a wall, easy to move around and see my thoughts. I'm not anal enough to color code them, but the woman who showed me how she does it color codes everything.
I kind of go old school on a lot of this though, and come from an era when story boarding was how you put together a movie. I have to admit, I rarely mind map any more, I just set up an outline in Word and move it or change it as needed, adding notes where I think of them and working from there. Started when I seriously started doing non-fiction where everything is sold from an outline and written only under contract.
I did like Freemind, but it always had issues with Java.
Jeff
I kind of go old school on a lot of this though, and come from an era when story boarding was how you put together a movie. I have to admit, I rarely mind map any more, I just set up an outline in Word and move it or change it as needed, adding notes where I think of them and working from there. Started when I seriously started doing non-fiction where everything is sold from an outline and written only under contract.
I did like Freemind, but it always had issues with Java.
Jeff
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It still has issues with Java. Everything has issues with Java.
I hardly use it for fiction, either. Once or twice, but I too prefer getting on a whiteboard if I need to break away from point-form outlines. More flexibility.
I hardly use it for fiction, either. Once or twice, but I too prefer getting on a whiteboard if I need to break away from point-form outlines. More flexibility.
