Five visual mapping tools have just been added to mind-mapping.org.
Aspire
Not so much a mind mapping application as a visual way of expressing your goals, Aspire looks like a flexible new approach. I’m hoping to get some better screenshots for the author. There are videos at the Aspire site.
Instaviz
Another iPhone application to join the happy band of those supporting visual thinkers. I make it six seven at present – iBluesky, Mindmaker, Zeptopad, Instaviz [and iThoughts], plus – via Safari – Ideatree, and Loosestich. [Updated 22 Jan 09 – thanks Karen] Any hints for more? This one, unlike Zepropad, tidies up your finger-drawn lines for you.
Treeviz
An open source, Java application for displaying all sorts of fascinatingly-named visual maps: Hyperbolic trees, circular treemaps, rectangular treemaps, sunburst trees, icicle trees, sunray trees and iceray trees.
Dabbleboard
A free browser-based whiteboard application.
Checkvist
Another free to-do-list-come-outliner web application.
Vic
http://www.informationtamers.com/mind-mapping/
The master list of mind mapping &
information management software
I’ve switched to from iBlueSky to iThoughts (http://www.ithoughts.co.uk) as I can import freemind or OPML formats onto my iPhone and take them with me. I think it’s an improvement on iBlueSky in terms of usage too.
Thanks for the tip about iThoughts. I have bought it but not worked with it for long yet. My instant snap judgement: It looks like the best mind mapping functionality on iPhone so far, but a slightly cumbersome user interface – that’s a common reaction most people have to new software 🙂 It’s occasionally unresponsive to gestures, I found.
I downloaded a FreeMind map (124 nodes) to it and it handled it surprisingly well. It has the nodes in place all the time, but keeps redrawing the edges. This is a shame because it’s slow to draw them as I scroll around the map. Some of the lines crossed behind nodes, but it was usable.
The download process is a novel approach, and it works.
BTW I got caught out by the name at one point. There’s another app with almost the same name (iThought) in the iTunes store.
Vic