Category: On-line software

The overview of browser-based apps on mind-mapping.org was made years ago.   This was back in the days  when this type of web app was first gaining traction.  Then, the idea that we could just open a browser on a Windows PC or Mac, no matter which, and start mapping or making a diagram was new and exciting.

Now, this is routine, and many of those listed have since died but many more have appeared, some of them well worth a look.  So the overview has been totally rebuilt and brought up to date.

There are four pages: The visual above giving a quick overview of what’s free and what is available on subscription, a quick summary, a detailed look at prices, and an indication of import and export capabilities with files formats used by MindManager and FreeMind. In the grids, I’ve highlighted in green the ones that you can use with little or no restriction for free.

1. Graphical overview.
2. Summary – mainly what you get for free, and subscription details.
3. Details – Notes and subscription details; Import and Export capabilities; Publication/Sharing; Platform.
4. Interchange with popular file formats.

These range from easy-to-use and good for a quick thinking session, to extensive and valuable for a sophisticated task.  Some are box-oriented and business-like, others organic and creative.  Even the free ones are not toys – you can get things done with them.

If you find any errors, please let me know.  There’s an email link in the right-hand column.
 

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Slickplan helps you plan visual maps for websites, and makes images, PDFs and links to send to website owners for discussion during the design stages.  It’s easy to use.  There’s an example here, based on a small part of the the Mind-Mapping.Org website.

This is a free, online web app, based in your browser, so there’s nothing to download or install.

I see no way of making flowcharts with this, despite its claims to be a sitemap/flowchart generator.  There are no conditional diamonds, nor any shape other than rectangles.

Vic

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See the updates to this story at the end – it’s fascinating!

Have you seen MindMapr, or the web site http://free-mindmapping.com/tool/?

I was preparing an entry about these for mind-mapping.org and found an interesting tale.

MindMapr is a Google Chrome browser app that lets you make maps without being on line.  Free-mindmapping.com is a site that lets you do the same, but with any HTML5-capable browser. These two look so similar, that I wanted to find out how they were related, so I started digging.

The ‘about’ page for free-mindmapping.com told me that it was the work of David Richard and gave me his email address.   Assuming it was his site I emailed him to ask how these sites were connected.

The reply came back: “Well you caught me off-guard there. I didn’t know about MindMapr and, guess what, http://free-mindmapping.com/tool/ isn’t my domain either.  My original app is hosted here and only here: http://drichard.org/mindmaps/.

Here are the three sites:———————————-

 

 

Mighty similar wouldn’t you say?

The first is David’s and it is open source software under the AGPL.   The second looks like a legitimate copy – legitimate because its About page links back to David and the source code.  David says he’s OK with that.

The third, not strictly a site, but a Chrome extension, is a copy by Manish R Chiniwalar who has removed links to David and the original source. He writes in the description he gives against MindMapr in the Chrome Web Store: “Due to busy schedule, i’m not able to work on the bugs and features. I’ll resume work in 2 weeks.” So he not only removes acknowledgement of the source, but the only way I can interpret “resume work” is that he is trying to pass it off as his own development.

David replied to me “I made this app open source so people could build on it and improve it but Manish Chiniwalar’s extension is an insult to the OSS community as he blatantly violates the GPL in this case and advertises it as his own creation (although he even left my Google Analytics tracking snippet in the code). I will contact Google and see to it that appropriate action is taken.”  Manish’s attempt at converting David’s work isn’t even 100% successful – it can’t save to a local file, which David’s can.

So, to the app itself – the original at http://drichard.org/mindmaps/ of course, now in the database at Mind-mapping.org.

‘Mindmaps’ is a simple mind mapper written in HTML5, but effective within the limits of what it sets out to do.  Unlike many developers, David has focused on ease of use, and even offers step-by-step instructions when you open the site.  It uses a ‘drag the dot’ approach to making branches, and assigns branch colours automatically, but you can change the branch colour, as well as the font colour, size and style easily.  You can click the image for a full-size view.

It gives you plenty of control how and where you place the nodes, and subsequent moving around.  Keyboard shortcuts exist: Tab to make a child of the currently-selected branch, and Shift+Tab to make a sibling.

Although this runs in a browser from a web address, it does not store the map online.  You have a choice of saving the map to local HTML5 storage, or as a normal file on your PC.

I do think that this app needs a better name than ‘mindmaps’ which is way too generic and will never turn up near the top in a Google search – some branding is called for to make it stick – Manish got that part right.

Update 1, 8/11/2011: Manish’s extension was removed from the chrome web store and Manish wrote an email to David Richard apologising for what he did.

So what next Mannish?  Give the Galaxy back or pass it to David?

Vic

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I added Ikonmap to Mind-mapping.org a few months back, but only now am I blogging about it.

Ikonmap is an online, Flash-based mapper so it runs in your browser, but it is not collaborative software – there’s no multi-person editing.  You can’t even share a map for viewing online.

It is free, so I mustn’t be too critical but there’s not much that can be done to make a map look interesting.  I quickly tired of the limited control it offers to colour, shape, size, font and all the things that make up the appearance of a map. The second level is always a blue cube, the third level a yellowish sphere and so on.  It’s not even clear why they are there – the words are what matter.

Other limitations are that there is no way to attach images to the map, no undo, and the only ways to get your map out of the software are to use PrintScreen, or to print to PDF if you have suitable software.  It will export to Word, and does so as an indented list with bullets.

One benefit is that you can describe inter-node relationships, so it is half way towards being a concept mapper.  But the map is strictly limited to a tree form, so the cross links required for a concept map are not possible.

 

Vic

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MindV is a new browser-based mind mapper that uses Silverlight.  It has a ribbon interface and a surprisingly good selection of mind mapping functions for a version 1.0 product, with new features promised (more later).  There are one or two rough edges, but the user interface and feel when editing maps already make it more like a desktop product.

It should be useful for project management – basic task information and other items can be stored with each node:

• Start and due dates,
• resources
• duration,
• priority and completion flags. 
• rich text notes panel
• multimedia
• URL attachments
• local maps

If you have FreeMind  files (.mm) or MindManager files  (.mmap), you can upload these and it will display them in MindV.

Here’s an imported FreeMind file showing the original and a thumbnail of its appearance in MindV:

The original was not very beautiful, and MindV does a good job of reproducing it, other than the outline shape.  Next is a MindManager map as it appears after import.  It was a large map so many branches are minimized:

Again, a good reproduction of the original.  MindV cannot re-export to either FreeMind or MindManager formats yet, so no round-trip is possible, but MindManager export is expected “next month”.   There are already important export options though, and I’ll get to those later.

Maps can be saved to your ‘folders’ online, or locally as a .vmap file on your PC.  A .vmap file is  actually a compressed (zip) file, containing XML, XSD and an image of the map.  The XML file does not appear to be using a schema that other mind mapping software can use directly.

Online maps can be encrypted when saved, and made ‘private’ or public.  They can be shared with others for viewing or editing, according to how you set permissions.

Export options at present are to the following:

• Text
• Html in the form of indented outline text with bullets
• PNG image
• JPG image
• MS Word
• PDF document
• MS Project XML
• and the site can generate code for you to embed in a web page.  There’s an example at the foot of this post.

Maps are locked when a user is editing them, so even shared maps do not support simultaneous multi-user editing.  The developers say they plan to introduce this function around the end of this year. 

I am chatting with the developers via email and will update this post as things progress.

Vic

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Version 2.4 of Dropmind is out with updates in both the web and desktop versions.  The word is that the Dropmind iPad version is with Apple awaiting approval.

New in DropMind Desktop are MS Excel import/export; multi-touch support; insert spreadsheet; MS Office 2003/2010 support

And in Dropmind web version,  Integration with Google Sites; voting on topics; a new ribbon design; and map from topic.

Dropmind is shaping up to be a comprehensive ‘run anywhere’ mapping package.

Dopmind is one of Vic’s Picks.

Vic

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New in Mind-mapping.org are two tools to help show related web sites with their connections shown visually: Pearltrees and Trailmeme. Just the kind of stuff we like!

Their purposes are closely related, and that prompted me to take a broader look in this post at the ‘map the web’ scene and three quite different approaches.  But first the two recent additions to The Master List:

Pearltrees

Pearltrees works on a tree hierarchy, mind map style, to arrange links to web pages, with each page being represented by one of those little blue ‘pearls’.  Pages linked to need not be from one site.  You can build a map of pages around a particular topic and publish it at the Pearltrees site or embed it in your own just by adding some code generated at the Pearltrees site.

On a web page it looks like this:

Mouse over a pearl and you’ll see a thumbnail preview.  Click a pearl and the page opens, but it’s in a frame, so you will still be in control of Pearltrees – click the ‘pearltrees’ icon at the bottom left, and you’re back at the map.  Here’s a map of some of my pages when not embedded and therefore in a larger window.

Pearltrees encourages team working to build and improve a web map.

You may have seen comments that this is ‘a new mind mapping tool’ but that is only partly true, because nodes are limited to web links – you cannot mind map a plan or ideas with Pearltrees, that’s not what it was designed for.  Adding a web page as a pearl is easy though, with a bookmarklet, or by drag and drop.

Trailmeme

Trailmeme takes another approach to layout and connections. You are not bound to a hierarchy, but can make cross connections, as you would in a concept map.  Trailmemes can be embedded in WordPress sites, but requires a plug-in.  I decided not to add it here, just for one post. 

Mouse over a node at the live site here: a map of some of my pages – and you’ll see some more information about the page.  Double-click a node and the page opens, as with Pearltrees it is in a frame.  It provides Next and Previous links, so the person who made the map can guide you through it, or you can explore directly from the map.   Multiple links forward or back are handled with a drop-down of choices. 

As with Pearltrees, pages linked-to need not be from one site.

SpicyNodes

SpicyNodes has been in Mind-Mapping.Org since 2009.  It shows yet another approach.  It limits maps to a hierarchy, and shows just one or two levels at a time, but allows free movement around a virtual map that can be large and complex.  An important difference is that you have more flexibility in Node content – files can be included as well as links.  You can embed these at your blog or site.

These are all useful ways of displaying your collection of bookmarks or pages on your own sites in a visual arrangement that shows how the collection of pages is related, and that’s always a useful improvement on straight lists.

Comment here if you know any other sites to help build pages that lay out related portions of the Web visually with nodes and edges (connecting lines) and  I’ll update this post.

Vic

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VivaMind is a browser-based application for making mind maps (kinda – or bubble charts).

It allows you to add text, video, image and code attachments to nodes.

The control to add images and videos includes a nice little Google / YouTube search box to help locate suitable material.  Each node can also be set up to take you to a web page.

It’s not clear what the code attachments can do, and there is no description of the app at the site.  All it says is “Add code editor/viewer to this node”. Let’s hope it doesn’t have any way to interpret or compile then execute code added to nodes, or it would represent a security threat.  I think it’s unlikely that it does though.

The maps work within a  strict hierarchy – no cross links are possible.

This is not a collaborative mapper, but maps can be made public to share with all, kept private for yourself or be unlisted (which is presumably to allow send a link to selected people).  VivaMind can make HTML for you to embed the map in a web page apparently, but WordPress got huffy and ignored it when I tried in this post.

You can see the map I made here: The Mind-Mapping.Org VivaMind Map This maps out Mind-Mapping.Org, and nodes link into the site.  If you visit, please vote it up!  Thanks.

Look for improvements, VivaMind is a work in progress.

Vic

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