I’ve finally taken a little while to play with FreeMind. It’s a useful little open source tool for organizing disorganized thinking, planning, and brainstorming. It does take a while to get the “feel” for mind mapping, which is what FreeMind does is often called, but once you grasp the non-linear layout, it turns into a cool tool. So far I’ve used it to lay out two small projects and make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything. The branching layout and the keyboard shortcuts seemed to work well with my thinking style.
I’ll need to use it a bit more extensively before it becomes part of my daily arsenal, and it could use some polish that I’ve seen a bit of in the newest Beta (0.9.0 Beta 9) compared to the current 0.8.0 stable version, although I’m sticking with the stable for use right now. Things 0.9.0 adds include attributes, which I haven’t really looked at yet, and a scrolling side “icon bar” which is nice because 0.8.0 has an icon bar that drops a bit off the bottom of my screen with no way to get to the lower icons (they’re still available on the context menu).
I haven’t used all the features by far, and I keep discovering useful little things I didn’t know it could do (“Automatic layout” on the Format menu makes a map look much better and more readable!). I recommend giving it a try. The Max version for Windows (it’s written in Java and is cross-platform) has some plugins that add PDF and various other export formats, some additional help, and some reminders (that I haven’t used or even found!).
I’d heard of mind mapping before discovering FreeMind, but only in the form of MindManager, which isn’t free (quite the opposite, in fact). A post from Jason at Renolds Life and Times got me looking at FreeMind and gave me some ideas, most of which I haven’t tried yet (mapping out blog posts before posting sounds the most interesting, and he has an example). His post on the topic is more cohesive and detailed than mine; perhaps I should get started on that post-mapping he recommends! (Why do you think I linked to him after you’ve read my post? :-) Overall a useful tool I’ve been meaning to mention for a while.
One more quick note: An online, web-based (think Web 2.0) mind mapping tool, MindMeister, is just coming out of beta and I haven’t played with it much, but it’s not only a centralized place to mind map, but it includes some sweet real-time collaboration features! Kind of like a web-based mind-mapping version of Microsoft OneNote 2007 sharing (note to self: write about how awesome Microsoft OneNote is sometime soon). MindMeister is not free, it’s subscription based, but it’s reasonable compared to MindManager and the added collaboration features could definitely be worth it for many.
> So far Iโve used it to lay out two small
> projects and make sure I wasnโt forgetting
> anything.
I’m using Freemind’s 0.9.0 Beta 9 and haven’t hit any snags yet. I’ve used mindmapping for project planning for many years. I have Mind Manager which is really good (bought it while it was sub-$100 – I won’t pay their upgrade prices though), but for routine mindmapping, FreeMind is plenty good enough.
Once you start laying out early thoughts about projects with mindmapping, there are two things that I’ve found: The mindmaps make a natural structure to hold and manage all the files and information around a project; and mindmaps for significant projects soon get too big to be usable.
At that point, I switch to 3D Topicscape – see http://www.topicscape.com
This can import a FreeMind 0.9.0 (not 0.8.0) file and build a 3D Topicscape structure from it. And the way Topicscape is put together, it helps in managing information – many files can be attached to a node, things can be held in more places than one without copies of shortcuts and so on – as well as working with very big projects.
(You can even do a round-trip, back to FreeMind.)
On the cost of Mind Manager, I think it’s worth mentioning that it does a lot more for project management than just mindmapping. And there are add-ons that help with Getting Things Done (GTD) like Gyronix, that many people organize their lives around.
Roy
Hi Roy,
You’re right about our focus on project management. We have a new Jetpack solution coming out with 19 sample project management maps and additional white papers you might like. You can check it out here and get some free sample project management maps for download:
http://www.mindjet.com/us/jetpack/?s=2
Mindjet also offers a series of free webinars, that show the thought leaders and parter integrations you talk about at this link:
http://www.mindjet.com/us/company/events/webinars_recorded.php?s=3
I have special needs and I have tried to download this software to no avail can anyone provide an idiot proof way of doing so with VERY clear step by step instructions?