Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
Open Thread: Mac Mind Mapping, and how you use it
Merlin Mann | Sep 17 2006
I've recently revived my interest in doing mind mapping as a way to capture ideas and plan out projects. Back in the day, I'd use Inspiration (which registration regrettably died a few years ago), and in more recent times I've played with free apps like My Mind and FreeMind, as well as tested more costly apps like NovaMind and MindManager. If you also like to mind map, I'm curious to hear which of these you and your Mac are using, how you're using it, and what made you choose one app over another. Got a preference? Prefer regular old paper and markers? Using lots of images in your mind maps? Which pay app is most worth the dough, and why? And for folks who are new to mind mapping, here's a few links to get you started:
68 Comments
POSTED IN:
 I use Mindjet for argument...Submitted by Ben (not verified) on September 17, 2006 - 5:58pm.
I use Mindjet for argument mapping. I know there are dedicated argument mapping packages out there, such as ReasonAble! and Rationale, but I find the superior graphical interface features of Mindjet's product outweighs the disadvantages of using it for a purpose slightly different from what I intended. (Having said that, the way I do argument maps is heavily influenced by the way ReasonAble! Works. If those guys can team up with the Mindjet people, they’d have a winner product.) What I do is put the central proposition of the case at the centre and then the first child note is just the word "because". The child nodes of that are the premises of that argument – each written as a full, propositional sentence. Each separate argument for a proposition hangs off its own "because" node (thus, if the central proposition is supported several independent arguments, there will be several “because” nodes hanging from it). Each premise can then be its own proposition with its own "because" nodes. Counter arguments to a proposition are hung off a "BUT" node. I colour propositions that are assisting the central proposition green and those that are rebutting the central proposition red. "Becauses" and "buts" are in plain text. All of this is usually done on the curved right or elbow right format, rather than the classic mindmap format with the central idea at the centre. I first started doing this on CMap but I found the absence of word wrap for long nodes was a problem and it wasn't as easy to add extra premises as it is with Mindjet. I tend to use CMap to get all concepts (or companies in a corporate structure) in my head and then Mindjet to map out an argument. One other thing that really bugs me about CMap is that it won't let you save maps in other folders. I like to keep all documents related to a matter, whether they be word docs, spreadsheets, pdfs or mindmaps, in the one folder. » POSTED IN:
|
|
| EXPLORE 43Folders | THE GOOD STUFF |
