Update, Feb 15 2007. An online mapping tool that’s cute but questionable in its mindmapping credentials: bubbl.us. In fairness, it talks more about brainstorming than mindmapping, but I’m surprised that it’s not easy to add branches to all four sides of each little box. You can, apparently, share your work with others, which makes sense, but it’s still a little too rough around the edges for me.
Here’s some mind mapping software for Windows or the Mac. Additions welcome.
- Visual Mind
- MapIt!
- NovaMind (mac)
- bubbl.us online tool:
- MindManager
- MindChart
- SmartDraw
- 3D Topicscape 3D mindmapping and concept mapping
- Inspiration
- ConceptDraw MINDMAP
- PersonalBrain
- Creative Thinker
- FreeMind
- Mind Pad
- BrainMine
- IdeaGraph (currently ‘on pause’)
- HeadCASE
- SoftNeuron Mindmap
- OpenMind
- MindMapper
- Visual Concept
- IdeaFisher
- MindGenius
- NovaMind
- Inspiration
Some resources:
- InnovationTools (which includes a bigger directory of programs)
- Google directory on mind mapping
- MindManager for Dummies: the book
Are any of these free of charge and/or open source?
Freemind is free.
You may want to add MindGenius from Gael Ltd. – http://www.mindgenius.com
Love the MindGenius best of all. Tried most of the other major mind mapping software, but the MindGenius was the best.
I also agree with Mindgenius as being the best. It took a lot of research and time to come to this conclusion. I think it has the best balance of usability and functionality. I don’t use it as much as the outliner Keynote because I do most of my information dump onto my super small fujitsu subnotebook with a screen too small for mindmapping but decent for outlining.
Have you tested ‘cmap tools’? great software.
A list of mind mapping software: http://www.mind-mapping.org
hello
i just visited ur website…check out this 3d mind mapping tool Nelements http://nelements.net
zahid
Tony Buzan is coming out with his own mindmapping software now, iMindMap, but it seems it will be 2D and focused on ‘pretty’. Seems a bit surprising as he is quoted as predicting that Mind Maps and “technology will allow movement of images and words, increasing three dimensional possibilities”. 2D is best for small maps and at the beginning of a project, but 3D Topicscape ( http://www.topicscape.com )takes over where 2D mindmaps leave off – once a project starts to grow.
I am looking for your recommendations for a tool to map a concept that requires visioning multiple layers. I am trying to show a comparative continuum that examines the health care system in a developing country with the country’s ICT and related infrastructure. Ideally, I would be able to modify this for each country. What we want to see/show for example is that the connectivity is related in some ways to the quality of the roads and that the amount of information collected at a health center is related to the size of its staff and where it is in the chain. Not surprisingly when you over lay these elements they line up — low access, low information utilization, low level of electricity, low level of health care available. Sometimes they don’t match up and one would need to move the layers – for example you could have universal cellular coverage but no electricity beyond the urban area and excellent health staffing levels at the village.
Is there any software that allows you to overlay one “map” on another? How might you model this kind of comparative information?
Thanks!
a good list…but definitely not the most exhaustive one out there. There was one on the ‘best 47 free softewares’ that seemed to cover quite a bit of this too. Good jo nonetheless
Thanks umm.. LooseWire. I like the idea of your affiliate program except that I don’t have a site exactly in that VB macro tech niche. I run 32 sites but more mass market stuff. Business software and investigative. Unless I segment Software into divisions and folders… GD.
Thanks for the mindmapping resource suggestions. Do you have any particular preference on which are the top 3?
I post some reviews on my site, http://www.mindmaptutor.com. I also offer a free no obligations course on how to mind map.