NovaMind

Inspiration inspired, but was a concept mapper and very good outliner. I found it impossibly frustrating to Mind Map with and gave up when ConceptDraw MindMap Pro came out. That is a genuine Mind Map program; when it was released it was up to date: many years ago. I liked it back then.

This was from the perspective of trying to do Mind Maps following the 'Rules;' not always the most popular approach in 'Creative Circles,' is it? I did my first 100 Mind Maps the proper way and then became creative about my style. So when NovaMind released their first version I was pleased to be able to show my Windows friends a software easy to use and to understand. It follows the rules of Mind Mapping and the Mac rules, but not all drawing app rules according to Matt. It has grown over the last few years in a satisfying way.

Innovations are: the Screen Writing tool mentioned in Matts review; Branch Suggestion thesaurus that gets further away from the original, in association, with each try. You don't need to do much more than 'Tab' or 'Shift-Tab' your way along each branch to build a map quickly; typing key words or perhaps placing images on each sub-branch. Another innovation is that it is kept simple to use.

Until NovaMind, Mind Manager from Germany and Mind Genius from Scotland had been the undisputed leaders; now there's an interesting competition going on between them all; also with MapIt from Korea. Perhaps freesource Mappers will join the fray next?

Mind Maps will lead you into ideas that you had not anticipated; is this part of what you mean by Semantic Webbing, Julian? Or searching with Yahoo & Google from a NovaMind branch then choosing an item which then places itself on said branch. I believe we should choose our own keyword at that point: I object to having my own thinking automated; depending somewhat on the time of day.

George Wade

There is a review of ConceptDraw along with some discussion of NovaMind included in the recent article at "At This Particular Outliner":

http://www.atpm.com/12.05/atpo.shtml

Doug Hogg

There's one thing that Inspiration does that the others don't:
Inspiration sells a Palm OS version that lets you create and sync
outlines on your Palm.

The Palm version does have a limit to how many items you can
create... I think I've hit the wall at 135 or so. But it works well
and it's nice to carry my work in my pocket or jot down quick ideas
on the subway.

• • • • •
Jeffrey Harris
Copperhead Ltd.
NYC

A very useful review in ATPO, Doug, that helps me decide about which tool to use in producing and updating a manual for a robotic astronomical telescope.

We want the manual on our web site so that it can be viewed anywhere; the scope can be operated from anywhere. We want straight operating instructions on the top level and then layers of detail available to solve problems or tackle particular tasks.

Outliners do well in showing a path through the woods; then having a multi-power microscope available to examine particular trees, and leaves, of interest.

NovaMind does fine as a Java MindMap or Exported to Outline in HTML for the website. I don't see any superior products for this specific task, though I do see alternatives in the review.