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Mind-Mapping Software

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VicGee:
I've used Topicscape for a couple of years - I was in on the beta trials and have used it ever since.  It's really more an information organizer, but it uses a mind mapping way of thinking to organize information.  You can fly and zoom around the information landscape.  I wouldn't be without it, but I suppose it's a matter of taste.  It's quite demanding on graphics hardware, as you'd expect from 3D.

Vic Gee
http://www.mind-mapping.org/
The master list of mind mapping &
information management software

mouser:
vic is that your website? very cool if so!

Dormouse:
Thanks for the response Vic (and for your website :)).

My own needs would include being able to use Images for nodes, having many different types of link (with different appearances) and having as many links as wanted between as many nodes as needed. The view of Topicscape seems like an army lined up with each officer having their men behind them - and all officers and men looking the same apart from size.

I do see how it can work as an information organiser, though it only seems to offer one simple view at at time.

I'm just disappointed because the list of features seemed good. And intrigued because I wasn't put off by the price - and I had never thought I'd have that level of need for a mind mapper.

Never mind; I'll stick to my current collection of software for info & organisation, wait for SQLnotes to develop further (albeit without the pointy-headed pictures) and see how much I can get out of Cayra for mindmapping type stuff.

CWuestefeld:
I had a look at this. It seemed very attractive until I looked at the screenshots under User Stories. I had expected it to be much more visual than 2D mindmaps, but it is actually much less - everything is represented as a pseudo-3D triangle/cone/pyramid. Just a slightly graphical frontend to a database.-Dormouse (May 18, 2008, 04:09 AM)
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This is pretty much true as far as it goes, but there's more than that.

First, the metaphor of a landscape with an unlimited horizon, along with robust searching, makes for the ability to handle a much larger picture than a mere mindmap.

My own needs would include being able to use Images for nodes, having many different types of link (with different appearances) and having as many links as wanted between as many nodes as needed. The view of Topicscape seems like an army lined up with each officer having their men behind them - and all officers and men looking the same apart from size.-Dormouse (May 18, 2008, 10:08 AM)
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TS has some of this. You can have many links between nodes, although the menu of appearances is limited. Similarly, nodes have some variety, but it's limited.

Another advantage over a strict mindmap is the rich content of the nodes themselves. They can be a simple note as in a mindmap. But they can also be containers for any other content you like -- including project files, which is how I use them. Moreover, a given node can contain not just a single item, but a whole collection of them.

TS isn't everything I need either, but it's a heck of a lot more than a mindmap.

Dormouse:
It seems as if I should have a look at TS (when I have time to do it justice). The prog it seems most eqivalent to (in my current state of ignorance, and realising that there is a big difference in graphics) is SQLnotes. Both seem to be integrative information managers with good search facilities. I haven't got really into SQLnotes fully yet either, but it is easier to have a look every now and again while it remains free to do so. TS just has a time limited trial.

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