Your choice of mind mapping software

Posted by Graham Smith
Oct 18, 2006 at 07:30 AM

>I think mindmapping in a literal sense should not be restrictive,

I think this is part of my problem as my main use of mind mapping is the idea processing/brain stormimg approach introduced by Tony Buzan back in the 1960s, which is still what I associate as Mind Mapping. This needs something that works very quickly, and for that I find Inspiration very good. The other aspect is the use of distinctive visual images to help remembering the map, if it is being used as an aid to memory

However Mind Mapping programs have extended well beyond that, and indeed the concept of mind mapping is being used to describe a type of diagram rather than a type of thinking process. This has led Mind mapping programs becoming diagramming programs and information managers and often making them fairly useless as mind mapping programs. I think this is the motivation behind the Tony Buzan approval system.

It is also part of the problem I am having with Mind Mapping programs, what I want for pure mind mapping isn’t what I want when it comes to presenting a diagram in a mind map “style” But the better diagramming based tools tend to be poorer mind mapping programs.

Graham