I use mind maps all the time. In fact in my den I have a wall with no pictures, no decorations, just a plain wall I use to put up giant poster sized Post-Its and draw out my life. Sometimes one mind map will be up there for months.
Right now there are three: One helping me figure out how the narrator in Resurrection dies, one charting out ideas for the next stage of my career and one with ideas on a marriage site. Thinking creatively is my most important task, and mind mapping helps me to think creatively.
I had heard there were mind mapping programs you could use on your PC, but I always assumed they would be too limiting–the size of the screen is small and you can’t “draw” on it.
Because I have made a commitment to the “paperless office” I decided yesterday to see if I could find an online program that would allow me to create workable mind maps.
Mindomo is what I found. After one day I can tell you it is much better than using paper and markers.
Why Mindomo Beat My Paper Method
The interface is pretty intuitive. I didn’t have to read any instructions to get started. Your mileage may vary, but I think an average computer user should be able to figure out the basics pretty much as easily as the basics of a word processor.
One advantage of Mindomo over paper was the ease at which I could make sweeping or individual changes. For example: I realized in the mind map I made yesterday that the grouping of the different branches didn’t make logical sense. On a hand drawn mind map I couldn’t move the branches. With Mindomo I just clicked and dragged the branches around until I got them where I wanted them.
Another advantage is the ability to re-align the arrangements of branches. In my case there were a couple sub-branches (with a dozen or so individual elements each) that were better related to a “new” branch rather than the one they were originally associated with.
By clicking and dragging on the lead topic for a branch, I could move the entire topic.
I could also access and share my mind maps online. When I travel I used to actually take my current (and key past) mind maps with me to put up in my hotel room. With Mindomo I could simply log in and view any of my previously created maps.
One key feature I liked was the ability to easily change the overall appearance of the map. After a while I got sick of the format I had originally chosen. No problem, I just clicked a button and the entire look changed. The same goes for colors–select the area you want to color and click a button.
Pictures are easy to add as well. When I do manual mind maps, my doodles take a good deal of time and don’t always come out as planned. With Mindomo you can insert pictures from the web or from their stock clip-art. That’s pretty cool and can make your map really stir the creative juices.
I wondered about what options I had for downloading the map or printing. The map can be downloaded in a variety of formats. I downloaded mine as a jpg so I could easily view it using a simple program like Paint Shop Pro or even Paint. I could also print the map from my computer. The one I created yesterday would print out as 12 pages, and could be taped together to make up a paper mind map. (Think about it like a Rasterbator print out.)
Overall the experience using Mindomo was much better than using paper and much better than I had expected. I have this feeling I won’t be buying too many super sized Post-It pads in the future.
Here is a simple, sample mind-map I made to give you a simple idea:
March 29, 2008 at 3:29 pm
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