Mind Mapping with FreeMind (Review) « “The Authentic Fake!”

Mind Mapping with FreeMind (Review)
Feb 26, 2006 inHacks,interesting
Anyone who’s intoGTD, is also familiar with Mind Mapping, which was popularised (coined) by the psychology authorTony Buzan. Wikipedia describes mind maps as
A mind map (or mind-map) is a diagram usedfor linking words and ideas to a central key word or idea. It is usedto visualize, classify, structure, and generate ideas, as well as anaid in study, problem solving, and decision making.
You can learn more about mind maps, if not familiar yet, in thefull wiki entry.
There are several commercial products available for mind mapping,that I have come across on the Internet a few times; one of them beingMindJet, and the other beingMindgenius which is made by Tony Buzon’s company. I haven’t used any of them, so can’t say much about them! But I did come acrossthis one a few days ago which I’ve given a spin!
FreeMind was featured on sourceforge as theirFebruary Project of the Month.I hadn’t heard or seen any reviews of it before (unlike MindJet, whichI’ve heard of before), so I thought I’d give it a try and write alittle about it.
Well, first of all, the website is in the form of a wiki, which madeit very easy to quickly pick up stuff about their software, so that wasa plus! (No getting lost on a website!) Secondly, their product isOpenSource and is licensed under the GNU General Public License, whichis great! The installer is only 3MB in size (version without SVG exportsupport), so that’ll make it easy for those on a slower connections (Ifeel sorry for you!). You do need the Java Runtime Environment 1.4 orhigher though, if you don’t already have it installed, since theirprogram is written in Java and requires it.
Once installed and setup (it was very quick), it was very easy toget to know the software. It has 3 Modes: MindMap (~edit), Browse(~readonly) and Files(~view files). They have a sample file which shows youthe different features. For example, you can use hyperlinks and pointsto website or internally to your files! Pretty neat! And of course, youcan format what you write, make it bold, italic, or whatever! And you can also undo what you have written, which is useful!
I created a simple mind map, which you can see below (click for largerview). I was trying out some of the features! The Cloud feature is verynice, as it gives you a way to group several nodes (branches) that arerelated. You can also use icons with your nodes that make it easier tofind/map ideas.

There’s some handy keyboard shortcuts for the software that I pickedup: use [Insert] to insert nodes, use [delete] to delete nodes and use[Ctrl+up/down] to move your nodes up or down! No need to fiddle withthe mouse!
Once I finished making the mind map, I exported it to a PNG file, which you see above! You can also export to XHTML (seeexample), XSLT, Open Office Writer document or JPEG (and of course SVG, if you do the full install). I’dlike to see a PDF exporter, since that would make it easier to shareyour mind maps with others, but it’s still possible if you print to PDF(if you have a PDF printer software installed)PDF export issupported through the SVG export support of the program (ThanksChris!). I think everyone will be happy as there is a variaty ofexports!
Overall, I think this is a great free software, has greatcapabilities and it worked great on my computer (not slow, or anythinglike that). If you’re a GTD follower/fan or just want map your ideasfor your essay, research or something else; then I suggest you giveFreeMind a try! Thumbs up to thedevelopers!
If you use anything else, or have tips on using mind map software, then please share in the comments!

Related entries:
Some tips one how to Mind Map
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