NovaMind for Windows v3.2 offers polished, next-generation interface and impressive functionality

By Chuck Frey

Gideon King and his team of developers at NovaMind Software Pty. are an ambitious bunch. They aim to create what will some day become the world's best mind mapping software program. With the recent release of NovaMind version 3.2 for Windows, they appear to be off to an impressive start. This new release incorporates dozens of productivity-enhancing features, including a slick new "ribbon" toolbar that resembles the one used in Microsoft's New Office 2007 applications. NovaMind features a polished, efficient user interface and functionality that is designed to meet the needs of business users.

In this "first look" review, we'll take a closer look at the most significant new and improved features of this promising mind mapping software program.

What's significant

Ribbon toolbar: This new feature, introduced in December in NovaMind for Windows version 3.2, is by far the most significant upgrade to this mind mapping program. It resembles the "ribbon" toolbar that Microsoft recently introduced on its new Office 2007 suite of productivity applications. To the best of my knowledge, NovaMind is the first mind mapping software program to offer this enhancement. In NovaMind for Windows, a series of tabs runs horizontally across the top of the workspace, entitled Add, Document, Map, Branch, Graphic, Appearance, Tools and Text. According to the developer, these tabs are ordered to correspond with the normal flow of mind map creation and editing. When you click on a tab, the corresponding ribbon toolbar opens beneath it, displaying relevant commands. Some buttons are stacked two high, to expose users to more of the program's functionality in a compact space. The developer's implementation is well organized, logical and highly functional.

Brainstorming mode: I'm a big fan of mind mapping programs that offer a brainstorming mode, so you can quickly enter a large number of ideas into your map, without the program getting in the way. NovaMind v3.2 for Windows supports this capability. Simply click on the brainstorming toolbar button to toggle it on, type in your first topic and click enter, type your second topic and click enter again, and so forth. Nice!

Flexible branches: You can move and reshape your map branches with a great deal of creative freedom – a pleasant surprise, considering that many mind mapping software programs unnecessarily restrict where map branches can be moved.

Fine positioning of map branches: You can use Ctrl-arrow keys to make fine adjustments to the position of individual branches. This can help you to ensure that your maps look neat and well organized.

Snap lines: A unique "snap lines" feature helps you to vertically align branches to each other. If a dragged branch is aligned with another branch above or below it, a blue dashed line will appear, showing you which branch NovaMind has found for you to align with. The branch will then “snap” to exact alignment. This is a very cool feature, which helps you to create neatly arranged maps. It’s one of those features that, when you see it in operation, you’ll say “Why didn’t anyone think of that before?”

Enhanced right click functionality: When you right click on a branch, a mini-toolbar with icons for branch editing tasks pops up. Right clicking on a blank area of the workspace gives you fast access to settings for customizing the appearance of your map background, including changing the document background, changing the map view settings, and more. Where most programs display a text-based drop-down list when you right click on a map element, NovaMind's implementation is clearly much more visually oriented - perfectly appropriate for a mind mapping program. As you hover over each button, a tooltip appears to tell you what it does.

Customizable hot keys: NovaMind v3.2 for Windows supports a large number of text hot keys, which enable you to quickly perform common tasks. You can even customize these key associations to suit your needs.

Hyperlinks: NovaMind has supported a variety of hyperlinks for a while. What's new in this version is the ability to attach multiple hyperlinks to a single branch. If you’re a business person, you may find this to be quite advantageous.

Tasks and resources: NovaMind for Windows now allows you to create a list of resources (people, facilities, supplies, etc.) and then assign them to individual map branches. You can also add checkboxes, start and end dates and percentage complete information to topics. This capability is clearly aimed to meet the needs of business users!

Editing in full screen mode: Many mind mapping programs offer a full screen mode, that enables you to view your mind map with the toolbars and other interface elements removed from the workspace. But the developers of NovaMind took this capability one step further: You can actually edit your map in full screen mode. This could be especially useful when you're working with a large or complex map.

Multi-maps: You can now create one parent map and multiple sub-maps, and maintain all of them in a single NovaMind file. New sub-maps can be easily added, viewed or deleted using tabs at the top of the program's workspace. If your maps tend to be large and complex, you’ll appreciate this capability.

Flexible text wrapping: If your maps often contain longer topics, you may become frustrated with having to adjust the length of these topic lines manually, to make the lines wrap more – or to eliminate wrapping and squeeze more map branches into your workspace. Fortunately, NovaMind v3.2 for Windows gives you a high level of control over text wrapping. You can tell the program to automatically wrap text to a specific width for the entire map, for specific branches, or you can manually adjust the width of each branch. Nice!

Attaching graphics from Web pages: I don't know if other mind mapping programs support this or not, but I think it's cool that you can drag an image from a web page and drop it into your NovaMind workspace to attach it to a topic.

Flexible map printing options: Another way that NovaMind v3.2 for Windows really shines is the extensive set of options it offers for printing your mind maps. Using a print dialog box, you can scale your printed map by percentage, make it fit on one page or specify the number of pages high and wide you want it to print out. Another nice feature is that you can use your mouse's scroll wheel and the Ctrl-Shift key combination to scale your map up and down in the print preview window. This enables you to easily customize the number of pages you want your map to print out on.

Minor complaints

It took me a few minutes to figure out how to open an existing NovaMind document. It turns out that a round book-like NovaMind logo in the upper left corner of the interface is the functional equivalent of the "file" menu on a non-ribbon equipped program. I could have figured this out faster if I had first read the tutorial but I like to dive right into programs headfirst, to see how intuitive they are.

I sometimes found the RapidFire capability to be hard to figure out. I assumed that I could create a topic and then "turn on" RapidFire to quickly add sibling topics to it. Actually, the way NovaMind works, you must first click on the RapidFire button; the first topic you create will be the parent topic, and all subsequent topics entered using the Enter key will be treated as its siblings. For some reason, this doesn't seem to be quite intuitive to me.

Conclusion

NovaMind v3.2 for Windows is a very impressive mind mapping program, which easily rivals the other top-tier programs in this software genre. At USD $99, NovaMind is an excellent value – in fact, for what it can do, it’s probably slightly under-priced. It offers some unique touches, such as the topic "snap lines," that help to differentiate it from its competitors. Support for task information, multiple hyperlinks per topic, multiple maps per NovaMind file and flexible printing and output options should make it an excellent productivity tool for most business applications. I can’t wait to see what’s next from the development team at NovaMind Software!

The program can be purchased from the NovaMind website; a 30-day trial version is also available for download.

Published on 1/25/2007

Rating:
Summary NovaMind v3.2 for Windows is a very impressive program, with lots for business users to love!
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