Send to a Friend
Add a Comment
OpenMind 2 Business Edition offers impressive mind mapping toolset, extraordinary ease of use
By Chuck Frey
OpenMind 2 Business Edition provides business users with a solid set of visual mapping tools that are very well-suited to managing projects, plus numerous well-designed features that make it a pleasure to use. In the battle for market leadership for mind mapping software, OpenMind 2 Business Edition is a dark horse that’s coming up fast through the pack.
In this "first look" product review, we'll take a look at the most significant new features of OpenMind 2 Business Edition, and how you can utilize them to increase your productivity and creativity.
Notable features
Inserting task information: The advanced functionality offered by OpenMind 2 Business Edition enables you to use it as a capable project management tool; the standard version of OpenMind doesn’t offer these project management features. You can attach detailed task information to individual map topics, including start date, end dates, priority level and resources. The program’s task/timeline Info dialog box, which you use to enter task information, contains a button at the bottom that says "enable project management." When you click on it, the program automatically checks to make sure that any task information you have entered into your map is modified to be compliant with popular project-management software – which could save you a lot of frustration when you import your map into your project management software. This is typical of the attention to detail that you’ll find in OpenMind 2 Business Edition.
Timeline view: If you have added task and timeline information to your map topics, you can take advantage of the program’s timeline view, which automatically displays a horizontal line with callouts for each of your task-related topics. This feature will probably only be of interest to project managers, but it’s cool to see it integrated into the program.
GANTT view: You can also display your map’s task information as a GANTT chart. It displays the tasks contained within your map as horizontal bars, arranged against a background calendar display. The left side of the GANTT view displays your project tasks as a hierarchical list, which you can expand and contract as desired. The right side of the screen displays each task graphically as a bar stretching from its start date to its end date. If you’re a project manager, you’ll love the fact that the developers of OpenMind 2 Business Edition have included this powerful view in the program!
Two-way integration with Microsoft Office applications: One of the most appealing features of OpenMind 2 Business Edition is its close, two-way integration with Microsoft Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Project. Not only can you export the maps you create to these popular productivity applications, you can also import data from them into your maps. For example, you can export a task list created in OpenMind into an Outlook task folder. But you can also start working on a task list in Outlook, and then import it into an OpenMind map. Once you have finished editing these tasks in OpenMind, you can re-export them to Outlook, either as a new task list or you can synchronize them with the original Outlook version. OpenMind’s integration with PowerPoint works in much the same way: You can brainstorm a list of topics in OpenMind, and then export them to PowerPoint. But you can also import a PowerPoint presentation into OpenMind; if the document originally came from OpenMind, it will try to preserve as much of the original branch structure as possible when converting it back to a visual map. That’s impressive! I think this two-way capability will give business users a great deal of flexibility.
Common-sense functionality
Adding branches: OpenMind 2 has a simple and unique way to add branches sequentially at the current level of your map. You simply type your first topic, and press enter. Then, press enter a second time to create a new branch at the same level. This method is among the easiest and most intuitive I’ve seen. You can also add topics using the Insert key (a de facto standard among mind mapping software programs today), using the program’s toolbar and via a right-click command.
Inserting a pre-branch: This is a feature I have never seen on a mind mapping program before. It enables you to insert a topic one level above the currently selected topic.
Inserting pictures and icons: OpenMind 2 Business Edition makes it fast and easy to incorporate a picture into your central topic or add icons to any branch of your map. These resources are located within the multimedia tab on the right side of the workspace. You simply drag and drop an image or icon onto a topic within your map. This causes a dialog box to pop up, asking you if you want to place the image as a branch picture, floating picture or an attached picture file. This dialog box actually shows you pictographs of each option, making it clear what will happen if you select it.
Attaching objects to branches: OpenMind 2 centralizes all of the icons for adding objects, such as hypertext links, file links and multimedia objects, on a single toolbar. This makes them easier to find than if they were scattered within the program’s primary toolbar. You can attach multiple objects per branch, a real plus for power users.
Customizing the map style: Another tab on the right side of the workspace contains map styles, which you can simply drag and drop onto your map to transform its appearance and try out different looks. Each style is attractive and highly functional. Each style contains a set of formatting definitions for the central topic, connector lines, topics and subtopics, which are instantly applied to your map. This is one of those features that is so cool that, even if you’re an experienced user and are comfortable reformatting branch shapes, colors and other elements, you won’t be able to resist playing with this capability. For new users, who may find it difficult to figure out how to change the styling of individual elements of their map, this is a real plus!
Brainstorm mode: Like other leading mind mapping software programs, OpenMind 2 offers a brainstorm mode, which enables you to quickly record many ideas with a minimum of keystrokes.
Full-featured notes editor: Nearly every mind mapping software program offers the ability to attach notes to topics in your map. Typically, notes are entered in a separate window that is adjacent to the workspace. What differentiates OpenMind 2 is that its notes editor is the most full-featured I have ever seen. Not only can you type notes and format them with fonts and text styles, you can also align text, adjust margins and indents, create numbered and bulleted lists, check spelling, insert pictures, create hyperlinks, insert highly customizable tables and more. Considering that many users will probably export their mind maps to Microsoft Word, this could be a valuable feature. But does it really work> I put it to the test, creating a text note with as many different types of special formatting as I could think of. I then exported it to Word, and was amazed to see that it did an excellent job of faithfully reproducing all of the formatting contained in the text note.
Inserting pop-up comments: This is another unique feature of OpenMind 2, which I think is quite valuable. When you add a pop-up comment to a topic, it remains hidden from view, except for a small icon next to the topic. When you mouse over this type of comment, a window pops up, displaying the text contained within your comment. It looks very similar to a virtual Post-It note. According to the developer, you can use pop-up comments to insert "designer notes" when you build your map – nots on what you need to finish, for example. I think pop-up comments are neat because they don't clutter the workspace, yet the information they contain can easily be revealed by simply mousing over them.
Customizable multimedia catalog: The multimedia catalog that ships with OpenMind Business Edition 2.0 contains a wealth of images and icons that you can use to embellish your maps. What's unique is that this catalog also contains a “user area” where you can add or drag elements to customize it to your needs. You can also create as many subcategories as you need to organize your favorite images, pictures and icons. In addition, the multimedia catalog is keyword searchable, and displays a list of the most recent elements used - especially useful if you tend to use the same set of images are icons on a regular basis.
Finding and replacing text: OpenMind of Business Edition 2.0 enables you to search for every occurrence of a specific order or phrase and replace them automatically. You can do so across literally every text-based object in your map, including branch names, floating comments, pop-up comments, text notes and object names.
Conclusion
Matchware has made enormous strides in its latest release, OpenMind 2 Business Edition. As I worked with the program, I was continually impressed by how much attention the developers have paid to ease of use and flexibility. If you’re planning to purchase a mind mapping software program to enhance your project definition and project management needs, then OpenMind 2 Business Edition should definitely be on your “short list” of programs to evaluate. It’s that good!
OpenMind 2 Business Edition can be ordered and downloaded from the MatchWare website; a single license costs US$349; a Pro edition (minus the project management tools) can also be purchased for US$249.
Published on 3/29/2007
|
