Mind Mapping is a process of getting ideas from your head down on paper clearly quickly and uniquely. Drawing a circle around an idea and then linking it to a bunch of other circles is the essence of mind mapping.
It can be used for organising dinner parties to blueprinting a multi-billion dollar company.
In the previous post I mentioned the best tips and techniques for Mind Mapping and here I am going to suggest the top five mind mapping software for windows computers.
Edraw Mind Map is the first Software on the list. It is free
for non-commercial and home use. Edraw takes its visual cue from Office rather
than the explorer style layout typical to most modern graphics apps so it has a
very familiar feel. The free version of
Edraw comes with many different examples and has a wealth of symbols, shapes
and clip art.
Edraw is very simple to use at every stage of your mind
mapping. There is however a lot to this software and its takes some time to
learn all its features and be fluent with it. It is very much worth the effort.
Freemind is a versatile software that can be used for mind mapping!
It comes with a number of templates to help you in mind mapping. It can also be
used as a drawing tool, so if you feel the clip art is not working out for you
then you can always go rogue.
Open Mind is a freeware software for creating customized
mind maps. Like most others you can insert text images but with Open Mind you
can also add youtube video. Open Mind
also allows each bubble to be a different shape just to add to the fun. There
are very few extras with this software but it has everything you need to make
clear colourful mind maps. It also has a very useful help file with
screenshots.
Blumind is a freeware software that looks more like a
browser with Tabs and sidebars. Tabs open new mind maps and while the sidebar
changes the colour of objects fonts and backgrounds. There is the useful
folding menu with this software that allows you to keep your work clean and
menus tidy.
Freeplane offers the biggest learning curve but once
mastered is the most intuitive. It works with the function keys to allow quick
adaptation of work. It speaks its own language talking about “Ancestors” “Decendants”
and “Children”.. These are things that would put off someone who just wants to
get mapping straight away. However stick with it and you will soon find that Freeplane
is a must.
I hope this list has helped you and please message me if you
have any questions with regards to mind mapping or anything else you would like
me to write about. J
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