Applications of MindManager

A MindManager map of Simon Campbell CEO of ViaPost's presentation to Entrepreneurs World

2009-03-02T16:28:00.001Z

Last Wednesday I attended the Central London meeting of Entrepreneurs World. They provide a forum for entrepreneurs and investors to meet regularly. At their meetings there is a guest presenter and for this meeting Simon Campbell told us about ViaPost. This new product enables you post a document from your PC and have delivered to your addressee as printed paper for 27p!

Some notes about use of MindManager before you visit the full size page:

This is a modified clickable image export with the header and footer cut and paste from the static outline export.
I have also added three new customisable fields: Meta Tags for Alt Title, Description and Keywords to make the web page more Google friendly. Read my tip: Adding Meta Tags to MindManager Web Exports
I must add another two: The meeting owner and their URL. I am post export editing the HTML at the moment.

To see the full summary please click Simon Campbell ViaPost presents his story or the thumbnail to view the full clickable image.

Ink to Text - What is the best strategy in MindManager?

2009-02-26T11:58:00.002Z

I tried a new strategy this morning. I have been going through topic by topic using the 5 drop down choices or editing the topics to correct any "anomalies". This works well on the single screen of my Tablet PC.

Yesterday I inked two speeches or presentations. I delayed my ink to text conversion until I was back in the office this morning. In my large extension screen situated above my Tablet PC screen I had the ink map. I saved a copy to a new file e.g. meeting_text.mmap and opened it as another window in MindManager. MindManager is now stretched across both screens and I used Arrange View to split the maps across the MindManager work area. In the Tablet PC screen I automatically converted the ink to text using the Accept All option. I was then able to scan the ink and text comparing good and bad conversions, editing any bad conversions as I went around the map.

I think the new strategy was quicker but may be prone to the occasional missed anomaly.

What do you do?

Brainstorming with Whiteboards, Post-Its, Mind Maps or MindManager

2009-02-14T11:30:00.005Z

I just saw a Tweet about someone feeling more comfortable about brainstorming with a whiteboard than using software and a friend Rod Sloane - No Bull Business has just poked me about doing more brainstorming with businesses. Some argue that the manual process is more engaging than an automated one but I don't want to stir that comparison up.

I think the real issue is the competency of the facilitator with their tools of choice. It takes practice to become competent with these tools. If you are going to draw freehand and write in front of audience, you need to practice. Your competency needs to be greater than most of the audiences you will interact with. I bet Jamie Nast - Idea Mapping has hours of drawing experience with her tool kit and her audience (including me) likes what she does.

Good facilitators know the short cuts (keys) and restrictions imposed by their tool. They know when to start a new sheet or use a different coloured Post-It or send the topic to a new map. It's also about recognising your limits. Tony Buzan uses some very competent graphic artists in "The Ultimate Book of Mind Maps" Note in the Wikipedia link he is using a computer. ;)

One of my core competencies is being able to use MindManager in front of a live audience either at the keyboard or on the Tablet PC and leaving the audience thinking that was easy and simple.

The manual v software comparison is like saying Jimi Hendrix is better than Julian Bream or vice versa. Both are leading exploiters of their tools and both work well with normally different audiences (well I have albums from both of them but I have only seen Julian live) .

So here are the strengths of brainstorming with me:

Items can be deleted, moved, copied, grouped and linked very quickly.
It unusual for the projector screen to fall down or off the wall.
I don't run out of paper or pens.
I have access to more than 16 colours.
I have 8 hours of batteries to cover power failures. With small groups I can brainstorm in the dark.
I bring a spare PC, projector and screen.
I can paste images on the map.
I can add spreadsheet ranges.
I can add links to web pages, files and folders.
The brainstorm can be published and / or emailed immediately the meeting ends to the participants and others.
I don't stop at brainstorming. It's easy to assign action owners, dates, priority, duration and send filtered maps or lists to the action owner and meeting owner.
Those actions can be seen as timeline or Gantt chart at the meeting.
I can organise on-line asynchronous brainstorms accessed via your browser (no need for MindManager desktop license).

Should I be doing something else on a Saturday morning? Perhaps cycle out to see the first steam train built in England for a while smoke past.

You comments please?

Managing and giving access to document sets. Example Prince2

2009-02-13T10:54:00.005Z

How do you get an overview of a complex document set?

I developed this map back in 2003 when reviewing Prince2 and how it could be used at a Systems Integrator. Click the map and a RTF template document will download.

You will see a few highlighted documents. These did not exist in the Prince2 set in 2003 but were part of our project management system. It was easy to link to either company or client templates such as Permits to Work and live data such as Finance. This map can be on an intranet giving access to all employees to the current document set. With a simple document approval process (one or two people have the rights to post the current templates to the web site) it can be used to ensure that everyone uses the current version of the template.

You might have a set of documents you use for Customer Management or Accident Reporting or Recruitment or ................. MindManager can be used to quickly gather together disparate sources of information and turn them in to a coherent process map. For instance in finance you may wish to show internal, accountancy best practice and HMRC (tax authority) documents in a set.

These documents were obtained from the PRINCE2 On-line Ordering and Downloads part of the Official PRINCE2 website in 2003. They are not the current set. A single zip file of all the documents could be downloaded from there in 2003. This is the current Prince2 web site. Now there are MindManager Add Ins such as Olympic's QP2 which provide a complete management system for Prince2.

Cabre can work with you to create a customised map(s) for your project or company process which links to an existing or new document set. Please contact me to discuss.

First Anniversary Index of Applications of MindManager

2009-02-12T13:21:00.003Z

Its been bugging me for a few days that I can't see an index of my blogs. I am hoping that someone will point me to a useful Blogger add-in after this posting. In the meantime I have constructed a few with MindManager by dragging and dropping titles and links via a Google search.

You can view the index:

As a large clickable image map
By downloading the Mindjet Player PDF
By viewing the Mindjet Player Flash Page
As a text linked outline
And I only just thought of this, you can download the MindManager map.

The clickable image map shows the original map full scale but I replaced the standard jog file with a gif so it loads faster.
The PDF file alters the formatting and produces a very large file.
The Flash is also big which is why I put it on a separate page.
I need to write a version of the outline template so it is fit for the purpose of adding linked text to a blog. The styles and structure make it too complicated at the moment. Use view source to see what I mean.

The easiest way has got to be publishing it as map and letting you download it. It is also bar far the smallest file size.

Who are the potential users of MindManager during the Credit Crunch

2009-02-10T17:28:00.004Z

This hopefully short period of global financial upheaval has a variety of effects. One aspect is that some people are getting incredibly busy dealing with the fall out and others may be less busy now but need to plan for the future. Some obvious examples of the busy people are Human Resources and Insolvency Practitioners. Other who have been made redundant will be planning their future, perhaps realigning themselves.

Here is my brainstorm about this issue.

Who do you feel needs the extra help MindManager can give them during this period?

I remember when I first used mind mapping 14 years ago it was to map out the business I had just joined. I had moved from the centre of Unilever in The Netherlands to Anchor Foods in Swindon. I had worked for Unilever for 17 years and understood the people, culture and processes. Anchor Foods was at the far end of the New Zealand Dairy Board and I knew nothing about them. I used mind mapping during all my induction meetings to create a picture of how this business worked, what my role as Chief Engineer was, the relationships and the priorities of the business. When you walk into a new situation, you need to quickly assess what is happening and what to do. Creating maps and being able to see a big picture made me much more comfortable with the situation. Have you had a similar experience?

A Compendium of MindManager Tips from Twitter

2009-02-02T09:33:00.005Z

Occasionally I post a MindManager tip on Twitter when I come across something I have forgotten existed or a fantastic new feature I have never seen before. You can see them along with all the other stuff I tweet about at http://www.twitter.com/ajwilcox. I tend to use Twhirl as my Twitter client.

My MindManager Tips on Twitter:

Right click the empty space in the Workbook Tab toolbar to get some useful options: Properties, arrange, show in explorer
MindManager 8: The new built in browser does not have a print button. Right click to get print and several other options.
Web Export - Testing your templates - Use Filter to hide all but central topic - Export is then very quick!
When starting a map about a new contact use the Map Part > Outlook Linker > New Contact to create the contact in Outlook
You can right click a topic and split it. Select text in the topic or let MindManager create a topic for each word.
If you "lose" files or folders. The Map Part - File Explorer can help you find them http://is.gd/4DaT

I also have many more extensive MindManager tips and tricks in the Cabre Community Forum.

Fastest session for me using MindManager

2009-01-20T22:30:00.004Z

This evening I recorded a meeting for the Winchester Action on Climate Change which had about 20 attendees. It was the brainstorming to start a 3 year plan for CO2 reduction in Winchester. Target 7% per year! The content remains private for now but here are some interesting stats from a event recorder using MindManager.

I walked in with a parent map with some information on it e.g. the attendees but I did not have an agenda. During the meeting I created 6 maps using the Right Click Topic > Send to new map command. Two summarising introductory presentations and three to cover the brainstorms on Transport, Domestic and Business/Government/Organisations plus their group feedback.

I have just used the Multimap View > Combine All to combine all the maps in to one. The statistics say I have 993 words (perhaps 100 of those existed when I walked in the room) in 316 topics (40 were there already).

Not bad for a 105 minute meeting. 3 topics a minute on average proably 10 topics a minute at peak.

Tha facilitator was really impressed by what I did and the load it took of him. He could concentrate on leading the meeting not writing on flip charts. Although he did some flip charts to start with but then realised there was no point.

Now I have to tidy them up and publish them as a web site, Word document and a set of PowerPoint slides by Thursday 17:00. Plus do the day job.

All in an evening's marketing and my bit for tackling climate change.

Is that a record breaker? It was definitely a personal best!

The MindManager Brainstorm Test

2009-01-19T07:35:00.002Z

Many of you will be using MindManager to brainstorm, mind storm or word storm. I wonder how quick you are at it?

Take this test and then publish your results by commenting on this blog.

Normal brainstorming rules apply:

Don't argue with yourself as you enter the words
Try to use single words. Perhaps word pairs but not sentences! It will slow you down.

Here is how I would like you to proceed:

Make sure you can see a clock with a second hand.
Clear your mind.
Pick your topic and think about it for 30 seconds. For this speed test I suggest it is something you have been thinking about recently or are currently working on and not a brand new topic.
Start the clock. You have three minutes.
Open a new MindManager map and enter the Central Topic
Start entering your words as Main Topics. Don't organise them or add Sub-Topics. Main Topics only.
Stop when three minutes have elapsed. Count the Words and Topics entered. Hint: MindManager Button > Prepare > Properties > Statistics
Publish your result as a comment in this blog.

I will publish my result and my tips for this process in a couple of days.

If you want a more elaborate test. Record how many topics and words after 60s, 120s & 180s. Just put a marker in the map and count them at the end of the test. I wonder if there is a trend that one third is more productive than another.

If you are not a MindManager users but you do the test, please publish your results and the application you used.

Have fun.

Forget the Text. Just use Pictures. MindManager and the Tablet PC does the job

2009-01-16T10:05:00.007Z

On Wednesday evening I went to a presentation by Mike Pounsford of Couravel at the VizThink London meeting organised by my friends at Cognac the Big Picture company. Mike took us through his companies process for visually facilitating the communication of business strategy. More on this in my next blog.

Mike challenged us at the end of presentation to split into three groups and discuss three issues. The group I joined discussed this. Here is your Sunday paper question:

What do these sketches represent individually and collectively? (click to see full size)

How did l do this? With an HP TC2710p and MindManager 8 (but you could do this with MindManager X5 Tablet and a TC1000 four years ago). The map is the record of a 20 minutes discussion between six people. For each phase of the discussion I created a topic and inserted a sketch using gestures. As I became more comfortable with what I was doing I used different pen colours. I did not contribute to the discussion very much.

At the end of the discussion I converted them to floating topics and placed then randomly on the map but so that the map proportions would match the projector screen. When we presented our conclusions to the other attendees we had a graphic artist's picture of our conclusion on a Flipchart sheet and these on the overhead projector, showing how we got there.

I occasionally use this sketch functionality in MindManager but my feeling is that I am under exploiting the opportunity.

MindManager Technical note:

I and others have been disappointed by the rendering of the ink writing or sketching when exported to images. When I export direct to png, jpg or gif, the ink and sketches are not of the same quality as on screen. See below. Here are two ways to improve it:

1. Save to bitmap. Do not resize. Open bitmap in Paint or similar resize and save in png or jpg. Gif will give a smaller file size but not the quality.

2. Use the Windows Tablet PC snipping tool or similar to cut the picture out of the screen and save as png or jpg. Then resize in your picture editor. This is what I did for the above.

Something for you to sort out properly Mindjet!

MindManager Year Planner for 2009 created with Excel

2009-01-10T16:25:00.003Z

I normally post something to help MindManager Users plan for the new year. I struggled to find something and then I thought about getting the whole year on a map!

It was a challenge but on the way I discovered a useful way of cutting and pasting from Excel. If you structure your spreadsheet like this you can create the dates quickly in Excel and then paste to MindManager.

The first column becomes the main topic. Offset the content of the next column by one row and it becomes a subtopic. The third column creates seven sub-subtopics.

The good thing about Excel is you can quickly create these groups by starting a series e.g. 1, 2 and then dragging it down to fill to 7.

The third column was formed by combining columns 4 and 5.

I then pasted the first three columns on to the map. Hey presto the year appeared.

The organigram format created a compact map to the second level. Increase the level of detail to see the days in a week, month or year.

Download the MindManager map and the Excel 2007 spreadsheet.

It would be interesting to hear if anyone finds these of use.

Useful set of utilities for MindManager

2009-01-09T22:11:00.006Z

Olympic Limited have developed an add in to MindManager which adds a ribbon containing the following new functions:

Topic Text Locker
Convert Topic to Call Out and vice versa
Convert subtopics to text markers
Convert topics to notes
Left sided map
Vertical topic text
Sum topic values
Convert link to attachment
Add date to topic
Topic calculator - converts a topic value in to sub-topics in different units e.g. miles to kilometres

Free trial available here at Olympic Utilities

Upgrading from MindManager 6 to 8

2008-12-30T15:17:00.010Z

A friend has just updated from MindManager 6 to 8. I gave her these quick tips to alleviate some of the transition pain from drop down menus to ribbons.

Right clicks on items e.g. topics produce drop downs. As do the tiny triangles and the “down right” arrows on the ribbon.
Right click favourite commands on ribbon and Add to Quick Access bar
Right click ribbon and minimize
Right click ribbon name bar to un-minimize

10 Things to do with MindManager over Christmas and the New Year

2008-12-24T09:38:00.006Z

Make your Christmas present list (Tip: Look at the map you made last year first)
Record all the Christmas presents your family receive and who sent them (Tip: Use Task resources).
Plan the Christmas lunch particularly and the period in general (Bad News: MindManager only works in hours not minutes)
Make your New Years resolutions (Note: See Tip 1)
Plan your must watch TV (Tip: Scrape info of BBC web site or similar)
Play Family Brainstorm (Tip: Great use of wide screen TV)
Map out the things you did not get for Christmas but will buy for yourself in the sales (Tip: Woolies is a mess. Don't there.)
Index your LP, CD and Cassette collection prior to selling on eBay (Note: This is for nostalgia not making any money)
Research your 2009 holidays (Tip: Drag and drop links and prices from web sites. Note: Conflict with 10))
Pause for some thoughts about how you could make the world a better place in 2009

Please note:

I have done some but not all of the above.
Some of these maps will have conflicting content. A master map may also be useful.

Have a great Christmas break and all the best for 2009.

Andrew

p.s. Please substitute Christmas with your preferred festival.

A December Newsletter MindManager Style

2008-12-17T14:40:00.005Z

I like to write my newsletters in MindManager and distribute them as maps. Once upon a time I was able to copy and paste a clickable map web export in to an Outlook email but security levels no longer permit this. If you know the answer please tell me.
Now I send an email with the text content linked to a web page version. Click the map to load the clickable image map version my December Newsletter.

I also produced the PDF version with the player but this just shows the limitations of this export which is for simple maps only.

I have been following a friends instructions on how to do a mail merge in Outlook. Everything is going well until the merge bit. Then I only get 2 out of the 10 addresses in the trial batch being merged. Aagh! May be some of you will get it by Christmas.

Using MindManager to facilitate the reading of business plans

2008-12-10T10:13:00.003Z

Over the last week I have produced twenty maps to illustrate a business plan for a start up business. What an interesting exercise. First to produce maps which summarise the following paragraphs of text in a few words using the connectivity and relationships MindManager maps provide you with. Secondly to supply the maps and manage the editing process.

Summarising means taking out all but the keywords. Will the audience (venture capitalists and angel investors) understand them. The business owner had a problem with working from 1 o'clock round to 11 o'clock. They saw 11 o'clock as the starting point. Not sure whether my suggestion "Look at the central topic, relax, where do your eyes go next?" worked.

I supplied the maps and pictures via a web site created with MindManager. My index map for all the maps became the web site. A page for each section of the business plan displayed the picture of the map plus links to the original MindManager map file and the print quality picture file.

Now I have to a wait a little while to see whether my work has worked on the investors. I will comment on this post as I get information.

MindManager User Group in Twitter Groups

2008-12-02T12:13:00.001Z

I have just created a MindManager Users group on Twitter Groups. Another place for us to congregate. Please click the link to join.

Recording and Publishing Events with MindManager

2008-11-26T23:08:00.004Z

I have been in the last week recording and publishing two events. The first on Monday 17th was for Business Scene and their second London Connections event. About 500 people attended from a wide range of business networks. They listened to some short speeches, the main one being from an MP Mark Prisk - an upbeat response to the credit crunch, toured the 30 stands and networked. I worked with a photographer Andrew Sansom to create this record.

The second event last Saturday was the SouthamptonGOGREENfair with my second MP of the week. Probably a few hundred passed through the event and the largest audience was for Alan Whitehead with about 40 people listening to his personal experience of installing various micro generators on his house.

Both records were created using MindManager 8. Working in ink mode at the events to take notes and then later at my desk to create the web sites and clickable image maps. Some use was made of Microsoft Expressions and Notepad to tidy up and include some objects in the web pages. If only MindManager could include HTML in notes life would be a lot easier for me.

Click the images to visit the web sites.

All of this was done whilst enjoying this winters first cold.

Limits of the Mindjet Player for MindManager

2008-11-22T21:29:00.002Z

We already know many of the things the Mindjet Player will not do but what are the limits of what it can do.

This map has 230 topics and 185 hyperlinks. Have you successfully published more than this?

Using MindManager 8 for Task Planning

2008-11-12T18:00:00.004Z

MindManager 8 has a new function for calculating the dates in a task map. You can add topics representing the tasks with their durations. Then link them with relationships to show the order of the tasks. Finally add a start or a finish date. MindManager will calculate the latest start or the earliest finish and the dates for all the tasks.

This map shows a plan for redecorating a boardroom. One of those with plush carpets, paintings on the walls and a large table which you wonder how it ever got in there. No mini bar these days.

The project is partially completed. The tasks in pink are late and the Empty the Room summary task is in yellow because it is at risk of not completing on time.

Resources i.e task owners can be added as well but I have left them out to make the map less cluttered.

If you want to see this as a timeline you will need to use one of the following:

MindManager Add In JCVGantt Pro 3
Export it to MS Project
Export to MPX and import to any project planning tool
Finally the Sync with Microsoft Outlook tool and use the Task Timeline view in Outlook.

The first part of my Guide to using MindManager and JCVGantt is valid for setting up a working project plan in MindManager using this new functionality.

If you want to do what ifs on your plan, I suggest you save a copy of the plan with tasks, durations and relationships before you add any dates. After you add a date MindManager calculates and fixes all the dates. If you increase a task duration, the finish date extends but if you reduce a duration or parallel some tasks, the finish date is not brought forward.

My conclusions about this tool are that it will be useful for simple projects, the one shown is probably at the limit. After that any changes which shorten the plan will not be recalculated and the value of this functionality is negated. Of course many projects add tasks and the tasks take longer.

MindManager 8 - Tips, Tricks and Work Arounds

2008-11-12T14:41:00.003Z

In the Cabre Community I am starting to assemble small tricks and tips which will help you get more out of MindManager 8. It also covers how to deal with things that do not behave quite as I expected. You can join the community and post your own tips and tricks or just ask questions.

My first two are:

1. The default owner for all the map templates is Mindjet. To save you changing this in every map when it is saved visit this tip.

2. MindManager 8 has a new set of images etc. If you want to continue using the old ones this tip will be useful.

Of course most of the tips I previously gave for MindManager 7 are valid for MindManager 8.

MindManager 8 is released today. What's new? The flash viewer

2008-11-11T14:43:00.006Z

This is the first of a series of blogs about the new MindManager function. This is the Save As Mindjet Player which creates an SWF (Flash) File which allows the map to be embedded in a web page and lets you interact with it.

This map is a project plan for redecorating a room. All the dates on this map have been calculated using the new MindManager task function but more on that later. I should get my room redecorated just before 2009!

How did I do that?

Save As > Save as type: Mindjet Player Maps - SWF.
Upload the SWF file to my web server.
Use this code to embed the map player in a web page. You may need to remove some of the line returns reduce the empty space around the player.

<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="https://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0" id="pyn2" width="610" height="460">
<param name="movie" value="http://www.cabre.co.uk/mindmanager_player/Redecorate_Room.swf">
<param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF">
<param name="quality" value="high">
<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="samedomain">
<param name="wmode" value="transparent">
<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="https://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" name="pyn2" src="http://www.cabre.co.uk/mindmanager_player/Redecorate_Room.swf" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" quality="high" allowscriptaccess="samedomain" wmode="transparent" width="610" height="460"></embed>
<noembed>
</noembed>
</object>

What could you use this for?

Mindjet Connect and the hidden web browser client invite

2008-11-05T23:12:00.002Z

I was scratching my head and my Tablet PC for a while this evening trying to find the URL link for a Workspace, so I could investigate a comment someone had made about the MindManager browser client. I found it in the end. I thought I would write a note here for you and for me when I can't find it again.

It is under the Connect Button in the top right corner of the Workspace Manager. Click it and you can Send Workspace Link by email. You can click the link in the unsent email and see your Workspace, maps and documents in a browser of your choice. MindManager Web uses Flash.

Using MindManager to create a Financial Information Map

2008-10-29T15:58:00.004Z

The map below is the one I use to get at all the tax and financial information I need to run my business. It contains links to government web sites and documents e.g. HMRC, VAT, PAYE. There are links to my company documents stored on my PC (they all link to a dummy document in this version) templates for dividends & minutes or the actual documents or copies of documents produced by submitting my VAT etc.

There are also topic alerts to remind me complete my next VAT Return or Corporation Tax.

There are links to my on-line banking sites. You will have noticed I blanked out the user names and passwords. The map I use only contains discrete reminders.

There is also a set of topics that maps out how to complete the PAYE processing required once a month. I can never remember where all that stuff is.

What is the benefit of this? One place to go to get at all my financial information and to add knowledge as I find it. If I could discover the way to get direct links in to my accountancy package they would be there to.

Click on the image to see a full size map. All the links to web sites can be clicked. You can download the MindManager map and some of the linked documents as a starter for ten for your financial dashboard.

A map of travel web sites, timetables and maps created with MindManager

2008-10-23T17:00:00.004+01:00

This map is one of many maps I use to organise my business and get to information I regularly need quickly. Other maps link to documents and folders on my disk drive as well as web pages. They are all linked off a central map with topics such as Marketing, Sales, Clients, Competitors, Web Site, Promotion, Suppliers etc. I have a number of useful links on the Finance map which I will publish next.

The web export that produces a clickable imagemap (click the picture to get there):

creates an image file, a clickable web page and a file with just the clickable image code which can be included in other web pages.

creates a sub-folder for the linked documents,

copies the linked documents to that folder

and modifies the web page links to point to the document's new (relative) location.

This enables me to easily share a map and its linked documents by copying the clickable image, its html and the linked documents folder to a web server.

On the map you will see useful links for general travel in the UK, London and the bit of Hampshire I live in. If you want to use the map make the URL a favourite. MindManager users can download the map, delete the topics that are of no use to them and start adding their own.

The map download does not include the documents but the zip file created by the Pack and Go includes the map and documents. The topic links will work when you unzip the file.

Click this image to open the full screen and clickable map.