AutoHotkey Community

Guest

I tried Freemind (http://freemind.sourceforge.net/) and Xmind (http://www.xmind.net/). Both are very capable, but I'd like to know about other alternatives too to select one which suits my style of work best.

Criteria: the tool should be free and it must be able to save to a format which can be read by an open source alternative (like Xmind can save as Freemind), to avoid locking your data into a single tool.

AutoPepe · Joined: 01 Jun 2007 Posts: 165

I use Freemind.

And there is another one much more powerful like Super Decisions, but I don't know in depth

fsnow55 · Joined: 08 Jun 2006 Posts: 36

I used the latest alpha version of Freemind but switched to FreePlan;
I'll probably vacillate between the two based on their latest releases.

Guest · Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:32 am Post subject:

If there are emacs users here: org-mode is awesome for this, too.

http://orgmode.org/

Tuncay · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 1886 Location: Germany

I have currently only one and first project with a mind map. After some search, i found FreeMind and did not find anything more promising. After trying, I like it and can recommend to others.

Guest · Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2009 4:47 pm Post subject:

Tuncay · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 1886 Location: Germany

I dont like Xmind, because the free version is just a lite version of a commercial program. Yes it does have some features which Freemind does not have. But I am not a hardcore Mind-user. Most reason why I dont like it is, the export features. In Freemind I can export in different non-image formats like svg and pdf, but in Xmind I cannot (only image formats are supported).

But I think I will give it a shot to try out under a virtual pc (Vmware).

AnttiV · Joined: 14 Aug 2009 Posts: 237 Location: Finland

TheBrain. Just because nothing else comes even relatively close (from those that I know of). TheBrain has the advantage that it works in a 3D space and thus all links and relations are not limited by the 2D space of some other programs.

Guest · Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 5:41 am Post subject:

This 3D visualization seems more like a gimmick than a practical thing. On a 2D display it's not convenient to rotate the tree. On the other hand, if 3D displays will be common then it will make sense of course.

AnttiV · Joined: 14 Aug 2009 Posts: 237 Location: Finland

For my use, it's more than practical, its the best feature the program has.

imagine

Tuncay · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 1886 Location: Germany

AnttiV · Joined: 14 Aug 2009 Posts: 237 Location: Finland

No, it is not OSS. But if you exclusively only use OSS, well, it's your choice. I don't feel that every application that is not explicitly OSS is bad. PersonalBrain is multi-platform, in my books, that counts more than being OSS.

That said, here are the differences between the versions. PersonalBrain (the free version) can export it's data into an XML file that is readable by anyone. Writing support for opening it in different mindmappers are the decisions of their developers (I don't really know, I've never really used anything else, since I don't like 2D mindmappers at all).

Concerning Brain, somebody obviously likes it AND AHK, since -> click here for AHK macros!

There is also something called "Topicscape 3D", I just bumped into the name, don't know anything about it.

Tuncay · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 1886 Location: Germany

AnttiV · Joined: 14 Aug 2009 Posts: 237 Location: Finland

No offense meant, I just took your comment

rootey · Joined: 06 Sep 2009 Posts: 20

I was hooked on freemind for a long while.
But since using Vue, I have been very happy. It's free & very slick.
Check it out, it is a little more flexible than most linear mind mapping tools, layers, nested nodes, too much..
http://vue.tufts.edu/