Concept and Mind Mapping Software

[alwaysonthego]

Anyone know of any good and free concept mapping or mind mapping software?

[DontFeedThisOne]

Yes I know of one that I use, but its only a free trial. I think the trial lasts for 30 days or so.

I reckon its really easy and quick to use, especially using the shortcut keys like pressing 'insert' on your keyboard for a new branch, and you can switch around from branches using the arrow keys. Basically, its quick

Oh and having downloaded it and used it twice on two different computers, I can say that to my knowledge the software is safe and virus free.

Here's the website if you're interested:

www.visual-mind.com

[Xero]

Freemind. Do a google for it. Its fantasic. Steve

[adhdmom123]

Consider www.Inspiration.com. It is not free. But it is worth the cost. My favorite features: one click turns your visual brainstorm into an outline; and it comes with templates that help structure typical writing projects -- like a biography or comparison/contrast essay.

[ResilientFighter]

sorry, what does this have to do with ADHD? :/

[Imnapl]

http://www.visual-mind.com/index.php

If you go to the website, all will be revealed to you.

[mykill]

I tried looking at the wikipedia page, but i saw Heinlein mentioned on there and my brain ran off and left me.

It sounds like an intriguing concept, how do those of you that use it actually apply it? What types of things do you organize, and how do you use the info after it is mapped?

[Louder Than Love]

Excellent resources, Theres so much inner dialouge floating around in the noggin' though, I really neednt confuse it with radically advanced literature.

[Imnapl]

Originally Posted by mykill

It sounds like an intriguing concept, how do those of you that use it actually apply it? What types of things do you organize, and how do you use the info after it is mapped?

My children are now adults, but they were taught how to make and use concept / mind maps while still quite young. I believe that ADHDers have a natural talent form making concept maps. Concept maps are used to organize information for writing a paper or study for an exam. I know a high school science teacher who expects her students to make notes in concept map style.

Here is an example of a young child's concept map.

[Imnapl]

Originally Posted by ResilientFighter

sorry, what does this have to do with ADHD? :/

I'm sorry, I don't understand your question.

[mykill]

Originally Posted by Imnapl

My children are now adults, but they were taught how to make and use concept / mind maps while still quite young. I believe that ADHDers have a natural talent form making concept maps. Concept maps are used to organize information for writing a paper or study for an exam. I know a high school science teacher who expects her students to make notes in concept map style.

Here is an example of a young child's concept map.

Thanks for the example, i guess i would need to give it a try to see if it would be useful for me. Sometimes i think in a very linear pattern, lists are easy. Other times i can't get the thoughts to fall in line. On the surface, this looks like another way to stay organized, i would have two tools that achieve the same goal in different means in different conditions. But i still don't quite see how the map would be used. You have thoughts on paper, and i think i see how the map would be created... but how those translate into usable data still hasn't quite clicked in my head yet.

Thanks, I'm going to keep working on this.

[Justtess]

Originally Posted by mykill

It sounds like an intriguing concept, how do those of you that use it actually apply it? What types of things do you organize, and how do you use the info after it is mapped?

:raises hand and jumps up: can I explain how I use concept maps?

I do this all the time since my high school teacher explained it to me about 20 years ago.

Linear thinking people arrange ideas in a form like a time line or list.

I find myself to be more global. There is a central idea, however, several timelines branch out from the center. From those branches, more ideas may branch out further. The ideas are in a list of words, symbols or quick sketches.

Why do I do this? Well, when I am trying to create something, I think I have too many ideas in my head. If I list them down with a mind map, I'll start going more towards achieving my goal. I can retrive smaller ideas by glancing over my mind map.

If I don't do this.... there's too many ideas and thoughts and I end up where I started... except now I'm tired.

(BTW: I haven't been diagnosed ADHD. My doc told me at my last visit... possibly

[mykill]

OMG! i finally got settled enough to start using the visual mind trial i dl'd about 3 weeks ago :/

The first couple of times i looked at it, i just got all overwhelmed and closed it. Today i spent about an hour tooling around with it and let me just say that it is the most incredible tool i have seen in a very long time. It looks like i will be able to keep track of every aspect of a project in one place... and i can link to every document in the project! That's the best part, and will save me so much time looking for files and clicking through the current directory structure i use to keep things organized.

Thanks a bunch to those that brought it up and did some explainin'

[MSMSMS]

Just downloaded the trial and have high hopes! What's funny is that I ONLY use graph paper when writing notes and already somewhat follow a mapping technique without knowing it. Hopefully this will help keep my notes organized! And it seems to be easy to go back and shift an item around if it would be better categorized another way.

[Drewbacca]

I'm working through the mind-mapping book at the moment, it definitely addresses what I consider more my style of note taking. Likewise, I'm all about the graph paper.

Perhaps you should start a new thread and keep us up to date and write a review of the software, MSMSMS.