Collaborating with MindManager - the next iteration

I am now able to write about the Beta product from MindManager called Mindjet Connect.

Some of the features:

- Workspaces for different groups of people to share maps
- Simultaneous editing of maps
- Record of who, did what, when.
- Chat
- Whiteboard
- Application Sharing (not just MindManager)

My reactions to it :-

• Long overdue - I still have my MindManager 2002 map server which did not take off. This will!
• I would recommend the Beta for use by experienced MindManager users to collaborate. You get the rich functionality you are used to.
• There are some important questions to be answered before general release.
• No pricing information available but I expect to see small groups using it on Mindjet's subscription servers and enterprises buying their own server. ( This is pure speculation on my part).
• There are no significant changes to MindManager Pro 7. Mindjet Connect more a host than an add in (but who has, edited what, information, is added to the map).
• You get a revision store.
  

To try it you will need to install a Beta version of MindManager which cannot be concurrent with an existing installation of MindManager 7.

If you would like to share maps and documents with me in the Beta please make contact. It's best if you have a project or collaboration you wish to work with me on.

You may still be able to get Beta account in Mindjet's Early Look Program

There is a longer summary in the MindMapping Software blog - Mindjet debuts beta version of shared workspace tool for MindManager

Using MindManager to build and maintain web sites

MindManager allows you to quickly create the structure and content of a web site. It does this with a very simple model. The topics are the page titles and topic notes are the page contents. The central topic note is the home page.

MindManager exports the structure and content via a variety of templates. In the example I am going to use it is based on the Static Outline template. Which means the menu on the left hand side always has the page links visible. The template is a set of html templates and macros which construct the web site from the information in the map and the customisation forms you complete during the export. Finally the colours, fonts, backgrounds etc are determined by a CSS stylesheet.

If you are prepared to accept one of the default styles all you may need to do is to replace the default logo with your logo in one of the template folders. It must be the same size and picture format unless you are going to edit HTML in the title template. If you are going to do more serious customisation copy one of the existing template folders to a new folder with your web project name.

The map below is used to create the Auctions in a Day. A hobby I have with a few friends who run a monthly auction in Hampshire. This month I auctioned something for £675, not quite Bonhams or Christies. I have left a couple of clues on the map to additional items I have added to the site structure to improve its visibility and our analysis of the visitors to the site. The Template Table Note notes has a preset table for use in topic notes. These are in floating topics, which do not appear in the web site.


Maintaining a web site once built is important to web site success. In this site after each auction I add photos of some of the lots to the web site. This is made easy by adding the auction's photo folder to the Images Library using the package folder process. I just have to drag and drop this month's lots to the appropriate topic text and a description. A few updates to dates, bolding the next auction and the site is ready to export again and then post to the web. If you set up a web folder you can export directly from MindManager to your web site. I prefer an intermediate step.

MindManager can be used to create viable public web sites which attract or inform customers.

Using MindManager in the writing process

Tom Evans uses mind mapping and MindManager to assist him in writing books. He is passing these applications of mapping to everyone in his blog particularly in these two articles:

• Why authors should use Mind Maps
  Structure and releasing ideas
• Embedding Personal Timelines in Mind Maps
  Looking back and planning forwards

If you do have a book inside you and we all do, then Tom is getting excellent testimonials. Friends who have attended his courses have been very positive.

Mapping & Publishing Management Meetings with MindManager

Last Friday and Saturday I worked with an associate who was facilitating a management team to produce in internal business development plan for 2008-09. My role was to map and publish the presentations, exercises and discussions. The team of ten was seated at a conference table and I had my production office on a table at the back of the room. I had brought an A3 Canon iX5000 printer, a TC4400 Tablet PC, an extension monitor and MindManager 7 Pro. You can work twice as fast with an extension monitor.

The first map produced was the "Intentions of the Meeting" and the last process was the conversion of the four theme task maps in to one Gantt Chart using JCVGantt with task owners and dates. At the end of each session I printed out a map and posted it on the wall for review and adding comments. During the weekend the maps, plans, photographs, PowerPoint files and Word documents supplied by the attendees were built in to a web site map in MindManager.

I cannot give you details of the content of the weekend but the statistics are:

• 28 maps produced

• A project plan with 57 tasks as a Gantt chart printed on A3, a MS Project Plan and an Excel spreadsheet

• 15 photographs

• Assembled in to a 38 page 15mb web site which displays the maps as images and has links to the 28 maps and 22 other documents.

This web site is now on the companies internal web server and will be used to communicate the content of the meeting to the 350 employees.

Not sure I could have done this without MindManager.

What did I learn during the weekend:

• I need to experiment and practice using JCVGantt. Some of my expectations were not met because I did not understand how the "engine" worked with start date, due date and duration. All the task were floating and perhaps I need a start and finish milestone.

• Polish and save the two different map styles I created during the weekend, one for the primarily portrait display on the web pages and a landscape style for printing on A3.

• That you can do this. The facilitator "I know you have been talking about this for a while Andrew. Now I can see the value and promote it to my clients" and the client "I have never had the output of this sort of meeting in a publishable form the day after" were very pleased with the result.
  

We are quoting for a further three days for the next level down in the organisation.