There are a ton of mind mapping tools available. One of the most user-friendly of these tools I have found is VYM, or View Your Mind. This open source tool is available for Linux, Mac, and Windows (almost) and is ready to, quite literally, map your mind!

Installing

Since we’re talking about Linux, we’ll install VYM in Linux. You can download VYM from the website. You can download the binary for your distribution or you can install from source. If you install from source follow these steps:

1. Make sure you have QT 4.3 installed.
2. Download the source package.
3. Open a terminal window and change to the directory you downloaded the sources to.
4. Unpack the source with the command
5. Change into the newly created directory.
6. Issue the command qmake
7. Issue the command make
8. Issue the command make install
9. Fire up VYM with the command vym

You can also install VYM from the command line with a command like: sudo apt-get install vym or yum install vym.

Using VYM

Figure 1

When you first open up VYM you will see two windows (see Figure 1). The window you see on the left is the properties window and the window on the right is the working window.

To begin double-click the yellow rectangle and give it a name. This is the parent of your mind map. You will then add branches and children to this.

Figure 2

After you name the parent you can then add branches by clicking the “Add branch as child” button (see Figure 2). When you click the “Add branch…” button the child is automatically added with a branch connecting it to the parent. If you still have the parent selected and you click the “Add branch…” button again another branch is added to the parent. You can continue doing this until you have all of the branches necessary to map your mind.

Figure 3

If you take a look at Figure 3, you can see a mind map I have created that can map out Ghacks topics.

Of course, like any good graphical application of this nature, don’t think you are limited to the default look and feel of the map. If, while working on your map, you look in the Format menu you will find plenty of formatting options. You can change:

Style of line.

Color of line.

Color of sub-tree.

Color of background.

Background image.

In order to change the color of either the sub-tree or the branch, you would first change the color in the color selector (in Figure 3 the color selector is the small black square in the toolbar) and then select what you want to change in the Format menu. To change the color of the other options simply select that option from the bottom of the Format menu and then change the color from the color wheel window that opens.

Finally, when you have finished your map, you can save the map or export it to a few different type of formats (XHTML, ascii, OpenOffice, CSV, Taskjuggler, LaTeX, and more). Exporting to ascii creates a sort of Table of Contents of your mind map – something that could actually come in handy.

Final thoughts

Mind mapping software has a ton of uses for anyone who needs to see a less structured organizational representation of their thoughts. For some these maps work perfectly, for others they are too chaotic to makes heads or tails of. How do you map your mind?

It is widely used to collect all aspects of a topic and put those aspects into relation. It could be about a company and all of its products, a website and its category or a tv series and its cast. Xmind can be used to create basic mind maps in minutes. It does come with advanced options to include images, relations, attachments, hyperlinks, notes, boundaries and structures to create advanced mind maps that can be used for presentations.

Xmind comes with the possibilities to share the mind map online but also enough options to export the mind map into another format like images, html or text. It is also possible to save the mind map as a template to reuse it for future projects.

There is only one negative aspect that has to be mentioned. The mind mapping software cannot be downloaded before the user creates an account at the website or uses an OpenId to log in. Bugmenot lists two accounts (bugger/bugger) that can be used to download the software. Users who plan to upload their mind maps should create their own account to avoid running into troubles. If you only want to use the software locally you can use the bugger/bugger account to download the software.

Xmind is the right choice if you are looking for a professional mind mapping software. Chance is that your operating system and language is supported by this highly flexible software program.

Then I spotted a post about PersonalBrain over at Rarst’s website entitled Mapping stuff in PersonalBrain and it seemed to be exactly the software that I was looking for. Both applications are written in Java and available for Windows, Linux and Macintosh.

The elements are called thoughts and originate from one home thought in PersonalBrain. Each thought, except for the home thought, consists of a name and at least one link to another node in the system. The user can write down notes for every thought on the map that can contain additional information. There is also the option to add attachments like text documents or web links to each node. Additionally users can add tags, set types and colors for each node separately.

The option to add links as attachments to nodes and the ability to write down additional notes are invaluable for my research. Other users might find other features more interesting but those two are the main ones why I have decided to switch the mind mapping software.

PersonalBrain comes with a lot of build in customizations like themes that can be applied to change the looks of the mind map. Something that might appeal to users who use PersonalBrain for presentations but nothing that adds real value to the application. More interesting than that are the options to filter and search nodes of the mind map.

Another interesting feature is the export function. It is possible to export the mind map as simple html or html with XML Information, the former providing simple access to the core information while the latter displays a static mind map.