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.

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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.

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