RobiNZ CAD Blog

Remember that post about… ? Map it, find it!

Often I’ll read a blog post, or article, and think that’s special/cool/handy/not to be forgotten. But the fact is there are zillions of blogs, gazillions of posts and while a search engine can probably find it again it’s often hard to narrow down the results. There are services which will store a link or you could “favourite” the post in your browser/reader but that doesn’t help with context as often the post title is not enough.

To get around this I started aggregating “special” posts in a map as shown below. I have one map for each CAD platform, operating system and a few topic related (like BIM/IPD). Clicking the Send to Mindjet MindManager button in the browser will add the post topic and link to the map. I also open the post in MindManager and create a quick summary by dragging a few key lines/headings from the browser pane to the map as sub-topics which only takes a few seconds. It acts as a brief summary, memory jog and helps when the time comes to find that post again.

After a while you’ll have map(s) with lots of topics which leads to the same old problem; finding the post. It’s here that MindManager Search comes to the rescue as it can quickly scan the map(s) for a key word returning enough context to enable me to find the correct post. Clicking on the search result will go to the map/topic. Often my “summary” is enough to jog the memory but, if required, the full post is only a click away.

 

Autodesk University 2009 Preparation 1.03 – 45 Long Distance Travel Tips

Dragos has 44 great tips for long distance travel but I’d add one more to reduce the need;

45. Don’t live in New Zealand, just about everywhere is a long haul trip from here!

Dragos’s first tip is.

1. Make A Standard Packing List and refine it every trip: I do have a minimal packing routine and I always start by getting it done first. After my minimum is done, I try to figure out what exactly I need in rapport to that specific destination: is it going to be clothing? Or maybe some specific medicines I should carry on? Sun glasses and sunscreen? I’m usually done in one hour, regardless of the final destination.

It is probably no surprise to regular readers that I use MindManager for my travel plans and my packing list is part of it. I also have sections like pre-flight and check out as memory prompts for those times when you need a mix of items/process. Some are really obvious, passport, others seemingly trivial. Check you’ve got an AAA Battery is not a big deal until you are on the aircraft with 14 hours flying ahead and flat Bose QC Headphones…

I export the map to Word to print my itinerary and upload the map and an HTML export to a secure web site. That means the info is available without MindManager should the print get lost. For the AU 2009 trip I’ll try bringing the map on my iPhone for reference on the move but will still be carrying a dead tree version as back up!

 

Click through to his post for the rest:

44 Tips for Travelling Long Distance - www.dragosroua.com

Last year I travelled more than I travelled in my entire life. I’ve been on 4 continents and circled the Earth 2 times by plane. It was an exciting time, knowing my propensity for travel as a personal development tool, but it was also pretty draining. Never having long distance trips until that was definitely a huge roadblock for me. I had to learn on the fly (sometimes, literally on the fly). Somewhere between my 2nd and 3rd trip I started to write down some simple steps I should follow, sort of self directed tutorial. For your information, long distance travelling means for me one to two weeks trips which includes at least a transcontinental flight longer than 7-8 hours….

MindManaging your day ~ Part 4 - The Map!

This really is Part 4 but I don't expect many remember Part 3, posted in February 2007, or Parts 1 & 2 from, umm, August 2004!

First a Review: What were MindManaging your day 1-3 about?

They cover how I track projects and activities with a combination of MindManager and Outlook. In brief, the MindManager map links to Outlook with the map topics creating and managing Outlook Tasks. Dragging these tasks into the Outlook Calendar tracks time and can be exported analyse. if you want to review the previous posts see the: MindManaging your Day Index.

A reader had done that wrote and asked me to share my map so this post has a sample to download and shows how I use it.

What is this Map for?

I use my "Work & Project Plan" as a "dashboard" to store current tasks and critical information for a project. It's not super detailed, doesn't have everything to do with a project but does have the immediate to-do's and information I reference frequently. That can be anything from links to folder locations, web sites, critical documents, contacts or whatever. I keep it pretty organic and only add information that's needed for a particular project rather than adhering to a strict template. For some this may be nothing more than a folder link, others much more complex.

This isn't the result of some finely crafted scheme, a methodology like GTD, or anything more than what has evolved over the years to work for me. I'm not sure how much use it will be for anyone else but may provide a starting point to develop something that works for you.

 

I just keep vital information and "next action tasks" here. If a project gets complicated I save the topic out to a separate map with a link back to the dashboard map. MindManager's Right Click > Send to > New Linked Map does this in a click.

Why bother?

• You'll be able to forget stuff. It's in the map.
• You'll find stuff. That project, the link to the planner, who was the contractor, what platform/version was used etc all no more than a click or two away.
• Track & plan time. The Outlook link means you can plan & track time. Export your calendar to excel to aggregate and report time.
• It's more than a to do list, but is also to do and review list.

How do you use it?

Download the the sample map at the end of this post. I've added topics and relationships which describe how to use the map which you can hide, or delete, as you see fit.

Finding and hiding the instruction topics

I've marked all the topics that describe the map with an  icon. The Power Filter command in MindManager can use icons to filter enabling these topics to be hidden/revealed as you wish.

Power filters can be saved as Queries for instant re-call. The filter above can be applied by choosing Filter > Hide > For Use Info Only. Remove a filter with the  icon or Ctrl + Shift + Alt + A!

By doing this you've just learnt how MindManager can rapidly filter and display topics. This is a powerful way to have the map display critical information. Add icons to your projects then filter by them, priority or % complete and you have an immediate action list.

Connecting to Outlook:

While you can easily connect individual items, or folders, from Outlook to MindManager or create Outlook items by dropping MindManager Map parts in a map I use a different method for this dashboard map. 

The Export > Sync Task Info with Outlook command in MindManager will synchronise all topics in a map containing task info in one operation. This is vital to my process as it creates the Tasks which are then used in my Outlook calendar. It also creates a special "Categories" map marker category which will sync with Outlook where they become,  . Apply some sort of logic to creating these and you can organise the resulting tasks. The benefit of this is tasks can appear in multiple categories so my task list is grouped by a-Action, i-Individual, p-Project name and s-Software. You could add any others but having a constant *- prefix allows easy sorting and review in MindManager, Outlook and Excel exports.

I strongly recommend only using Sync Task Info with Outlook with a single dashboard map. This is to avoid potential chaos as topics can be automatically generated in MindManager and Outlook depending on the options selected. Get several maps doing that and things can get very muddled, very quickly.

I regard MindManager as the master, Outlook the slave, for tasks and use the Export & Synchronise options below to enforce this. If I change a task in Outlook the updates will be seen in MindManager and new tasks created with MindManager will be added to Outlook. Deleting a task in Outlook will not delete it's MindManager parent. That is possible but I find it can result accidental deletions as you don't see dependent MindManager sub-topics that will also be removed.

Once the tasks are in Outlook you can record or plan time in Outlook by dragging them to the calendar. For Details on how to use and analyse this info see Part 3

Get the file:

Download the file which contains some example topics. It should give you a feel for how MindManager can help organise your work. Don't regard this as gospel, the secret is to start small and build something that works for your work-flow. If you find it useful, or have any suggestions let me know via the comments.

Download Blog Work and Project Plan.mmap (236.8K)

If this download results in a file with .zip file extension change it to .mmap before attempting to open it in MindManager.

UPDATE 2009-10-09: The same map in alternate formats:

MindManager 2002: Download Blog Work and Project Plan.mmp (50.7K)

MindManager Map (XML) Format: Download Blog Work and Project Plan.xmmap (871.7K)

Mindjet Player PDF File (Acrobat) Download Blog Work and Project Plan.pdf (1728.4K)

Autodesk Design Review 2010 and MindManager, the ribbons nest!

A recent email regarding MindManager + Autodesk Design Review (ADR) had me looking for this post on my blog only to find I'd never published it!

Some time ago Last year I posted how MindManager can use Autodesk Design Review (ADR) in its integrated browser pane. This enables you to review a design DWF in context with project notes made in a MindManager map. The detail of how the two applications interact hasn't really changed but ADR 2010's ribbon interface makes it slicker. The previous ADRs opened a mass of toolbars (below). You could customise this (with saved workspaces) but then had to change workspaces or toggle toolbars to get them back.

With 2010 the ribbon opens minimised for optimal viewing space. View related tools on the canvas bar and right click menus function as normal for basic review/print tasks.

You can expand the ribbon for more tools allowing a nested "Ribbon in a Ribbon" User Interface. I guess this is a form of living hell for those who don't like the ribbon but for me it beats a scramble of toolbars!

It's more consistent (they don't move around or disappear) and much better for use with a pen. The Tablet PC is my favourite platform for Autodesk Design Review mark-up, in spite of no "real ink". It's close to hand mark-up in feel & speed but retains all the advantages of digital work.

The last ribbon tab is rather sparse but not one I visit often when in embedded mode. If a session involves snapshots or 3D section/move tools I tend to open the full interface, just a click on the MindManager toolbar does that!

 

Ribbons within ribbons, where will it end!

iThink it’s nearly my time for the Phone with an i

It’s not that I don’t like Apple, just their “our way or no way” attitude and the fanatic devotees annoy (but not Phil, Matt, Adam, Terrance and other iFanatics I know!). I’m not really into cults, except one, but will change my mind if the evidence stacks up. Today a few things happened that might, just might, be enough to make me consider actually getting an iPhone.

Yes Kiwifrenzy, I know that even means tolerating iTunes which I’ve happily avoided, hard since Apple try & sneak it in with (also avoided because it’s rubbish) QuickTime downloads. If you’d asked me when I woke up this morning “Do you want an iPhone?” the answer would have been “No!” but 12 hours later I’m close to the iTipping Point!

Maybe because I Sketch?

Well, cool as it is Autodesk Sketchbook Mobile wouldn’t have me rushing out to buy an iPhone. I saw it in action on a colleagues phone today and was impressed but I wonder if I’d really use it that often? The application is astoundingly good value but not having an iPhone makes the price of admission high. Tilting, but not tipping…

Perhaps, because I Map?

Given I map just about everything that’s important and a lot that isn’t this one is a no-brainer. It’s Mindjet for iPhone which pushed me close to the tipping point.

Mindjet for iPhone from Mindjet on Vimeo.

But there is something missing!

As I watch various iPhone demos it’s apparent there is a problem. Many of my potential uses require typing, entering URLs, navigating the net and the like. While it has a wonderful touch UX and (not so sure it’s wonderful) virtual keyboard there is a glaring omission.. To do that stuff iActiveWords but the iPhone doesn’t. What about it Buzz? ActiveWords for iPhone would have at least one customer!

So, am I converted? Is there an iGod?

My atheism extends to the world of IT which is why I like this Geek & Poke Strip which also appeared today! Divine intervention or coincidence? You can probably guess what iThink!

  See the rest

A view of the Revit Project Stucture, with PersonalBrain

At one stage in an effort to understand the various components I attempted to "map" a Revit Project with MindManager. You can see the result of that below but it's far from complete (with no MEP or Structure) and has one major limitation. MindManager can show hierarchy but doesn't really have a mechanism to show the complex inter-relationships between Revit database elements. It does have a relationship arrow, and topics can have multiple relationships, but attempting to show all the connections would result in a mass of arrows.

Last year Rich Sales presented his view of the Revit Project to RUGAKL using another mapping product; PersonalBrain. It's advantage is an ability to handle multiple relationships between topics and present them in a dynamic responsive view. As you click on topics the Brain adjusts to show the relationships with notes or images zooming out when you hover over the topic icons (like I wish MindManager did!).

Rich has put his Revit Brain on-line and you can give it a spin here: http://webbrain.com/u/103E

A matter of Style: MindManager and Word

It wasn't until I got to the end of the fight that I realised today represented two extremes of style. One easy, one hard.

Styling MindManager Style:

I had created a presentation in MindManager, well started it, and realised the template I use is a bit dated. As part of a restructure Store Support - Operations, Visual Merchandise, Store Development - was "branded" so it was time to update my maps to reflect this. I kept it pretty subtle, with a faded icon (left) background image, more modern colours and our new standard font (from Arial to Franklin Gothic). In spite of this almost every aspect of the map appearance needed to change. Then that had to be applied to lots of maps.

MindManager documents are structured with appearance controlled by three types of styling;

• Map Style: This includes the background and all object types for the whole document. You can edit a Map Style within a map and/or save it as a separate .mmas file to apply to other maps.
• Topic Style: These are combinations of individual topic edits saved as a style which can be applied and managed within a map. They are lost when a Map Style is re-applied.
• Object Overrides: Simple edits to a style - change fill, text or line -  which are preserved if a Map Style is re-applied

Change the Map Style, apply it and all, non-overridden, elements in the map update. If an item within a map has been overridden you can reset to the Map Style by selecting, then hitting CTRL+Space. Saved Map Styles are applied to a document with Format Tab >  Map Style >  Apply, a nice gallery displaying the options. If you have linked maps switch to Multi-map View to apply the style to them in one hit. Below shows the same map with two styles applied.

You edit MindManager Styles in a special edit interface (below). Accessed from Format Tab > Map Style > Modify it shows a mock map with all the elements possible in a real document. Clicking each element accesses it's properties making editing a style as simple as editing a document. The "Number of Levels" control on the left dictates how "deep" different styles apply before they revert to the document defaults. The mock map in the editor responds to changes like a document so it's easy to see the impact without the clutter of a real document. You can control the background, object shapes, fonts, "growth" behaviour and colours in a Style.

MindManager Styles, and other templates, are managed with a Template Organiser accessed from Tools Tab. You can add new map styles (from scratch or acquired from existing maps), manage and duplicate them. "Modify" launches the Map Style Editor (as above).

Styling Word Style:

Later in the day I was faced with fixing an old Word document. When it left me, several years ago, it was a fairly simple document created in outline mode with four or five Heading Styles. It arrived back with a couple of weird numbering problems (numbers running through sections) and a Table of Contents (TOC) which didn't work.

In the intervening years it had acquired a zillion, maybe a slight exaggeration but a lot, of style overrides and lost all the outline characteristics that were looking after style application. Although Word is very flexible I wish its Outline and Style Management were more like MindManager. Applying Styles within the document may seem more intuitive but I find the "Mock Document" editor in MindManager simpler and more predictable. I sure missed the "live preview" of style changes seen in Word 2007 but still have 2003 (with it's awful toolbar UI) at work for another month or so (update coming with Windows 7 64 deployment).

It look ages to unravel the mess and restore a workable document with a TOC that showed the document structure rather than most of its the content. I must admit some of that was due to trying to preserve the manual editing when I should have just "Cleared Formatting" and started again* in Outline Mode. It mystifies me why people don't use Word Outline and Styles more but I find most don't. Perhaps it's too easy to avoid them.

An Overriding Concern:

Much of the hassle in Word came from the application of style overrides meaning its easy to "break" document formatting. To be fair MindManager 7+ can also apply styled topic overrides which ignore the Style Templates, see this post, but I avoid them if possible. The ease of globally applying changes makes sticking with Document Styles - in most applications - my preference. It's a matter of style!

* I also seriously considered importing the Word document into MindManager and using it as a master but it's not my document. MindManager export to Word has it's foibles, mainly because it creates it's own Word Styles, but at least it's predictable!

Goodbye Gaelen!

It seemed best to say it with a map

Rapid and flexible CAD/BIM documentation using MindManager Map Parts

Isn't it a small world? Today I was documenting project process and made MindManager Map Parts to make it faster. I thought this might be a good topic for a blog post. I have written about Map Parts before, for documenting folder structures, but todays use was for various application UI elements.

Then the small world factor kicked in and saved me a whole lot of writing. I got home and on checking the days RSS feed activity found, thousands of kilometres and several time zones away, Michael Deutch (Mindjet’s Chief Evangelist) had been posting about Map Parts on the Mindjet Blog. That means I can concentrate on how & why I apply Map Parts, and another MindManager feature, then refer you to Michael's post for how to create, store & use them in a map.

Why use Map Parts for Process Documentation?

Repeatedly generating User Interface terms like "Project Browser", "Application Button", "Quick Access Toolbar" gets a bit tiresome, even using ActiveWords,

Creating map parts for these means adding topics just takes a click and also allowed me to build in some "MindManager smarts" to cope with a documentation challenge. Due to some of our projects being done with Revit toolbar based 2009 and ribboned 2010 (different consultants) I wanted to show both common & version specific task details for process.

The Text Map Markers in MindManager can be used to filter topics for viewing allowing one map to store & display multiple version documentation. My map parts have the correct markers applied where an element only occurs in one application version.

While this example is for versions of a single application you can use the same technique where a similar process is needed in different applications. It could be a task in Revit Architecture, MEP and Structure, perhaps Office Suite applications or different Web Browsers where the steps are similar but detail varies requiring different documentation.

Setting up Map Parts with Text Map Markers:

Before generating my Map Parts I created a Text Marker Group (1) called "Version" (2) with Text Markers for Common, 2009, 2010 and the Right Click > Mutually Exclusive (3) option ticked.This prevents you applying more than one Text Marker within a group to a topic. I applied these markers to the Map Parts and tested filtering, use, before adding them to the library (more on that later).

Structure your Map for Process, Task then Version Detail:

I structure the map so the process common to all versions are marked common. Where detail varies between versions there are duplicate topics with the appropriate marker applied. One advantage of this is if you just need a reminder of the steps required, without version detail, the collapsed Task topics can be used as an outline.

  

This example shows two common steps, one for Menu & Ribbon versions of the Export Command:

Application Specific views using Power Filter:

Using MindManager's Power Filter it's easy to show version specific views or create a Query (a saved filter configuration) for instant recall. Below you see the Power Filter configuration for Common + 2009 tasks and the effects of filtering the map for all, 2009 and 2010 markers.

  

A Power Filter configuration can be saved as a query for easy access from the Filter fly-out.

Using Map Parts with Text Markers:

When you add it to the Map Part Library the Map Part stores the Text Marker, but not the Text Marker Group. In the example maps above you see the Parts with Group:Marker:Marker Version:Common, Version:2009, Version:2010 etc. When added to the library only the Common, 2009, 2010 marker is stored. At first I thought this was a bit stupid but it's actually more flexible.

If you add the part to a target map and it's Text Marker is already defined it will adopt the host group. If the marker is not defined it will be created in a MindManager generated group called "General Text Markers". This is a special group which does not display so only the Text Marker is seen (below).

If you drag a Text Marker from "General Text Markers" to a user created group in the Map Marker pane (below shows "Common" dragged to "Group Name") all existing markers will update to display the Group. It means you could use the same part for groups called year, application or whatever is appropriate for that map.

How to create and use Map Parts:

It's now I can just say, go & read this post on the Mindjet Blog*:

The Mindjet Blog » Build Better Maps Faster with Map Parts

Here’s a time-saving feature in both MindManager for Windows and Mac that will help you build better maps with less time and effort.
It’s a feature called Map Parts. Today, I’ll show you how to use it with MindManager 8 for Windows. Tomorrow, I’ll explore the same with MindManager 7 for Mac.

* Thanks Michael

MindManager Vs Nvidia, I win!

MindManager's Presentation Mode has a "Transparent Fade Out" option (seen right). This adds a, sometimes too subtle, fade effect to the unselected branches to focus on the selected topic.

After installing a graphic driver update it started going crazy, with constant redraws as the transparency overlay regenerated repeatedly.

The solution was to disable Nvidia's own nView Desktop Manager window transparency setting in the graphics properties. You can do this globally or for a specific applications as seen below.

My Big, Autodesk Solutions, Day Out

Yesterday, last Thursday, a couple of weeks ago * I spent the day at an Autodesk Solutions 2009 event. Over the day most of the 2010 product range was presented by industry specific resellers and a few customer presentations. The venue, Novotel Hotel - Ellerslie, was great with free parking and, for Auckland, easy access. I thought it was better than the typical city locations. Arriving early, thanks to lighter than expected traffic, meant I could sit in on a Civil 3D session I hadn't registered for.

Civil in the morning

Robert Gadbaw, Team Blue22, took the first session of the day demonstrating Civil 3D 2010 to a full room. I'm not a civil user, although quite polite, but seeing the survey, surface, piping, alignments and intersections created, changed, regenerated in minutes was pretty impressive. Robert got through a lot of content in the 45 minutes allocated but it really was just a glimpse of this sophisticated product. It was also the first time I'd seen Civil 3D with a ribboned interface. Like the other ribbon applications it makes extensive use of context sensitive tabs, even stacking several at times, but seemed pretty logical. I was also interested to see the .adsk file format used to import a Revit Model into Civil 3D. It's a pity Civil models can't use the .adsk format to go the other way.  Team Blue22 also announced they are planning a multi-day "Civil 3D University" later in the year for more in-depth sessions. I will post details when confirmed.

The Autodesk beat?

After morning tea, for me much needed coffee, it was into the main session. Finding a length of plastic tube, a variety of colours & lengths, on each seat was a little perplexing and then a drum beat started. Human Rhythms, coordinating entirely by mime, took the arriving audience through a short interactive percussion session. “The Tubes” started with simple beat sequences & built to the Autodesk theme, some captured in the video below. It was a pretty cool way to kick off the main session and certainly got peoples attention!

Time to make them work?

The first section, the Autodesk corporate session, introduced the day, sponsors and the mentioned the economic context. The main themes were that industry solutions, but not platform specific, and digital prototyping can resolve design problems and aid process rather than just documenting design. That extended from components in Inventor, Revit Building Information Models to Civil Infrastructure and Digital Cities.There was also much talk of recessionary times being an opportunity to up-skill and the value/benefits of subscription was rather heavily promoted throughout the day. I suspect the recent sales results had something to do with that... 

Paul Arthur, Channels Business Manager, surprised me with a presentation that challenged customers to demand more value from Autodesk and the dealer network. He suggested taking a look at the business problems and opportunities that design solutions can assist with then challenge Autodesk to provide solutions. It was an interesting approach and reflects Autodesk's apparent evolution from 'industry platforms" to mixed platform solutions. It may be a cunning plan to sell more boxes into the current customer base or perhaps reflects the reality that no single platform is the complete solution for a given task. In the AEC space I seem to remember a time when Revit was touted as the single database, single platform solution for all Architectural Design. While it currently is the best candidate to create and manage the project split databases (Arch/MEP/Structure etc) and the new .adsk format to share data means you can look to the best solution for a given part of the process. With linked Revit models, platform data sharing and tools like Navisworks merging multiple model formats "BIM" becomes a more complete solution to modelling all aspects of a building project than a single platform approach.

AutoCAD 2010, all meshy and dynamic!

Gary Page, Salesoft CAD Solutions, demonstrated AutoCAD 2010 with the focus on the new parametric features, incorporated with dynamic blocks, and mesh modelling engine. It was a convincing display of how parametric constraints can save a lot of drafting and how you can replace multiple legacy blocks with one smart, if only 2D, dynamic block. I know one part of the demo where multiple parameter/name settings were seamlessly copied from a spreadsheet catalog to the Dynamic Block got peoples attention. The mesh modelling, below, is fun to use and Gary clearly enjoyed demonstrating it. There was also a link to the following Revit demonstration with the AutoCAD mesh model being passed on to Revit.

 

Revit 2010, inspired by a tortoise?

I'm wondering if that heading will get a comment about ribbon performance but it's actually refers to a building. Rich, Salesoft CAD Solutions, showed the new Revit User Interface, Modelling engine, profile and pattern tools using a building shell inspired by a tortoise. It also incorporated an ex-AutoCAD mesh model column and, via .adsk import, door hardware from Inventor. Apart from a PowerPoint mention there was no sign of Revit MEP or Structure. That probably reflects the, UI aside, lightweight changes they had this time around. Although Revit is pretty established in New Zealand for Architecture the services seem slower to adopt it so it was a pity not to see it in action.

Inventor 2010, in the fast lane;

Perhaps it's my Product Design background that make the Inventor sessions of interest even though I don't currently use it. Greg Heeley, CAD Pro Systems Ltd, showcased Inventor 2010 with a rapid fire demo of the sheet metal, F.E.A, plastic and mold flow tools and design accelerators for frames and bolted connections. I was impressed to see Alias data incorporated in an Inventor model, with the Inventor model and it's additional added features changing to reflect Alias updates. It was also interesting to see extensive use of Vault with Inventor and AutoCAD Electrical but has me wondering why the AEC platforms don't use it to manage database/project/drawing versioning.

Steve Riddell, Aspex, presented the first of two customer sessions. He shared how Digital Prototyping and Production with Inventor, Vault and CNC technology enables them to design and manufacture of industrial automation equipment and machinery. It was good to hear how DWF, Autodesk Design Review, enables that process of model sharing to extend to the client, for free. In response to a few questions he also explained how Vault helps control the flow of design data within the business ensuring each stage is working with valid, current data. It was a good insight of how previously "enterprise scale systems" can now help a small scale manufacturing business.

Simon Holt, Triple Eight Racing, was the final presentation but one worth waiting for. Although I'm a race fan I was surprised how much in-house manufacture is done for the Australian V8 Supercars they build, totally modelled in Inventor. He showed how hundreds of pages of sporting regulations are transformed into a race car with much of the physical compliance captured and validated in the model. The level of detail was impressive, the result is race & championship winning cars.

A good day, except for what was missing;

Although a huge amount was covered there was no sign of Max and maybe scope for a bigger event as time pressure was evident. With over 200 attending the turnout was good but many familiar faces were "missing". Given the small community I thought it was pity that, for whatever reason, two solution days were held within a week covering similar material. When the focus of the day I attended heavily emphasised sharing data, cross industry collaboration and breaking barriers it's a pity Autodesk New Zealand couldn't do the same for all it's customers. It's not often such a wide range of industry professionals have a chance to get together and the lunchtime/break sessions are a good chance to make/renew contacts, Hard to do when they are at the other day...

Taking note with MindManager;

You may have seen my agenda MindManager Map posted last week before the meeting. I said it would be defaced with my illegible scrawled notes and a few commented on seeing the work Tablet PC in use. Its nice to use in meetings/presentations as allows seamless note taking that you just can't achieve on a conventional laptop. 

MindManager's native inking is fast and the zoom + topic filters effectively gives you infinite paper with none of the 'running out of room" I find happens with paper mind maps. The image right shows the result by the end of the day but most of the time I only had the current branch expanded. It's quite surprising to see how much you can gather over the day but remember this was only a topic, often just a word, every few minutes during several hours of presentations. The best part of inking maps is you can also scribble diagrams that typed input can't match.

Unfortunately MindManager Player, an interactive map in a PDF, doesn't support inked topics so can only share this "all expanded" image view. The full size image (click the thumbnail) doesn't quite match the resolution seen in MindManager itself is but clear enough to see. Sadly it won't help you read my awful writing!  

Download Autodesk_NZ_Solutions_Day_2009.mmap (793.8K) requires MindManager (Note: Trial install becomes a full function viewer when it expires)

* As you can see It took a bit longer than expected to get this post finished.

A Date with ISO 8601, and ActiveWords

Until I read Phil's post I didn't realise the eminently sensible Year, Month, Day (YYYY-MM-DD) format had official status.  

Hot Dating Tips for Marketers | Phil Couling
Why aren’t more marketers using ISO 8601, the international standard for date and time formats?
Everyone with a marketing role has a need to eliminate ambiguity from their communication, and this is such a simple thing to fix that I am always surprised to see highly localized and ambiguous formats for dates used in materials being designed for international and multi-cultural audiences...

I use it, and suspect most do, for file naming because computers will sort it sensibly and it's "embedded" in the name so won't change, like properties can, if a file is copied. In fact "date" is one of my most used ActiveWords as it enters the current date, in my preferred format, wherever I happen to need it.

ISO 8601 format ActiveWords dates

If you have the inplace functions loaded* ActiveWords will enter current dates & times, and more, with a few keystrokes. Some applications will do this but ActiveWords does it anywhere you can type: File/Folder naming, text editors, web forms, even a command line.

To get the ISO 8601 date format in ActiveWords set the InPlace - Set Date Format ActiveWord to %Y-%m-%d. Then just type date, hit the ActiveWords key and the current date is entered: 2009-03-02. If "date" is too much typing just edit the InPlace - Date Stamp ActiveWord to whatever you want: even "d"!

 

AM/PM, why bother?

While doing that also set the time to, so sensible why isn't it the only one used, 24 hour time format. It beats me why people still bother with 12 hours times and AM/PM when there is no need for such silliness. In ActiveWords set the InPlace - Set Time Format to %H:%M:$S. Type time, then hit the ActiveWords key to get the current time: 23:18:19. The ActiveWord date time returns 2009-03-02 @ 23:18:48 showing it took 29 seconds to think and type this last bit

What time is it? Local time!

One other bit of time date related sense caught my eye this week. Mindjet sent out a web meeting advisory and had the grace to include a variety of local times & dates in addition to the actual US PST time.

Saved me using tzn, my ActiveWord which navigates to a time zone converter site, which is often needed when you live in the future.

A daytime meeting in the US or U.K. usually means a late night or early morning, the next day, for me so it's useful to get the time right!

If you're arranging international meetings it's nice to include a few other regions in your advisory if your meeting system doesn't do it automatically.

* If not already installed ActiveWords Plus or Enterprise users can download Inplace functions free from: http://www.activewords.com/applications.html (look for ActiveWords Agents INPLACE)

** Observant readers may have noticed TypePad doesn't quite support the ISO date format. The default preferences have the YMD OK but only offer "." as a delimiter.

Got a project to manage? Mindmap and Gantt tools to the rescue!

If you're thinking about using MindManager to handle your project data this bundle - which includes MindManager, JCVGantt Pro (integrated Gantt charts & Costing), project templates and training material - might be of interest. It's offered as an upgrade for existing MindManager owners or new users wanting Map and Gantt tools for project management.

The Mindjet team is offering a special deal for project managers... http://tinyurl.com/ProjectBundle

I've had this post sitting in draft for ages but seeing this offer pop up on Twitter prompted me to finish it.

While most of my life is in MindManager I sometimes use JCVGantt to edit and present my maps. I've never liked the linear view of a project Gantts present but JCVGantt allows me to edit the same information as a Map or Gantt. Project Managers seem to love Gantt charts so it allows me to deliver the information in a format they are familiar with while creating/updating it in the map format I prefer. It also allows all the formatting, attachments, notes, links etc MindManager does so well to flow into your Gantt Chart which the export options don't always support.

For modest projects JCVGantt Pro is also great alternative to Microsoft Project. It's not as complex, but has the tools most people need and is much easier to use. The initial "what you must know to get going" intro for JCVGantt Pro takes five minutes, the recommended "full intro" takes twenty and is a good overview. I spent a day learning Project and achieved less.

The big advantage over exporting from MindManager to Project MPX (then into Project) is JCVGantt Pro can actually edit the map file. Changes in the map are reflected in the Gantt, changing the Gantt alters the map. To do this you open the map in MindManager, then launch JCVGantt Pro from the Ribbon Tab. In MindManager you select topic/branches to "connect" to JCVGantt Pro which allows one map to have a mix of "Gantt'ed" and plain topics. You can connect a branch with project tasks, but leave a meeting notes branch in the same map unconnected. This "connection status" can be changed at any stage.

 

This mode is so "integrated" there is no Save in the JCVGantt Pro Application Button as you save the file with MindManager (below left). If you use JCVGantt Pro stand-alone, also possible, the Application Button shows the usual file operations (below right). Both modes offer a range of import/export options to deal with other file formats. 

  

The Excel export creates multiple sheets, or single, emulating the tabular sheets in JCVGantt Pro. Export to MS Project is possible if you have it installed on your machine, or use the MPX export in MindManager which doesn't require MS Project.

The HTML Export is pretty basic, effectively an image in a web page container, which is a pity. I'd hoped for an interactive page like the dynamic exports from MindManager.

With MindManager & JCVGantt Pro both open updates are effectively instant and you can edit in the interface which suits the information being added. One aspect I do find easier in JCVGantt is visualising task dependencies, follow/start/finish, and allocating resources. This is possible in MindManager but I prefer the JCVGantt UI. It also allows costing, task duration related and fixed costs, which MindManager does not accommodate. The Project, Cost and Resource tab views are shown below.

My "Project Dashboard" map, not my demo map seen in this post, is a 4mb file with about 1,000 topics (of 2,034 in the map) processed by JCVGantt. This seems to be about the limit for workable performance as sometimes I've seen screen drawing problems. Some parts of the task pane stop refreshing . This doesn't result in data loss, and is sorted by an application restart but is my only reservation for very large project use. I'm running these applications on a good mobile workstation with XP Pro and suspect it's a graphics/resource limitation, those with more modern O/S might fare better.

While I spend most of my time in MindManager the ability to take that information into JCVGantt Pro when needed is very handy. Perhaps the best advertisement is when I installed JCVGantt Pro at work I removed MS Project, and haven't missed it.

Improvements coming in Windows 7 Handwriting?

 I'm impressed with the hand writing support in Vista. I've mainly used it with MindManager but the TIP panel generally does a great job deciphering my scrawl.

From this Microsoft post it looks like Windows 7 is going to improve this further, maybe the Tablet isn't dead! How long before we see pen support in CAD/BIM? 

Engineering Windows 7 : Recognizing Improvements in Windows 7 Handwriting
Microsoft has been working on handwriting recognition for over 15 years going back to the Pen extensions for Windows 3.0. With the increased integration and broad availability of the handwriting components present in Windows Vista we continue to see increased use of handwriting with Windows PCs. We see many customers using handwriting across a wide variety of applications including schools, hospitals, banking, insurance, government, and more.

Another Bloggy, not foggy, day in San Francisco

I've been accused of photo-shopping the extremely good weather into my pictures but it isn't so. I'm just not that good at image editing! Today yet another "photo-shopped day" but I had a bit of a lazy one compared to the last few days cycling.

I woke surprisingly early for me, time zone or what?, and caught up with my Feeds, Email and Twitter before breakfast. I even had breakfast which is rare as usually can't cope with food that time of the day, an apple or something on the way to work is about it. The plan was to wander along the Embarcadero, waterfront, and catch the Larkspur Ferry to meet Michael Scherotter.

  

 

It's the third time I've been to Larkspur to see Michael S. (you'll see why the "S." later). It started when he was with Mindjet, their offices were there, but has become a regular journey when I visit San Francisco. He met me at the ferry and it was great to catch up over lunch. His current role with Microsoft involves evangelising media and communication platforms, like Silverlight, showing how they can solve business problems. It's apparent he loves it, a perfect fit with his personal "brand": Synergist - Combining Software in Amazing Ways.

If you're a developer interested in learning more he is speaking this Thursday (5 Feb 09) at the new Silverlight User Group in San Francisco, details and RSVP here.

 

 

I had planned to visit Mindjet (MindManager) at some stage and Twitter, which I only recently started using, helped organise that. Michael Deutch, their Chief Evangelist, saw my Tweet* about biking San Francisco and Tweeted that I should call in. After I got off the Larkspur ferry and consumed a "small", which meant about a litre, Gelato Berry Smoothie I wandered back along the Embarcadero to the Mindjet Offices in Battery Street.

As with TypePad the other day, I met more "previously only virtual" people. It was great to see Gaelen O'Connel, Michael D. (see why the S. earlier) and some of the Asia Pacific Team. Michael D. gave me tour of their offices which are much larger, and nicer, than the old Larkspur ones. They are arranged like a MindManager Map in plan with a cafe area as the "central topic". No sign of Manuka Pekerangi here!**

I have some more bloggy meet-ups in the next few days, lets hope the foggy weather stays away!

 

* A new platform, a new vocabulary!    ** Those at work will understand.

RIP Tony Hart - The Television Artist

I think there is a direct link from the brilliant work of Tony Hart to the work I do today and my preference for visual tools (click to view the map). Thanks Tony, from a big kid who watched your television art.

Tony Hart, artist and inspiration for children, dies at 83 | The Guardian

Tony Hart - The Official Tony Hart Website - Television Artist

 

I found the YouTube via this tribute at Thoughtspurs Blog

A Ribbon Application Button tip

Here is a tip that applies to any application that uses Microsoft's Fluent Interface, with the Ribbon and Application button. On my machine this includes Office, MindManager and Snagit.

Although it looks like a "button" the active area extends to the top left extent of the application. If the application is maximised don't bother carefully selecting the round button,  just fling your mouse pointer to the top left corner of the screen and click to open the application menu.

Sadly it doesn't work with the Autodesk "clone" ribbon (left) which has a dead area above it's Application Button.

On standard windows applications (right) the same action will display the window menu.

UPDATE 2009-08-20: The AutoCAD 2010 Ribbon has an application button that matches Office!

RobiNZ MindManager 8 for Kiva Auction - Shared It!

The auction has finished and the funds have been allocated to Kiva. I chose to spread the amount across a variety of locations and types of recipient. With a bit of rounding up it resulted in eight $25 loan contributions.

Follow progress at RobiNZ Blog Lending Team 

Next Step: Generally speaking, loans start at the beginning of each month. It may take a while after an individual loan transaction was made, as Kiva need to wait for other lenders to contribute before the total requested loan funding is raised.

During the Loan Term: Throughout the course of the loan term repayments from sponsored businesses will be re-lent once the amount exceeds us$25. Updates about the entrepreneurs can be read at the online journal for each business, accessed from the lending team page.

Dreamed It. Mapped It. Shared It with help from a generous reader, Mindjet and Kiva.

 

Tags: MindManager, Mindjet, Kiva

MindManager 8, Search and Deliver

MindManager 8 has moved Find/Replace/Search to the end of the ribbon. Search operates within the current map, all open maps or all maps in a folder/sub-folders. If the MindManager Map has links to other maps a "Multi-map Search" will query all connected maps. This makes gathering information from a large collection of maps easy and fast.

Results are displayed in the search pane with a node for each map document. Below you can see the results from all my Autodesk University 2007 notes which mention "level". Selecting an item opens it's map with the focus on the selected topic.

Results from a search can also be easily added to a new MindManager map or existing map topic. It's a nice way to quickly scan and gather information. Like all MindManager Maps, these can be exported to Word or Email in a click.

MindManager also makes map content available to the Windows Search feature and to other desktop search engines like Google desktop search.

Find it, Map it, Share it!

MindManager 8 web services

MindManager 8 integrates web services right into your map. Add a topic, drag the appropriate web services part to the topic and you have a search;

 

Searches can be refreshed or converted to normal topics which don't refresh. The results field allows the extent of the search report to be controlled.

UPDATE 2008-12-19: Brian S. Friedlander has just posted a great video demo of this feature;

Assistive Technology: MindManager 8 Web Services Video Up

MindManager 8 Integrated Browsing

Continuing the theme of integrating outside sources the MindManager 8 Browser Pane also functions as a... wait for it.. Browser!

Internet: Below you can see a topic hyperlink has launched the Browser Pane with a rather fine website

This shows it working with my system documentation - The application topic links to it's product website.

File Explorer: Clicking a folder link opens a File Explorer view. All the normal functions, like different views, are supported including drag 'n drop back to the MindManager map.

PDF: This will depend on your viewer but I have tried both Adobe Acrobat & Foxit reader.

This map summarises uses I've found for the Browser Pane so far. There are sure to be plenty more!

MindManager 8 and integrated Autodesk Design Review

An earlier post showed how MindManager 8 integrates Microsoft Office document editing with the new Browser Pane. The same function allows you to review and mark-up Autodesk Design Web Format (DWF) documents from within MindManager. Click on a topic with a DWF link and the Browser Pane loads Autodesk Design Review (ADR). From here you can do all the usual ADR tasks like mark-up & measure while also having access to MindManager for notes.

Making space to work - Workspaces!

The default ADR toolbars & panels can overwhelm the Browser Pane. With ADR 2009 you can turn on only those controls you need for a task and save the workspace, mine is called "Simple". This allows your layout to be retained or restored easily. Create & save your workspace in ADR as it's not possible from the Browser Pane toolbar.

Integrated Design Review is alive in the Map! *

* That line seems vaguely familiar for some reason.

MindManager 8 Integrated Microsoft Office Editing

MindManager maps are often used to reference information in other documents. Traditionally this has been achieved with a topic link to a file or use of "smart" map parts to incorporate information (Outlook & Excel) in the map. MindManager 8 introduces a "Browser" Pane to make working with external files far more fluid.

Word: Click on a .doc topic link and the browser pane opens to display the document and Word 2007 Ribbon within the MindManager interface. You can then work on the map and document without tabbing between windows.

If you use Office 2003 the Integrated Editor still works and loads the application Toolbars, but not the Menu bar.

Excel: Below you see Excel open in browser and the right click option to "Open outside MindManager". Using this option launches the associated application in a separate window like previous versions of MindManager.

PowerPoint: If I use PowerPoint at all the presentation invariably starts out as a MindManager map. I map out the structure, notes and gather resources in the map. I then export to PowerPoint and add graphics. From then on the map and PowerPoint can diverge so it's useful to review in context with the original source. However, it would be nice if MindManager had better presentation tools then I wouldn't need PowerPoint at all!

I must admit the first time I saw this feature I was underwhelmed. My initial reaction was: "Why would you ever want to work in this little edit pane?"

Then I actually used it and found dipping into documents without leaving MindManager becomes very natural. Having a wide format screen probably helps but I'm now convinced of it's value. You wouldn't want to compose a complex document in the Browser Pane but for reference, printing and simple edits it's a nice addition to MindManager. Even better, the Browser Pane is not just for Office but I'll cover that in future posts.

MindManager 8 rolls up your task load

MindManager has always managed task information and exported/linked it to other applications that can process it. In fact it's ability to link topics to Outlook tasks is crucial to my work flow. MindManager 8 greatly improves reporting with automatic aggregation of task completion and date information. Select the topic you want to see the "roll-up" on then on the task pane tick:. There are a few other options for task management including dependency (Start to Start etc), status colours and a calendar to set work days and holidays.

The topic below shows tasks demonstrating priority, start & finish dates, % complete, resources and relationships. Without expanding sub-topics you get a dashboard like report of the status of child topics. If dates have been added you also see colour change and icons warning of "at risk" or "overdue" tasks on the child topics.

 

The roll-up icon indicates this topic is aggregating child topic information. A faded appearance and dot on the % icon shows this topic is "rolling up" progress marks from the topics below it in the tree. Days and % complete update as you adjust the sub-topics.

Although you can add complete data to a topic it's not necessary to populate all the task fields. Just using % complete without dates and the roll-up function makes for a very useful checklist for tasks, meetings or projects. This is one I used for documenting the upgrade of a cad machine:

.

Below is my map for the MindManager for Kiva auction and posts, like this one, supporting it. It shows varied use of task information including dates, % complete along with standard MindManager topic features like topic hyperlinks, topic relationships (the arrow topic link), and call-outs. Being able to mix date driven and generic "to do" topics in the same tree allows different aspects of a project/task to be tracked. Create a higher level report by simply collapsing the tree as required.

Benefits

• Simple roll-up of task info
• Work week and holiday aware
• Quick to review progress in nested map topics.

Limitations:

• Applying roll up to many topics, a deep tree, can take a while. Once done the map will perform normally but the initial application on a large map had me thinking MindManager had locked up. If that happens wait for MindManager to come back to life, you'll see signs of life on the MindManager Process in Task Manager.
• Durations are only displayed in days:
  • Durations added in Weeks/Months convert to days, honouring the calendar settings
  • Durations added Hours round up days, 1 hour is seen as 1 day?
• If tasks are linked to Outlook and you haven't specified start and due dates you may get long projects! The default date seems to be some time in 1970 so I had a 30,000 day project. I'm not sure if this happens in Outlook or MindManager but it's easily fixed by applying the correct dates, or removing them entirely, in MindManager and updating the link.

RobiNZ MindManager 8 for Kiva Auction

UPDATE 2008-12-21: The auction was successful see the results in the Kiva Lending Team: RobiNZ Blog

If you'd like a to bid for a copy of MindManager, with all proceeds going to Kiva, go to the eBay listing to bid or this post for more detail.

This post is pinned to the top of the blog for the duration of the auction (ends Dec-20-08 03:54:38 PST)

Mindjet Player, sharing MindManager maps with the world

MindManager has always offered a variety of export functions from text, image, PDF to HTML. While useful they haven't really allowed the unique interaction a MindManager map offers. I think the most powerful aspect of a map is the ability to collapse topics for clarity yet still be able to drill down for detail if required. To share that experience MindManager 8 offers a new export function:

Mindjet Player

Mindjet Player exports a PDF or SWF file. Open a Mindjet Player PDF in Adobe Acrobat and many of the map features are available. You can interact with the map, expand and collapse topics and zoom, as you do in MindManager. Web topic links and topic notes, with some limitations, also function.

If you'd like to try the player function download this file, open in Adobe Acrobat and play!

Download MindManager_Competition_Map (1511 KB)

Current Player/Export Limitations:

There are a few limitations to consider;

• Unlike an image export the player file does not respect the current view state when the map is exported. If you have hidden topics, branches etc they are exported and will be visible in the player file.
• Topic note text is supported but topic note images are not.
• Internet topic links (hyperlinks) are supported, local network links are not even if you have access to the network.

The ability to share maps with others, without a special viewer install, is a huge advance for mapping acceptance.

RobiNZ MindManager 8 for Kiva Auction - Dream It. Map It. Share It.

A few months ago I was invited to participate in the beta preview for MindManager 8. As a reward for that Mindjet generously awarded two MindManager 8 Pro licenses, one to upgrade my existing license and one to give away. That got me thinking and regular readers won't be surprised to see that process was captured, like everything I do, in a MindManager Map (right).

Dream It. Map It. Share It

Just giving a license away would let one person enjoy the benefits of using MindManager but I hope you can help achieve more. The tag-line for MindManager 8 - Dream It. Map It. Share It - was actually the inspiration for this proposal. Mindjet have given authorisation to auction this "Not For Resale" license as the proceeds will go to the micro-lending non-profit website Kiva. The successful bidder will benefit from a fully functional MindManager 8 License while entrepreneurs in the developing world benefit from loans to improve their lives. I chose Kiva as this blog has an existing relationship with them and their personal lending web based model allows you to see the results of the loans.

Over the next week I'll be sharing how new features in MindManager 8 are improving my productivity. If you would like to experience MindManager 8 download the free trial now, then go and bid for a license key to authorise it!

Click here to view/bid  for MindManager 8 on eBay
Item Id: 270315773775

Description (from eBay listing)
This is an authorised sale of a single MindManager 8 for Windows "Not for Resale" (NFR) license, valued at $349 (MSRP). The license was provided as a reward for being a MindManager 8 beta tester and the sale has been authorised by Mindjet. 100% of the proceeds from this auction will be donated to Kiva, a micro-loan charity.

If you are the winning bidder, I will provide you with a trial download link to MindManager 8 for Windows, as well as the corresponding license key. At this point your software will become a fully licensed version and will become subject to Mindjet's official licensing terms and agreements.

For the winning bidder:

If they wish, the winning bidder can assist with the selection of the initial Kiva entrepreneurs. Anyone will be able to see the results in the Kiva Lending Team: RobiNZ Blog. As loans are repaid the proceeds will be re-invested in Kiva.

About Kiva
Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.

The following statistics are updated nightly here, these are from 2008-12-11:

• Total value of all loans made through Kiva: $51,287,635
• Number of Kiva Lenders: 374,289
• Number of loans that have been funded through Kiva: 73,748
• Percentage of Kiva loans which have been made to women entrepreneurs: 77.96%
• Number of Kiva Field Partners (micro-finance institutions Kiva partners with): 93
• Number of countries Kiva Field Partners are located in: 42
• Current repayment rate (all partners): 96.89%
• Current default rate (all partners): 3.11%
• Average size of loan for funding: $445.88
• Average total amount loaned per Kiva Lender (includes re-loaned funds): $137.61
• Average number of loans per Kiva Lender: 3.70

MindManager 8 + Kiva, changing lives

UPDATE 2008-12-21: The auction was successful see the results in the Kiva Lending Team: RobiNZ Blog

UPDATE 2008-12-11: Details on the MindManager offer and Kiva auction are on-line now:

RobiNZ MindManager 8 for Kiva Auction - Dream It. Map It. Share It.

MindManager 8 is life changing software. It enables you to capture, organise, and share your thoughts and related information in an intuitive visual form.

Kiva is a life changing non-profit service. It allows loans to specific low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world enabling them to help themselves.

Soon, through this blog, someone will have the chance to enjoy the benefits of using MindManager while helping others, via Kiva. Look for an announcement coming soon...

 + You? =

Buzz Bruggeman shares how he transcends time

Given this is, occasionally, a CAD blog I suspect you use design software. But in addition to that do you use Outlook, do you send email, do you have contacts and business relationships to mange, or quick presentations to give? Would you like to learn how to do this better, from an expert?

I first “encountered” Buzz Bruggeman when he sent me an email suggesting I try ActiveWords. That happened within minutes of me commenting on a post about Microsoft Search on a, sadly now extinct, MindManager related blog . It was the first I'd heard of ActiveWords and after a week or so of using the free trial I'd purchased it.

But this isn't about ActiveWords, it's how a CEO of a company created a connection with someone who'd never heard of his product within minutes. You might think that’s rather special, and it is, but Buzz has “about 13,000” contacts in his Outlook and somehow manages to engage them all.

"Living in Outlook is not where I had planned to spend my life, but having resolved to build the best relationships for ActiveWords that I can, I have resolved to master Outlook"

This self described “Geek wanna be, ActiveWords evangelist, and small town Minnesota boy” shares some of his techniques, and tools, in a conversation with Robert Scoble. Rather than a single solution you see how a combination approaches can literally create free time by saving you the drudgery of performing repetitive tasks. Put aside some time to watch it, you'll get it back later!

Managing Your Mind With the CEO of ActiveWords | FastCompany.TV
Buzz Bruggeman is one of the world’s best networkers that I’ve ever met and also runs ActiveWords, which is a cool utility that helps you get more things done through programming your keystrokes, but that isn’t what excited me about Buzz. He’s one of the world’s top users of Mind Mapping Software and we’ll talk about that, and other things that have his attention.

MindManager 8 is more than enough*

You'll know MindManager 8 is different before you even launch it. The, formerly blue'ish, MindManager icon has a new, and very red, appearance.

That's the first sign of changes to my favourite mapping application which aim to make it easier to integrate information with a map, edit it without leaving MindManager and then share it with others.

You can experience one major component of this release and learn about all the others simply by visiting the Mindjet MindManager 8 website. Mindjet Player allows a rich live map viewing experience in a PDF file or on a website using Adobe Flash with no separate viewer install.

I'll be blogging about how this and other new features could integrate with BIM/CAD use of MindManager over next few days/weeks. I've also been allowed to offer one special copy of MindManager 8 which will enable someone to enjoy all the benefits of using MindManager whilst helping others improve their lives. More on that in a future post.

Until then, try the MindManager 8 free 30 day trial or take advantage of the MindManager 8 Upgrade Offer at www.mindjet.com

* Probably showing my age with this post title While trying to think of "eight" lines I could not get away from an old TV sitcom title. Don't know why because I didn't really watch it!

Using MindMananger and JCVGantt to create project plans

I've posted about MindManager & JCVGantt before and had intentions of a post showing how to use it. The combination allows creation of an integrated project plan which can be edited/presented as a MindManager Map, Outline or Gantt chart. I won't be doing that post now as can simply link to Andrew Wilcox's awesome post & related website which covers this. Just goes to show that procrastination sometimes pays off! 

Applications of MindManager: Using MindMananger and JCVGantt to create project plans
Last week I ran an afternoon session on using MindManager with JCVGantt to create a project plan. As preparation for that I wrote a 20 page booklet for the attendees but also to make sure I really understood the process. Writing what you think you know, really does reinforce your comprehension.

SnagIt for software support

SnagIt is a great tool for authoring support documents, a screen capture is worth a zillion words, but it’s also a useful tool for capturing software problems for analysis. To coin a term(?), SnagIT Support!.

Last week I had a problem with MindManager’s synchronise to Outlook Tasks failing on one topic/task (of about 450). It’s a vital part of  how I use MindManager & Outlook so I needed a fix. MindManager displays the task names as they synchronise but too rapidly to read. The tasks are blurred in the Camtasia capture below but the speed is real-time!

If I could see which task failed I’d be able to check the map topic & maybe resolve the problem. I captured the sync, with the SnagIt video mode, then stepped frame by frame to the last topic. Looking at it in the map I found a corrupted date (somehow I’d made a start after due) which was the probable cause. To be safe I removed and re-added all the task related data on the topic. This resolved the problem and now sync'ing is working fine. Without Snagit tracking down that error and resolving it would have been near impossible!

I thought this might make a great “how to” post but Kathy Jacobs, and Betsy, beat me to it! Click through Kathy’s post for brilliant instructions on how it’s done: 

I <3 SnagIt - Do you? - VitaminCH – PowerPoint and OneNote MVP Kathy Jacobs shares how she uses SnagIt timed captures

Outlook 2007 Update breaks MindManager link

A recent Outlook 2007 update has broken the MindManager/Outlook linking facility for some, including me! Mindjet have published a temporary workaround, to their Knowledge Base, while they research a permanent solution.

Outlook 2007 crashes when loading MindManager Outlook add-in - Mindjet Knowledge Base

After downloading a recent Microsoft Office 2007 update, some users are no longer able to open up Outlook 2007 with the Export to Mindjet MindManager add-in enabled.

The behaviour is that Outlook 2007 will hang upon loading the add-in and requires shutting it down manually with the task manager. When launching again, an error message will display… cont.

Taking Notes with SnagIt and MindManager

SnagIt and MindManager are great authoring tools but recently I’ve been using them for something different. I’ve been getting training on a new, to me, mapping/demographics application. While they had excellent notes, like usual, retail needs meant we have different requirements to the typical user (generally GIS).

To record items of particular interest, rather than paper notes, I tried using the SnagIt/MindManager combination live in the training session. It was great to grab quick screen-shots, add process notes/arrows and send them to my MindManager notes map with SnagIt’s MindManager Custom Output Tool.

Often, as below, lining up a series of dialogs, capture, then adding a few arrows was sufficient to record quite a complex process. It’s often quicker to create than text notes and certainly easier to follow.

Click for post related Disclosure Statement

MindManager 7.1, more than a service patch!

UPDATE 12/19/2007: Mindjet have temporarily removed this update due to an issue with Norton Antivirus. They say it will be reposted as soon as possible. See this thread on the MindManager Forum for more detail.

Seems to be update time for my Office applications. I’ve recently installed Office 2007 Sp1 (219mb for a patch?) and Mindjet also released a MindManager 7 update (a mere 83.5mb!). I haven’t noticed much difference in Office, yet, but MindManager 7.1 introduces a bunch of fixes and a few totally new features:

• Refined Graphics; I’ve noticed improvements to some Ribbon fly-out graphics. Compare the Topic Boundary tool from 7.0 and 7.1. It’s nicer looking and the clearer graphics make it easier to choose the desired option.

• A new Export Tab: Export was “hidden” on the “MindManager Button” and required you to Select MindManager Button, move down to Export, wait for the fly-out menu then select the Export option. It was a bit tedious so one of the first things I did was put the export button on my Quick Access Toolbar (QAT). MindManager 7.1 introduces a dedicated “Export” Tab to the Ribbon for easy access without customising the QAT.

• A new PowerPoint Export Option; MindManager 7.1 Introduces “Export as a PowerPoint Slide”. It attempts to export the map to a PowerPoint slide as native PowerPoint objects (rather than an image). Topics become auto-shape text boxes connected with lines. It works fine for simple maps but struggles with more complex layouts and totally ignores topic images.

The easiest way to update your MindManager is click on the Ribbon Tools Tab.

Tags: MindManager+7.1

MindManager at Autodesk University 2007

James Van abandoned PowerPoint and used MindManager for his presentation. Robin used MindManager to take notes!

This is the result: File Attachment: AU2007 - Revit Effective techniques for large projects.pdf (376 KB)

 

MindManager Pro 7 Topic Styles (with free topic counter!)

MindManager Pro 7 introduced a handy new feature to control the appearance of map topics. Topic Styles bridge the gap between editing individual topics and Global” Map Styles which can alter an entire map.

MindManager Global Map Styles?

MindManager has long featured powerful document styling tools. You can control the appearance and layout of map by applying a Map Style. MindManager includes a good selection to get you started and they can be easily customised to create your own personal style. The images below show how changing Map Styles can totally transform a map in a click.

 

MindManager Map Styles are easily edited/created in the integrated template editor (right). This provides a generic map with every variety of layout, element and a tree depth control. Simply edit the elements as desired, save the new style and it’s applied to your map. You can also store Map Style to apply to any other map using a template/style organiser.

Editing an element in the Template Editor updates all elements of that type in the current map with one exception. If you’ve overridden a topic format in the map, by editing any feature (font, fill etc) manually, those changes are retained even if the map style is updated. If you “reset” a topic (CTRL+Space) it reverts to the current map style.

Topic Overrides can be applied feature by feature, or using the  Format Painter tool to clone a topic features from an existing topic in a click. That’s OK on smaller maps but tends to be cumbersome when maps get large. “Painting” topic style overrides to multiple topics means visiting each one with your paintbrush. Surely there’s a better way?

Introducing MindManager 7 Topic Styles:

MindManager 7 introduces the concept of Topic Styles. They sit between the global map style & individual individual topic overrides. Unlike the Global Styles these are not tied to the topics position in the “tree hierarchy”. In the style structure diagram below editing (or importing) the Global Map Style would update the layout and all (Global) Topics. Editing the Topic Style will update all it’s “child” topics. This applies even if the topic is not displayed (in a collapsed tree) when the change is made. This is really useful as previously you relied on a visual scan, or using map filters, to find all the topics to update with the paintbrush. 

Style structure & Example Map with Styles applied:
 

Using MindManager Topic Styles:

To create a Topic Style simply edit a topic to the desired appearance. Go to Format [Tab] > Topic Style > New Style From Selected Topic. The style is created and displayed in the Topic Styles Organiser pane. You can apply styles to selected topics from the Ribbon tool fly-out or directly from the Style Organiser.

To change a topic style edit any topic to the desired appearance, select the Topic Style in the organiser and “Update style to match selection”. All  dependent topics will be updated.

By default your topics are named “Topic Style 1,2,3,…” but you can rename styles in the organiser if desired.

The Free Topic Counter?

I’m not sure it was intentional but Topic Styles adds another useful feature. The organiser will show a count of the visible topics using the style. I use a “Project Topic Style” in my master map and this is a quick way to count projects. 26 as of yesterday!

 

Tags: MindManager+7

Remember that great blog post? Can you find it again? MindManager to the rescue...

There’s a huge amount of CAD related information on the web. Finding it once is getting easier thanks to tools like Search and RSS but often finding it a second time becomes a challenge. You’ll read something but weeks, maybe months, later actually need it. While many feed readers allow flagging, or tagging, of posts usually that just captures the title with no context. Search tools will look at all the post content but often the results are not that targeted. Recently I used an article about “CAD training approval” for reference. Google Blog Search returns over two thousand results for that phrase.

One method I use is to store the URL, Title and a few keywords for articles/posts I think maybe useful as I read them. While you could do this in any text editor I use MindManager as it has a few features which make creating & finding these references a snap.

As an example take this article from CAD Management Guru Robert Green. I read it back in September and knew it would useful for upcoming training proposals. A click on the MindManager button  in IE grabs the URL and Title, adding it to the current map. I added the author name as a callout with a link to his contact page (different to the article) and a few key words/phrases which summarise the content. This can be anything but Robert’s section headings work well for his articles.

So far you’ve got some text and hyperlinks which almost any text editor could do. Where MindManager works nicely is you can group posts in categories which collapse & expand for easy viewing. It also has a search function which can scan the current map, all open maps or folders of (closed) maps for key words returning the results in a search pane. This allows rapid searching and access to topics in a click irrespective of where they are stored. I’ll add relevant content from Blogs, Web-pages or Discussion Groups in this format to project, job or system documentation maps as they can all be searched if required.

I used Robert’s post, found thanks to this search, as a reference when working on approval for some team training. Thanks to Robert for the article, MindManager for helping me find it when needed!

The magnificent 7! - Life with MindManager 7

It’s taken me a while to blog about MindManager Pro 7. Previously if I’ve burst into print, well blog, soon after a product release it’s because I’d been living with beta/preview versions for several weeks/months. With MindManager Pro 7 it was a little different as I didn’t see the product until shortly before release and also decided to change to Office 2007 at about the same time. I’ve been living with this combo for a while now and have learnt enough to share. This post is about MindManager 7 but as they are closely integrated I’ll also cover some aspects of Microsoft Office 2007.

Getting to 7 – My upgrade experience;

There are several things to consider before upgrading. If you’re dependent on any 3rd party MindManager add-ons check they are “7” compatible. Many, like GyroQ, were ready at release  and over the last few months others, including the Mindjet Labs extensions, have been updated. I removed MindManager 6 and all related add-ons to give a clean start before installing MindManager Pro 7 and a few add-ons crucial to my workflow.

MindManager/Outlook links – a few migration glitches:

Synchronising full maps is now “legacy” behaviour: I discovered a few quirks after updating my Synchronised “Dashboard” map. It uses the “Outlook Import, Export and Synchronize” function to link all the content with task information to Outlook as described in my “MindManaging your day” series.

This method is still supported in 7 (via MindManager Button>Export) but is referred to as a “legacy” mode in the help. The recommendation for MindManager 7 is to link individual topics to/from Outlook rather than an entire map.

I suspect the reason is the tendency for things to get rather messy if you fully synchronised more than one map. I’ve always avoided that & only used synchronise with one dashboard map. I have many other maps with multiple individual topics synchronised but not the full map. I’m glad the “full sync” legacy behaviour is supported and hope it remains in future versions since my MindManager/Outlook workflow depends on it!

Duplicated Tasks: After the upgrade re-establishing the link from my dashboard map to Outlook resulted in duplicated tasks. Since all my Outlook tasks are generated/sync’ed by my dashboard map I simply deleted them all in Outlook, then re-sync'ed to have a clean list generated.

An alert about Alerts: I only use a few Topic Alerts but found they also didn’t migrate fully. The MindManager topic alert was there and still worked fine but it’s associated Outlook calendar item didn’t appear. Opening the alert settings then closing the dialog, effectively saving it, re-established the Outlook item.

While these items were a hassle none were show stoppers and the effort was worth it. Having used MindManager Pro 7 for a few months there is no way I’d be going back!

What’s so magnificent?

The welcome screen has a summary of “What’s New” but I’ll start with one thing you can’t miss. It’s officially known as the “Microsoft Fluent UI” or more informally “the Ribbon”. Microsoft developed it for Office 2007 and Mindjet’s implementation is very slick. It’s a big change and I expect some hate it as much as I like it. There is no alternative, no legacy UI option, so using MindManager 7 means accepting the ribbon. I suspect you’ll see similar UI’s in other products in much the same way previous Office’like toolbars & panes were adopted/adapted over time.

If you’ve migrated to Office 2007 you’ll find the layout and operation very similar. In fact looking at the UI’s (below) you have to look for the MindManager Buttonto pick the non-Microsoft product.

MindManager veterans will experience “Ribbon shock”. The File Menu is gone and replaced by the MindManager Button. It gathers all the things you can  do with a document into one place with most accessed via fly-out menus but also has application options (formerly Tools Menu>Options) on display. A bit strange when “Document Properties” is almost hidden in the Prepare fly-out. Took me a while to find that one!

Task oriented Tabs/Ribbons have replaced Menu/Toolbars. The old task panes (My Maps, Library etc) are still there but closed by default until a related Ribbon tool activates them. The Ribbon layout is fairly logical but I still find some of the combinations a little strange. Why does “Paste” appear on the “Home”  tab but not on “Insert”? 

Perhaps my favourite UI change is a tiny regression. The "Click to cycle" through Detail Levels button, last seen in MindManager x5, returns! A keyboard Ctrl+D also does this but I’d got into the habit of repeatedly clicking the button. The MindManager 6 version didn’t respond to that but I still clicked it anyway!

After a while the ribbon becomes second nature but expect to spend some time adjusting. One benefit is I’ve made more use of features, like bookmarks, that were always in MindManager but forgotten, buried on rarely accessed menus. It appears to take more space than tool bars but the way I ran old version with multiple toolbars displayed there is little difference. Then consider the Ribbon replaces Menu, Toolbar & some Task Pane functions and can be minimised/restored with a click or set to auto-hide which wasn’t possible with toolbars.

I’ve customised the UI to restore a few features I missed and optimise it for my workflow. I’ve added Paste, Export and a few other frequently used functions to the Quick Access toolbar. I’ve also turned on the task panes, they are hidden by default, and moved the workbook tabs to the top to create my optimised Fluent UI. Some new features and those changes are summarised on this map (thumbnail image right, map file below).

File Attachment: MindManager_Feature_Map_Fluent_User_ Interface.mmap (294 KB)

While the Ribbon is the most noticeable change look for future posts on some new features I’ve found really useful:

• Saved Queries
• Saved Views
• Show Branch Alone
• Topic Styles
• Split Topic

What’s not so magnificent?

Nothing is perfect and I’ve found a few things that bug me. Some are new, some carried over from previous editions or due to changes in other applications:

• Fuzzy Display: MindManager has that slightly "fuzzy" anti-aliased look when zoomed out. It’s been there since X5 but I hoped things would look crisper in the new version.
• Right Click>Export>Send Topic to Word doesn’t find the Email Editor in Outlook 2007. This breaks one of my favourite work flows - Export topic to email. This isn’t really a MindManager flaw as it’s the Outlook editor which has changed. Still, it would have been nice if Mindjet could have caught this and added a Right Click>Export>Send Topic to Outlook Email function.
• Vulnerable to .net framework instability. Again not specific to MindManager but I’ve found when running several applications .net related trouble in one may take out the others. I commonly run AutoCAD Architecture, MindManager and RSS Bandit together. I’ve occasionally, maybe once a month, had a .net component crash cause the other app’s fall over. I suspect this is more to do with the underlying architecture than the applications themselves but having an application just disappear, sometimes not even an error report, is rather disconcerting. My only solution is to save frequently, not just in MindManager!

* The post title is a rather weak reference to The Magnificent Seven (1960). I’m not really into Western movies but it seemed fitting.

Click for post related Disclosure Statement

Tags: MindManager+Pro+7, Microsoft+Office+2007

SnagIt + MindManager 7.0 = Happiness!

One of the best accessories for SnagIt is the “MindManager Output”. Sadly this was broken when I upgraded to MindManager 7. Yesterday I attended the Revit Tech Conference and today I was transcribing my hand notes, OK scrawl, to MindManager. As there were many application based tips I also had Revit running to grab relevant screen captures, annotate them, then add to my notes.

Missing the MindManager output, I visited the SnagIt site and found it’s been updated and now works fine with MindManager 7. If you are already using SnagIt & MindManager it’s free so go and grab it! 

If not, both MindManager and SnagIt have free trial versions*. They make the best documentation authoring combination I’ve found.

Note: This capture shows MindManager 6 and SnagIt

SnagIt Accessories
MindManager Output (Version is 1.0.2  is MindManager 7 compatible )
This output accessory places a MindManager output button on the Preview Window toolbar. Then, with one click, you can send captures to your MindManager document. *MindManager 6.0 and above only

* Health Warning; You will get hooked

Click for post related Disclosure Statement

Mind Mapping Meeting Notes - Lifehacker

Lifehacker have a great, short, introduction to Mind Mapping as technique to for making meeting notes. It’s something I’ve found useful but seen few doing. Sometimes I use MindManager in the meeting but often it’s just a pen and paper, still using the map format.

The advantage of a map is, with few words, it can capture relationships between ideas that linear format notes can’t show. It’s also far more flexible allowing topics to grow as the conversation flows. Additional info relating to an earlier topic can be linked with a line irrespective of it’s location on the page.

While this isn’t “pure mind mapping” my hand maps tend to be very unstructured and often break the “rules”. While the purists may disagree I think you should concentrate on capturing the information rather than worrying too much about structure. I find they are still meaningful, and readable, in spite of my appalling handwriting 

Note Taking: A Beginner's Guide to Mind Mapping Meetings - Lifehacker
Do you have trouble keeping up with meetings because you can't take notes as fast as the speaker talks?

If you do jot down some thoughts and ideas, by the time you re-read your notes they make no sense? If this sounds like you, a meeting mind map may be just what you need…

See how Mind Mapping helps me cope with information overload in this post from last year:

Taking Note of Autodesk University - Mind Maps to the rescue?

Tags: mind+mapping

Taming the To-Do Bar in Outlook 2007

The To-Do bar is one of my favourite new features of Outlook 2007. It provides a constant reference to tasks and appointments but can be minimised or restored with a click. If you have lots of tasks, mine come from MindManager maps, it can be a bit cluttered. This tip from “the How-To Geek” filters the To-Do tasks, only showing what you need today.

Introducing the To-Do Bar... - Microsoft Office Outlook Team Blog
The To-Do Bar is brand-new to Outlook 2007, and enables you to track your time and tasks…

Make To-Do Bar in Outlook 2007 Show Only Today's Tasks :: the How-To Geek
One of the best new features in Outlook 2007 is the To-Do bar, where you have quick access to your calendar as well as your task list. Unfortunately, the default setting of showing all of your tasks regardless of date can be overwhelming…

Why MindManager? Easy!

5 hours of Meeting Notes. Minutes to issue by when?

Glad I captured it in MindManager…

• Export to Word (a few formatting tweaks), Export to PDF, Export to PowerPoint….
• Email Exports + original .mmap file
• Less than 30 minutes after the meeting closed, done.
• Priceless!

 Disclosure

MindManager Pro 7 Ribbon vs Toolbars, which uses less screen real estate?

Following on from my earlier post on the “Fluent UI” one of the comments I’ve seen about MindManager Pro 7, and Office 2007, is concern at the amount of screen used by the ribbon in comparison to toolbars. It certainly looks bigger but can looks be deceptive?

Jensen Harris has blogged about this comparing Office 2007 to earlier versions so I decided to try some MindManager snags for comparison. I always ran Pro 6 with two rows of toolbars displayed at the top along with the map tabs and use a similar layout in MindManager Pro 7. My screen resolution is 1152 x 864 on a 19” CRT, sadly no high resolution LCD monitors at home  

The MindManager Pro 7 effective work area measures about 614 pixels high normally, increasing to 705 with the ribbon on auto-hide (double click any tab for this). MindManager Pro 6 is between at about 653 pixels high. Of course this will vary depending on your layout preferences and screen resolution.

I haven’t found the ribbon takes too much extra real estate but it does present more information with logical grouping. Perhaps a power user won’t benefit but I’ve found myself starting to re-visit features I knew were in 5/6, but didn’t use. This is simply because they are now on show, and in context, instead of buried in menus. While the ribbon will have more impact at lower screen resolutions stack your frequently used commands on the Quick Access Toolbar and you can run with the ribbon in auto-hide mode. Overall, although it’s different and takes some adjustment, I’m not missing toolbars at all.

See the extended post for full screen captures.

The best Office 2007 Fluent User Interface feature? It's not just Microsoft!

I’ve upgraded to Office 2007 Pro and have been adjusting to the “Office Fluent User Interface”, sometimes known as “the Ribbon”. 

For decades every application interface has had those comforting File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Help Menus. Maybe there were a few more, specific to the application, but the basics were always there as a familiar reference.

Launch Office 2007 you experience what I term “Ribbon Shock”. It’s all changed with the “Office Button” replacing many of those menu functions, others moved to context sensitive “tabbed ribbons” which replace toolbars.

If you’re familiar with the old interface it’s a little strange but the adjustment doesn’t take long. After a while going back to earlier versions, I still use Office 2003 at work, makes you realise how fluent the “Fluent UI” really is. 

That’s all wonderful but what about other applications? Microsoft are licensing the “Fluent UI” for “non-competitive applications” so it’s possible you’ll see it outside of Office. Given it’s the result of thousands of hours design, testing, and user feedback it’s great it’s been shared at all, understandable you can’t use it to build a direct office competitor.

Take a look at the Fluent UI’s below (click for full size image). One of them isn’t from Microsoft, yet in my opinion it’s the best “office application” there is…

PS: It’s a pity the Ribbon didn’t make it to the Outlook 2007 main window (it’s there in the mail editor and other interface elements)….

UPDATE 09–06–2007: Jensen Harris discusses Outlook UI in his post: Outlook and the Ribbon

Tags: Ribbon, Fluent+UI, Office+2007, MindManager+7

Crazy MindManager Export to web, generated 500mb + content & thousands of files, worked!

This is my last ever MindManager 6 Pro post . It’s sad to say goodbye to a great application but the day had to come. I couldn’t let it go without perhaps the ultimate export to destruction test…

Imagine over the years you’d built a complex interlinked web of MindManager Maps to document the systems, applications & process related to your job. When it comes to archiving this information not everyone has MindManager, or even the free viewer, but they do have a web browser. If you opened MindManager and clicked “Export to Web”  what would happen?

Mindjet announce MindManager 7

Mindjet have announced the MindManager 7 product range which will be released on May 30:

• MindManager Pro 7 replaces MindManager Pro 6. 
• MindManager 7 Mac replaces the MindManager 6 Mac.
• MindManager 7 Lite is new and replaces “MindManager 6 Basic”. It’s an entry level version aimed at Home/Student users offering mapping features but without the extensive integration/customisation capability you get with “Pro”. Current Basic users wishing to upgrade to “7” can change to either Lite or Pro.
• The free MindManager Viewers also change for this release;
• The separate viewer application has been replaced by MindManager 7 trial downloads which offer full functionality for 5 days. If you then choose not to purchase the trial reverts to view only mode.
• The current Activex Web viewer will still be supported and don’t forget Word 2007 can also work with MindManager Map files.
• Upgrade & promotional offers; Check out deals for existing MindManager users here

I’ve seen a WebEx preview of MindManager Pro 7 and there are some exciting looking improvements. Most striking is the completely new user interface based on the Microsoft Office Fluent™ UI (Microsoft Office 2007 Ribbon). Microsoft Office integration and features for map editing, viewing and presentation have also been enhanced. More on that once I get to try the new version later this month, I cant wait!

MindManager 7 Product Information - http://www.mindjet.com/mindmanager7

Read the Press Release inc US Pricing - Mindjet.com

The Mindjet Blog » MindManager 7 - Thank you!
To our valued customers,
I’m excited….and honored to officially announce Mindjet MindManager 7!
This latest version of MindManager is by far the most powerful and comprehensive release we have delivered not only in the history of our company, but in the industry…

Tags: MindManager+7

Mindjet MindManager + Microsoft Silverlight = ???

I was reading a blog post about Microsoft Silverlight*, Microsoft’s tilt at Adobe Flash, and it's XAML based technology. Not being a programmer or web application builder I was thinking:

"I wonder what this means for all those XML based documents like MindManager (& Office 2007)?"

Meanwhile, a “Miscellaneous Hero” – check his new email address in the credits – in San Francisco who actually understands all this stuff was creating a technology demonstration that shows what it could mean for MindManager. It’s development prototyping at the speed of thought!

Mindjet MindManager and Silverlight - blogs.msdn.com/synergist

View Michael’s Technology Demo Video (0:01:45) showing transformation of MindManager to Silverlight web presentation.

* Silverlight, previously code-named "WPF/E" (Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere) is a “lightweight subset of XAML for building rich media experiences on the web”.

Tags: Silverlight

Michael S. Scherotter @ Mindjet Microsoft!

I first got to know Michael S. Scherotter via email as he turned a suggestion for a Design Web Format (DWF) Smart Map Part into a trial add-in for MindManager. Later I was pleased to meet him when I visited Mindjet on the way home from AU 2005.

Michael has a background in Architecture/CAD Software but his Mindjet role involved researching/prototyping potential business applications for MindManager. He has been a passionate advocate for MindManager, recently via the Mindjet Labs site.

Last week he announced a move from Mindjet to a new position as “Developer Evangelist” for Microsoft. While that’s a loss for Mindjet it’s a great opportunity for Michael and I wish him all the best with his Microsoft future.

A New Role for Me - Synergist - Michael S. Scherotter 
“Last week, I was offered and I accepted the position of Developer Evangelist at Microsoft Corporation….”

PS: Interesting to see Michael’s MindManager blogging will continue:

“I will continue to write in my Synergist blog about MindManager, but now more from a partner/enthusiast perspective.”

SnagIt not just for captures!

I’ve been writing notes from a recent Tech Briefing using MindManager. Part of this included producing some simple diagrams & SnagIt proved up to the task as an authoring tool. Starting with a blank background I just used the shape, call-out and other tools to create a quick graphic then click, export to MindManager topic and it’s done.