Mindjet has released the new DevZone for MindManager 7 add-in and periphery developers. Good news for those of us that have been waiting for it, thought I’m not sure when it actually began appearing because I stopped looking for it a while back.
Here is a nice write-up from Investor’s Business Daily about how useful mind mapping software can be. I’ve highlighted below a nice success story from the article. They mention other mind mapping tools that most people haven’t heard of, so good for, for example, FreeMind, Labyrinth, and VYM.
Makers Of Mind-Mapping Software Visualize Success
On a friend’s tip, Brasher started using MindManager last year. After taking a brief tutorial, he was running the software in 15 minutes. He says it’s boosted his productivity.
“This is the first piece of software that I turn on in the morning, and the last one I turn off each day,” he said.
Brasher uses the software to visualize his 20 largest accounts as spokes that emanate out from “Alan’s Opportunity Management” on his computer screen. In the past, he used clumsy, multipage text documents to manage each account. It was “a nightmare” to pinpoint certain details and pick out client relationships, he says.
With MindManager, he designates each sales opportunity by a green dollar sign. Red flags pop up to mark each priority or action item. Yellow smiley faces are used to show customer groups.
“We use the software to educate my team, because a picture really is worth 1,000 words,” Brasher said.
I’ll be publishing a detailed guide to this tip and much more visual mapping file management advice soon, but if you want to get started with one great tip right away …
I use Microsoft’s FolderShare. This service is free if you don’t have any files over 2gb. For MindManager maps, including ALL ResultsManager and GyroQ data, all I had to do once I had the FolderShare software set up on my work and home computers was to set up my MyMaps folder as shared in the FolderShare system on my home computer and add the folder to be synchronized on my work computer. Now I have all of my data both at work and at home. The major problem that you may run into is that if you have maps open on both computers, they won’t synchronize correctly. In cases like this, it creates a map file for each computer and you have to combine them by hand, but I’ve never lost any data by using this service. It has in fact saved me skin a few times because it acts as an automatic backup.
I’ve wanted to join Toastmasters International for quite some time. When I find myself procrastinating, my first instinct is to break down the tasks for the outcome I’m procrastinating on in a mind map. This is also a great example of how useful ResultsManager is. There are only a couple of tasks in this map, but when I review my to do list, I will see them along with every other relevant task because my Toastmasters map is in my Map Central. Don’t worry if that doesn’t make any sense, you’ll hear more about ResultsManager here soon.
Here is the result … if you’re a Southcentral Texas Toastmaster, see you around 
This mind map was created using the Mindjet MindManager Pro 7 software. Click on the image to get a full-size clickable image map.
