“Sparx updates Enterprise Architect modelling tool - ZDNet UK
To extend creativity capabilities in UML environments, Sparx has improved the tool’s requirements-management features and brought in a new “mind mapping” profiler to help capture creative-idea development.”
Nice! I would often “fake” mind maps in Enterprise Architect using use case diagrams, winnowing brainstormed pseudo-use cases into the real thing. This is a very welcome edition to a really great software engineering tool.
Incredible updates in this latest major revision of what I consider the best visual mapping tool on the planet. I still believe that this program alone is enough of a reason to buy a Mac. I’ve used Tinderbox to design software, create websites, create large amounts of documentation for software systems, and as a general personal knowledge management and organizing tool since I bought my first Mac a few years ago.
“Tinderbox maps are more flexible and expressive than ever. Choose new shapes for your notes, or expand a note to see its text as well as its title. Add a progress bar to notes about tasks, or a badge icon to highlight special notes. Switching prototypes is easier than ever with the new prototype tab. You’ll see more detail inside containers and agents. And everything simply looks better.”
Codemart’s MindMeister web-based mind mapping tool really drove its point home in an announcement today of some great new features. They now have:
- Linking to web pages
- Linking between nodes
- Linking between maps
- Note and link previews (hover to see them)
- The canvas of a map grows as more room is needed
- Date filtering in changes mode
- Better printing
And more. These changes impact the user experience pretty dramatically.
There is also now a public map browse & search with star ratings, a team edition and believe it or not, a full-featured REST API.
I already liked MindMeister the best out of the web-based mapping software packages that I’ve messed around with. I don’t use it much, but between these new features and the very clever Geistesblitz tools, I’ll be using it more.
8/1/2007 Updates:
Eric Mack On-Line | Part two of my interview with The Brain creator, Harlan Hugh
“Personal Brain is an amazing tool for mapping your brain. You might even call it a true mind mapping tool. Listen to the podcast and you hear why I think so. I plan to make The Brain a key component to my personal knowledge management toolkit so I expect that I’ll return to visit Shelly and Harlan again.”
Eric Mack has been hanging out at The Brain headquarters in Marina Del Rey and has provided an excellent report in these podcasts. You’ll learn about how the Personal Brain software got its start and what excites its creators about the new functionality in the long-awaited rewrite, now in beta.
I’m pretty excited myself. I was an avid user of this software in the early days and am enjoying the new version immensely. It has always been, and is even more so now, the most impressive software I’ve ever seen for creating a flexible personal knowledge store. The possibilities for interconnection and description of data are mind-boggling. It’s a tool that takes a bit of discipline to not get too fussy with, but time spent “gardening” your brain files tends to be a good investment. Just ask Jerry Michalski, whose brain file has become so huge and rich and famous that a version of it is being kept on ice on The Brain’s own servers.
Don’t miss part one: Eric Mack On-Line | Meet Shelley & Harlan of The Brain Technologies
“As I’ve written before, Personal Brain is an amazing tool for mapping your brain. You might even call it a true mind mapping tool. Listen to the podcast and you hear why I think so. I plan to make The Brain a key component to my personal knowledge management toolkit along with Lotus Notes, MindManager, and other excellent tools.”
I really appreciated Eric’s interviews and enjoyed listening to them greatly. Eric is a genius, especially where technology tools are concerned, and he asks excellent questions. I’m becoming a great fan of his blogs. I’ve started reading Notes on Productivity and I don’t even use Lotus Notes. Thanks Eric! That is not to say that I don’t wish I was a Lotus Notes user. If Notes got a quarter of the credit it deserves, Exchange Server would be obscure.
