XMind

Collaborative Minds!

Again, on Jan. 28, Apple brought us another big surprise, iPad. The whole world are crazy and talking over it. On Twitter, Facebook, blogs and etc, iPad has been everywhere. The only word to describe it may be “amazing”. iPad has the amazing idea, shape, design, and the philosophy.

Importantly, we also so agree with what Churk Frey has said in blog, “Mind mapping on the iPad could be incredibly cool!”.

You know, many investigations indicate that, pen and paper are still the first important tool for many people to do creative things, like mind mapping, planning and notes-taking, although there is a high-performance computer in front of them. During communication with XMind’s friends, we know that even the heavy users still draw maps on paper sometimes. Because we still like using our fingers.

iPad is totally different! It’s different than iPhone and iPod touch, which don’t suit for using mind mapping software, because of their own limitations. It’s different than Macs and netbooks. It’s even different than any other tablet PCs. It’s a brand-new platform. “It’s a game changer!”

XMind has begun the plan upon XMind for iPad. It’s brand-new, too. It’s totally re-invented. Of course, ease-to-use, powerful, humanity, and friendly will still be its character and specialty. We won’t be the first mind mapping software on iPad. You know, it’s XMind’s style. But we do believe that the XMind for iPad should become the best mind mapping software in the world. Even better than XMind for desktop!

If you have any idea about mind mapping for iPad, please feel free to contact us via ipad@xmind.net. Thanks!

Xmindの価値と機能, 1/26/2010, by Turbo

Economy System, 1/27/2010, by liang3404814

Tech 5, 1/28/2010, by Mike Johnston

Mind Map Shopping, 1/29/2010, by Mark Sullivan

Calentamiento Global, 1/30/2010, by alexxasick

This is part of a regular series of maps in this week.

600 Toeic Words, 1/23/10, by Hoang Long

Agenda 2010, 1/22/10, by ROGERELIZAR

How to say NO, 1/21/10, by Philippe Boukobza

Project Template, 1/20/10, by Felix

P-20 Campus Beliefs, 1/19/10, by MFENRIQUEZ

Social Media Project, 1/18/10, by Claudio Ancillotti

Thanks for reading, and as always, we’ll see you back here next week.

One of our best friends, an XMind Pro daily user from South Africa, reminds that XMind not only can organize our ideas but all our work as well, for example, manage all your files in Project Management.

This friend told us that, most of time, he was drowned in numerous files, notes, spreadsheets, quotes, web links. Until one day, he found XMind can be used to manage all these files. Most people just think of mind maps as a way of organizing sparkles or ideas. However, XMind, as a mind mapping software, indeed, can help us as a great files management tool.

One significant way is to use the attachment. It’s very handy. We can directly drag and drop any required files into XMind as a subtopic of the exiting topic, or a floating topic. Double-click will open these attachments.  Fast and simple. But this may not be the best solution. Because:
XMind will save a copy file. Then, after editing them in XMind, the original version in your local computer will not be updated.
After inserting many files, esp. file with big size, your XMind file will become bigger. And it will use more time to open, save and close.

So here is the second way, Hyperlink, a better solution. You can build a hyperlink between any topic and any a local file/folder. It’s very simple.

Select a topic, Click “Ctrl+H” or hyperlink icon on toolbar, Select file, and here choose the file/folder and link type, “Absolute or Relative”. That’s all. And with one simple click, we can view and edit these linked files/folders in XMind directly.

BTW, if you usually move XMind files in your computer, such as from “D driver” to “E driver”, it’s better to use Absolute link. It can works after moving it. Note that this absolute links will be invalid if being moved to another computer.

If using Relative link, please do not change the relative position between XMind file and the linked files/folders. Then, you can bring them together, and work with this linked files anywhere. For example, if they are in one same folder, the links will work no matter where this folder is. This is very useful for working on airplane, doing presentation to clients, and etc.

Then all the files in the map present themselves to us. We can navigate the files within the map, organize and arrange them by changing the structure, color, line shape, and even use label, boundary, and theme.

With XMind, time will be saved, meanwhile, both ideas and files will be well organized.

P.S. here, we want to share another usage from a Chinese daily user. Hope this is useful.
He told us that they have many files (they are not allowed to save in other computers.) in their LAN server, and needed to link them in XMind. He hopes that the link in map will be available while he open linked files and show them to manager. He called us, because Absolute link and relative link neither worked.

After testing, we find Web link (select Web in Hyperlink dialog) is feasible. Instead of using “http://”, paste the target file position in to field, such as “\\venus\D\xmind-portable-3.1.1″, at last fill “\”+”file name”. Then inside their LAN, work goes fluently again.

Now, please enjoy our XMind Pro XMAS family package!

There is a good news for all iPhone™ and iPod™ touch users. We can read and edit XMind maps anywhere via support of iThoughts, one of the Best iPhone Apps.

Thanks for the great work of iThoughts. 

XMind Support Looking Good
The following attributes ‘survive’ the import/export process:

• Text
• Notes
• Colours
• Hyperlinks
• Shapes
• Folded (collapsed) status
• Icons
• Start/End dates
• Priorities
• Percentage complete

Click and know more details about iThoughts-XMind

The wise had told us communication is very important in our life.
We also know Presentation is an important way to communicate with others, esp in work. There are many companies designing and developing the tools to let us perform better on presentation. And so do us.
Mind map brings us a great way to catch inspiration, organize sparkles, plan project, and more other things. While we designed it in 2007, we asked ourselves, since mind map is so powerful and useful, why don’t we present the map directly. Then managers, colleagues, customers,and clients can understand us more clearly. How perfect! From Oct. 2007, XMind 2008 Pro has a special feature, Full Screen Presentation. A brand-new method.
With many follow-up hours’ work, now Presentation is very stable. Here are some key points to present your map in XMind Pro:

Below are three screenshots:
1. Beginning. all topics are hidden, only central topic is highlighted, centralized and zoomed in:

2. During presentation. topics which have been navigated will be shown too.

3. Sidebar and Button panel. Move mouse to the bottom, you will see the panel button. Click sidebar button, you will see the powerful sidebar at the left side. Here, you can navigate, filter, and record.

This presentation mode is popular used to make speech in meeting, report in hall, etc. Maybe you’re willing to share some your experience with us.