A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. By presenting ideas in a radial, graphical, non-linear manner, mind maps encourage a brainstorming approach to planning and organizational tasks. Though the branches of a mindmap represent hierarchical tree structures, their radial arrangement disrupts the prioritizing of concepts typically associated with hierarchies presented with more linear visual cues.
Mind-mapping tools allow you to express, record your ideas ideas, associations and connections to develop an idea, and can aid in manipulating and generating concepts. For this roundup we have chosen some of the best Mind mapping Tools that will allow you to quickly explore ideas, collaborate with colleagues and edit to your heart’s content. Most of the following tools are free and few are premium but assure you wont put a burden on your pocket. Enjoy !!
1. XMind
XMind is an open source project, which means it’s free to download and free to use forever. XMind Plus/Pro with more professional features are also available. Along with a mind map structure, XMind also offers tree, logic and fishbone charts, with a built-in spell checker, search, encryption and even audio notes.
2. Coggle
Coggle is a free, online collaborative mind-mapping tool that allows you to visually define connections with a beautifully rendered branching structure. It lets you produce beautiful notes, quickly and easily. Share them with friends and colleagues to enhance your ideas collaboratively.
3. Mindmaps
mindmaps is an open source application that enables anyone to easily create good-looking mind maps. It is possible to create branches (sub-ideas) with an unlimited hierarchy where all of them are linked to each other. It is completely written with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript, the diagrams are created with canvas and offline usage is possible, thanks to ApplicationCache.
4. FreeMind
FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java. The recent development has hopefully turned it into high productivity tool. Operation and navigation of FreeMind is faster than that of MindManager because of one-click “fold / unfold” and “follow link” operations.
5. MindMeister
MindMeister is considered the best online mind mapping app currently on the market. With its award-winning online version and its free mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and Android, users are able to mind map at school, at home, at the office and even on the go. Mind mapping with MindMeister is so simple and intuitive that anyone from first grader to CEO can use it to improve their productivity and turn their creative ideas into action. MindMeister offers a number of powerful features that let users collaborate and brainstorm online, plan projects, develop business strategies, create great presentations and utilize the enormous power of mind maps for their education.
6. Mindnode
MindNode is a pretty, Mac-only app that’s both elegant and simple to use. With Mindnode you can easily jot down your thoughts and add as many mind maps as you like to MindNodes infinite canvas. You can even cross connect nodes from different maps. With iCloud (or Dropbox) all your mind maps are on all your devices. Or just export your mind maps to an open format, text file, and even as an image.
7. Bubbl.us
Bubbl.us is a flash-based web app that allows you to quickly map out ideas in a linear branching fashion, saving them online and exporting to a couple of different formats.
8. Text to Mind
Text2MindMaps is a useful way of organizing your thoughts using a simple, online tool. It’s easy to use — just type some text into the text area, use the tab key to indent text lines and click the Draw Mind Map button to see it evolve.
9. Popplet
Popplet is a mind mapping tool that is perfect for visually curating your ideas and brainstorms. You can visually record your ideas, inspirations and thoughts, as well as upload text, videos, images and draw on your canvas.
10. WiseMapping
WiseMapping is an open source HTML5 mind-mapping application that can be used both on the wisemapping.com website, or downloaded and installed onto your own web server.
11. Mindmap
MindMap is a Google Chrome extension that has Cloud, Google Drive, Dropbox and Box support built in. You can save your work into local storage, in the cloud, and print or export finished mind maps as an image.
12. Stormboard
Stormboard is a web-based HTML5 app that works cross-device. There’s a heavy focus on collaboration here, and there’s also some unusual output/mapping options such as the post-it note view. Up to five users is free, while if you want to work with larger teams you’ll need to shell out between $5 and $10 per month depending upon how much functionality you’d like.
13. Wridea
Wridea is a web service first to avoid ideas being forgotten, then to organize and improve those ideas by giving you the opportunity to share your ideas with friends and necessary tools to improve your ideas by yourself and individually.
14. Mindomo
Mindomo provides mind mapping and project collaboration tools for both businesses and education providers. It can be used to brainstorm mind maps, create tasks and share resources within a secure environment. It’s fully collaborative with the conversations, discussions and topics enabled within each workspace.
15. MindManager
MindManager from Mindjet is a powerful mind mapping tool that lets you organize your ideas in a single view, where you can easily drag and drop to gather and prioritize your ideas. Adding images, video, hyperlinks and attachments is simple, and the project planning tools make it straightforward to turn ideas into action.
