Hey guys, check out XMind

General Discussions
#1

I’ve been using XMind http://www.xmind.net/ to try to keep my ideas and task organized. The free version is fine for a single developer but apparently you can link in other people and brain storm together.

I’ve just found that it’s really useful for laying out my task and marking which ones rely on which others. I can then tag them with icons to show how far done each task is. It’s also quite useful for brainstorming. Just type an idea and then as your mind branches off into various ideas you can easily build those branches while tracking your ideas.

I have no relationship with the company, I just think it’s a really useful tool.

#2

I prefer a pen and paper! Make that a pencil. Must needs erase.

#3

I never did get much out of those “mind mapping” things that I couldn’t get from just having an emacs or kate window open. Connections between ideas are obvious by the wording, and I can use search in the editor to search across files as easily as within the one file. And I even think of myself as otherwise a visual thinker, I have to visualize most metaphors to really grok them, but all those lines and crap just distract me.

I guess it works for other folks. Maybe if said software embedded a decent editor it’d work out better for me.

#4

I use indented plain text.

main menu
1 player
2 player
options
resolution
etc

#5

Even neither use that or pen-paper. I use imagination.

#6

I’m back after some time off so I haven’t had time to respond to this. :smiley:

I think XMind gives you a lot of advantages over paper and pencil or an outline on a computer. For example:

Ease of editing
Ease of tracking multiple paths
Ease of marking completion percentages
Ease of re-arranging chunks of ideas. You can drag and drop whole chunks of ideas and place them in different areas.

Yeah, it’s not for everyone, but I’ve found it to be really useful and easy to use. I tend to make lots of list to help me stay focused. This tool helps me visualize my list better.

#7

Nate: if you ever need to convert one of your indented text files into a quick chart, try http://www.text2mindmap.com/

It seems a bit shaky on really big maps and lacks much in the way of adjustment - but it’s pretty good for just slamming something out

#8

That is pretty neat. However, I pasted in one of my files and couldn’t make much any sense of it that way. :slight_smile: It did the right thing, I guess I’m just not used to it.