MindNode: a quick review

My work as Information Technology editor for Surgical Neurology International is very rewarding, and we made lots of progress the past few months. Check out my editorials to see what has been happening on my side. For that reason, other development has been rather quiet. I did some “playing around” but no serious new alternatives. Until now…

I have been fan of mindmapping for some time now. Mostly I work with computer software, like MindManager or FreeMind. Recently I discovered MindNode, and I simply love it.

The free version is already nice to work with, but has the limitation that you cannot insert images of hyperlinks. The Pro version solves these issues for 25 USD and works very well.

Even more exciting is MindNode Touch for iPhone and iPad. For 5 euro you get probably the best mobile mindmapping software currently available, if I have to believe some reviews I read. Actually, I do.

It works easily, intuitive, and offers a clear and nice looking mindmap. You can send maps by E-mail in their native format, and continue working on them on your Mac. Or you send them e.g. as a PNG image. If you have the Pro version on the Mac, you can synchronize mindmaps between devices. If you only have the free version on your Mac, just mail yourself the mindmap in native format, so you can store and open it on your computer. This does not work the other way around…. the Mac-to-mobile-device direction requires the Pro version.

Shortcomings? Yes, but minor… the mobile version would definitely profit from PDF export for E-mail. Mindmaps made on mobile device keep the same line width if you continue down the line in a tree, whereas the desktop version has a subtle decrease in line width (which I like). If you create the mindmap on the mobile device, this thickness-issue will not be converted to the more beautiful desktop style.

And for the desktop version? Well, yes… the most important feature I would like to have will be the topic of my next post: having a graphical mindmap representation for the web with working hyperlinks! Stay tunes for more on this…