[Macworld]

Post your comments for Review: ConceptDraw MindMap Pro 5.5 here

[tokyojerry]

Great! Thanks for the sales pitch. Alternatively, to accomplish very similar tasks with similar ease-of-use, there is Xmind. It also allows similar freedom in dart board brainstorming tactics. Best yet, is the price: $299 program which is now FREE and open source. http://www.xmind.net/
Cheers,

[dreyfus]

I almost bought CD's MindMap about two years ago, but I was hesitant, because of the ugly interface at that time (that seems to have improved a bit). While I was fighting that decision, CS Odessa made it for me. There was barely a single day after downloading the trial that they failed to spam my inbox. Still, I am thankful - I have never since then downloaded demo software requiring an email address.
I then tried MindManager when it came out, and found it to be far overpriced when compared to the PC version, as it was lacking most of it. I then happily bought NovaMind, which is ten times the program compared to any of these and integrates nicely with other software on the Mac.
The principles of mind mapping outlined in the article are quite a bit different from what the inventor of mind mapping (Tony Buzan) describes. I also miss any information on import and export capabilitites (other than exporting an outline to RTF? OPML would be a better choice, don't you think). How about project management apps and iWork?

[jonro]

Thanks for this link. I wasn't familiar with Xmind. I downloaded it and it's excellent. My only qualm is that the Pro version is only available as a subscription ($50/yr). I used to use NovaMind, which is very good. But, their software seemed to break with every new OS X release and their upgrades to new version with almost no new features are expensive. Maybe I'll give them a try again one day, but for now, I'm going to work with Xmind.

[Macaday]

And then there is also the very excellent, wonderfully simple, enjoyable to use 'MindNode' from Marcus Muller.
And it's free.