XMind Pro

XMind Pro is a mind mapping tool that is simple to use, easy to learn, has a nice package of graphical features, and will save you a lot of time and effort in sorting your busy, monkey-chattering (at least ours are) brain out.

Get it. Totally.

Except… make sure that you try out the free version first. It’s got almost all of the features that you’re going to need to get started. For The Fumblers’ purposes, what’s lacking is the brainstorming mode (you can still brainstorm, it’s just not guided in the free version) and some of the exporting features (free doesn’t allow exporting to Word or Excel, but in the free product you can export to PDF and to text, so if you’re willing to do some formatting at least you’ve got the content — for free!). We got by quite handily for some time on the free product, and you can too.

XMind has an affiliate program, but the link above isn’t one we get paid for. Perhaps we’ll change that, but even without making money from XMind, we still unequivocally endorse this product.

A Note About Other Mind Mapping Tools

We’ve tried ‘em. Windows, Mac, Linux, even Android (Palmer’s a computer guy, remember), all sorts of programs and all sorts of platforms. They are all handy to different degrees. One in particular deserves mention though.

If you’ve been around on the internet, you may have noticed that other folks will recommend MindManager by MindJet. That’s possibly because MindJet also has an affiliate program and the product sells for nearly $350US. We found MindManager to be ponderous, complicated (and not because of whatever features it has that others don’t) and ass-pensive (especially when compared to XMind).

One of MindManager’s big selling points is how well it integrates with the Microsoft Office platform (and it sure shares Office’s screwy ribbon user interface methodology — yuck!). Except that didn’t sell to us at all. In order to speed our collaboration, we’re working much in Google Docs and text files that we share through Dropbox, so Office integration doesn’t do much for us, and hardly sells to us at all.

We were also way put off by the contacts from MindJet sales personnel after we downloaded the trial version. Not that our interactions were poor with those people — our sales rep was professional and courteous and helpful — but really we just wanted a tool to get our thoughts in order and phone calls and emails from sales staff seemed excessive for our simple need.

Our experience, our opinion, yours may be different and that’s just fine.