FreeMind

I've tried lots and lots of mind mapping tools. Some are good, some have a few cool features and neat ideas. Most fall down badly on a few points. (I particularly like CMAP Tools). But freemind is the best overall. It is a little frumpy (the graphs are not full of colors and big fat arrows and such). But for me it is the easiest to use with the most useful features. Good stuff! My only complaint is that it's written in Java and requires the Java rte.

3 out of 3 users found the following review helpful.

Nice companion when you face a complex problem. It lets you record your thoughts in a tree/branch/branch/leaves shape.

Branching can grow as you think and easy to shuffle leaves as the idea crystallizes.

Technically - permits you to draw N-ary tree for directory mapping, hierarchy etc.

I also use it to capture requirements and group features during initial stages. Linear or simple tree shapes are not that good.

Would get my 5 if it permitted more than one root node in a single map.

My own unscientific survey says that if you sometimes refer to yourself in the 3rd person, than this app just might be for you. If you feel the need to classify your thoughts in an organized way then you should give it a shot. However in the end I just found myself writing down mostly gibberish that didn't help me out much. Yes, i have problems.

2 out of 5 users found the following review helpful.