Mind mapping software, was Re: Is KDE 4 Stable?

[Giles Orr]

On 4 December 2011 13:56, CLIFFORD ILKAY <clifford_ilkay-biY6FKoJMRdBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> * I used to use kdissert, a mind-mapping tool in KDE 3. It has since been
> superseded by Semantik. Semantik seems nice, except when you attempt to
> print the pretty diagram you just created to a PDF. It *only* prints what is
> visible in the window's view port, not the whole document and there seems to
> be no obvious way to do otherwise. That means I wasted a bunch of time doing
> a mind map of a project I'm working on only to discover after I'd done that
> there was no easy way to share what I'd done with other project
> participants, all of whom use OS X. I had to fiddle with the diagram to get
> it to fit within the view port but that's fragile because the next object I
> added, it rearranged the diagram automatically. This pushes me some on-line
> hosted application that I don't really trust, bubble.us, so I'm looking for
> better alternatives. I've seen some Java-based cross-platform app but it has
> the handicap of being Java-based, which I'm reluctant to install because
> every time I install anything Java-based, it seems to be a pig and it always
> seems to disappoint. (Case in point: Eclipse. I have a rant about it that
> I'll have to save for another day.) Yet another, "Sigh..."

I understand your discomfort with Java-based software, but have for
several years been using FreeMind very happily despite it being
Java-based.  I think it's the only Java-based software I use at home
(not so at work, where we use Eclipse).  I've found FreeMind to be the
most flexible of the several mind-mapping softwares I've tried, and
two other reasons I settled on it were A) entirely cross-platform
(behaves identically under Windows and Linux), and B) it stores its
files in a non-proprietary format ... XML.  And my respect for it was
sealed when I fired up Thinking Space (mind-mapping software for
Android, also highly recommended) and found that it uses the same file
format and opens FreeMind files flawlessly.

I don't think I've ever tried to print a mind map, but on several
occasions I've used FreeMind's export-to-HTML, which has worked quite
well.  It builds a nicely structured page of indented lists -
obviously a different appearance, but quite functional.  You'll have
to investigate that aspect of its behaviour yourself to see if it
serves your purposes.

-- 
Giles
http://www.gilesorr.com/
gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
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