Make Concept Maps, Etc. with Xmind

At work, we often look for the best tools that will help us deal with the information we have to analyze. Sometimes we have brainstorming meetings that make things either confusing or clearer. Either way we get tons of information that we have to process and sometimes we need concept maps and mindmaps to make it better.

Enter, Xmind, a collaboration tool and mind mapping software. It has different templates that will help you analyze and/or present information better. The interesting thing about this tool is that there is Xmind for Eclipse users so the software developers I work with can easily view it on their favorite IDE.

Xmind. Image Credit: Clair Ching, 2009.

Xmind lets you create a topic and its subtopics. You usually start with a new page with a new topic and then when you right click it, you will find the various options available for you like adding subtopics and other topics. You could even add new notes to the items you’ve written already.

Xmind’s workspace is reminiscent of Eclipse. It has panels that help you with defining its properties, as well as view the outline you’ve created. For the properties, you could define the background color for the entire map. You could also define the colors of the rounded rectangle. You could change the font face you are using too.

Another nifty thing about Xmind is that there are a lot of markers that help you point out which are pending tasks, done, or should be flagged. You could even add smileys to the items on your mindmap. This would make it more graphical and help you remember better or would help you communicate your topics better to your colleagues and/or friends.

There are free downloads which are available as a plugin for Eclipse, installer on Ubuntu or portable version that does not require you to install it.