Hi Guys

does Anyone know of any mindmapping software which not only allows u to organize your ideas visually but also CONVERTS IT INTO PDF FORMAT

It's something like what Harlan is doing...

PS: Any free one around?

I'm not sure what Harlan uses but here is one that I found just by googling "Free Mind Mapping Software".

Main Page - FreeMind - free mind mapping software

It's Java based but seems to have the pdf feature.

Also try,

Copywriters Board
Mindjet: Software for Visualizing and Managing Information

I believe each has a free trial.

HTH

I use Freemind and am real happy with it.

I downloaded freemind today and started using it right away. It's pretty simple. If you're after paid software, I've heard good things about mindjet.

Tested FreeMind tonight. Very pleased with it. Always found mind mapping by hand too slow b/c can type faster than writing.

Regards,

-Mike

I know I'm probably alone on this, but I still don't get the whole mind mapping thing.

To me it actually confuses thought.

OK, so I looked @ the screenshots at the link offered, and... tvwriterguy, I'm totally with you. I find that "mapping" stuff, although cool-looking, to be totally confusing. Well okay, the lines are pretty... ?

I do my initial brainstorming on a whiteboard and in a spiral-bound notebook.

A lot of times during the brainstorming process I have "quotes"/snippets that just spring to mind, and I write them down right away in a notebook. I don't want to lose them. Usually they are great stuff.

Then comes the time to outline... that's also done on a combination of a whiteboard and in OmniOutliner.

Anywhere in the process I might start writing. I've never been a structured writer. My best stuff has always just spontaneously dumped out of my head and it usually does not follow the outline. Then I have to retrofit content into it backwards-like for the parts that got left out that the outline says "should" be there......

I just love whiteboards. Like the kind that is nailed it a wall. I also buy boxes full of spiral-bound notebooks when they are on sale in the back-to-school sales. Walmart has them for 10¢ apiece and I wil usually buy 50-60 of them every year -- heck, it's only $5-6! LOL!

Now we are encroaching on my school/office supplies addiction/obsession which is another thread entirely.........

Bailey

Vin,
I have the same feeling about this...

perhaps we're using the "wrong" sides of our brains!

When I look at a mind-map, it looks like a mathematical equation or a broken jigsaw puzzle.

You're getting a little bit too close to home on that one missy! LOL!

I'm the Pilot G-2 07 champion of the world! I've got those damn pens stored everywhere.

And I love composition style notebooks.

Dry-erase markers for my whiteboard? Every fricking color and tip-point I can get-- and it still isn't enough.

Same here... it's like if it didn't start in the middle of the page, I wouldn't even know where to look!

And coming from a medium that loves free flowing ideas, and being a person who has been pretty successful free flowing, I can confidently say that you can be just as free flowing while following a linear structure.