NovaMind Software are pleased to announce the following release dates for NovaMind 5:

NovaMind 5 for Windows will be released on 28th April 2010.

NovaMind 5 for Mac will be released on 12th May 2010.

Some people have expressed interest in some of the thinking and design that has gone into NovaMind 5, so I thought I would just talk a bit about what has gone into it, and some of the design decisions that have had to be made along the way. It’s more than I would normally reveal about our internal workings and decision making to get to the product, so I hope you find it interesting.

Compact and flexible layout system

One of the main foundation blocks of NovaMind 5 is the new layout system which is totally unique, and better than any other Mind Map layout system. The core features of the new layout system are:

• Very compact layout of Mind Maps.
• Extremely flexible automatic layout.
• Ability to move any topic to wherever you want and have the other topics move out of the way automatically.
• Ability to properly support callout topics, placing them so that they and their children topics do not overlap each other or other topics.
• Support for floating topics which allow you to have what look like other Mind Maps on the same canvas, and have them automatically move out of the way then pushed by the main Mind Map.
• Ability to support floating shapes attached to topics, either included or excluded from the topic layout, and placed in layers in front of or behind the Mind Map. This gives you a lot of visual flexibility to enhance your topics with images and notes around the main topic.

All of these capabilities are unique to NovaMind, and having gone through the development process to produce the new layout system, we can see why nobody else has done this before.

14 Major Rewrites

During the course of development of the layout system, we tried a wide range of different algorithms. Each time, we would find some good things about the algorithm, but would find some aspects of what we wanted to achieve with the layout were just not possible. We got 14 of the designs to the prototype testing stage, and each time had to take the lessons we learned and go back to the drawing board to come up with a new algorithm.

14 algorithms later, we finally had what we were looking for. Something with the power and flexibility to both handle our current needs, but also the ability to work with the enhancements we have planned in the future. It drew on the combined research represented in hundreds of research papers, but in the end, the vast majority of the algorithm needed to be designed specifically for our needs. It was a huge and difficult task, but now gives us power and flexibility completely unrivaled by any other Mind Mapping application, and a solid foundation for moving forward.

Topic Layout

When you think of a topic on a Mind Map, perhaps you visualize just a box with some text on it, but it needs to be so much more than that, especially when you consider the things that we will be allowing on the topics:

• The topic text (either automatically colored to contrast with its background or manually colored)
• Adornment icons (enhanced from the NovaMind 4 style)
• Task related information, with options for visible resource names
• Checkboxes
• Icons for indicating attached information like the hyperlinks and attached files
• Plugin data indicator icons
• Arbitrary amounts of space available for plugins to put their data and user interface on the topics
• Plugin supplied status information
• Up to 4 images per topic

With all these things to take into account, it took a lot of thinking through the designs and how all the different things would interact with each other, and how they would be placed for different topic shapes.

Take, for instance, the topic images. We went through at least 6 completely different prototypes that I can recall, refining the capabilities of the topic positioning and user interface to position the images, and to stretch, fit, or scale them in the image area. There are so many things to think about – what axes it should be able to be resized on, how a horizontal image would interact with a vertical one, what to do with images that are naturally smaller than the normal minimum size, etc. In the end, we came up with a solution that is both powerful and easy to use.

Again, with the whole design, the topic design is capable of both supporting the initial requirements of NovaMind 5.0, and the growth as we add capabilities over time.

The Best Plugin System

The Windows version will be shipping with the plugin system, which will come later to the Mac version. This allows a massive amount of flexibility for developers to extend the functionality of NovaMind in new directions. The developers we have been working with already say that it is the most powerful and flexible plugin system they have seen.

The plugins can add their own data to the topics, have their own icons, text indicators, and complete user interface on the topics, as well as adding side panels and ribbon bar items. And it’s all integrated into a very simple system that allows developers to get up to speed very quickly.

Coloring and Design

Most people don’t want to spend hours tweaking their Mind Maps to make them look good. This is why we put a huge amount of time and effort into creating systems that make it trivially easy to create great looking Mind Maps.

Themes

The core of the system is themes. The themes in NovaMind 5 are specifically designed to be complete look and feel designs that set the default settings for the map itself and the topics, callouts, floating topics, and shapes on the map…but they explicitly do not wipe out any custom settings you have applied. All aspects of the design have the capability to be reset to the default formatting, which they will get from the theme that is currently being used. As a theme is a complete design, you can try different themes, safe in the knowledge that you can do so without losing any of your custom formatting, and with the ability to go back to whatever theme you were using before.

Color Sets and Font Sets

To further enhance the design, we have the capability to work with color sets and font sets. These are designed to go well with each other, so you can change to a different look, and have all your color set colors update to colors that go with the new color set design. This allows you to always have great looking Mind Maps with colors and fonts that go well together, without having to think about it.

Automatic Coloring

About 6 years ago, we introduced the world to rainbow coloring of Mind Maps, and we still get positive comments about it to this day, but we saw many possibilities for enhancing both the rainbow coloring and adding new automatic coloring options. We are particularly happy with the new alternating rainbow coloring with both brightness and saturation settings – this makes it really easy to get a great looking set of colors which contrast well with each other. Also the color sets are very useful, allowing you to repeat a set of colors automatically through the sub-topics.

We also made it so that you can set the automatic children coloring at any level on the Mind Map, which gives you a massive amount of flexibility of coloring. Again, all this is totally unique to NovaMind, and a result of thinking through every part of the design carefully.

…And There’s so Much More!

These are just some of the core enhancements coming in NovaMind 5. It has been a huge job. It took us 7 years to get to where we were with NovaMind 4, but even though we had a reasonably good Mind Mapping program, it was obvious that continuing to bolt bits and pieces on to that foundation, we would run into more and more limitations of the system, and we would not achieve our goal of being simply the best Mind Mapping application available on any platform. We completely started from scratch, taking all the lessons we have learned from the last 7+ years, and our understanding of Mind Mapping, in order to design the best from the ground up.

…But This is Just the Start…

The redevelopment project has been much bigger than any of us expected, and “Murphy’s law” was solidly at work to slow us down, but every step of the way, when there was a decision about whether to do it the quick way or the right way, we chose to do it the right way – the way that would give us the best in usability now, and flexibility for enhancement over time. We have been all about producing something that would be the basis on which we could build the next big thing in Mind Mapping, instead of perpetuating the problems that all other Mind Mapping programs suffer.

This means that now, even though NovaMind 5.0 is kind of like a version 1.0 product in that everything is brand new, it already has absolutely the best layout system, the best theme system, the best coloring system, the best topic layout system, the best plugin architecture, and the most flexible system for future enhancement. The initial release of NovaMind 5 is just the beginning, and everything accelerates from there. We are in an excellent position now with the imminent release of NovaMind 5 and the many enhancements planned following on from there. We’re looking forward to getting the initial version out to you, and continuing to enhance the program from there.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Another significant step towards the release of NovaMind 5 was achieved yesterday with the release of the first version of the technology preview for Mac. Here are some screen shots of some of the significant features:

We invented the concept of the Rainbow Coloring so that you could automatically have colorful Mind Maps. This is still a strong point to this day, with many people saying that they love not having to think about the colors, and yet automatically getting interesting, colorful Mind Maps. So we decided to improve on the concept in several important ways. Firstly, we added the ability to alter the brightness of the colors to give you finer control, and secondly, we added the ability to have alternating colors, so every second topic has its color taken from the opposite side of the colorwheel. This avoids a problem with the rainbow coloring where the adjacent topics are almost identical in color. This allows you to do things like this:

But this left an issue we were keen to address, and that is that some people only want some colors on their topics, so we invented another new way of coloring the subtopics automatically, and that is called Interpolated coloring. You have a color ring which you can drop colors on. You can have as many colors as you like, and it will interpolate between the colors like this:

But often you just want a set of specific colors, so we invented yet another coloring mechanism, which is called the Color Set. You can add as many colors as you like to the set, and NovaMind will cycle through the colors and apply them to the children. For instance, if you wanted alternating colors to make it easy to follow the subtopics, you could have just two colors in your colorset. Here’s an example with 3 colors:

Together, these options give you massive amounts of control over the automatic coloring, but there was one more limitation, and that is that in earlier versions of NovaMind, you could only set the coloring on the Mind Map title, so we changed that so you can now you can have automatic children coloring set on any topic.

So let’s talk a bit about topics.

We have introduced a number of new topic shapes as you can see here:

The last four topics are of particular interest, seeing as they are what we call Custom Topic Shapes. When you select that option, you can select each of the for quadrants individually and set it to be angled left or right, chamfered, square, or rounded. This gives you a massive amount of flexibility to make your Mind Maps say what you want them to say.

We are also showing some new topic coloring options, like this gradient fill:

And if you want something that gives you even more control and flexibility, you can create a detailed gradient like the one shown here.

I guess that is a bit of an extreme example, but it gives you and idea of the power of the fill options.

We also have the layout options like what we have in the Windows Technology Preview – this image shows you what they look like in the Mac version.

So that’s just a few of the things that are new in the NovaMind 5 Technology Preview for Mac. This release marks a very significant step in the development process. The progress has been really good over the last few weeks, and we are expecting to make good progress from here on in as we attend to bugs and implementing the rest of the functionality to get it ready for release.

The NovaMind Windows development team have been very busy getting the next stages of the development complete and rolled out to the technology preview. In the last few weeks, the following things have been added to the technology preview of NovaMind 5 for Windows.

You can now attach as many hyperlinks as you like to topics, and can also attach files as embedded files.

You can attach as many files as you like to each topic, and they are embedded so that when you send a NovaMind file to someone else, the embedded files go with it automatically, and then can be extracted by the other person. Although most Mind Mapping software allows you to add hyperlinks to topics, and some allow file attachments, NovaMind is unique in allowing you multiple of them on a siingle topic.

There is also a new ‘Automatic’ text color which will pick the most appropriate text color based on the text background (this is now the default). Of course if you select the color specifically, it will honor your color. This is one less thing you need to think about when you are creating and editing your Mind Maps.

We also have single click editing and “select and type” editing of topics. This is also there in the Mac version.

Plugin support has just got way better with the introduction of the ability for a plugin to insert custom ribbon tabs, buttons and menu items.

Importers have been added for the following file formats:

- New: Basic NovaMind 3/4 import.
- New: MindManager 7/8 import.
- New: XMind import.
- New: FreeMind import.
- New: OPML import.

Late last year, Chuck Frey of Innovation tools did a survey of the most improved Mind Mapping software, and NovaMind came second in the survey. This is an impressive result, considering that NovaMind 5, which is set to revolutionize the Mind Mapping software market, has not yet been released on either Windows or Mac, and not even fully previewed on Mac yet.

Even without the release of NovaMind 5, NovaMind was only 6% behind the winner, which makes NovaMind almost certain to be the most improved Mind Mapping software for 2010.

Another very interesting thing is that NovaMind is now the second most recognized Mind Mapping software available, putting it in an excellent position for moving swiftly into first place, both in brand recognition and feature set.

These results are even more significant because NovaMind did not even mention the survey in any of their newsletters, or do much more than post a simple blog post a few days before the close of the survey.

Chuck Frey says:

Gideon King and his development team at NovaMind have been relentless in pushing the envelope in terms of what’s possible with mind mapping software. It’s really cool to see that you, the readers of this blog, recognize their efforts, by [voting] NovaMind the second most improved mind mapping program in 2009 – and, significantly, only 6% behind MindManager!

Gideon King, founder of NovaMind says:

This recognition of NovaMind as one of the two top Mind Mapping programs is very rewarding, especially as we are still putting the finishing touches to NovaMind 5, and only a few people have seen it so far. NovaMind has been the top Mind Mapping program on Mac for the last 7 years, but much of the recent interest in NovaMind has stemmed from the technical preview of NovaMind 5 on Windows, showing that we are right on track in both the Windows and Mac markets.

Rewriting NovaMind from the ground up based on user feedback from the last 7 years has been a huge task, but this survey really shows that going right back to basics, and building the Mind Mapping solution that everyone wants, was the right decision to make. This is just a small taste of things to come, once NovaMind 5 is released.

We would like to thank all those who supported NovaMind by voting for NovaMind in the survey.

About Mind Mapping

Mind Maps are diagrams that work the way people think — they organize the information in the same way our brains organize information. They make it easy to understand, remember, and communicate complex information.

Our brains like thinking in pictures. The smooth curves and colorful pictures used in Mind Mapping create powerful images for your brain to remember.

Mind Maps cater to both logical left brain thinking and pictorial right brain thinking at the same time, which makes them a very good way of storing and recalling information, presenting things to other people, and brainstorming new ideas.

About NovaMind

NovaMind is used by businesses, in education, and for personal effectiveness, for tasks such as note taking, managing to-do lists, brainstorming, research, problem solving, decision making, presentation preparation and delivery, project planning, knowledge management, writing, and many other uses.

NovaMind has been the top Mind Mapping program available on Mac computers for the last 7 years, and has been available for Windows for over 3 years. It is rapidly gaining recognition for its many unique and innovative features and ease of use.

NovaMind 5 is set to take Mind Mapping beyond where any Mind Mapping software has been before, making Mind Mapping even more powerful, intuitive and fun.

For more information about NovaMind, please visit www.novamind.com or e-mail Gideon King at Gideon/at/novamind.com.

NovaMind had a strong presence at the BETT show in London, with a huge amount of interest being shown by many school districts, schools, and individual teachers in the capabilities in NovaMind.

There was particular interest in the new layout engine in NovaMind 5, with the unique ability to lay out the topics at any angle, and to keep the Mind Maps compact at all times, while allowing the user to place topics wherever they want. Also the coloring systems to make the Mind Maps look interesting and yet keep them consistent and looking good were very popular. Most of the demonstrations were done on the Windows version of NovaMind which has been in Technical Preview stage since October, and is therefore already pretty well tested and running smoothly.

A number of current users of the Mac version of NovaMind came by to have a look at what is coming in NovaMind 5, and were impressed with the new inspector system and ease of access to the advanced features of NovaMind 5 while keeping the program easy to use. The technical preview for Mac is expected to be released by the end of January, giving our Mac users the opportunity to try out the new features of NovaMind 5, while we continue to put the finishing touches to it ready for release.

Here’s a picture of Gideon King, founder of NovaMind at the NovaMind stand before the show began:

There are only a few days left to vote for the most improved Mind Mapping software for 2009.

We’d love your support by you voting for NovaMind.

Just click on this link http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CKBMN76 to vote.

I know this is a bit of a tricky one since we have not actually released NovaMind 5 yet, but you can see the thought that has gone into the design from the videos and the technology preview, so it would be great if you could lend your support by voting for NovaMind.

Thanks – much appreciated.

NovaMind will have a stand at the BETT show in London. Amongst the team manning the stand will be both NovaMind’s founder Gideon King and Cathy Schneider, NovaMind Marketing Manager for Europe, and we’d love the opportunity to talk with you, so if you are in the area of the Olympia stadium between the 13th and 16th of January, please do pop in and say hello.

We will be demonstrating NovaMind 5 technical preview for both Windows and Mac at the show, and we would be happy to be able to show you what’s coming. You can visit us at stand SW107.

Learn more about the BETT Show and register online for FREE

Brisbane, Australia. 9th December 2009:

With the significant amount of interest that has been generated by NovaMind 5, it became necessary to expand the NovaMind sales and marketing teams worldwide. As part of that expansion, NovaMind are pleased to announce that we now have a full time European presence with the hiring of Cathy Schneider, as the NovaMind Marketing Manager for Europe. She will be working with the rest of the sales and marketing team to address the needs of our European customers.

Cathy brings a wealth of experience, having worked as a marketing manager for Mindjet, selling MindManager in Europe, and therefore is thoroughly familiar with Mind Mapping. She also brings experience as a business manager, sales manager and after sales manager, and is fluent in French, German and English.

Cathy says “I’m very excited to be joining NovaMind at such a fundamental time where I can leverage the full spectrum of my experience. I see tremendous continued opportunity for NovaMind and look forward to helping the company expand its product line, increase its brand awareness and reach new customers.”

One of the first things Cathy did upon joining the team was to translate one of the videos about NovaMind 5 into French, and the resulting video is available at this URL: http://www.novamind.com/features/nm5.php#topiclayout

NovaMind founder, Gideon King said “NovaMind 5 is a complete redesign of our Mind Mapping software from the ground up, and it is great to see the huge level of interest out there. It has become obvious that nobody else in the market is addressing the fundamental needs of Mind Mappers. This has generated a lot of interest in NovaMind 5, and the need to grow our sales and marketing team significantly.

We are delighted to be able to welcome Cathy to the team to firmly establish our presence in Europe. She brings with her the experience of working with MindManager for several years, and is therefore able to both be up to speed on Mind Mapping principles and uses, as well as seeing the unique advantages of NovaMind.”

Cathy is available to take enquiries from companies and individuals from the UK and Europe, and can be reached at cathy@novamind.com . She will also be at the NovaMind stand at the BETT show at the Olympia stadium in London, 13th to 16th January 2010 – stand SW107.

It was recently announced that there would be integration between NovaMind and iThoughts, giving you the capability to exchange files between these two top of the range Mind Mapping applications.

This video shows you how easy it is to transfer MindMaps back and forth between NovaMind and iThoughts. The demonstration is done using NovaMind for Mac, but works equally well with NovaMind for Windows.

For further information about iThoughts, and to get your copy of NovaMind or iThoughs, please visit http://www.novamind.com/ithoughts

 

 Podcast Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Integrating Mind Mapping Techniques with Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project Server, Creating Powerful New Project Management Tool

Bonn, Brisbane, Phoenix – September 16, 2009 – A powerful new combination of project planning software packages, enabling business managers to develop comprehensive project plans in even faster and more effective ways, was announced today by Wodey Informationssysteme and NovaMind Software. ProjectLINKER for NovaMind 5, developed by Wodey Informationssysteme, Bonn, Germany, and NovaMind Software, Australia, elegantly couples the latest business mapping software, “NovaMind 5”, with the latest “Microsoft Office Project”, letting enterprise teams plan, map, track and clearly understand their activities as never before.

For more information and screenshots of the new plugin in action, please visit http://www.novamind.com/projectlinker

Through ProjectLINKER for NovaMind 5, project plans and data are bi-directionally synchronized between NovaMind and Microsoft Office Project as well as Microsoft Project Server. This allows organizations to gain unprecedented visibility into their resources, as all projects, complex and small, can be tracked in Microsoft Office Project Server. The solution now makes it faster and easier to report project status in a visual intuitive format to executives and client stakeholders. Without further training, business managers will have access to resource availability during the initial planning phases resulting better business decisions, more accurate plans and more realistic expectations.

ProjectLINKER for NovaMind 5 offers business leaders clarity and transparency in their project portfolios. Additionally, teams can record project history, status, and multi-project overviews – all with graphical indicators to enhance visual reporting. The use of ProjectLINKER for NovaMind 5 for project planning can accelerate the deployment of Microsoft Project Server 2007. Due to its powerful, yet easy planning capabilities, even the smallest projects can be planned and tracked in Microsoft Office Project Server.

ProjectLINKER for NovaMind 5 will be presented for the first time in the Microsoft Office Project Conference, September 14 – 17 2009 in Phoenix, AZ. Wodey Informationssysteme will demonstrate the tool during the conference and will have a booth in the exhibition hall as well. Also, both companies, Wodey Informationssysteme and NovaMind will announce their partnership on the Project Conference. In Germany, the product will be presented on the Microsoft exhibition stand on the “discuss & discover” – platform from October 20 – 22, 2009 in Munich, as Wodey Informationssysteme is going to be one of the 20 Microsoft partners in Germany.

The German and English product versions of ProjectLINKER for NovaMind will be available soon. Please keep yourself updated through http://www.novamind.com/projectlinker

About Wodey Informationssysteme

Wodey Informationssysteme is being valued as a leading specialist in the field of enterprise-wide implementation of visual and holistic project management programmes. The service portfolio ranges from a first analysis, over the to-be-concept and a pilot model to the realisation of the project. After the implementation process customer-specific requests will be fulfilled and all parties involved will be trained according to their different roles and responsibilities. Wodey Informationssysteme offers training and coaching programmes as well as support for professional project management.

The company is a Microsoft Premier Project Partner, and has a lot of experience with Mind Mapping, having previously developed a version of ProjectLinker for Mind Manager, but have now stopped developing for Mind Manager, in favor of working with NovaMind. Reiner Wodey, Managing Director, holds a membership at the Microsoft Partner Advisory Council in Redmond, USA. Wodey Informationssysteme is headquartered in Bonn, Germany and is being represented in 13 additional countries. For more information, visit www.wodey.de

About NovaMind

NovaMind is used by businesses, in education, and for personal effectiveness, for tasks such as note taking, managing to-do lists, brainstorming, research, problem solving, decision making, presentation preparation and delivery, project planning, knowledge management, writing, and many other uses. NovaMind has been the top Mind Mapping program available on Mac computers for the last 7 years, and has been available for Windows for over 3 years. It is rapidly gaining recognition for its many unique and innovative features and ease of use. NovaMind 5 is set to take Mind Mapping beyond where any Mind Mapping software has been before, making Mind Mapping even more powerful, intuitive and fun.

For more information about NovaMind, please visit www.novamind.com or e-mail Gideon King at Gideon/at/novamind.com.

NovaMind are pleased to announce that we are working with the developers of iThoughts Mind Mapping software for iPhone and iPod Touch to bring two way exchange of files from both NovaMind for Windows and NovaMind for Mac. The integration is currently undergoing internal testing right now, and already supports the exchange of Mind Maps including:

• Text
• Notes
• Hyperlinks
• Topic position
• Color
• Shape
• Percentage complete
• Priority
• Collapsed status

This integration further extends the reach of NovaMind, meaning that we have integration between NovaMind and both the top Mind Mapping applications on the iPhone: iBlueSky and iThoughts.

We have heard from our customers that many of them have one or both of these applications, and find them very useful for Mind Mapping on the go. NovaMind’s founder, Gideon King said “we believe this shows the power of partnerships, where we are now able to bring our customers easy access to the two best Mind Mapping applications on iPhone and iPod Touch, allowing people the choice of software to use on their iPhone, secure in the knowledge that it will work with NovaMind.”

The first public release of the new version of iThoughts including NovaMind support is expected in a few weeks, and will be available as a free update for existing iThoughts customers. It will work with the current version of NovaMind.

Chuck Frey, author of the Mind Mapping Software Blog just posted his exclusive preview of NovaMind 5, entitled “Exclusive preview of NovaMind 5: New version offers a wealth of innovative new features”.

In his article, Chuck says that NovaMind “have always been innovators in this software genre, but they’ve outdone themselves this time, incorporating many new features and enhancements that are like nothing you’ve ever seen in mind mapping software before”.

When commenting about the new mind map layout engine in NovaMind 5, he said that it was efficient, maintaining a clean map layout while preventing topic overlaps and eliminating much wasted space. He also contrasted the freedom you have to place topics where you want them, with the rigidity of other Mind Mapping applications which have little or no control over topic placement.

He mentions some of the many new features in NovaMind 5 like multiple topic images on a single topic, and the more powerful shapes, which “enable you to add some unique visual enhancements to your maps”.

He talks about the new powerful plugin architecture of NovaMind 5, and the comments from developers working with the plugins, about how easy it is to interface with NovaMind.

To close the article, he comments “I appreciate the innovation and passion that Gideon and his team have poured into NovaMind during the last few years. The results are quite impressive, and continue to push the envelope as far as what’s possible with mind mapping software!”

To read the full article, please go to http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/exclusive-preview-of-novamind-5.

To find out more about the features of NovaMind 5, and watch videos about the new version, please visit http://www.novamind.com/features/nm5.php

NovaMind Software has just released a new video at http://www.novamind.com/features/nm5.php highlighting the problems with Mind Map layout present in all other Mind Mapping software currently available on the market, and the solution NovaMind has developed for the “space explosion” problem. One of the major problems with Mind Maps is that they get huge, pretty quickly. And all the software that’s out there at the moment makes it worse.

Gideon King, founder of NovaMind, says “I have tested just about every piece of Mind Mapping software out there to see if anyone had a good layout system to avoid the space explosion problem…NONE of them have a decent layout system. I’m sure that if you’ve used any of the Mind Mapping software currently out there, you have suffered from this [space explosion] problem.”

He goes on to suggest that the layout of the Mind Map should really be the fundamental building block of any Mind Mapping application.

In the video, he demonstrates the magnitude of the issues in other Mind Mapping applications, and then shows how NovaMind 5 has been designed to keep the Mind Maps compact at all times. This is true even when editing topics in such a way as they bump into other topics. The other topics are only moved by the minimum amount required to ensure that the topics don’t collide.

He then goes on to demonstrate several other features of NovaMind 5 that are not available in any other Mind Mapping application, like the ability to alter the angle at which the topics are stacked, both for the Mind Map title, and at any level of the Mind Map, and the ability to move topics to wherever the user desires. This is coupled with a system that honors the position that other topics are in, except where they overlap, and even then, only moves them by the minimum amount necessary to avoid collision, and honors as far as possible, the relative positions of the topics.

Mr King says “These layout capabilities are just one part of NovaMind 5, which is already generating a huge amount of interest in the market. The layout system is one of the core foundations of the product, and is clearly superior to anything else available. It lets you get on with your brainstorming and task management, secure in the knowledge that NovaMind is keeping your topics in the best possible position for your needs. It’s the perfect combination of power, flexibility, and ease of use.”

The video, and more information about NovaMind 5 is available at http://www.novamind.com/features/nm5.php

About Mind Mapping

Mind Maps are diagrams that work the way people think — they organize the information in the same way our brains organize information. They make it easy to understand, remember, and communicate complex information.

Our brains like thinking in pictures. The smooth curves and colorful pictures used in Mind Mapping create powerful images for your brain to remember.

Mind Maps cater to both logical left brain thinking and pictorial right brain thinking at the same time, which makes them a very good way of storing and recalling information, presenting things to other people, and brainstorming new ideas.

About NovaMind

NovaMind is used by businesses, in education, and for personal effectiveness, for tasks such as note taking, managing to-do lists, brainstorming, research, problem solving, decision making, presentation preparation and delivery, project planning, knowledge management, writing, and many other uses. NovaMind has been the top Mind Mapping program available on Mac computers for the last 7 years, and has been available for Windows for over 3 years. It is rapidly gaining recognition for its many unique and innovative features and ease of use. NovaMind makes Mind Mapping intuitive and fun.

For more information about NovaMind, please visit www.novamind.com or e-mail Gideon King at gideon(at)novamind.com.

 

 Podcast Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Here is another video about NovaMind 5 – this one deals with topic editing and resizing, and image placement and resizing. Enjoy!

More information about NovaMind 5 is available at http://www.novamind.com/features/nm5.php

 

 Flash Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Mind Maps are an excellent tool for helping sufferers of ADHD / ADD because they allow you to jump around to different topics quickly and easily, organize information, focus on what is important, and explain your ideas to other people in terms that they can understand. I have just posted a brief article and Mind Map about ADHD and Mind Mapping at http://www.squidoo.com/adhd-mind-maps

Enjoy!

“Power Brainstorming: Great Ideas at Lightning Speed” by brainstorming expert Hazel Wagner draws on her wide range of experience as a mathematician, business owner, public speaker and consultant to Fortune 100 companies, to produce a book that covers everything required to conduct individual and group brainstorming sessions.

The book is aimed at anyone who owns, runs, or works in any business. It provides practical tips and examples that can be applied in any business to cut costs and open up new business opportunities. Existing products and services can be improved, processes streamlined, and new product lines and services added as a result of the brainstorming processes taught in this book.

Processes are taught in the book to super-charge the innovation of the company and instill a culture of effective brainstorming throughout the company.

In the current business environment it is critical to differentiate a company to stay ahead of the competition. The techniques taught in this book are specifically designed to provide the tools necessary to achieve and maintain that differentiation.

Illustrations are provided throughout the book to show how to implement the concepts, including a number of NovaMind mind maps. There are two parallel tracks in the book: Track 1 is filled with instructions and methods to make brainstorming sessions productive and fun, and gives so many choices that your brainstorming efforts will never get boring. Track 2 tells the story of a group of employees that begin brainstorming with a young novice facilitator. This team’s efforts start to catch the attention of the firm’s executives who want to learn how and why the methods have been so effective.

This combination of presentations makes for a book that is both thorough in its coverage of the topic and easy to implement in a practical way in the workplace.

The book is available as an eBook from http://www.novamind.com/mind-mapping-books/power-brainstorming.php

Gideon King, founder of NovaMind said “I was privileged to be involved in the development of the book, and am impressed with the thoroughness of the book and the practical advice that is provided. This is the kind of book that could be picked up by anyone and used to learn all you need to know about brainstorming quickly and effectively. The NovaMind Mind Maps included in the book are a great example of the power of Mind Mapping when used in conjunction with brainstorming.”

About Mind Mapping

Mind Maps are diagrams that work the way people think — they organize the information in the same way our brains organize information. They make it easy to understand, remember, and communicate complex information.

Our brains like thinking in pictures. The smooth curves and colorful pictures used in Mind Mapping create powerful images for your brain to remember.

Mind Maps cater to both logical left brain thinking and pictorial right brain thinking at the same time, which makes them a very good way of storing and recalling information, presenting things to other people, and brainstorming new ideas.

About NovaMind

NovaMind is used by businesses, in education, and for personal effectiveness, for tasks such as note taking, managing to-do lists, brainstorming, research, problem solving, decision making, presentation preparation and delivery, project planning, knowledge management, writing, and many other uses. NovaMind has been the top Mind Mapping program available on Mac computers for the last 7 years, and has been available for Windows for over 3 years. It is rapidly gaining recognition for its many unique and innovative features and ease of use. NovaMind makes Mind Mapping intuitive and fun.

For more information about NovaMind, please visit www.novamind.com or e-mail Gideon King at gideon(at)novamind.com.

NovaMind Software is pleased to announce the immediate availability of iBlueSky version 2. iBlueSky allows creation of Mind Maps in iBlueSky on the iPhone or iPod Touch, which can be sent to NovaMind or vice versa.

Having iBlueSky Mind Mapping software available in your pocket on iPhone or iPod touch means that the user has at their fingertips (literally) the ability to:

• create to-do lists whilst in the moment so as to avoid forgetting anything
• take notes in meetings where there is no laptop available
• jot down ideas as they arise, and organize them
• be productive anywhere and everywhere, in those spare moments waiting in line etc.
• solve problems and make decisions using Mind Mapping techniques, at any time
• brainstorm in places where it would be impractical to take a laptop
• summarize and memorize information no matter where you are

iBlueSky 2 is now available as a free upgrade for existing users, and features the following new capabilities:

• Huge page size (nearly 1500x screen size)
• Import mind maps from NovaMind
• Branches with more than one line of text
• Attach notes to branches (optional “T” indicator shows branches with notes)
• Double-tap to zoom in/out
• Change branch colours using an intuitive colour picker (option to apply to sub-branches)
• Toolbars are now translucent and auto-hide when no branch is selected
• Attach a message and set the email subject when exporting projects
• Export destination email address can now be entered manually, or selected from the address book
• Remember last used email address when exporting projects
• Change project sort order (Preference setting: Creation date, modification date, alphabetically or Manually)
• Tap status bar at top of screen to scroll back to the root branch or selected branch (if a branch is selected)
• More responsive when dragging branches around
• Improved branch layout
• Compatibility with iPhone OS 3
• Minor bug fixes

For further information about iBlueSky and NovaMind integration, please see http://www.novamind.com/ibluesky/

Gideon King, founder of NovaMind said “We are very excited about the possibilities that this integration of NovaMind and iBlueSky brings. iBlueSky 1 was very popular with our customers, but a frequent request was two way integration of NovaMind and iBlueSky. This new version offers great flexibility with the file transfer, and also provides an excellent Mind Mapping experience that feels comfortable when using your iPhone or iPod Touch.”

About Mind Mapping

Mind Maps are diagrams that work the way people think — they organize the information in the same way our brains organize information. They make it easy to understand, remember, and communicate complex information.

Our brains like thinking in pictures. The smooth curves and colorful pictures used in Mind Mapping create powerful images for your brain to remember.

Mind Maps cater to both logical left brain thinking and pictorial right brain thinking at the same time, which makes them a very good way of storing and recalling information, presenting things to other people, and brainstorming new ideas.

About NovaMind

NovaMind is used by businesses, in education, and for personal effectiveness, for tasks such as note taking, managing to-do lists, brainstorming, research, problem solving, decision making, presentation preparation and delivery, project planning, knowledge management, writing, and many other uses. NovaMind has been the top Mind Mapping program available on Mac computers for the last 7 years, and has been available for Windows for over 3 years. It is rapidly gaining recognition for its many unique and innovative features and ease of use. NovaMind makes Mind Mapping intuitive and fun.

For more information about NovaMind, please visit www.novamind.com or e-mail Gideon King at gideon(at)novamind.com.

NovaMind is moving office this weekend and Monday. We will try to keep disruption of support services to a minimum. The web site will continue to be fully operational during our move.

With the growth in the number of users of NovaMind (over the last 9 months in particular), and the massive interest in NovaMind 5, it’s time for us to move to bigger offices to cater for additional staff as we continue to expand. With the new office, and new procedures to handle our international staff, we should be able to grow the company to at least 5 times the current size using the new office as our home base. We’ll be gradually increasing our staff numbers in the short term, as we can’t bring too many people on right in the middle of the ramp up to NovaMind 5 without negatively impacting the delivery of NovaMind 5, but following the release of NovaMind 5, we expect to be growing rapidly.

The new office is a brand new office building, so we have had the privilege of designing the entire layout exactly the way we wanted it, and we’re very excited about moving into it. Here are some pictures during the construction. They say it will be ready by Friday – I hope so!

2009 is definitely “the year” for NovaMind, with exciting new developments happening every week. It’s been over 7 years of really hard work to get it here, so it’s very rewarding to see it finally really get past the point of critical mass and be heading into a massive growth phase. I guess I was a little worried about the “global economic meltdown” everyone is talking about, but it appears that companies and individuals are actually realizing that they need to work smarter and more efficiently, so we have seen strong sales throughout the economic turmoil.

And of course, we couldn’t have done it without you, our customers who have told your friends and colleagues about NovaMind, and have bought NovaMind and upgraded as we release new versions.

You are just seeing the beginning of what NovaMind will become, as I reinvest the profits into building better software, support systems and services for you.

For the first couple of years of the existence of NovaMind, we didn’t have a proper affiliate program or any reseller system, then 5 years ago, a friend in Japan, William Reed (a keen user of NovaMind himself), introduced me to Stephen Yamakami, and we put the reseller system together initially around his needs before building it into the system it is today. Stephen’s site is http://www.novamind-japan.com/ (in Japanese as you would expect), and we would like to salute him as the pioneer of NovaMind resellers, and for his continued support of NovaMind for the last 5 years.

Find out how easy it is to become either an affiliate or reseller on the NovaMind web site.

Find this article interesting? Why not Tweet about it? Just click the button:

Laurent Coussirat, President and Founder of the group, explains :

“As a manager of 3 companies, I was first a simple user of Novamind software, needing to improve my efficiency, organization and communication. As a consultant, I was also using Novamind for brainstorming, interactive meetings, and innovative presentations.

So much convinced by those useful tools, I decided to distribute them in Europe through a new shop online specially designed and dedicated to NovaMind software : www.store-become.com.

We have been working a lot on the design of the store website, to make it attractive, clear and user friendly, as well as creating a secure area where a user can log in and see details of their orders, license keys, and invoices at any time, instead of just receiving them once by email.

We created also a new department inside the company, with value added services focused on :

• Creativity methods and tools
• Map design on demand
• Mind mapping approach
• Training
• Coaching

Novamind software has changed the life of our team inside the company, and is changing, more and more, the life of our customers ! We push hard to promote Novamind solution and our value added services on the European market.

Thanks to Gideon King and his team for those amazing tools. We wait now for the fantastic version 5 ! ”

This is a version of the Mind Map they have created for their home page showing some of the main benefits of using NovaMind:

And here is a Mind Map created “on demand” for a customer who needed to do a business presentation on their commercial strategy for a chain of jewelry stores:

Laurent mentions that there are a number of other templates on the www.store-become.com web site, and more to come each month.

We are very happy to welcome Become Partners as a NovaMind reseller.

Find out how easy it is to become either an affiliate or reseller on the NovaMind web site.

Find this article interesting? Why not Tweet about it? Just click the button: