Sharing MindManager maps via Mindjet Catalyst

Mindjet have launched Catalyst today. This is a new collaboration and publishing tool for MindManager users. It builds on the previous Mindjet Connect product. Existing users get a seamless transfer to the new product (I did).

A new feature of Catalyst is an easy process for sharing maps with non-users via a browser. A click on the share button creates a copy or snapshot of a map from your workspace. This is made available for anyone to read and download (if you choose). The readers see the map in a full screen window (best to press F11 or View > Full Screen on your browser menu) which has a toolbar with zoom, open and close branches and print the map buttons.

For instance here is a map of useful travel planning links to train and bus timetables, hire car companies, hotels, traffic jam monitors etc.

MindManager Map of Travel Web Sites

Shared via AddThis

This will be a brillaint way to share some types of maps with your colleagues, collaborators, clients and suppliers.

Some caveats:

1. Links to documents on your PC are not available to sharers. You will have to upload them to your Catalyst Workspace (I need to test this) and link them or host them on a web server.
2. Tables and images in Notes are not visible.
3. The format of the map is simplified. e.g. line thickness and colour in not applied.
   

Gordon Brown's Labour Party Conference Speech in a mind map

I thought I would run an experiment today, listen to Gordon Brown's conference speech on the television, map it and publish it. What would it say that the script and the video do not say?

My process was as follows:

• Prepare web export template - minor edits to a clickable imagemap export I have used many times
• Create a folder on my conferenceREACTION web space.
• Tweet that am I doing it.
  
• Start mapping and try to ignore other interruptions e.g. a tweet from Maurice asking if I was there?
• During the speech I posted the map 3 or 4 times. Also added a bit of fill colour to topics and changed the background colour. Note to self - setup a webfolder next time.
• When speech finished, posted map and tweeted again.
• Added images and changed to split tree growth direction to get more content across the screen. The speech flip flops down the tree.

Linked to the map in a couple of blogs on Ecademy:

1. A quick report on Gordon Brown's speech. Please discuss
2. Gordon Brown's Conference speech analysed

And received some feedback:

• "I didn't watch Gordon Brown's speech - but based on the excellent mind map that Andrew Wilcox has produced, I must say it lacks one big thing - VISION."
• "Mind map is cool. Did it take long to do? Obviously not too long."
• "It's interesting to compare the relative small size of the 'New Economic Model' to the larger scale of the other (spending commitment) sections."
  
• "Thanks for the concise overview."

How do you react to Gordon Brown's Labour Party Conference Speech in a mind map?

Can you point me at the best web sites created with MindManager?

Not catalogs of MindManager maps e.g. Mappio and Biggerplate or web sites which use MindMnager map images in them but web sites created using MindManager's web export or with an AddIn e.g Map4Web or Aha!VisualWebExport.

A few have been mentioned in this Question on LinkedIn "Can you point me at good examples of web sites created with MindManager? Or describe intranet sites where possible."

I want to be able to show a client some examples of best practice, so he and I can formulate some ideas about the best way export his knowledge to his clients.

I have a "catalogue" of MindManager export web sites I have produced but I would be surprised if they were the best in class. I must add the one I am currently working on called ConferenceREACTION.


Please add links to the best MindManager web exports in your comments to this blog.

Excel Spreadsheets and Ranges in MindManager Web Exports

Yesterday I was training a client team. They had already been using MindManager to create a series of internal web sites for sharing information within their multi-national group, suppliers and clients, They had created a new web export template to suit their purpose and produced some elegant web pages linked to different sources of information. One area in where they reached the "It's not doing what I really want" limit was the handling of spreadsheet information. Here are some suggestions that arose from that discussion, many of which I have tried previously and some which may be relevant to other file types e.g. Word and PowerPoint.


The Standard Link

Add a hyperlink to the spreadsheet file in the topic or in the topic text. There are more options in a topic link e.g. adding an argument which opens a specific worksheet in the spreadsheet. The standard link to a file will take a copy of the spreadsheet and place it in the Linked Documents folder of the web export. You can create a web link to a networked version of the spreadsheet with read only rights. Thus web site users will see the current data.

Advantages:

• Easy to do
• The original is not accessed by the user. They can do what ifs on the spreadsheet.
  

Disadvantages:

• Excel has to be loaded and the file opened which takes time.

The Excel Range

In MindManager 7 and 8 you can add an Excel range to a topic. This works well when viewing the map in MindManager. The data is refreshed every time the map is opened and can be refreshed with F5 at any time. Data can be placed in relationship to other information on the map e.g. sales data next to a list of outstanding invoices.

Advantages:

• Works if you are using a clickable image export. You see a snapshot of the spreadsheet ranges in the map.

Disadvantage:

• In other web export you see nothing except for a Data Container marker i.e. the spreadsheet was here but MindManager does not handle it in this export :( !

The Cut and Paste

You can cut and paste a spreadsheet range in to the topic notes. This creates a table.

Advantages:

• Easy to do.
  
• Information appears when the web page is loaded.

Disadvantages:

• Formatting is not the same and in my experience cell heights get larger. For ranges more than 4 x10 cells the post paste editing required to tidy up makes this unacceptable.

The Excel Web Export

Use the Excel "Save as Web Page" option. There are several options when doing this but the principles are that you either create web page which is a static snapshot of a range or whole spreadsheet or a more interactive web page which permits e.g. changing data and data sorting. Use a hyperlink in the map to point at this HTML file

Advantages:

• The data owner can republish the Excel web page after each update or save (an automated option in the publication process) of the spreadsheet.
• The formatting of your spreadsheet is reproduced
• The web page loads quickly
• The publisher can create several views of the spreadsheet for different users and save them as individual pages e.g. for an improvement process monitor: Completed actions, over due actions, department X actions
  

Disadvantages:

• The Excel web page is external to the MindManager web export i.e. the content does not appear inside the export page template. I suggest you use the open in new web page option in the Hyperlink. Workaround: You could post export paste the Excel HTML into a "blank" web page created during the export but I really wish Mindjet which allow HTML snippets to be added to topic notes!
  

Do you have any better strategies?

Fastest session for me using MindManager

This evening I recorded a meeting for the Winchester Action on Climate Change which had about 20 attendees. It was the brainstorming to start a 3 year plan for CO2 reduction in Winchester. Target 7% per year! The content remains private for now but here are some interesting stats from a event recorder using MindManager.

I walked in with a parent map with some information on it e.g. the attendees but I did not have an agenda. During the meeting I created 6 maps using the Right Click Topic > Send to new map command. Two summarising introductory presentations and three to cover the brainstorms on Transport, Domestic and Business/Government/Organisations plus their group feedback.

I have just used the Multimap View > Combine All to combine all the maps in to one. The statistics say I have 993 words (perhaps 100 of those existed when I walked in the room) in 316 topics (40 were there already).

Not bad for a 105 minute meeting. 3 topics a minute on average proably 10 topics a minute at peak.

Tha facilitator was really impressed by what I did and the load it took of him. He could concentrate on leading the meeting not writing on flip charts. Although he did some flip charts to start with but then realised there was no point.

Now I have to tidy them up and publish them as a web site, Word document and a set of PowerPoint slides by Thursday 17:00. Plus do the day job.

All in an evening's marketing and my bit for tackling climate change.

Is that a record breaker? It was definitely a personal best!