Posts Tagged ‘Mindjet Catalyst’

Collaborating with Mindjet Catalyst: It can be expensive!

Monday, January 10th, 2011

A client with a single user Mindjet Catalyst account asked me “How can I collaborate with other users in the same Workspace”. The answer is you can’t until you have a multi-user account.

Let me paint a scenario of several small businesses cooperating to work on a project. They all have individual Catalyst accounts and some of the larger business even have multi-user accounts (but not enough for this team). The only way they can all be in the same workspace is for someone in the group to purchase extra licenses for the whole project team. A rather large incremental cost for this project which lasts six weeks (and you have to buy an annual license) which immediately puts this group at a disadvantage compared to a larger consultancy which has all the disciplines required and sufficient multi-user license.

I think Mindjet are missing an opportunity here to service the SME professional market with a simple amendment to their product:
“Any license holder can access any other accounts workspace (with permission).”
Surely this would stimulate the collaborative MindManager user market and encourage more users to buy an account and licenses? For example: “You can only be on this project if you have a Catalyst license”.

Alternatively I could buy a multi-user license Catalyst account and resell seats to groups when they require the space. Anyone interested? Note: I expect this against the Terms and Conditions of a Catalyst license.

What do you think about this situation?

p.s I have just realised it is the same problem for large businesses. A large contractor wins work with a large company. Who pays the bill for increasing the number of licenses on one of their Catalyst accounts so they can collaborate?

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Posted in collaborate | 11 Comments »

Special Offer on On-Line MindManager Training

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010

Potential On Line MindManager Training & Coaching Topics

For  several years I have been coaching people on-line to use MindManager more effectively. Some clients have been within 30 miles of Alresford, nr Winchester, Hampshire, England where I am based. Others have been in San Francisco and Sydney!  They all benefit from having a session which is specific to them, takes place at a time to suit them (and me. I have not had a session between midnight and 6am yet!) and, involves no lost time and cost travelling to a training venue.  I recommend a 45 minute session. This is long enough for you to pick up several tasks, some of which may take you a few days to complete or practice.

“This is a really cost-effective, energy efficient and time-saving way to meet and share material, and I can’t recommend the approach highly enough”

The normal process is to book a free fifteen minute technology testing and briefing session. We could be using phone, Skype, RealVNC, Live Meeting, Team Viewer, NetMeeting depending on the requirements of the session.  The briefing is to find out what you want to do in your session or series of sessions. This is so I can be prepared with examples including the ones you send me and think about the structure for your particular requirement.

“It was only today when I had to get a project completed quickly, a project I had no idea how to tackle or even what to do – that I realised the full value of the training.”

During the session I will share my desktop with you and you may be showing me your issues from yours. When the session completes I will provide a map with a summary of the session, links to relevant follow up material and some homework. Hopefully you will come back for further session suitably spaced so we can review progress and I can suggest next steps.

“Sessions are always on time and very concentrated. Andrew has solved most of the problems my work has presented us with, and left me copious notes (in map form) for me to study afterwards.”

Normally I charge £87 plus VAT per 45 minutes including preparation and post session activities.  Until the 31st October I will be charging £67 plus VAT.

You can contact me on 44 1962 73534 or 44 7813 211451 or Skype ajwilcox or Twitter ajwilcox.

If you want to suggest some dates and times, send me 3 proposals including the 15 minute briefing via Meeting Wizard to email andrew@cabre.co.uk.  If I can accept one of your proposed session times I will send an invoice which you can be settled by credit card or electronic bank transfer.  Payment has to cleared before the session.

As a trial until 31st October 2010 I will also offer the option of booking a 30 minute unprepared session for £37 plus VAT.  I will not do any post session work unless we agree terms for this. Use Meeting Wizard to propose some times.

Notes on VAT: In the UK its 17.5%.  If you are resident in the EU and you give me your VAT number I can supply without VAT otherwise its 17.5%.  If you are in the Rest of the World the charge is VAT free.

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A Review of the MindManager 9 Release

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

This afternoon I was one of the Mindjet Partners listening to Michael Deutch give his briefing on the forthcoming release of MindManager 9 via a webinar.  As is my habit I mapped it in MindManager as he gave it.  Some of the detail is missing but the support material from Mindjet will cover that. Links at the bottom of the page.

My experience with the beta has been good.  I like the new ribbon, the reduced CPU time consumed, the SharePoint addin and I have just found those new images!  I still have many other improvements to give a real workout to: slide mode, Gantt chart pane and planning the day in tasks with durations in minutes :) .

It’s a great product which I hope will bring many new users on board and provide that extra oomph to the users of earlier versions.   As someone who has used MindManager almost daily since 1996 I am looking forward to getting the release version, personalising it for my applications, listening and contributing to the MindManager community, and (fingers crossed) assisting my existing and future clients to exploit MindManager.

Overview of

Background Reading
Mindjet MindManager 9 comparison with previous versions
Mindjet MindManager 9 Datasheet

To help search engines find this page and those with impaired vision to “read” the map.
The image map content is repeated below as a text outline in one or two columns.
Overview of MindManager 8 for Windows

1. Planning

1.1 Instant transformation map to Gantt chart

1.2 For

1.2.1 (Olympic) Amateurs

1.2.1.1 Marketing

1.2.1.2 Development

1.2.1.3 Engineers

1.2.1.4 Designers

1.2.1.5 Writers

1.2.2 Imports/Exports to MS Project for the Professionals

2. Communication

2.1 Broadcast
See related topics and documents
Collaborate (Change)

2.1.1 One to Many

2.1.1.1 PowerPoint

2.1.1.2 Untitled

2.2 Collaborate

2.2.1 One with Many

2.2.1.1 MindManager

2.2.2 Section map into slides

2.2.2.1 Focus

2.2.2.2 Segment

2.2.3 Then interact

3. Information Overload

3.1 Issues
See related topics and documents

3.1.1 Application switching wastes time

3.1.2 Wide variety of information sources

3.2 Information

3.2.1 Collection

3.2.2 Organisation

3.2.3 Structure

3.2.4 Focus

3.3 Publish

3.3.1 MindManager

3.3.2 Office
See related topics and documents

3.3.2.1 PowerPoint

3.3.2.2 Project

3.3.2.3 Word

3.3.2.4 SharePoint

3.3.3 Web

3.3.4 PDF

3.3.5 Image

4. Additionally

4.1 Improved Printing

4.2 Office 2010 Ribbon

4.3 New Images, Icons and Templates

4.4 Increased Performance

5. Lost

5.1 Based on users not using

5.2 e.g.

5.2.1 Exports

5.2.1.1 Visio

5.2.1.2 MPX

5.2.2 Bookmarks

5.3 JCVGantt integration

5.3.1 Some functionality now in the product

6. SharePoint

6.1 Becomes extension (add in)

6.2 Enhanced capability

6.2.1 e.g. Search within documents

7. Catalyst

7.1 Now a compliment to MindManager desktop

7.2 Service

7.2.1 Cloud based

7.2.1.1 File store

7.2.1.2 Collaboration

7.2.2 Browser based access to Workspaces

7.3 Price reduction

7.3.1 £16 down to £9 per month per user

7.4 Discontinue

7.4.1 Web conferencing features

7.4.1.1 No new sales or renewals but continued support for current users to end of their contract

8. License Upgrades

8.1 £79 from MindManager 7 or 8

8.2 Please request a quote from Cabre
See related topics and documents

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Analysing the Strengths and Weaknesses of Mind Mapping Software Applications

Friday, October 16th, 2009

You can do this as a solo effort with MindManager. You could invite a few people to your Mindjet Catalyst account to add their comments but they would mostly be MindManager users only. With MindMeister you can set up a map which can be edited by anyone as a no cost Wiki Map. If you want to edit the map below, you will need a free (and limited) MindMeister account.

There are customers for all the mind mapping applications but not all the potential customers can access all the applications or justify or need all the features of the more sophisticated ones. This is not about deciding which is best overall but which is best for your needs. Obviously I am interested in how MindManager stacks up against the rest.

Lets see what happens:

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Posted in collaborate, mind map, software | 2 Comments »

Using the new Share function in MindManager 8.1 via Mindjet Catalyst

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009


The latest version of MindManager 8.1 has a new button which Shares a map and allows you to edit a list of your Shared Content.

This afternoon I quickly created a map of the WinACC (Winchester Action on Climate Change) web site because I knew it would be useful to me and hopefully to some of their users. This is a good example of a map that works well in this new process.

Last week I published a map of Gordon Brown’s speech to the Labour Party Conference. It has some floating topics at the top of the map. Unfortunately these get displaced to the bottom in the shared version. I don’t want to attach them to the central topic because they are not part of the speech.

Some more experiments will reveal the best ways in which to use this new tool.

Download MindManager 8.1
MindManager 8.1 Service Pack what has changed

You do not need a Mindjet Catalyst account to use the Share option. Tweet from Michael Deutch Mindjet “Yes, all MindManager 8.1 users can ‘share’ content with our new export. It’s faster and easier than before…”.

You can still create a Mindjet Player in a PDF file or as a Flash file SWF.

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Posted in mind map, mindmanager | 2 Comments »

Sharing MindManager maps via Mindjet Catalyst

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

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.

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Posted in collaborate, mindmanager, viewer, web | No Comments »