Posts Tagged ‘tablet pc’

MindManager and OneNote – How can these applications interact?

Monday, March 29th, 2010

A Tweet caught my eye this morning about using OneNote with MindManager. In this 4 minute video Raphael Malikian shows how you can paste ink from OneNote as text in MindManager. This prompted me to have a play and I discovered you could select several paragraphs in OneNote and paste them into MindManager as several topics. An empty line in OneNote starts a new topic in MindManager. It is also possible to drag and drop selected OneNote ink to MindManager.

Back in 2007 the OneNote Power Toys blog listed several ways in which OneNote and MindManager could interact including MindManager hyperlinks to OneNote tabs, transfering MindManager map images to OneNote and the Send to MindManager button in OneNote (Can’t find mine :(Searching the Mindjet Forum suggests it has gone AWOL in MM8)).

Are there addins for MindManager 8 and OneNote 2007 (and 2010 soon)?

What is the value of using OneNote compared to MindManager in Ink mode (my weapon of choise) on a Tablet PC?

About Andrew Wilcox

Andrew is an experienced user of MindManager who shares his knowledge and advice for free here. And provides commercial training and consulting on how to exploit MindManager and other mind mapping software applications in business, organisations and for individuals at Cabre For more information about Andrew please visit his Google + profile.

Using MindManager on the Tablet PC in ink mode

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

Michael Deutch has written this blog recently:

Touch Me: 10 Resources to Learn More about MindManager’s Touch Capabilities

To prompt discussion about using MindManager on the Tablet PC. For some reason that neither Michael or I can work out my comments are not being published. I have tried from different PCs & browsers. So here is my positive and critical criticism of this mode:

Michael, thank you for referring to my efforts with the Tablet PC and MindManager above.

I have to admit to being someone who has used MindManager Ink mode a few times a week since 2005 when MindManager X5 Tablet became available. It has gone through 4 versions of HPs Tablet PCs currently a 2710p but the TC1100 was the best!

I use it in these three modes:

First: for personal brainstorming. Often standing up and away from the office desk.

Second: for personal note taking and often producing the minutes at meetings.

Third: for recording and publishing events on the web. Frequently I work with teams of people like Maurice mentioned and linked in your blog, to produce a comprehensive record of public and private events. These range from individual speakers, to management meetings, to two day annual conferences, to a rock festival. Using MindManager for three days in a field and in the dark later in the day must be one of the extreme uses.

Using MindManager ink mode is much less instrusive to the meeting than using a keyboard and a more fluid recording process.

MindManager ink mode is a core tool for ConferenceREACTION and the web export is used to produce all the web sites.

BUT MindManager ink mode has been frustrating me since 2005. Why?

1. The eraser on the end of my stylus does not work in MindManager. It does in all other applications.

2. The colour of the ink is not the colour of the converted text. It becomes the default colour.

3. The ink to text conversion was comparatively good on release in 2005. Better than XPs TabTIP but Vista overtook it and Windows 7 streaks away into the distance.

4. The conversion of ink to graphic images is poor. Primary concern is the conversion of sketches but it also applies when you want to put an Ink mind map in a document or on a web page. Borders appear around the ink and there is a granularity not present in the native MindManager map.

5. The clicking the ink colour tool does not return the stylus to ink mode from eraser mode but clicking the ink thickness tool does.

6. The lasso tool (ink dragging) is often sluggish taking several seconds to settle into the new position.

7. The high CPU usage of MindManager in general and the extreme CPU usage e.g. > 60% CPU time when the stylus is applied to the screen. Not good for someone who inking all day! This halves the battery life of Tablet PCs.

8. That there has been no significant development of ink mode since 2005!

9. I would like the mode to be associated with the map. That is when I change from a map I am editing in ink mode to a map that was previously being edited in mouse mode I want the the mode to change to mouse mode.

Despite all the above I will continue to use MindManager Ink mode because it does a brilliant job. You can just do it in pictures.

About Andrew Wilcox

Andrew is an experienced user of MindManager who shares his knowledge and advice for free here. And provides commercial training and consulting on how to exploit MindManager and other mind mapping software applications in business, organisations and for individuals at Cabre For more information about Andrew please visit his Google + profile.

What is the missing link for MindManager? The killer add in you really want!

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

There are a multitude of add-ins for MindManager ranging from free to those costing more than a MindManager license. Some enable MindManager to emulate processes both proprietary and public. Others enhance an existing MindManager export or make a connection to a non-MS Office application.

Probably like me there are some you use frequently and others which you have no use for. There are probably many you unaware off or only just on your radar.

BUT what add-in would make a big difference to you? Here are a few of mine:

  • Social networking dashboards for LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter & Ecademy
  • Synchronisation with Above & Beyond
  • A tool to help me manipulate XML files either pre-import or when in the map to add or remove information based on content of the file.
  • Alternative ink sketching tool e.g. embedded ArtRage2
  • An HTML based notes word processor

Or perhaps a better way of looking is there a market waiting for a MindManager combo?

About Andrew Wilcox

Andrew is an experienced user of MindManager who shares his knowledge and advice for free here. And provides commercial training and consulting on how to exploit MindManager and other mind mapping software applications in business, organisations and for individuals at Cabre For more information about Andrew please visit his Google + profile.

Ink to Text – What is the best strategy in MindManager?

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

I tried a new strategy this morning. I have been going through topic by topic using the 5 drop down choices or editing the topics to correct any “anomalies”. This works well on the single screen of my Tablet PC.

Yesterday I inked two speeches or presentations. I delayed my ink to text conversion until I was back in the office this morning. In my large extension screen situated above my Tablet PC screen I had the ink map. I saved a copy to a new file e.g. meeting_text.mmap and opened it as another window in MindManager. MindManager is now stretched across both screens and I used Arrange View to split the maps across the MindManager work area. In the Tablet PC screen I automatically converted the ink to text using the Accept All option. I was then able to scan the ink and text comparing good and bad conversions, editing any bad conversions as I went around the map.

I think the new strategy was quicker but may be prone to the occasional missed anomaly.

What do you do?

About Andrew Wilcox

Andrew is an experienced user of MindManager who shares his knowledge and advice for free here. And provides commercial training and consulting on how to exploit MindManager and other mind mapping software applications in business, organisations and for individuals at Cabre For more information about Andrew please visit his Google + profile.

Forget the Text. Just use Pictures. MindManager and the Tablet PC does the job

Friday, January 16th, 2009

On Wednesday evening I went to a presentation by Mike Pounsford of Couravel at the VizThink London meeting organised by my friends at Cognac the Big Picture company. Mike took us through his companies process for visually facilitating the communication of business strategy. More on this in my next blog.

Mike challenged us at the end of presentation to split into three groups and discuss three issues. The group I joined discussed this. Here is your Sunday paper question:

What do these sketches represent individually and collectively? (click to see full size)


How did l do this? With an HP TC2710p and MindManager 8 (but you could do this with MindManager X5 Tablet and a TC1000 four years ago). The map is the record of a 20 minutes discussion between six people. For each phase of the discussion I created a topic and inserted a sketch using gestures. As I became more comfortable with what I was doing I used different pen colours. I did not contribute to the discussion very much.

At the end of the discussion I converted them to floating topics and placed then randomly on the map but so that the map proportions would match the projector screen. When we presented our conclusions to the other attendees we had a graphic artist’s picture of our conclusion on a Flipchart sheet and these on the overhead projector, showing how we got there.

I occasionally use this sketch functionality in MindManager but my feeling is that I am under exploiting the opportunity.

MindManager Technical note:

I and others have been disappointed by the rendering of the ink writing or sketching when exported to images. When I export direct to png, jpg or gif, the ink and sketches are not of the same quality as on screen. See below. Here are two ways to improve it:

1. Save to bitmap. Do not resize. Open bitmap in Paint or similar resize and save in png or jpg. Gif will give a smaller file size but not the quality.

2. Use the Windows Tablet PC snipping tool or similar to cut the picture out of the screen and save as png or jpg. Then resize in your picture editor. This is what I did for the above.

Something for you to sort out properly Mindjet!

About Andrew Wilcox

Andrew is an experienced user of MindManager who shares his knowledge and advice for free here. And provides commercial training and consulting on how to exploit MindManager and other mind mapping software applications in business, organisations and for individuals at Cabre For more information about Andrew please visit his Google + profile.

Using the MindManager Sketch Tool for the Tablet PC

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

Since MindManager version X5 there has been a Sketch Tool which Tablet PC users (or graphics tablet users with Vista) can use to add sketches to their maps. I often use this to make representations of speakers flip charts and slides when there are graphs.

At last week’s Ecademy London presentation on using body language and your voice to influence (or at least not give the game away) I used the tool to make a few cartoons.
Click the map to see the big picture of this presentation by Richard Newman and Christian Billet of UK Body Talk on Can You Walk the Talk?.

You won’t be able to see that there is some degradation of the sketch in conversion from the Ink to being part of the image map jpg but there is. If a higher quality sketch is required employ someone like my friend Simon Ellinias (see below) and use a drawing package like ArtRage2 export to jpg and include in the map.

Its easy to use the sketch tool in MindManager. Just make a triangle gesture in ink mode and the sketching window appears. If you were focussed on a topic it will a sketch in the topic otherwise a floating image. Once your sketch is complete you can resize it by selecting the topic and right clicking to get the resize option.


Please note Simon and I were talking about Tablet PCs when he drew this particularly second hand TC1100s. I was holding a TC 2710p at the time. Both are excellent mobile Tablet PCs.

About Andrew Wilcox

Andrew is an experienced user of MindManager who shares his knowledge and advice for free here. And provides commercial training and consulting on how to exploit MindManager and other mind mapping software applications in business, organisations and for individuals at Cabre For more information about Andrew please visit his Google + profile.

Mapping and rapidly publishing to the Internet is one of MindManager’s strengths.

Friday, February 29th, 2008

Last Thursday I attended Ecademy’s 10th Birthday Party at the Selfridge Hotel. The centre piece of the event was speeches by two of the founders of Ecademy, Thomas and Penny Power. I mapped both speeches in ink on my Tablet PC (an HP TC4400). Penny’s speech in ink is shown below.

Penny Power speaking to Ecademy's 10th Birthday Party.  MindManager mind map in ink on Tablet PC

This type of map is not a verbatim record of the speech but a key word reminder of what was said. Much like Tony Buzan described 30 years ago in his mind mapping book “Use Your Head“.

  • Those who attended will be able to jog their memory.
  • Those not present may see something of interest and contact the speaker or an attendee.
  • The speaker gets feedback from one member of the audience about what they heard.

And the finished map as blogged on Ecademy. You can click it.

Penny Power
http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=37944&xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=37944&xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=1 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=1 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=1001 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=1001 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=30245&xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=30245&xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=78129&xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=78129&xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=37979&xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=37979&xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/instituteofnetworking.php?xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/instituteofnetworking.php http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=42737&xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=42737&xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=22057&xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=22057&xref=45995 http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/p/parachute.htm http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/p/parachute.htm http://www.pizzaexpress.com/find-a-restaurant/restaurant/771/?lat=51.21550&lon=-0.79900&pc=farnham&baby=0&takeaway=0&bar=0&meetingroom=0&alfresco=0&livemusic=0 http://www.pizzaexpress.com/find-a-restaurant/restaurant/771/?lat=51.21550&lon=-0.79900&pc=farnham&baby=0&takeaway=0&bar=0&meetingroom=0&alfresco=0&livemusic=0 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=229497&xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=229497&xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=2&xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=2&xref=45995 http://www.monmouth.org.uk/Home/Default.aspx http://www.monmouth.org.uk/Home/Default.aspx http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=19308&xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=19308&xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=guestbook&id=1001&xref=45995 http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=guestbook&id=1001&xref=45995 http://asia.ecademy.com/node.php?id=98380 http://asia.ecademy.com/node.php?id=98380&xref=45995

There are two drawbacks to using MindManager to create clickable image maps. First Google is not indexing pictures by what you can see (quite a lot of text in this case) and MindManager uses the URLs for the alt text on the links not the topic text (which could be found by Google).

To make this map visible I really have to add the text outline below. Not very pretty but makes the point about the value of mind maps versus lists rather well.



1. Has a Leap Year Birthday



2. It’s a team

2.1 But a special mention for Glenn Watkins

See related topics and documents

http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=2



3. Committed to this world



4. My journey

4.1 Not a physiotherapist

4.2 Telesales course in a Monmouth

See related topics and documents

http://www.monmouth.org.uk/Home/Default.aspx

4.3 Call to customer with cold

4.3.1 Sent them a packet of Ttunes

4.3.2 Got unexpected contract (the biggest that month)

4.4 Selling is about the relationship



5. Ecademy has a heart



6. Back 10 years
See related topics and documents

6.1 3 x 0 to 5 year children

6.2 Pizza Express

6.3 Filled up with Lone Entrepreneurs

6.4 Sucked into the e-commerce Bubble

6.4.1 Valued at £22m

6.4.2 But

6.4.3 We could not sell out on our community

6.5 But then struggle to survive

6.5.1 Back to day job

9-6



7. Captain Plum
See related topics and documents

7.1 Went to Vietnam

7.2 Then built a Big Business

7.3 One day in a restaurant he was served by

7.4 His parachute packer



8. Community

8.1 Support

8.2 Testimonial

8.3 Credibility

8.4 Recognition



9. Acceleration is good

9.1 But slow development is best



10. Ecademy is Organic

10.1 Much happens by Osmosis



11. Business Evolution

11.1 Growth by Collaboration

11.2 Candle

11.2.1 Flame

Where you need to be

11.2.2 Wax

What you need to burn brightly



12. Team

12.1 Julian Bond
See related topics and documents

12.1.1 Web Site

12.2 Lesley Morrisey
See related topics and documents

12.2.1 Support

12.3 William Buist
See related topics and documents

12.3.1 BlackStar

12.3.2 Membership

12.4 Sophia Watkins
See related topics and documents

12.4.1 London Meetings & Administration

12.5 Kate Power
See related topics and documents

12.6 Jude Germain
See related topics and documents

12.7 Jamie Roy
See related topics and documents

12.8 Christine Clacey
See related topics and documents



13. Thomas Power Early Meetings

13.1 Pasta Suppers

13.2 Wine Bar



14. Advocacy

14.1 Dave Clark NRG
See related topics and documents

14.1.1 Advocating others

14.1.2 Brings you advocates



15. Institute of Networking
See related topics and documents

15.1 Our objective

15.2 Chartered



16. Touch the keyboard

16.1 Power of Ecademy

16.2 Whispers



17. Me
See related topics and documents

17.1 I am not the Entrepreneur

17.2 I have a purpose

17.3 Thanks to

17.3.1 Parents

17.3.2 Thomas

17.3.3 Children

17.3.4 The Team

About Andrew Wilcox

Andrew is an experienced user of MindManager who shares his knowledge and advice for free here. And provides commercial training and consulting on how to exploit MindManager and other mind mapping software applications in business, organisations and for individuals at Cabre For more information about Andrew please visit his Google + profile.