Don Tolson
06-07-2004, 05:00 PM
<img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-may04-mindmap-title2002.gif" /><br /><br /><b>Product Category:</b> Application Software<br /><b>Manufacturer:</b> <A HREF = "http://www.pocketmindmap.com" target = "blank"> JKRB Software </A><br /><b>Where to Buy:</b> <A HREF = "http://www.handango.com/brainstore/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=16716" target = "blank"> Handango </A>[Affiliate]<br /><b>Price:</b> $42.00 USD<br /><b>System Requirements:</b> Pocket PC with Windows CE 3.0 or higher (Pocket PC 2002 or Windows Mobile 2003).<br /><b>Specifications:</b> Requires approximately 960K of memory and can be installed to CF or SD cards. Available in English and German. A full-featured trial version is available which will last for 30 days.<br /><br /><b>Pros:</b><li>Powerful portable support for Mindmapping techniques;<br /><li>Free PC-based Pocket Mindmaps Partner for integration with MindManager;<br /><li>.bmp and XML output will allow integration with most documents, presentations, etc.<b>Cons:</b><li>Although you can save mindmaps to any storage device (SD, CF, main memory, etc., the folder list is not updated, so it reflects the structure in the My Documents folder;<br /><li>No printing capability on the Pocket PC. You must export it (via bitmap, XML, or into a PC-based product) to get printed output;<br /><li>Text search capability is limited;<br /><li>A little on the pricy side.<b>Summary:</b><br />For those of you into Mind-mapping and looking for a way to be able to ‘take it with you’, look no further than Pocket Mindmap. It includes most of the features of the PC-based packages, and even provides a ‘partner package’ for integrating your ‘mobile’ Mind-Maps with the major PC products.<br /><br />If you aren’t up on Mind-mapping technology, have no fear. We’ll take you through a short primer on the concepts and process to show how you can use it to organize yourself in your everyday work.<br /><br />Read on for the full review!<!><br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>Mindmapping...</b></span><br />Mindmaps are a brainstorming technique developed by Tony Buzan in the late 1960s. Basically, it encourages you to let your mind flow freely with thoughts and ideas around a central subject, then organize those topics logically, which in turn, will generate further expansion beyond the central concept. In theory, it could be used for developing outlines of books, term papers, presentations, study plans; reviewing knowledge before a test; defining job requirements, etc. Mindmapping can also be used as an effective graphical tool for facilitating discussions.<br /><br />According to Buzan’s <A HREF = "http://www.mind-map.com/EN/index.html" target = "blank"> Web site </A>, Mind-Maps allow us to unlock the other 99% of our brains that most of us don’t use effectively. It starts with a central subject, which is the area you want to explore or the problem you want to solve. You place this subject in the center of your piece of paper, then proceed to brainstorm about all the other topics or pieces of information related to the central subject. These secondary topics are placed around the subject, with the most important ones occupying the area around the 12 o’clock, 1 o’clock and 2 o’clock positions. Continuing in brainstorming mode, each of these topics might suggest further extensions, and so on, until you have broken it down into manageable pieces.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-may04-mindmapb-topic&sub.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 1: Mindmapping – breaking the central subject down into sub-topics.</i><br /><br />The next step is to restructure and qualify the topics –- associating those that are similar, creating subsets of topics around the subject, and creating relationships between topics (if desired and/or necessary). Mindmapping heavily recommends the use of graphics to enhance the maps, since a simple picture can encapsulate a whole raft of concepts and words. Once this phase is complete, detailed information can be added to each of the sub-tasks (as needed or available) and the mind-map can then be used as an outline for the thesis paper, presentation, user guide, etc. For facilitated discussions, it can provide graphical documentation of the discussion and the final state.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-may04-mindmapb-solar.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 2: An example Mindmap of the Solar System.</i><br /><br />Pocket Mindmaps was developed as a take-along tool for recording those ‘ah hah!’ inspirations that many of us experience when we focus on something else during problem solving. (I have some my best ideas while showering in the morning, but I don’t think Pocket Mindmap is going to help me there!) Some of you may have your Eureka moments in more personal-electronics-friendly environments! :-)<br /> <PAGEBREAK> <br /><span><b>Installation</b></span><br />Installation of Pocket Mindmaps is straightforward, using the now familiar (to most users) PC-based executable which runs the Activesync application installation routines. Pocket Mindmaps requires about 960K of memory to run and can be installed to main memory or to a CF or an SD card. As they are created, the actual mindmaps themselves are typically stored in the My Documents folder, but can be redirected to any available folder.<br /><br /><span><b>Creating & Working with Mindmaps</b></span><br />The first time Pocket Mindmap starts up, it looks in My Documents to see if there are any existing mindmaps (signified by the .pmap extension).<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-may04-mindmapb-start.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 3: Pocket Mindmap displays available Mindmaps.</i><br /><br />If it cannot find any existing .pmap files, it will open in a new mindmap, with a central subject all ready for modification.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-may04-mindmapb-main.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 4: Opening a brand new Mindmap with its central subject.</i><br /><br />You can use any of the available input methods (virtual typewriter, attached keyboard, letter recognizer, transcriber, etc.) to input the information for each of the topics. There are <A HREF = "http://www.pocketmindmap.com/Docs/PMM_EN/Support/FAQ/KeyboardShortcuts.ASP" target = "blank"> keyboard shortcuts </A> provided for most of the major functions (much appreciated by us touch typers!). At the brainstorming stage, it’s best to just put in the topic name, and leave the details until later.<br /><br />Almost anything you would want to do in the creation and modification of a mindmap is available in Pocket Mindmap. Once the topics have been entered, they become a short header-type label to which additional details can be added later. Pocket Mindmap provides a wide variety of tools for adding material to the topic label. A more extensive, textual description of the topic can be added via the text editor...<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-may04-mindmapb-entry.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 5: Adding descriptive text to a topic header.</i><br /><br />This will be displayed when the magic symbol in the topic label is tapped. You can also add colour and graphics to the topic label and to the topic itself. You can even add scribbles which are freehand drawings or sketches.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-may04-mindmapb-scribble.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 6: Adding your own brand of creativity to the topic via Scribbles.</i><br /> <PAGEBREAK> <br />You can also add special symbols, and custom fields to the topics for inter-topic comparisons.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-may04-mindmapb-symbols.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 7: Available topic symbols in Pocket Mindmap.</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-may04-mindmapb-entry-custom.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 8: Entry of custom-defined fields on each Topic.</i><br /><br />With a relatively small landscape like the Pocket PC, it’s fairly quick and easy to create a mindmap that moves beyond the boundaries of the screen. Pocket Mindmap provides the usual tools (scroll, pan and zoom) for moving around on your virtual paper, but JKRB Software also provided a couple of neat additions for finding your way through bigger and more complex maps. The Center function in the Map menu always brings the display back to the Subject of the map. A Search function provides a floating search dialog in which you can use text or fragments to locate matching topics.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-may04-mindmapb-search.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 9: Searching for text in Topics.</i><br /><br />There’s no mention about the use of wildcard characters in the Search criteria, so I’m not sure they're supported. You can also attach hyperlinks to topics, which provide a hypertext-type link to topics in the same map, another map, another document, documents or URLs. Maplinks are also available, which will provide sub-maps under the main map.<br /><br />There is also an Outline view, which presents the topics in a hierarchal tree structure – similar to what would be used in a Table of Contents.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-may04-mindmapb-outline.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 10: Mindmap in Outline view.</i><br /><br />While this Outline View is useful for finally starting to develop that thesis or marketing presentation, a great deal of the visual information associated with the mindmap is lost in this view. References and additional images placed on the Mindmap (such as the ‘Asteroid Belt’ entry on the Solar System example) are not visible.<br /><br />As noted above, Pocket Mindmap also supports a number of references, which describe relationships between topics. There are many types of references supported in Pocket Mindmap, and there is the ability to add your own types as well.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-may04-mindmapb-references.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 11: References available within Pocket Mindmap (you can also add your own!).</i><br /> <PAGEBREAK> <br /><span><b>Topics as Tasks</b></span><br />Each of the topics created within Pocket Mindmap can be converted to Tasks, which can then either be retained as a Mindmap task list or be exported into the Tasks database within Pocket Outlook. All of the Task definition functionality is included directly within Pocket Mindmap.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-may04-mindmapb-entry-tasks.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 12: Creating Tasks from Topics in Pocket Mindmap.</i><br /><br />Exporting to Pocket Outlook creates a link between the Mindmap Task and the Outlook Task, so changes to one are reflected in the other.<br /><br /><span><b>Output</b></span><br />Output to paper or other applications is limited, but Pocket Mindmap does provide three methods of sharing your masterpiece. The first is through the transfer of Pocket Mindmap to the MindManager (from Mindjet, one of the most popular PC-based mind-mapping applications) through the PMMPartner application, which is described below.<br /><br />Pocket Mindmaps can also be exported as bitmap (.bmp) files. The bitmap image is not modifiable nor importable into Pocket Mindmap, however it’s just fine for pasting into a Word document or a PowerPoint presentation. You could make minor modifications to it using a painting program such as MS Paint.<br /><br />Since Pocket Mindmap files are stored natively as XML documents (with the .pmap extension), you can transfer the files into any other application which can read and interpret the XML schema. JKRB also provides a listing of the XML schema on its Web site.<br /><br />Be careful when you use the 'Save As' function. Although you can change the location to a CF or SD card, the folder structure displayed is not updated to reflect that of the card. Instead, it retains the structure of the My Documents folder in main memory. It's best to select 'None' from the folder list, which places the file at the top level of the device, then move it to where you want later, using a File Manager.<br /><br /><span><b>Integration with the Desktop</b></span><br />JKRB software has released two versions of its PMMPartner version 1.0 for the PC desktop. One version supports MindManager 4.0 from Mindjets, and the other supports MindManager 2002.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/don-may04-PMMpartner1-400.gif" /><br /><i>Figure 13: Pocket MindMap desktop partner.</i><br /><br />The PMMPartner allows the user to review Pocket Mindmap maps which are located in the My Documents folder which is synchronized by ActiveSync, or those created in MindManager, and transfer them between the two systems. There is no charge for either version of PMMPartner.<br /><br /><span><b>Documentation and Support</b></span><br />JKRB Software has certainly done a complete job of providing additional documentation support for Pocket Mindmap. On their <A HREF = "http://www.pocketmindmap.com/Docs/PMM_EN/functional/sitemap.ASP " target = "blank"> Web site </A> you’ll find presentation material, tutorials, and sample mindmaps to get you started. To be honest, I knew very little about mindmapping when I started this review, and the material provided by JKRB was very helpful! There are even message forums for use by interested parties!<br /><br /><span><b>Conclusions</b></span><br />I was very pleasantly surprised to find out about the mindmapping technique through Pocket Mindmap. I used it for coming up with the basic outline for this review, and I can see making use of a form of it for discussions I’m frequently asked to facilitate at work. The neat thing about a tool like Pocket Mindmap is that, as they claim, it lets me take it with anywhere and work on the concept as the inspiration hits me – no matter where I am! (Well, maybe I’ll have to step out of the shower first ;-)) I’d like to see a few more options for output directly from the Pocket PC (printing through a product like HP’s Mobile Printing solution? Or directly into a Pocket Word document, etc.) but there’s enough flexibility here to get through most situations. Adding support for video and audio to the Topics would be a major bonus as well, taking full advantage of the multi-media capabilities of the Pocket PC.