As some of you may know from our recent discussion in the TabletPCBuzz forums, I'm a real fan of MindManager, the computerized mind mapping program from MindJet, LLC. And of course everyone here is a fan of the Tablet PC. So I'm excited to be able to tell you that for the last week or so I've been working with the Tablet PC version of MindManager 2002. This one is a winner folks. As Bill Mitchell, VP of the Tablet PC division at Microsoft put it, "MindManager for the Tablet PC is a great example of a new breed of pen enabled applications for today's information worker."

Note: If you read my recent mind mapping article in the TabletPCBuzz newsletter, feel free to skip the next section.

A Quick Intro to Mind Mapping

Mind mapping is a graphical method for representing notes, thoughts, project plans, virtually any kind information. When you create a mind that, you're capturing more than chunks of information, you're capturing the relationships between them to. And you're doing it in a way that engages the visual portion of your mind, thereby enhancing your recall of the information.

To create a mind map with pencil and paper, you would start by writing a word or short phrase in the center of a blank sheet. That word or short phrase represents the concept or theme of your mind map. Next you would write words or phrases representing key topics on the page, arranging them around the central theme. To show the relationship between topics and the central theme, you would draw lines between them. You could similarly connect topics directly to each other if they were directly related.

From there, you would continue to expand the map by repeating the process. When you were done you would have a mind map, a graphical representation of the theme and its related topics.

Mind Mapping on the Tablet PC

MindManager 2002 for the Tablet PC (MMTPC) brings mind mapping to the Tablet PC platform in a way that really takes advantage of the unique capabilities of the platform.

  • Tablet PCs are made for handwritten input -- MMTPC accepts handwritten or typed input and can convert handwritten input to typed form.
  • Tablet PCs are made for drawing and sketching -- MMTPC incorporates drawings and sketches right in to your mind maps.
  • Tablet PCs can be controlled by gestures instead of the keyboard and mouse -- MMTPC supports 18 custom gestures that virtually or eliminate the need for a keyboard or mouse when mind mapping.
  • Tablet PCs are clearly meant to be mobile platforms for Microsoft Office -- MMTPC exports information to Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Project (HTML too).

While this mind mapping stuff is whizzy and cool, you may be wondering why you would use a tool like this instead of using Windows Journal, or even OneNote. With Journal or OneNote, you're still basically working linearly, as if you're taking notes on a piece of paper (in the case of Journal) or in a notebook (in a case of OneNote). With those tools, you usually end up with multiple pages of unstructured information and no clear way to get a handle on the mess.

With MMTPC, you can capture all the same information as with other Tablet PC notetaking tools, but you can also structure information as you go. And because MMTPC lets you expand and collapsed branches of your map as necessary, you can contain a high-level or presentation of your information on a single screen.

Before I started using a Tablet PC, I used non-Tablet PC versions of MindManager regularly, particularly when designing book chapters or magazine articles. I could create a sort of visual outline of the document, then just write to that outline. Because mind maps capture the relationships between different subtopics, the branches in the map even told me where to make the transitions in my writing.

Then I discovered that Tablet PC and Windows Journal. I gave up the power of MindManager in exchange for the ability to just write notes on the screen of my Tablet PC. This new version of MindManager combines the best of both worlds. It's the best Tablet PC application I've used to date.

While I've tried to give you little bit of a feel for MindManager for the Tablet PC, this is an application you really need to play with to understand. I suggest you browse (hurry would be more like it) over to the MindJet website and take the online product tour, then download a trial copy of MindManager for the Tablet PC. Here's the URL:

http://www.mindjet.com/us/products/tablet_pc/tablet_pc.php

You might also want to check out this coming TabletPCBuzz newsletter, where I'll complete my two-part story on mind mapping with an example of using MindManager for the Tablet PC as a tool to handle information overload.