Webbing , also known as mind single-valued function , is a non - analogue graphic formation proficiency for brainstorm a level estimate , physical process , or concept . It is a vulgar cock used everywhere from elementary school to Fortune 500 company . When you net an idea , you pop with a primal topic and then quick append several branches . Once an initial web is created , each of the single offshoot can be mined further to generate sub - idea .

MindManager 6.0.4 Mac is a optical organizational tool that you could habituate to garner and organize — or web — a smorgasbord of ideas that may have a unmarried obvious topic , but that may not have obvious , unmediated relationships to each other . exchangeable to NovaMind Software ’s NovaMind , MindManager allows you to sequence complex ideas into an easily apprehensible form and gives you the ability to link document , images , timelines , and organizational chart to your theme maps , making a range of information usable in a exclusive text file .

MindManager 6 is the Mac version of a ware that ’s been available on Windows for about 12 old age . Rather than doing a straight port from the Windows version to the Mac , Mindjet build a brand new program , paying strict attention to Apple ’s figure guideline , making MindManager finger as conversant as Apple ’s Pages ( ) and Keynote ( ) .

MindManager ship with seven pre - defined guide for create standard maps , such as organisational charts and to - do lists , but the strength of the program is really unleashed when you begin with a whole blank document and let the estimate roll out of your principal and onto the page . Hitting the return key creates Modern wedge - topics from the independent issue . obtain down the Command key while pressing homecoming creates a new sub - issue from the presently selected sub - issue , stool it well-situated to permit the ideas run . This is interchangeable to features detect in other mind - mapping programme , which often have spicy keys for creating new topics and zep - matter .

Once you ’ve finished your initial brainstorming seance , it ’s easy to go back and initialize or shake up the information in a more precise manner . you’re able to convert the colors of topics , move them around the map , rearrange topic floor , impart priority or windup grade to each point , and even add documents , look-alike , graphic , or notes to any item on the varlet . All of these change can be accomplished easily , typically with the chink of a exclusive button . And , while it is potential to add Web - pageboy hyperlinks or links to external document , it is also potential to seize entire document or range to your mind map so it becomes a repository for the all the files link up with a projection .

Once you ’ve created your single-valued function , you may well partake it by export it as a PDF , JPG , TIFF , or PNG file . Or , you could export the intact map in lineation form , include all your note , as textbook . well yet , Mindjet offers a costless spectator on its World Wide Web site that allows you to view and print your thinker map . Using the viewer also allow other people to open up attached documents , provided they have the app program necessary to look at the attached documents .

MindManager ’s XML - base file format is compatible across platforms , but the company acknowledges that the Windows version has more functionality than the Mac variant , in exceptional in the realm of Microsoft Office integration . For illustration , if you were to attach an Excel spreadsheet to your document , you could in reality manipulate the information from within MindManager with the Windows version . In the Mac variant , the spreadsheet is take - only — you ca n’t change anything without opening Excel . This is a minor defect to an otherwise splendid program .

Macworld’s buying advice

Mindjet ’s MindManager 6.0.4 offers an graceful user user interface and excellent tools for brainstorming , webbing , and mapping everything from major projects to simple schooltime reports . The program allow for numberless ways to graphically organize your ideas and share them with colleagues and henchman . While this initial Mac release lack some feature article detect in the Windows version , the program is a strong addition to the subsist slate of Mac brainstorming apps .

[ Jeffery Battersby is a writer and web analyst who still map his mind with a Moleskine notebook . ]