Mindjet’s MindManager version 9 is a great way to organize your thoughts. I actually remember seeing someone in college using the application in a lecture, but it’s great to see the latest updates with version 9. Version 9 is optimized for Touch and gives a very intuitive way to organize thoughts and idea. The buttons are large enough you can easily touch and grab anything on the screen.
I used with MindManager to help organize my Argentina/Uruguay Trip. I’ve managed to organize all the flights and lodging, but activities are still pending. MindManager gave an easy to group proposed activities for the trip and add call outs for open questions.
If you are in a brainstorm, the brainstorm feature is key. You can quickly enter all your ideas and they are listed on the side of the screen (see pic below). Then all it takes is a quick drag of the mouse of finger to connect them to other topics and group appropriately. I’ve been in a few work meetings, where I wish I had this type of application to quickly capture everything.
MindManager has many additional features. It also allows you to attach notes to a topic, include spreadsheets, hyperlinks, prioritize, and assign resources to each project or task. For Touch enthusiasts, just know when you are entering notes and topics- it requires either pen-input or a keyboard. Given it’s a productivity app, it makes sense, but I wish they leveraged the built in touch keyboard in Windows 7.
Check out the trial on their site.