The Unusual Way to Create, Manage and Explore Mind Maps

Ever since ancient times, people have been trying to express their thoughts and feelings in various ways, and one of the most important is writing. But time passed by, technology evolved and soon we found out that computers could help us express our thoughts more than we even imagine. And this how came the idea to create mind maps, which are simple or complex diagrams that can be used to represent ideas, works and various tasks, usually centered around an idea or object.

Mind maps have various shapes and people tend to accommodate them to their own domain. But most of them have a central issue, put in the center of the diagram that evolves afterwards in a brain-shaped diagram, full of branches and child nodes. MyThoughts is a mind mapping piece of software available only for Mac OS X 10.5 or later that will try to take the basic idea of a mind mapping diagram and make it evolve with the help of modern day needs and graphics.

The Looks

MyThoughts has a clean, intuitive and very easy-to-use interface that will be accessible even to people that do not use diagrams a lot. You can access various actions like thoughts and child trees right from the program interface and that makes the diagram creation process a lot easier. The preferences are also very easy to access, so you only need to think about the diagram and the program will take care of the rest.

A nice thing about MyThoughts is that you can enter a lot of eye-candy stuff in your diagram. Smileys and colorful pictures can be a part of your mind maps if you want to. The mind maps that you create basically have only one limit, and that is your imagination.

The Works

Why must one create a mind map? It would be a lot easier to create a sketch or something like that and pronto, all is done. But mind maps are more than ideas written on paper. A mind map has style, graphics, and it’s a complex recreation of a human idea. MyThoughts allows you to do that with the various tools at your disposal. A mind map created by MyThoughts starts from a subject that will be the basic link to all the other nodes and children. After choosing the basic subject, you must link it to some branches.

Afterwards, various child branches can be inserted in order to create a fully customized mind map. You can also add some relations between them, giving to your diagram a more complex look. You can enter the inspector, the notes editor and media browser in order to enhance the capabilities of your mind map. Zooming can also be done from the same panel. With the help of these tools, MyThoughts gives you access to do basically any type of mind mapping diagram that comes to your mind. All you need is a starting point and a huge imagination.

The media browser included in the program gives you access to more than 3,000 graphic professional graphic images that you can use at your own leisure. Furthermore, you can upload your own photos if you want a more personal mind map. MyThoughts is compatible with the latest version of iPhoto, giving you a unique way to create professional, fully customized mind maps.

One of the most interesting features provided by MyThoughts is the basic drag&drop. I know, it’s a simple one, but it gives you a speedier and funnier way to move within the program, and also manage the mind map with ease. You can add links to web pages that will enhance the access to information, and make the mind map more spectacular. Another thing that must be mentioned here is the presence of the notes editor that you are able to use to add various notes in many styles, directly to your diagram.

If you need some outline numbers inserted in your mind map, MyThoughts lets you do that, and even more. With this, you can collate and organize various mind map information that will later appear in your diagram. There aren’t many options you can use to customize the program, but they help you make MyThoughts a little more personal. You can customize autosaving, updates, and the font map and notes fonts. Indeed, not too much, it could have used a little more tuning when it comes to picture selection and such, but changing the fonts already gives you a good customization factor.

The Good

Creating mind maps has never been an easy thing to do - lots of sketches, art, and complex design. But MyThoughts brings all these to you in an easy-to-use manner, simple but also with some complexity that will please even the more than average user. An attractive interface, nice design, beautiful graphics and various ways to create mind maps are the best things you can say about MyThoughts.

The Bad

The only bad thing about the application would be the pricing, that is a little too high - 49,00 USD.

The Truth

If you need to design a diagram, or furthermore, a mind map, and customize it with your own personal stuff to show it to your friends or even create professional mind maps that can help you with your work, I would definitely recommend MyThoughts - it gives you a personal touch and character. If general mind maps use the brain as central point, MyThoughts puts you in the center and your imagination will be the one that will guide you to creating beautiful diagrams and, indeed, mind maps.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: