After introducing a former partner of mine, Saunders Aldridge to Mindjet's MindManager 6 Pro, he commented that I should be telling the maritime world about this great product. I am happy to oblige, but also want to take this opportunity to push Saunders to start his own blog (in discussion for more than a year) to cover IT issues for medium sized law firms. There you go Saunders, I have laid down the gauntlet, and I look forward to your blog to be launched on . . .
Now, on to MindManager. Mindjet's MindManager 6 Pro is a software version of a mind map. Mind mapping is a graphic representation of how ideas are linked together. Often used in brainstorming, the mapping idea can be used just with a pen and paper to create and visualize the link between concepts. An example of a hand-drawn mind map is here.
For more on mind mapping, go here. For courses on mind mapping, check out Tony Buzan (who is credited with coining the term if not creating the concept). Lawyers use mind maps every day, whether they think about it or not. We constantly link 1 idea to the next, sometimes graphically, sometimes just in our notetaking or in outlining. Using MindManager gives you a powerful outlining tool that displays the relationship graphically and more. I use it every day for almost every list that I create. You add text and create relationships between items on the fly. You can create to do lists that link back to Outlook, link files, and webpages, attach notes and much more.
I use a master map which I use as a dashboard for my daily life. I understand (but I have not yet tried) Gyronix, increases the dashboard concept through MindManager with a product called ResultsManager and I will report back on that in the future.
I took notes using the software during "break-out" sessions at my company's last managment retreat. I was able to capture what the group discussed and then it aided us in presenting back to the larger management team at the end of the session. It is great for presentations and you can export into PowerPoint slides. It is so much more however. If you create a graphical map, and then want to use the infomation as a traditional outline for creating a brief or for any other purpose, it is no problem to export the text into Word (or even excel).
The software seems to work very well with the whole Microsoft Office Suite exporting (or importing) information is only a quick click away. You can also export maps as PDF files. Mindjet also runs a blog, with interesting tidbits of information on the company, using their software, examples of mind maps and more.
One unfortunate point is the cost of the software. A single license runs $349.00 and volume discounts do not kick in until 25 copies.
However, there is a 21 day free trial of the full blown software, so check it out. I think you will find it is worth the price.
Last minute addition - I noted that Mindjet has teamed up with the BlawgThink 2005, an conference being put together by two of the great legal bloggers: Matt Homann of the non-billable hour and Dennis Kennedy, the techno-lawyer/consultant, (his blog is here) as a followup to their sucessful LexThink conference last year in Chicago. All attendees are receiving a complimentary license of MindManager 6 Pro and Gyronix ResultsManager with their paid attendance. That is $635 worth of software if you attend a $595 conference - WOW! I am not sure if I ever heard of such a good deal and that's not counting the excellent information you are going to receive from some of the biggest names in legal blogging. If you have the time to attend, you might want to reserve a spot before they are all gone.
