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by Stuart Gripman, Macworld.com

Getting thoughts out of your head and into your Mac isn’t for aye easy. All of us have created a new, dumfounded document only to stare at the vast empty space wondering the sort of to do next. Mind mapping aims to prevent those cranial logjams through a projection that gets the ideas out quickly, without needless organizational burdens. XMind 2008 Pro (version 2.3) stays true to the mind mapping ideals, though Macintosh standards are the causing victim.

Product:XMind 2008 Pro Rating ProsEasy brainstorming; good variety of chart types; excellent range and quality of send not at home options; great performance. ConsClosely resembles a Windows database program; only two import methods; some operations needlessly complicated. CompanyXMind Price as rated$300 OS compatibility10.4 (Tiger), 10.5 (Leopard) Processor compatibilityUniversal

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All mind maps startle with a central topic. Child branches radiate out from there, using text, colors, and graphic embellishments to articulate the ideas. XMind is a model of weakness for populating a new map. When you create a new document, XMind enters Brainstorm Mode, creating and selecting the central point. Adding child and grandchild branches is a simple indefinite amount of pressing go or command-return. While pressing return may seem too simple to bother mentioning, the fact is that most mind mapping programs make populating the draw harder than it indispensably to be. Trying to remember an arcane keyboard combination or, heaven forbid, reaching for the mouse can really harsh your mind-mapping buzz.

Alas, you be able to’t avoid the pry about forever. When the brainstorming is over, it’s time to give your conspicuous map a little zazz using Drawing Mode. Here you can apply backgrounds, format shapes, fonts and colors, and graphical elements. Icon size markers are one of those graphical elements. Adding a marker to a vesicatory is a simple drag and drop operation. Adding custom markers ought to be a drag and drop affair over, but requires a trip to the preferences and the use of a clunky interface that doesn’t even let you accompany which you’re typing.

Any image can be dragged into a topic from the Finder, and XMind even facilitates grabbing images from the Web through a built-in browser. Select a topic entitled, say, “microscopic crustacean”; when you choose to insert an image from the Web, you’ll be looking at a microscopic crustacean in Google Images—a nice touch.

Look and feel

XMind comes up short on interface scheme. Like many multi-platform products, XMind runs on Mac OS X, but doesn’t feel as comfortable as software that uses Mac design patterns. Placed side by side, XMind for Mac and Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express for Windows were clearly separated at birth. One window, three or four panes, tabs in each pane—this is a classic (and wanting) Microsoft brew design. Color palettes are straight out of Excel, including the Automatic option; thankfully, clicking Custom opens the standard Mac dye picker. Font management also bypasses Apple’s tools in favor of a toolbar-like configuration that doesn’t offer previews. None of these design choices are inherently wrong, excepting they slip on’t deliver the Mac actual observation.

XMind goes beyond mind maps with templates for org charts, flow charts, and the aptly named fishbone chart.

Interface design laterally, the overall user experience with XMind is satisfying. I encountered no freezes or unexpected quits in quotidian use on a MacBook Pro. Performance was first-rate too. Even when importing and exporting intricate documents, XMind never threw up a pinwheel.

XMind isn’t just for mind maps. Organization charts, flow charts, project management charts, and Fishbone charts are offered as well. All of the chart types share the same tools and formatting options, so there’s no significant attainments curve to prevent you from making full use of all of them. Yet in opposition to all its various chart types, XMind does not allow free-form charting. Everything must be performed in the context of the five supported chart types.

The migrating intellectual faculties mapper has limited options when switching to XMind. MindJet MindManager () and FreeMind are the only file types XMind can import. In my testing, XMind ably converted complex MindManager documents. Upon import, essential part mind map elements were faithfully converted with correct placement and formatting, though more background colors mysteriously changed. XMind also turns poster-style background images into tiled backgrounds, the single background style it offers. Importing documents from the public source FreeMind yielded similar results. With a modest amount of tweaking, the imported map looked as good or more acceptable than it did in FreeMind. It’s unfortunate that XMind doesn’t import from other competitor products, and can’t read documents formatted in OPML or any other XML standard.

Exporting is a more satisfying experience. XMind capably exports to HTML, PDF, MindManager, and a kind of picture and text formats. While the export results are satisfactory, the user interface again intelligence ways with Mac standards. Both importing and exporting utilize a wizard-style interface with Next and Finish buttons that a single one casual Windows user will avow just now. Wizards have their place in the computing universe, but they’re overkill here.

Macworld’s buying advice

XMind Pro 2008 (version 2.3) shines as a mind mapping tool that doesn’t get in the way as the ideas come flooding out of your head. The mind maps and other charts it produces are winsome and simple to create. Sticklers for Apple’s interface standards won’t warm to the busy design, and anyone with a significant investment in an unsupported import format have power to move along. But new put in mind mappers and those not crazy about MindManager or FreeMind should accord. XMind a shot.

[Stuart Gripman is a columnist for Advisor Basics of FileMaker Pro magazine and founder of Crooked Arm Consulting.]