When you start mind map one of your projects, you can face the challenge with too long branches. Many people I know create mind maps, where one or two branches are too long in comparison with others.
I noted that often such unbalanced mind map means that its author doesn’t have a clear idea of the mind map topic. Or maybe author was keen on some aspects of the problem and forgot about other sides of it.
So, be careful, bear in mind that balanced mind map is one of the sure signs that you considered most important points of the problem.

When I read special books, which are difficult for understanding, I always use mind maps for creating my own view of this book.
It is not about creating summary after reading, it is a visible reading. You draw what you see.
Mind map technique allows you to interpret book as you need and to fix your mind about it.
The problem of all this – is changing your mind during reading. But there are only two tips to solve it:
- use special software to create such mind maps, because you will need to change branches and topics;
- choose software such as Mind Pad, because changing the position of child-objects is always a routine in mind mapping software, especially, if map is big. In Mind Pad 2.6 this problem was solved, now instead of moving across a map with a lot of objects and using drag-and-drop function, one can run a "Reorder children" dialog and re-arrange objects represented as a lines in a text list.
There are some advantages of reading books with mind maps:
- you will not need to read this book again – all you need is in the mind map;
- you will get a visual presentation of all book;
- you can use this mind map as a summary;
- your level of understanding will be deeper, because you will think during reading.

As you see, AKS-Labs has released v 2.6 of Mind Pad, a .NET mind, process and concept mapping software for Windows.
Corresponding to one of its features I would like to tell you about one interesting technique of data storing.
Nowadays many people have to be very mobile. They need their data on the beach, in the airplane, on their vacation, business trips, home and so on.
They have some variants: laptop, flash drive and Internet.
Everything is clear with laptop. But I would like to give you some tips for using flash drive, Internet and Mind Pad.
1. You can create your own mobile office on the flash drive. Use some programs from http://www.portablefreeware.com/. All of them can run without installing from your flash drive. So, you can tune your office for your needs without thinking about specific computer.
2. Use Internet as data storage. It can be your blog, your site, your photo catalog, special site for data storage (for example Google Base).
3. Use Mind Pad to organize your information by saving URLs. From release of new Mind Pad: “There is a new function in Mind Pad. Now you can pass any frame's property as a parameter to URL hyperlink.
For instance, you can point your web-browser to the web-site www.mind-pad.com and use the text from frame as a parameter (see the screenshot). Note: you can pass any property as a parameter.
Also, we have added a new custom designed icons, so this dialog now is very nice.”
So, at the end you will get a mobile office, most suitable for you, accessible anywhere. Good Luck!

This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad (www.mind-pad.com)

Raleigh, NC (AKS-Labs) January 16, 2006 -- AKS-Labs has released a version 2.6 of inexpensive and competitive mind mapping software, Mind Pad. The key idea of Mind Pad is to exploit the potential of an object-oriented approach to mind and concept mapping. This approach allows Mind Pad to serve as an personal or company informational center, representing various data in a most suitable way.

In Mind Pad people can use custom designed objects. Using "Contact" object at map allows to visually show employees and the processes they are involved in. With Mind Pad one can create a Contact object on map and incorporate in it some graphical and text information. For instance, it's possible to put employees' photo, name and describe his role within the process.

With the new version of Mind Pad people can link to their favorite web resources. Mind Pad now allows to pass any object's property as a parameter to URL. So, user can easily point web-browser to some web-site, for example, read the latest news about your subject or get up to date financial quotes.

Changing the position of child-objects is always a routine in mind mapping software, especially, if map is big. In Mind Pad 2.6 this problem was solved, now instead of moving across a map with a lot of objects and using drag-and-drop function, one can run a "Reorder children" dialog and re-arrange objects represented as a lines in a text list. 

Two more function in version 2.6 make it easier to create maps. First, if it is needed to print map one can use a new printing option, where Mind Pad can be configured to print map on a specified number of pages. For instance, Mind Pad can fit map to a single page. Second, in new version of Mind Pad user have more free space on workspace where he or she can design map. Now, you will have a lot of free workspace even if running Mind Pad at laptop.

Mind Pad supports Image and Style libraries.

Style library is a way to manage Mind Pad frame and link styles. It possible to copy style from library to project. Style in Mind Pad is a single file, so it's easy to share it with others.

Image library provides users with a way to apply small pictures (icons) to objects within map.

Mind Pad suggest a new techniques for managing frames and links. Now it allows writing text on links. Double click on link between two frames and put some comments into the text box.

Frames 'Hot Linking' is now available. Instead of moving single frames user can now move whole branches and link it to another frame by just drag-and-dropping.

Also, New tree layout algorithm was design to help building tree and automatically manage frames' positions. It is now easy to build and layout a whole map or disable map layout and apply this function only to some branch.

Mind Pad supports reporting feature. User can now generate a report that will contain all topics from map. Two types of report are available - plain text and htm.  Full screen mode is now available in Mind Pad. Once map was designed go to the Full Screen mode to have an overview or show the map to someone else. For instance, it's a good way to manage presentation.

Download and check the latest version of Mind Pad. It's a features-rich mind and concept mapping software at low price. Is an ideal choice for small businesses.

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About AKS-Labs:

Headquarters of AKS-Labs are located in Raleigh, USA and Moscow, Russia. AKS-Labs was founded in 2000 and now is focusing on creating powerful and easy to use solutions for getting and managing valuable information. The most known file management project is Compare Suite - file compare utility. Now AKS-Labs is promoting a new approach to mind and concept mapping that was released in Mind Pad product. AKS-Labs is a member of Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) since 2001. 

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I would like to draw your attention to this new book - Goal Free Living by Steve Shapiro.

Than main idea, as I understood, is that not all people can be goal-oriented. Many people can't motivate themselves by the goals of our achievement-oriented society.

Steve said:

"I've done a number of surveys on the relationship between people's goals and their happiness. What I've found is that most people keep sacrificing "today" for "tomorrow." They'll set a goal, plan it out, work hard, achieve the goal, and then say, "Okay, that was great; what's next?" They're constantly striving to achieve these goals in the belief that life's going to get better."

Maybe, such point of view also can be useful. For me life is great as a process, including the process of goal achievement. But if you have problems with being happy in this process - you should review the necessity of your goals.

This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad  (www.mind-pad.com)

I promised to write about creating mind map for revision situation with your current projects. Creating a list of your current projects also corresponds to Getting Things Done (The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen) method. You can read more about GTD here. And here is the blog of its author, David Allen.
This post is about creating the list of your current projects. With these projects you ended last year and begin the new 2006 year.
Steps are very simple:
1. Main topic of your map: "Projects list".
2. Next level topics are the names of your projects. Remember, "project" is any problem or task which requires more than 2 steps to solve it. Be careful and try to recall all your projects. Don't hurry, because usefulness of this map directly proportional to its completeness. After filling your list go to the step 3.
3. Now you should review each projects and answer for the following questions. Each question - is a subtopic under the topic of the project. If you have more than one answer - you should create branches for this subtopic.

Questions:
 - What is the end result of the project?
 - What problems could appears during this project?
 - How many ways do you know to execute this project? (Each way is a branch)
 - What you can do with all this right now?

4. As the result, you will have a simple view of your current situation.

I advise you to list your "right now actions" (last question) on the peace of paper and to follow this list.
To make it all work you should regularly review your map with projects.

This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad  (www.mind-pad.com)

Here you can find new mind mapping software blog from the founder of the InnovationTools website.

The main idea of this blog is to give some tips about using mind mapping tools, visual mind mapping and its applications.

This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad  (www.mind-pad.com) 

Happy New Year!

Everything begins again and again) And now, in the beginning we need to review last year and to plan new year. I'll try to help you.

1. Here, in Life Beyond Code Blog, you can find a post about new year resolutions. Author suggest to ask yourself some quastions about last and next years. Also, he posted some thouhts (or suggestions), such as:

1. "New year resolutions work
2. Create a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
3. Decide and implement a reading plan.
4. Develop the right relationships
5. Mind your attitude
6. Mind your language
7. Distinguish yourself"
8. I would like to add "Mind map your life"))
9. In addition to reading plan, you can also create an "eating plan". There is a whole book about it - "Never it alone" at Amazon. The main idea is to use your eating time for meeting people.

2. I would like to introduce an interesting podcast about personal productivity. Here it is - The Personal Productivity Show.

3. Use mind mapping to review your current projects which will pass to the 2006 year. You will find some instructions about it in the next post.

This blog is running by authors of Mind Pad (www.mind-pad.com)