Another Day with MindManager

Well MindManager keeps getting more interesting as I learn more about it. Today I spend more time researching fellowships and health care jobs but I did get to play around with MindManager a bit. I also came across my first bump with MindManager. When I went to load it up today I saw that a program called PDF-XChange 3 had somehow found its way into my computer. It was even running the background and I am really picky about what processes I let run. Maybe I missed something in the installation as I did do it kind of quickly but I really don't like programs that install other programs with out my permission. If it mentioned in the installation that the PDF program was going to be run then its my own fault but if not that really bugs me. Sure it allows me to save my MindManager Maps in PDF format but since Acrobat can also did this I can just as easily save the map as picture and make my own. This would eliminate the need to have ANOTHER program run in the background. I just did a fresh install which took me a long time so that's why I am so picky about it.

Now my second issue with the program is that I wish I could have branches merge back into one. Now to MindManagers defense I am trying to do things that really don't need to be done if your just using it for organizing. However many times I will split something up and then wish I could group all those things back into one collapsible line. I guess the keyword he is collapsible because you can you summary arrows and call outs to accomplish this but it doesn't work as great as I would like. I also am looking for an easy way to collapse pictures. Pictures take up a lot of space but when I want to see them I would like to see them. If there was an option to have a caption that could be subject attached with an image then if you double clicked on the caption it could close and open the picture. Now I am still VERY NEW at this so it may be possible I just need to find a way.

I am also having problems when I copy some pictures into the map. I can't figure out how it decides what size to insert the picture as. It always seem to insert an image that is much larger than the original. Also since a lot of my images contain text, the text is very difficult to read in the image. I've inserted the same image into OneNote with no problem and the text is crystal clear. Again this may be another setting I have to play with but right now images are still frustrating me. I may look into more of it tomorrow. Because I think you can get an idea of how I use MindManger best by viewing my different MindMaps I have my latest one below. Like everything else I work on I didn't quite complete it but it covers information from my previous exam so its not all the beneficial to me right now. Maybe when I start school next week and we start to get all new information I will be more persuaded to finish and complete a MindMap. I also hope that I can be familiar enough with the program so I can use it in my every day student schedule without getting distracted by inability to use it. I also am really liking the callouts but again wish there was a way to easy hide an hide single callouts. I do know that you can hide call outs but I would prefer to expand and collapse single callouts at will. I'll play with it more tomorrow.

Hopefully I won't find something interesting in my PC Mag again tonight and end up blogging about it like I have the past two nights!

posted by Jason Dorko at 10:44 PM 2 comments links to this post