There’s a new version of the Topicscape Beta that’s going through testing now, and it’s up on line. 

But before going into the details, can we ask for more feedback on the Beta – things you haven’t already told us about?  (And thanks for all the feedback so far.)  Even if you’re not trying the Beta right now, we’re still glad to hear from you about Topicscape generally.

1. What is your experience when using the new Beta?  We know many people like it, they’ve told us, but what do you not like about it?  How could it be improved?

2. Did you download the skins to use in Beta? (If not, you can use the usual skins installer and install it, but select the Beta checkbox when the installation starts.)

3. Which skin do you mostly use?

4.  Do you tweak the skins to your own taste (for example by using the Skin button in the new swinging Quick Options panel)?

Feel free to include comment about aspects of Topicscape that exist in the pre-Beta version as well.

Full details are in the revised PDF file, as before with the additional features and changes (since the second release of this Beta) highlighted.

The additions / changes are as follows:
-  Deleting entire Topicscapes can now be done from the File menu so that you don’t have to dig around with Windows Explorer (thanks Alex).
-  Tags can now be edited or deleted throughout a Topicscape, so if you wanted to change all references to a tag “Tuesday meeting” to “Sales meeting”, or even delete all references to “Tuesday meeting”, this can be done in one operation (thanks Ian).

-  The Help system has been updated with most of the new capabilities described in detail.
-  In Vista, Topicscape’s capability to use Windows Desktop Search (WDS) for searching file contents, was broken.  This is now fixed (thanks to observation from ”tireless Ian” again).

So, once more, we have user feedback to thank for these improvements.  Keep the suggestions coming folks, and thank you for all the input.

A quick reference to download locations is below.

Roy             (follow me on Twitter @roygrubb for mind mapping tips and hints)

Adam Sicinski, well known to readers of this blog since the Great Hand-drawn Mind Mappers’ Face-off, has come out with a jaw-dropping mind map that some people could probably run their lives with.  Cleverly called the “MasterMind Matrix” it comes either as a PDF or a laminated A0 poster (that’s A0, as in 33 inches x 47).

I corresponded with him about this to dig out the back story, and the more I learned, the more I realised that it was a tale worth telling.

Adam Sicinski is a coach – a Life Coach – and he told me of a several year search for the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything (not his words, I’m just a Douglas Adams fan) involving 150 books from Amazon, CDs, DVDs and seminars.  He kept diaries about interactions with others, and obsessively watched recordings of reality-TV shows so he could pause and resume while making notes about what people said, how they said it and what happened as a result. 

Although he knew of mind mapping back then, to him, it wasn’t the indispensable tool he finds it now. He started organizing this material into OneNote in what he would probably admit is a pretty non-visual way:

This took several weeks of full-time organization of years’ worth of materials.  Suddenly, he had one of those ‘Aha!’ moments: He had become a mere Information Collector (his caps) and it was getting him nowhere -  action was what he needed. 

So he started formal study at the Life Coaching Institute of Australia to get practical experience and this pushed him over the ‘action’ hump.  He told me that this was when the idea for a MasterMind Matrix began to take its first form one night in 2006, because he saw he had many disparate pockets of deep information with not much tying them together – there were gaps that he wanted to fill in and links to be made.  He sent me a snap of an early version, and if I’m guessing rightly, I think he was using Inspiration at that stage – not at all in today’s Sicinski style.

He tells me that piecing this together filled his evenings, nights and the early hours for twelve months, but as it grew he went into another round of research and reading.  By now his target was to present all this information in an easy to understand format that linked everything.

 Then it got interesting – by early 2007 the chart had grown out of control.  He even had it all over one bedroom wall and contemplated it before sleeping and when waking up.  It was rough around the edges, which is hard to imagine if you look at it now. 

Getting it to its present state took another 2 years – moving right into 2009 and its release a week ago.   

I tried to squeeze something out of Adam about his process for making this type of mind map, but he’s staying tight-lipped.  With a unique style like this that’s probably wise, though I’ve heard that he plans some courses around the technique.

So what does it look like?  (and just bear in mind that it’s normally nearly four feet wide)

To get the value from this, it’s clear you’ll be studying it for a long time (click for a larger image).

Here’s a free version of the MaterMind Matrix and Adam’s own information about this map.

Roy

Disclosure – Adam sent me a pdf of this without charge because I’ve shown enthusiasm for his work in the past.  He did not ask me to blog about it.

I firmly believe that zooming interfaces are the way of the future for information organizers.  With the volumes of information we have to handle, we need to be able to take in the big picture and zoom in rapidly on any area for the detail.   I just found this at the OutlinerSoftware forum:  TreeSheets 

TreeSheets is a text-based information organizer with a zooming interface a little like Topicscape (but only the zooming part!)     Organize a grid like this extract:

Notice the grid of cells, and the nested sub-grids.  It has titles and then some references I wanted to go back to when I had time.  The gray lines are very tiny text.  I grouped them under headings, saved each URL list in the cell (a grid inside a grid) and shrunk the grid using the mouse wheel while holding down Ctrl.

Then to see them, you just click the cell you want to examine:

and roll the mouse wheel forward:

The surrounding grid disappears, and the selected cell zooms up so you see just its text and its sub-grid contents, enlarged.  This image is reduced to fit the blog width – the actual result is clearer and larger.  Roll the wheel back and you see the whole sheet again.

This means you can have a lot on the screen at once, but avoid detail until you want it.  It’s a neat little application.

Roy

3D Topicscape Pro, the only true 3D mind mapping software, is moving into an all new version: vsn.2.0. Here’s an opportunity for you to see the tool that makes information overload easier to cope with by letting you see much more of your information at one time, organized just how you like it and laid out in a landscape before you.

This new version brings you easy-to-use and powerful 3D software in an even easier form.

Full details of Beta 2.0 are in a picture-rich document here. Meanwhile, here’s a summary of the new features that make this a great upgrade:

• Tagging
• Halo menu on topics, and associated dynamic help
• Innovative swinging panels
• Topic footprints
• Quick view of topic contents
• Topic name layout improvement
• Neighborhood views
• Additional built-in demo
• PB5 import update
• and more…
You can see here how our beta tests work http://www.topicscape.com/betahow.php and then if you’re interested in this exciting information organizer, move on to the Beta application form and choose a user name and password … http://www.topicscape.com/applybeta.php We need a few details about your computer so that we can know it has a good chance of running Topicscape.

The Beta will work without a license, whether you have previously installed Topicscape or not, until March 31st.

We’re keen to hear what you think, whether you find any problems, and what suggestions you have. You can contact us for help and feedback.

Roy

Do you find all the blog posts about how to mind map take pretty much the same approach?  Most reword and dish up Buzan’s guidelines in a short page?  Well now there’s a new approach.  One that recognizes that why you’re mind mapping will affect how you go about it, the style of map you produce and whether you mind map on a computer or on paper.

It also helps first-time mind mappers overcome the ‘first level’ hump.

It gives worked examples.  One shows a map as it grows and describes the thinking and development process that typically takes place as we map.

Others illustrate different styles of maps for different purposes.

This is all at WikIT, the information mapping wiki, right here: How to make a mind map. 

There is a separate brief article about How to make a Buzan style mind map, with useful links to pages by Buzan himself and Illumine at its foot.

WikIT has a wealth of practical guidance about many forms of information map.

Roy