At last, our Student Edition is ready for release!

We’ve been working on this for over a year and it got pushed to the background with all the updates to 3D Topicscape Pro, and other developments that we’re not ready to uncover yet.

This is a fun Topicscape with brilliant, glowing colors, stars, galaxies and planets in the sky, but the underlying serious ability to make 3D concept and mind maps to support students in their homework, term papers and research on the web.  And did we mention it’s FREE?  This is a Beta version, but that’s not why it’s free.  It’s going to remain free when it comes out of Beta and goes live.

You don’t need a Beta User’s account, just read all about this new 3D mindmapper, download it here and off you go. 

Worried about the expiry at the end of this year?  Don’t — that’s just to encourage our users to move on to the next version, or to the live version when it’s available.   We don’t want you using an old version when there’s a new one available.  Oh, and it’s a little bit selfish: We’d rather not receive reports of known and fixed bugs from people using out-of-date versions.

We hope you like it, and we look forward to your comments, plaudits and brickbats.

Roy

Our past few months of beta tests have been strenuous, exciting and, eventually, very satisfying. We have had a flood of suggestions, bug reports and comments from around the world and we have now released the result of all this work as new Live version of Topicscape Pro. This is version 1.54 and comes with a new Skins installer.

This is a big step up from version 1.3 (until yesterday, the current Live Topicscape Pro). It went through version 1.4 in internal testing, followed by five versions during which our Beta Users provided great feedback - our thanks go out to everyone. Below is an outline of how Topicscape Pro 1.54 will help you as an information and ideas organizer.

The download is here:
http://www.topicscape.com/tnc.php?productID=14&downloadID=14

And the new installer that replaces the previous Skins installer is here:
http://www.topicscape.com/downloadFile.php?productID=13&appID=7

Below there’s some indication of what’s new.  We’d like to hear what you think of the new Topicscape Pro.

Roy

What’s new

Below is just a summary. See the What’s New page at
http://www.topicscape.com/Topicscape-Pro/whatsnew.php?page=1

The Help system in 3D Topicscape Pro 1.54 has been updated. The on-line browser version of the Pro User Guide will be uploaded sometime in the next 24 hours and the updated PDF is already available for download here:
http://www.topicscape.com/downloadPDF.php?downloadID=16 These all contain the same substance, it’s just a question of how you prefer to read and refer to it.

Importing
Turn MindManager 5, 6 and 7 .mmap files directly to 3D information landscapes.

Turn your Personal Brain files into Topicscapes using a simplified process (reads .pba export files directly). Also updated to work with the latest version (PB4).

Eliminate duplicate files
Check files before bringing them into Topicscape, to see if they are there alread (including checking for changes).

Better descriptions for your topics and occurrences
Plain-text descriptions in the Details Panel extended to 2000 characters.

Opt for a rich text (rtf) topic or occurrence description (”Description+”) linked to the Details Panel. Allows colored text, tables, images and embedded OLE objects, for example portions of a spreadsheet.

Flag your occurrences
Spot and sort out your occurrences, by flagging them with one of 5 colors.  Colors show up in the Topic Center, lists, etc. Customize the five colors.

Mark occurrences as “Finished with”. They will be moved to the foot of the occurrence list and turned gray.

Merges
Experience an automated offer to merge a newly-introduced folder to topic
where the name is the same.

When you find that you have accidentally set up two topics covering the same
ground, merge them easily.

Show how Topics are associated (Association Types)
Capture more knowledge in your Topicscapes. Topics are connected by associations in Topicscape. You can now describe those associations, so that two topics and their association types become a record of some piece of knowledge. This is a feature of concept maps. They can go two ways. Here are examples: France “has its seat of government in” Paris, and Paris “is the capital of” France

You can add and edit these, see them as hints, see them floating in 3D between the topics they describe and search them.

Despite the fact that FreeMind, being a mindmapper, does not directly support association types, association types are exported to FreeMind from Topicscape (as FreeMind “attributes”) and they will be correctly re-created on re-import.  Please note that this only works with FreeMind 0.9.0 v.8 Beta and later, not version 0.8.0.  Although 0.9.0 is a Beta version, we have been using it without problems for a year now.

The standard association types “is parent of” and “is child of” will generally be suppressed unless you use the option to show them.

Contents of topics more visible
Open an occurrence file directly from the 3D landscape (the ‘Scape) with Quickopen.

And without opening the Topic Center, it’s easier to know what occurrences are in each topic:

• with the view button at the right-hand end of the Details Panel title bar (only visible if topic has occurrences).
• with a right click on a topic and select the menu item: Show contents.
• with a right click on a topic and hover over the menu item Show contents - shows a list of contents as a cascading menu from which you can open an occurrence.

Performance
Smoothness of flying has been improved and start-up times have speeded up on most PCs (some optimization is done the first few times you run after installing, so you won’t see the full benefit at first).

Making web archive (MHT) files
Topicscape Pro’s MHT maker has been improved to handle authentication (save web pages where you have to log in) and save web pages that are RSS feeds.

Convert all your URL occurrences in Topicscape with the Mass URL - > MHT converter. You could, for example, import all your favorites or bookmarks, then use this, and you would have a frozen view of your favorites for indexing and reference.

Skins
Choose from two new skins, so there are now 17 to choose from.

Adjust the transparency of the Hit and History Lists to allow for different
field textures.

Transparency settings and color of topic lettering (black or white) are now
saved as part of the skin.

Searching
If a search yields a single hit, Topicscape now takes you straight to the hit.

Return to previous search phrases more easily: The Advanced Search Panel carries a drop-down of your search phrases. There is a “Clear search history” button.

Search by topic- or occurrence-created date.

Search occurrences by colors and take the ‘Finished with’ setting into account on searches. For example, exclude all “Finished with” items from a search.

If you have Google Desktop installed, you can opt to use it in Topicscape file-content searching.

Search in Orphans or Islands topics specifically.

Usability improvements
Quickzoom has been improved by hiding intervening topic cones if they would obstruct your view too much.

View your occurrences in the preview panel in three sizes: small, medium or large.

Edit large text fields more easily with the new text editing panel - press Shift+F2.

Find often-used items more quickly in the Tools menu - it’s been re-organized.

Save screen-space now the minimized Details Panel is easier to work with, using hover.

See more in some cases now the Full view (”Shift+Home”) has been improved.

See more occurrences in the Topic Center (especially with bigger screens and a full-height window) with the expanding occurrences list — length depends on window height.

A “View” button on Details Panel now shows any topics loosely associated with the selected topic. Another shows topic contents list (see above).

Maximize visible space in the Topic Center with the new draggable Details Panel.

Leave the Topic Center more quickly with a double-left-click on the wall of the cone. In addition, Ctrl+I and Ctrl+R now work from inside the Topic Center.

Choose how some mouse double-clicks work to your own taste: You can swap mouse buttons for certain functions.

Find the skin customization controls more easily. The View menu has new items, and the Options panel has a new button labeled “Show individual topic color picker (F4)”.

New users should be able to find things in the Options panel more easily. It can be opened conveniently with a new shortcut: Alt+O.

Repair
Data Repair has been extended to check the new data for association types and Description Plus files.

Do you sometimes find that searches filtered with the occurrence file modified date miss results you expected to see? This can happen if you open, change and save files from outside Topicscape, or even if you open them from within Topicscape, but save changes after you’ve closed Topicscape. There’s a new process to fix this under the Tools | Data checks menu, and the same process is built into the Data Repair wizard.

Fixes
Make Outlook 2007 work with Topicscape as it did for previous Outlook
versions.

PCs not having Outlook Express installed could not start Topicscape at all,
and this has been corrected.

Help
Find your way around the new features with the comprehensively updated Help system.

Vista news

[Update of June 2008] Intel have fixed their drivers and 3D Topicscape will now run on Vista.  If you experience a problem with Vista, please ensure that you have the latest driver.

[Now out of date:  We are NOT claiming that this is a Vista release of Topicscape Pro. However, Topicscape Pro 1.5 will now run on some computers operating under Microsoft Windows Vista. We have an internal test PC on which it runs completely normally and another on which it runs with some graphics anomalies. The main issue is believed to be that some graphics chipset manufacturers are slow at producing fully OpenGL-compliant Vista drivers for all their chipsets.

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/06/26/microsoft_windows_vista_facts/
says “… Windows Vista has come up short on third-party support. … In May Mike Nash, Windows product management corporate vice president, … attributed 80 per cent of user complaints to 4,000 drivers. Among those suffering: gamers and laptop users - with even Microsoft execs complaining Windows Vista does not support their branded laptops.”

We expect this to gradually get sorted out. Meanwhile, anyone who is prepared to give us feedback on Vista / drivers / Topicscape Pro Beta will be listened to with great attention.

Our experience and that of our Beta users is that nVidia graphics seem most likely to be able to Run Topicscape on Vista, and Intel do give some problems at present. One Vista-based Beta User found that running Norton anti-virus software slowed Topicscape down greatly. Our tests indicated that it speeded up in later runs and ended up about 5% lower.

If you see a message “The color scheme has been changed to Windows Vista Basic.”, this is normal, because Topicscape uses OpenGL for 3D graphics and Vista is based on Direct3D.]

Updated 12 Dec 2007

The new 3D Topicscape Pro, version 1.54, just just come out of six months Beta testing and is now available at the usual link
http://www.topicscape.com/download5.php.  When you install this, it will install over your Topicscape Pro v.1.3 Live.

We thank all those Beta Users who have given their time, ideas, energy and enthusiasm in making this a better Topicscape.  The Topicscape Pro Beta we’ve all been working on will expire very soon.  We recommend uninstalling it, it’s just a waste of disk space now - Live is where the action is.

We shall be making formal annoucements, with all the details, over the next 24 hours, showing you why this is the best information organizer ever for mindmappers.

Roy

I like this (well, I would, wouldn’t I!)

http://www.cogmios.nl:80/3d-mindmapping-with-3d-topicscape-has-advantages-over-2d-mindmapping-20070618.html

I can’t wait to see what this guy writes next.

Roy

We have just released a new live version of Topicscape Pro (1.3), a new Pro Beta (1.52) and new Skins installers that will work with Pro and Beta.Here’s an outline of what these installers will give our users.

Topicscape Pro Beta 1.52

The release of Topicscape Pro Beta 1.52 is a stability release that’s closing in on Release Candidate 1.

1. The duplicate-file checking user interface has been extended and, we believe, is much improved.
2. Other user interface improvements suggested by users have been implemented.
3. Data Repair has been extended to check new data.
4. The default skins for Pro Beta have been changed. New skins are available - see below.
5. And some bug fixes have been applied

Topicscape Pro 1.3 (Live) This is a partial release to Live of some of the items previously released and tested in our current Beta 1.5.

1. FreeMind export and import: This is a major new feature. It allows for complete interchangeability between 2D mindmaps in FreeMind and 3D mindmaps in Topicscape, including round trips (e.g. export to FreeMind, make some changes, import back to Topicscape).
2. We have changed the default skin
3. The F6 key will hide all non-flagged topics in the ‘Scape, allowing you to quickly home in on the ones that you have marked as important.
4. The Caps Lock key now acts like a toggle for Quickzoom. You can press Caps lock, then click around on topic cones to zoom into several areas without having to hold down the shift key. When you have found where you want to be, keep the mouse button down, and press CapsLock again.
5. Thumb drives (memory sticks) can now be used with Topicscape.
6. When you’re in the Topic Center, you can now double-left-click on the wall of the cone or on the floor to return to the ‘Scape.
7. There is now an option to check for updates. Go to Tools | Options | User Preferences and near the foot of the panel you will see a checkbox “Auto-check for updates every day”. If you check this box, then on the first run of any 24-hour period, Topicscape will check at our web site to see if a new update is available. If one is, it will open a browser at the page for downloads. You will need to give Topicscape permission to access the web for this to work, but it will need that for MHT-file making anyway. This option is off at installation, but on the first run after installation (only), Topicscape will ask if you want to turn it on.
8. The default skins for Pro are now Crystal and Smoky Plastic. “Classic” has been moved to the skins installer.

The new Live version of Topicscape Pro is available here:
http://www.topicscape.com/tnc.php?productID=14&downloadID=14

Topicscape Pro Skins

There is a new installer that replaces the previous Skins installer.Just download it and install – no other steps needed.This contains all the previous skins, plus two new ones: Lite and Graph paper.

1. “Lite” is included for users who have upgraded from Topicscape Lite to Pro, but who don’t want to change the appearance of Topicscape.
2. “Graph paper” is based on a user suggestion and provides an interesting contrast to the shiny metal surfaces of some other skins.The Graph paper ‘ground’ goes well with some existing models and textures, and being light and neutral in color offers many possibilities for you to tailor Topicscape’s appearance to your taste.
3. Classic has been moved.

The skins installer has now been changed to install into Topicscape Pro Live and Topicscape Pro Beta.  Whichever you have installed (one or both) you can choose to update and make the skins available.

The Skins installer is here:
http://www.topicscape.com/downloadFile.php?productID=13&appID=7

A note about Intel drivers

We identified an issue in a recent Intel graphics driver that affects Topicscape operation.Intel have acknowledged this as a problem but have not yet given a date for release of a fixed driver. Fortunately there is an earlier version that works with Topicscape (see http://www.topicscape.com/faq.php#Q48).  Intel have said that they will advise us when a correct version is on line.  A new version was made available in early May but we wish to emphasize that this does not solve the problem – we have tested it.  If you are using the earlier Intel driver recommended in our FAQs, please stick with it.

There were some problems with the version of Beta 1.51 that we put up on Monday.  They appeared irregularly and only on some PCs.

We think we’ve fixed them now, so there’s a new installer on line for you to download from the usual place: Topicscape 3D mindmaps
Pro Beta version

Roy

Fixes:

• On some computers, Topicscape would occasionally not start - actually it loaded and could be seen in task manager, but did not show up in the screen.
• In such cases, when switching the PC off, a panel (with an “End now” button) showed up saying that it couldn’t close Windows.
• Association types (for 3D concept maps) have been tidied up: customization controls and panel appearance.

A new Topicscape Pro Beta (1.51) was put up online on the 30th April (and a first revision is up today). It is ready for download by all full license holders and Beta Users. This Beta expires on 29th June, and well before that time we hope to release the live version of Topicscape Pro 1.5.

This is how the new Topicscape Beta can now help you manage your information in its 3D mindmaps:

Duplicate checking
Now you can drag in one or more files to Topicscape, drop it on the new ?=? panel and see which files are already in the current Topicscape. Shows size in bytes, colors different size or date in red, points out if the duplicate in that Topicscape is actually a missing occurrence file, and shows which topic it is in. Then it allows you to control what to do next, one by one (replace, delete the external one or bring it in anyway). This is really useful if you are tidying up multiple copies of different versions of documents that should already be in a Topicscape.

Quickopen introduced
In any topic, you can now “promote” one occurrence. This will show the icon for that occurrence above the cone in the ‘Scape, allowing you to click once on that icon to open the document in the application of the occurrence. Naturally a ‘fileless occurrence’ may not be promoted in this way, nor may an occurrence that has no application associated with it on your PC. Occurrences with no associated application show the default Microsoft ‘unknown file’ icon.

Association type visibility
When association types were introduced in the previous Beta, to see them, you would click and hold on an association line. That would show the Association Details Panel and allow you to read and edit the association text (and the topic names). [Reminder - association types are the verb phrases you can now add between topics. For example, “is the capital of” may be an association type between topics France and Paris.]

We have continued our planned implementation of Association types and now this new beta provides other ways of viewing them that you will want to use when you are just viewing them, not editing. Hover over and association line and you will see a blue hint expressing the full association phrases. If you have not edited these, they will just say, for example, France is a parent of Paris, and Paris is a child of France. If you have edited them, they might say France has its seat of government in Paris, and Paris is the capital of France.

You can also opt to see Association types as strong blue panels in the ‘Scape when you click on a topic. You will see the association type for the connection between the selected topic and its parent(s). You will only see this if a) you have edited the standard association types (the default “is parent of” and “is child of”) and if b) the new checkbox in Tools | Options | User Preferences | Miscellaneous operations | Suppress standard association types is checked (ticked).

There’s an option to see all associations at one time: press Shift+F7 once. This will toggle on all association lines and their descriptions, subject to b) just mentioned above. Press Shift+F7 again to toggle this off.

Association-types search
There is now a checkbox on the Advanced Search panel to make the search look in association types. The example just mentioned would be found if you search for “capital” and checked the “association types” checkbox.

Association-types to FreeMind and back
Our implementation of FreeMind round trips has been further enhanced to include association-type texts. These won’t be immediately visible in FreeMind, they are stored as attributes, because FreeMind makes mind maps, not concept maps, so does not have association types. But storing them in the attributes means that re-importing an exported FreeMind back into Topicscape will preserve any association types you have added.

Coming up!
Soon we shall be releasing a Beta that supports tagging topics and occurrences and filtering the visible topics by tags.

Please give us your feedback about the new Beta!

Thanks

Roy

A new Beta version of Topicscape Pro, version 1.5 Beta, is now on-line.  You’ll need an account, which you will have if you have a full license or are a Beta User.  This is the second Beta release of Topicscape PE Pro and will be a free upgrade to all Topicscape 1.0 or Pro full license holders.  (More about applying for Beta User status at the end of this post).

An expired trial of Topicscape on your PC will not stop this Beta from running.  The Beta will expire on 30th April, but we shall either release a full version then, or release a new Beta with a later expiry date.

Here are some of the new things that the new Beta 1.5 does:

• Exports your 3D mindmaps to FreeMind and imports FreeMind files to make 3D mindmaps.

• Support thumb-drives / USB flash drives.

• Starts more quickly.

• Lets you capture knowledge in 3D concept maps using Association types to label links between topics.

• Supports rich text descriptions for topics.  2000 characters of plain text descriptions for topics or occurrences.

• Options to see a topic’s contents from the ‘Scape scene.

• Option to see loose associations more conveniently.

• Optionally uses your Google Desktop indexes for better file-content searching.

• Shows history of search terms used.

• Immediately jumps to the result if a search finds only one hit.

• Flags occurrences with color, or as ‘Finished with’ and search with these as criteria.

• See the “flagged” color of occurrences and topics in various lists for faster recognition.

• Shows just flagged topics in the ‘Scape if F6 is pressed.

• Toggles Quickzoom on and off, and fly while zoomed using CapsLock.

• Provides a new shortcut for leaving the Topic Center (double-left click on cone wall).

• ‘Tab’ around the topic in the ‘Scape.End, Shift+End, Page Up, etc., now work better.

• New shortcuts to make topics and occurrences.

• Can inform if a file dropped on the new “Duplicate?” panel is already in that Topicscape.

• Can merge topics.

• Offers to merge a topic and a folder with the same name when dropping the folder into Topicscape. 

Here’s the link for more about the new features and how to use them

And here’s the link for applications for Beta Users - we need some information about your PC to help us handle any bug reports.  If you apply, you will want to know this: We will only use your email address for the adminstration of the Beta tests and to inform you about new versions of Topicscape.  We will not pass the information to anyone else.  You can ask to be removed from our database at any time.

If you use TopicCrunch you may want to know if it will work in Vista.  Yes, it does.  Our deep searching software has been tested on Vista and found to work normally. 

 Topicscape Pro and Topicscape Lite are under test with Vista.  It’s fun to see the 3D mindmapping window move into Vista’s own 3D environment.  It will take a few weeks to complete our full test plan and make any necessary adjustments. 

3D Topicscape 1.05 has just been retired.  3D mindmapping enthusiasts will be happy to hear that it has been replaced with 3D Topicscape Pro and 3D Topicscape Lite. 

Lite is a very capable tool with the 3D mindmapping attributes that users of Topicscape have come to expect. It is well able to organize ideas and information in a way that was never possible before Topicscape came along, but Lite has been designed with a simple interface in mind.  It works well for To Do lists, getting things done (GTD), task visualization and quick ideas sparking and capture.

3D Topicscape Pro moves on, to provide :

- really beefed-up import and export - to allow you to bring work done with other tools forward into Topicscape and extend it more than ever before possible (XML, OPML, text for reading, structured text, folders and files as well as MindManager and other software);

- the ability to make LiveLinks to items in Outlook (2000-2007) and many other products that support URIs, like MyInfo, Whizfolders, UltraRecall, EverNote and ConnectedText. This means you can link Topicscape to your work in other applications: click an occurrence in Topicscape and have a specific item opened for you in the other software.

- many skins so that you can choose the one suitable for your working environment;

- topic flagging - find topics that are important to you even quicker; - link Topicscapes with a precision link right to a specific topic;- richer ability to save web pages locally - better than Internet Explorer 7 - so you can retain complex pages, in most cases viewing them exactly as they appear on line.Topicscape Pro is the heavyweight lifter for complex project management, dealing with information overload and  organizing the long tail of reference information that most of us accumulate.