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3D Topicscape is our outstanding and unique answer to information load.

There are two main types of people who know and love Topicscape: The Simplifiers and the Extenders! The Simplifiers turned out to be people who want something to help them deal with a complicated life by giving them a broad view of their ToDo lists and tasks quickly and easily. Whether they knew mind mapping or not, they liked this rare opportunity to see so much of their work laid out in a 3D landscape. For them we made Topicscape Lite.

The Extenders were the ones who loved that, but could also see the extraordinary possibilities that the 3D world offers, and craved more control, more customization and more information visualization made possible by exploiting modern 3D graphics to the full. For them we produced Topicscape Pro.

3D Topicscape™ Pro

Lite and Pro.jpg

3D Topicscape Pro is based on our original Topicscape but on steroids, thanks to requests from the Extenders. The immediate difference is visible, as Topicscape Pro introduced 21 'skins', a choice of topic shapes, swinging panels allowing users to control the appearance, and a sophisticated 'halo' menu system giving maximum ergonomic efficiency. The skins can be customized in many ways, including color, transparency, 'materials' for the topics, ground textures, and different schemes for coloring topics based their place in the structure.

You can see samples of some of the skins for Topicscape Pro here.

So what's the benefit, other than looking interesting and attractive? You can choose a Topicscape appearance to match your surroundings - a cool, understated one for the office (we like Smoky Plastic) or a brightly colored one for the kids' homework projects (Jewel perhaps). You can choose different skins for different Topicscapes so that you immediately see which one you've opened. The colors can show the structure, or you can choose a scheme where topics can be recognized by color.

But it's not just the appearance that has changed in Pro. You can switch from 3D to 2D and back, which is helpful if you have a small map that all fits well on the screen. If you know Cooliris, you already know how to operate Topicscape in 2D, and for 3D, the controls work much like Google Earth. Also, Topicscape Pro adds the ability to work with other software so that your investment in, say, 2D mind maps for planning (MindManager, FreeMind) or Microsoft Outlook to organize all your work, does not have to be given up when you start using Topicscape. Topicscape Pro uses the increasingly popular URI connection to some piece of information held in another piece of software - we call it a LiveLink.

An important link type is the precision Topicscape link. This lets you have an item in one Topicscape that will let you dive to a specific location in another Topicscape. You can also have shortcuts on your desktop to do that: Double-click a desktop shortcut and, for example, have it open your ToDo List Topicscape at the "Today" topic and get right on with your planning and actions.

Topicscape Pro's ability to import and export makes Topicscape work with many other information management products. You can import and export various forms of text, import Freemind mind maps, XML and OML, and export FreeMind HTML (web page), OPML and XML.

This means ...

  • You can take your Topicscape away to read in a text file or as a 2D list in a browser with active hyperlinks.
  • You can take text output from other mindmapping software and import it to Topicscape and see your mindmap rendered in 3D - especially useful when the 2D sheet has started getting too big or too crammed.
  • You can import your outlines and tasks from, say, ShadowPlan to make a Topicscape.
  • You can export your Topicscape to an OPML outline with collapsible branches.
  • You can export an entire Topicscape to folders and files. This is a great way of re-organizing your folders. And you can re-import them if you wish to make a new Topicscape, with all of the structure preserved.

All of the exports and imports work with an entire Topicscape or just one branch (a topic, and all its children, grandchildren, in fact all descendants).

Topicscape Pro lets you preview many types of file, right there in the Topicscape window: graphics files, web pages and common MS Office documents.

Specific topics that you want to stand out in the 3D landscape can be 'flagged'. The flag can literally be a pennant on the crest of the cone or pyramid, or a color that you choose to be applied to all flagged topics.

Topics and occurrences can be tagged, and you can apply a tag filter to hide all items not tagged with a specific tag or tags.

Download a free trial here.

3D Topicscape™ Lite

3D Topicscape Lite is a very capable tool for managing ToDo lists and files in your computer. Thanks to feedback from the Simplifiers, its strength is in presenting a lot of complex information in a simple way. You can see the big picture, and at the same time home in on the details and act. It lets you fly, zoom and search, then store files and notes, just as Topicscape Pro does, but provides a simpler interface with the more advanced Pro features left out.

If you want control without fuss, but would like a bit of fun at the same time, Topicscape Lite is a good option for you. It gives you an outstanding way to visualize, prioritize and organize your work, home and hobbies.

There is a comparison of exact feature [[3D Topicscape Pro, Lite and SE comparison|differences between Topicscape Pro and Topicscape Lite here].

Download a free trial here.

3D Topicscape™ Student Edition

3D Topicscape Student Edition is our FREE GIFT for students, to provide them with a completely new way to organize their web research and notes gathered when preparing homework, term papers and inquiry.

Topicgrazer™

Topicgrazer helps you capture useful snippets of information and images as you browse web sites, text, Word documents, PDF files, spreadsheets and more.

Download locations:

Topicscape Lite and Pro

Topicscape Student Edition

Topicgrazer

For an exciting free guide to all things visual, visit the
Visual Thinking Center