(available for a short time only).MindManager import
Here at 3D-Scape we use MindManager regularly. Some of us have used it for more than ten years from back in the days when it was called Mind Man.
Topicscape does not replace MindManager, but it does complement it well. If you like to organize your information and files using a mindmap as a framework, or if you use mind maps in project planning and management, then you will know that there sometimes (often?) comes a time when a map becomes just too large to be viewed and used usefully.
Breaking it up into smaller maps is one solution, but isn't this just when it is most important to have an overview?
When they reach this stage, you can import your MindManager (versions 5 to 8) .mmap file to Topicscape, where it will be shown as a 3D landscape. You can even re-join those split up mind maps again, this time to form a large 3D one. Being able to fly and zoom around the scene makes the large map usable again.
If the mindmap had files or web pages linked to it, these will appear in Topicscape as occurrences, inside topics. And in Topicscape, each topic can hold many more files, notes or web pages.
Curved connecting lines are changed into loose associations in Topicscape. These let you tunnel through from one topic area to another, though you can change it to a parent-child relationship later of you wish. Topicscape allows a topic to have more than one parent so if, like us, you sometimes use the curved connecting lines because you can't show multiple parents, you can change the association to the one you prefer.
The images on the left show a roughly equivalent mindmap and Topicscape. As Topicscape permits associations that MindManager doesn't, we had to duplicate some entries in the upper image and these are shown in the same color.
When you import a MindManager mindmap, you have the option of making it into a new Topicscape, or grafting it onto an existing one.
Import MindManager files into Topicscape as follows: File | Import | Other products | MindManager5-8 (in the drop-down list) | choose New Topicscape or floating topic in this Topicscape, then navigate to the .mmap file using the File Name box, press OK, and decide where the Topicscape is to be saved and what it is to be called. Then you will soon be looking at your mindmap in 3D.
FreeMind import and export
Some of us prefer FreeMind, with its unbeatable price. We make quick maps with it, and, as they grow large, we turn them into Topicscapes. Topicscape permits the full flexibility of a round trip so a Topicscape can be exported to a FreeMind map as well - and back again. As with MindManager, FreeMind maps can be imported to make a new Topicscape or added as a new part of an existing one.
FreeMind can store some useful information called attributes. Topicscape uses these to store additional data that can't be shown in a 2D mindmap, and reads this when the FreeMind map is read back in, to recreate the original structure, colors and other elements, so that a FreeMind-Topicscape-FreeMind round trip (or vice versa) usually comes close to reproducing information perfectly. Please note that this only works with FreeMind 0.9.0 and later. Version 0.8.0 stored less information and Topicscape is not compatible with its internal file format. Although 0.9.0 is a Beta version, we have been using it without problems for a couple of years.
This is the link to learn more about importing FreeMind files into Topicscape, as well as exporting them again.
Other imports and exports
There are other import and export options for text and XML formats including OPML, OML, HTML and structured text.
"PersonalBrain" and "MindManager" are trademarks of their respective owners.
