Mind-mapping is useful, though I've yet to find a tool I really like and can use 1) intuitively and 2) for very large models.
Online, there's Text2MindMap[1] which is quick and easy to use, and offers a rubber-band like ability to reposition nodes, but in my experience, once past a couple of hundred nodes (I do some fairly large maps) performance gets really laggy, especially if you've got an otherwise populated Chrome session running.
Offline, there's the FreeMind[2] tool, Java based. My main problem with it is that editing is incredibly fussy.
What I prefer mostly is GraphViz[3], which is not just a mind-mapping tool, but can be used as such. The advantage here is that what you're editing is a simple text file, with graphic output created by running one of the graphviz commands over it (dot, neato, twopi, circo, fdp, sfdp). For a traditional mind map, the 'circo' command is probably what you're looking for. While not as interactive as other methods, if you're working on a complex space, the lack of constant overhead for graphical presentation is a plus, as is the simplicity of the base language. What I'm still looking to do is to write a simple outline -> GraphViz converter which sets up edges based on indent levels and parent, which would further simplify the input problem.
Online, there's Text2MindMap[1] which is quick and easy to use, and offers a rubber-band like ability to reposition nodes, but in my experience, once past a couple of hundred nodes (I do some fairly large maps) performance gets really laggy, especially if you've got an otherwise populated Chrome session running.
Offline, there's the FreeMind[2] tool, Java based. My main problem with it is that editing is incredibly fussy.
What I prefer mostly is GraphViz[3], which is not just a mind-mapping tool, but can be used as such. The advantage here is that what you're editing is a simple text file, with graphic output created by running one of the graphviz commands over it (dot, neato, twopi, circo, fdp, sfdp). For a traditional mind map, the 'circo' command is probably what you're looking for. While not as interactive as other methods, if you're working on a complex space, the lack of constant overhead for graphical presentation is a plus, as is the simplicity of the base language. What I'm still looking to do is to write a simple outline -> GraphViz converter which sets up edges based on indent levels and parent, which would further simplify the input problem.
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Notes:
1. http://text2mindmap.com/
2. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Freemind
3. http://graphviz.org/