Mindmap novamind1/30/2024 ![]() Changing a branch from one style to another often resulted in a garbled hybrid of the two until I scrolled the window. Screen redraw issues were another annoyance. With a moderately complicated document, there was a one- to two-second lag between clicking on a branch and the application acknowledging the selection. I tested NovaMind on a MacBook Pro with 3GB of RAM and encountered a few persistent problems. Writers can rough out their scenes in a traditional mind map, then use the screenwriting component to write the actual script.įor as well as NovaMind executes its feature set, performance lags as the complexity of a given mind map grows. The third major feature unique to the Platinum edition is a screenwriting module. You can also create a list of resources and attach them to tasks. Branches can be treated as tasks with start and end dates, priorities, and percentage complete information. ![]() Presentation options are few, but the feature works well.Īnother Platinum-only feature is project management. Presentations start with the whole map then zoom in to focus on individual branches as you click. NovaMind Platinum includes a presentation mode not available in the other editions. If you don’t like (or at least tolerate) that style, you’ll be looking elsewhere to supplement NovaMind’s choices. Most of the graphics sport the cartoonish, pseudo-3-D look popular with icon designers. NovaMind provides a good selection of traditional clip art and small graphics called adornments that are intended to appear inline with text. Mind maps typically use graphics and colors as embellishments. Should you need some guidance, NovaMind offers several screencast-style tutorial videos, good documentation, and, on the company Web site, community support forums. The net result is an interface that is remarkably clean and easy to use despite the large feature set. Click a small button to see a palette’s advanced options and it flips over in a cool Quartz animation. Individual palettes can be collapsed to just a title bar, or removed all together. The many palettes can be docked to the working window or dragged out to float independently. Tools for customizing your mind map are abundant and deep, yet they don’t overwhelm. NovaMind 4.6.1 retains the polish of previous versions. NovaMind’s capabilities run deep, but the learning curve is mercifully shallow. RTF export produces nearly identical results. Fonts and background colors are retained, but no image of the original mind map is present. The resulting document is essentially an outline of the text from your mind map. docx format, a specification that any software developer is free to use. Microsoft Word ( ) exports are written to the new. Two updated export formats rolled out with version 4.5. NovaMind’s upload process ought to alert the user when font substitution has occurred if there were a list of supported fonts available, users wouldn’t have to find this out through trial and error.Īccording to the developer, NovaMind Connect supports over 600 fonts, including those included with Mac OS X, Microsoft Office, and Adobe CS3. If a document uses a font that isn’t on the server, a new one will be substituted. According to NovaMind Connect documentation, uploaded documents are parsed and re-assembled for the site. ![]() In testing, I found that the uploaded versions looked just like the original as long as I didn’t use any obscure fonts. You need only click the upload button on NovaMind’s toolbar and give the document a title and optional description. Uploading a document to NovaMind Connect is a cinch. I haven't upgraded my copy in a long time.Setting up an account is free, but requires a NovaMind 4 serial number. Unfortunately, the last time I checked, FreeMind developed a dependency on a level of Java which cannot be put on commercial laptops without paying license fees. It helped that FreeMind allowed me to embed pictures in nodes and put in web links to be followed. They could visibly see the relationship between sub-points.įrom that lecture forward, I quit using PowerPoint and started to project my mind maps. It occurred to me that by projecting the mindmap,I could project my outline and my audience would be able to follow my train of thought. Audiences today would have a hard time following along. They might be three levels deep into their outline, pop up one level, then continue down another "branch" for another 15 minutes. They would preach for very long sessions with very complicated outlines. It was pretty much tree-structured.Īs I was teaching a class on church history, I was covering the subject of Puritan preachers. I used FreeMind for years for preparing presentations.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |