Two great cross-platform mind-mapping applications

These two mind-mapping applications are written in Java and thus run on all major operating systems (Mac, Linux, Windows).

FreeMind

FreeMind is completely free. It has made some great progress in recent years. Tips:

• Switch on “Format → Automatic Layout” in the menu bar. It formats the mind map nicely.
• The default is for nodes to be selected on hover. I prefer having to click to select a node. This behavior can be enabled via “Preferences → Behavior → Selection Method → By Click”.
• Check out the shortcuts in the “Insert” and “Navigate” menus. They really speed up mind map creation.
  

XMind

XMind has a slick user interface, the basic version is free. Unfortunately, PDF export is a professional feature.

Emacs org-mode: notes, planning, authoring – in plain text

Emacs contains all kinds of craziness, but this is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time: org-mode is an Emacs mode that does outlining, planning and authoring, all in plain text. A few of the highlights:

• Everything is text. This does have disadvantages, but the advantages are obvious: easily exchanged by email, put into version control, a format many applications understand, etc.


• Outlining


• Hyperlinks to emails, web pages, files, etc. inside content
  
  


• Meta-data such as tags and dates attached to content
  
  


• Tables: continuously aligns all the cells of a column and can move columns around.
  
  


• Spreadsheets: you can perform calculations in tables
  
  


• Publishing: content can be published as HTML and LaTeX
  
  

Find more information here:

• The org-mode web site


• Google tech talk on org-mode
  
  

Synching Google Calendar with iCal and Thunderbird

Via the CalDAV protocol, Google now supports bi-directional(!) synchronization between Google Calendar and iCal or Thunderbird. Details [source: fscklog]:

• Get Started with CalDAV


• Calaboration, the tool linked to above

This is great, previously one needed the purchaseware BusySync to do so (note though, that BusySync also allows you to sync iCals in a WLAN).



Related post: Cloud-sync your iOS calendars (bonus: PC/Mac)

Collaboratively editing a text document

A few years ago, SubEthaEdit was an eye-opener: Several people, sitting at different computers, could edit the same document. Let's clarify what this means:

• Different computers: The computers could be anywhere. For the internet, you had to let your collaborators know your IP address (by sending a URL that was easy to copy and paste). For a LAN, you could use Bonjour which lists computers by name. Note that LAN can also mean ad-hoc WLAN: Under Mac OS X, any computer can become a wireless router. Thus SubEthaEdit works even without internet access.
  
• Same document: All changes appear live and what a user types appears is highlit with a color specific to that user. Thus, the experience is similar to normal text editing, just a bit more agitated, as there is more than one person making changes now.

This is highly useful for the following scenarios:

• Remote brainstorming: Two people in different locations can brainstorm on a topic by editing the same document and talking/chatting over Skype.
• Local brainstorming: If several people have to edit the same document, collaborative editing still makes sense, even if they are in the same room. Thank to ad-hoc WLAN, this can even happen in a Cafe.
• Taking notes: If several speakers frequently alternate (such as in discussions), several people can collaborate to take notes. Then each person can concentrate on a single speaker and properly finish his/her train of thought without being immediately interrupted by a new speaker.
  

Now, for all its coolness, SubEthaEdit has two disadvantages: It is Mac-only and it costs. Mind you, it is not expensive, but it does make it harder to bring one-time users into the fray. Thus, I was looking for cross-platform (Windows, Linux, Mac) alternatives.

• EtherPad: A really cool solution. Works well, no install. Only drawback: You need internet access for it to work.
• Google Docs: I haven't used it yet, but heard good things about it.
  
• Gobby: Not sure, Mac installation is a bit complicated and has prevented me from trying it out, so far.
• Emacs: Nothing looks promising (and cross-platform) enough for me to try out.
  

Graphviz: easy graph visualization

This tool has been around for a while, but I still like how useful it is, so I thought I'd write a blog entry about it: Graphviz translates simple textual representation of graphs into diagrams. Visually, this covers everything where shapes are connected by lines (be it with or without arrows), which is quite a lot.

Example: The definition

digraph G {
    TODO -> "Buy food" ;
    TODO -> "Send out invites" ;
}

is displayed by Graphviz as:

Notes:

• The definition (and input of Graphviz) is just a text file which can be easily created by a program.


• The GUI version of Graphviz watches files so the diagram will be updated automatically every time the text file changes.


• Graphviz can export its visualizations in many formats (jpg, PDF, SVG, ...).


• More examples: Graphviz Gallery, UML Diagrams Using Graphviz Dot.


• Download (be sure to use one of the “Executable Packages from AT&T”).

Now, my only wish would be a pure JavaScript of Graphviz. All the Graphviz solutions that I’m aware of depend on a server-side native dot binary to do the graph layout.