Sometime back I was first introduced to Mindjet connect under MindManager version 7.  Under that account I received a trial account to connect.  At the time, I did not use the account.  It was in the early days and none of my partners were using connect and so there was no one for me to connect with.

Its the peril of cloud computing and social networks.  Sometimes they need to develop a critical mass before they become useful.  Facebook would be a pretty worthless tool if you were the only one there, same goes for Twitter!

This evening, I received an email from Mindjet indicating that my account was going to expire.  I’ll admit that I had forgotten about the account, even though I upgraded to version 8 last fall.

When I logged in, I noticed that my Connect account was still registered with my Version 7 license.  (Actually, it was a trial version of 7 from a long time ago.)

I couldn’t identify anyway to upgrade my Connect account information so that I could replace my license number with my current license number.  But a little digging pointed me in the direction of this message.

About the Mindjet Connect trial account

Mindjet offers a free 30-day trial of Mindjet Connect service. During the 30-day trial, you will be able to invite up to 5 users to your account. We recommend you read the Mindjet Connect Data Sheet here:
http://www.mindjet.com/pdf/us/mjc_datasheet_en.pdf
Please click this link to view tutorials on using Mindjet Connect:
http://www.mindjet.com/resources/tutorials/mindjetconnect/default.aspx

Promotional offer:

All customers who purchase a new license, or upgrade to MindManager Pro 8 between November 11th and December 31st, will receive a complimentary 6 month subscription to Mindjet Connect service. Your MindManager 8 license key is also the activation key for your free 6-month Mindjet Connect subscription account. The following steps must be followed to activate your free Mindjet Connect account.
1. Install MindManager 8 for Windows
2. On the MindManager 8 toolbar, click on the Connect tab.
3. Click “Create Account”
4. Click the link “Extended Mindjet Connect Promotion”
5. Enter in your MindManager 8 license key to validate your account
(to locate your license key, click on the Tools tab and select “About MindManager”)
For more information on this promotion, please click here: http://www.mindjet.com/promotions/mindmanager/mm8upgrade.aspx

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Please note:
The license key used to activate the Connect account can only be used once. The first person to successfully register the account using the MindManager 8 license key becomes the account owner. The account owner is responsible for adding/removing users, and sets each users access level.  

Apparently, I could sign up for a complimentary 6 month subscription to Mindjet Connect based on my version 8 account.  But I suspect that I have to actually let my account from version 7 expire as there is no way to update the account information.

So I’m going to give that a try and finally make the Connect plunge and see how this tool can be used with MindManager.

By the way, it costs about $10 a month normally for a Mindjet Connect account, or $120 per year.

Today, I’m publishing the fourth video demonstrating how you can mindmap with your voice.  I have Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 and MindManager 8 installed on my computer and when I add this great little tool, called VoxEnable, I can mind map with my voice.

I can say something and it creates a topic, say something more and create a sub topic, say something more and move a topic around. I can say something and a boundary is put around a set of topics.

If you missed the former video entries on this topic, I will next work with the software in a more in depth way once I have had a chance to deep dive into the software.  If you have questions about the software or suggestions on something I should/could test, let me know and I’ll try to generate a video of the result. 

Related Articles:

1. MindManager Powered by Your Voice is Here!

2. MindManager Powered by Your Voice Part 2 Navigation Demonstration

3. VoxEnable Powering MindManager 8 with Your Voice Using Dragon Naturally Speaking Part 3

I’m still working through my first impressions of the new MindManager 8.  In general, it is a little more than an evolutionary move forward for Mindjet. The player makes it possible for a person creating a mindmap to publish the mindmap in an interactive fashion on the internet or in a pdf file.

You can see an excellent demonstration of this by Andrew Wilcox of Cabre.

One thing that strikes me as a simple player upgrade that would be beneficial, enabling users to view the player in full screen mode.  Ergo, push a button, and view the player temporarily outside of the web page it is located on, like you can with a YouTube video player (and many other video services).  Obviously Adobe supports this functionality, and I’m going to dig into the possibility of creating this option manually in the code.

I’m also curious to test the system to see how it might work with my Western Digital external hard drive.  I’ve recently been working to push all of my data and maps to a central storage system, that I can access via the web.  I’m curious how those relative and permanent hyperlinks in a player map might work hosted essentially on one of these drives.

I was prompted to check for an update on MindManager Pro 7 today.  Along with this update, I noticed that I am now required to either create or use an account to get the update to go through.

With any other software program, I wouldn’t think twice about that.  However, for no reason I have been able to discern over the years, I am rarely able to keep my accounts at Mindjet open.  They always disappear (not turned off or deactivate, just gone like they never existed).

So as I read this message, I am a little concerned that if I try this upgrade, I might lose yet another MindManager account and the penalty this time could be something that prevents me from being able to use MindManager. 

That would be bad, but it would give me something to write about.  . . .

guess I’ll be your guinea pig and see what happens!

I’ve been going through a lot of that this week as I just finished moving most of my stuff from Georgia to North Carolina.  I was able to try out a number of gadgets in odd situations and some of them failed pretty spectacularly, but I’ll be covering that on a different site soon as the gadgets, computer desks, and moving equipment I encountered don’t really belong on this site.

Today as I cranked up MindManager, I had a sudden angst of dread as I considered something that I needed to do with my MindManager mind maps.  I needed to find my mind maps on my computer, because MindManager doesn’t know how to do this simple function.  I hope Mindjet adds this functionality in MindManager Version 8.

When I use Windows media player from Microsoft or Picasa from Google, those programs are smart enough to go out and search my hard drive for all file types that can be used with them.  MindManager which is a software program that has a proprietary file type is not even smart enough to go find its own files that it creates.

That is a severe problem for users of the software that happened to store the files within sub folders other than the default file folder set up by MindManager, My Maps.  This means that you had to go find every folder that you stored a MindManager map within and link it manually into the program so they can then find your MindManager mindmaps and make them readily available for you within the MindManager program.

This is extremely tedious and time consuming and even worse if you happen to have a hard drive that’s a hundred or 200 or 500 GB in size and you’ve got multiple file folder structures.  I like to keep all of my files for a project together with in one folder instead of putting say the word documents for a project in one folder in the MindManager files for the same project in a different folder.  This makes it easy for me to find and organize files on my computer and it also makes it easy for me to share those files or folders with other users on ever need to either e-mail, file transfer, or upload them to a server somewhere.

But when I organize my files the way that I like to MindManager gets lost, and I tend to lose the maps I’ve created with MindManager.

My request for Mindjet working on version 8 of MindManager

So I have a simple request for the Mindjet team developing MindManager version 8.  Please build a simple little hard drive search engine that can search my computer and find all of my MindManager maps.  It should be too hard to utilize this type of search or index type of program.  They have been around for years and there’s lots of different companies and develop them for their own tools as well as generic tools. 

They are not as old as Roman Columns as technology goes but in the world of software they might as well be that old.  Even columns get an upgrade every now and then, ex. see fiberglass columns.

I just got my call back from the nice representative at Mindjet.  Apparently the email invitations and the account creation system that they trigger do not work with the Firefox browser.

So if you receive the email, you have to open the ‘Get Started’ Button

from the hyperlink behind the button.

To do that, right click on the button in your email, select copy, then open up Microsoft Word, hit paste.

Then select the button, right click and hit edit hyperlink.

Now you can select and copy the actual hyperlink and paste it into that browser that people used to use back in the 90’s called Internet Explorer.

Just kidding, I understand Mindjet is a Microsoft partner and all and I (unlike many others) love Microsoft, I’m jut not to crazy about IE(x).

Mindjet (MindManager) Connect Beta First Unlook | Maven Mapper’s Information

This week I received 2 invitations to MindManager Connect Beta.  I was pretty jazzed about the idea, but the first invitation came when I was in the middle of wrapping up my taxes and working on a major customer project. 

The next day, I received an email from MindMeister also talking about their MindMeister 2.0 version.  Kind of ironic as MindManager is playing catch up with MindMeister on collaboration, while MindMeister plays catch up with MindManager on look and feel and interface.

Friday, I received the ominous message in the form of a second invitation that I shouldn’t miss the opportunity to try it so I clicked on the button.

That all sounded fantastic!

Well unfortunately, my luck didn’t hold up.  The button with an encrypted hyperlink in it, did not get me into MindManager Connect but did kick me off on the process of having a nice live chat with someone that wasn’t able to get me in either.

Now, I’m feeling a bit like a kid that is promised Santa Clause in July only to be told that Santa won’t be coming until December after all. 

Hopefully, I’ll get a call soon.  I want to open my presents!

Note, I’m not a big fan of Live Chat help these days.  It seems like more an more live chat support workers are unable to actually get anything done.

Customer Service Agent5: Hello, Brett Bumeter. Thank you for contacting Mindjet.
Brett Bumeter: Hi, I can’t seem to login. Probably don’t have a password maybe not a user name. But I received an invitation so I’m a little confused.
Customer Service Agent5: What did you receive?
Brett Bumeter: Mindjet is offering an exclusive first look at Mindjet Connect – a powerful way for teams to collaborate and build communities.
Find out more
With Mindjet Connect, now you can:
Co-edit and share maps simultaneously with MindManager Pro 7
Capture, organize and share maps and files through secure workspaces
Conduct web conferences with integrated desktop sharing, chat and whiteboarding
Start collaborating with Mindjet Connect today and – for a limited time – invite your colleagues and create your MindManager community now!
You will have the opportunity to contribute to Mindjet’s product development efforts by sharing your valuable feedback with us
Brett Bumeter: It also says “Please note – community members need not be existing MindManager users.” which I am, also a trainer.
Brett Bumeter: And this is also my second invitation.
Customer Service Agent5: There should be a link in the email.
Brett Bumeter: Yup, it took me to the login page
Brett Bumeter: http://encryptedlinkremoved.com
Brett Bumeter: sorry, took a while to extract it from the graphic button
Customer Service Agent5: Can you sign in to the login page?
Brett Bumeter: no and when I tried forgot password, it told me my email wasn’t in the system.
Brett Bumeter: I used the email address that the offer had been delivered to.
Customer Service Agent5: You will need to reset your password.
Brett Bumeter: yeah, but how do I reset by username?
Brett Bumeter: It doesn’t even have my email in the system for the username.
Customer Service Agent5: May I have a contact number to call you back Brett?
Brett Bumeter: sure xxx.xxx.xxxx
Customer Service Agent5: We will follow up with you soon Brett.
Customer Service Agent5: Is there anything else I can help you with today?
Brett Bumeter: nope, any idea when? I have a meeting soon.
Customer Service Agent5: Hopefully by the end of the day.
Brett Bumeter: OK, I’ll answer if I can. Thanks.

Maybe I’m getting old, but live chat help just seems to take my blood pressure up, I’d rather replace all of the CAT5e cables on my home theater yet again just for the heck of it.

Journey to Create Video Tutorial for Internet Research with MindManager Pro 7

I do not work in the worlds of Macro writing or testing or even in the world of browser plugins and add on’s, but I would really like to see someone that is versed in this area tackle this issue with a tool that makes it easier to gather information from the web and map it out faster in a mindmap (MindManager being my preference, but if someone else figures it out with a different tool, I will definitely use it even if I have to run the thing from the command prompt.)

I often times have to do a deep dive investigating a topic of information with web research.  Once I have a large number of links for further review, I like to start pushing them into a MindMap.  MindManager has a useful tool for doing this one page at a time from Internet Explorer.  However, MindManager falls short in the following areas:

• Doesn’t work with Firefox, Opera, or Safari
• Doesn’t have the ability to send multiple tabs, bookmarks or favorites into a Mindmap all at once.
• No longer has the ability to send highlighted text on a web page into the mindmap with the topic name and link
• I’d like to see the highlighted text of a web page either become a sub topic or at a minimum get pushed into the notes section of MindManager.

Plus, Internet Explorer is just plain tedious for doing this work as compared to other browsers. 

That said if you have to use Internet Explorer then you have to so I put together this video tutorial to show you how to use it.  Its a manual process but can get the job done.

Below are my responses to what I think needs to be done by Mindjet development to save MindManager and make big Mindmaps functional.  Today with MindManager MindMaps, when a map gets ‘too’ big the map is almost worthless.  It becomes difficult to see the forest for the trees.  Below are some of my insights as a long time MindManager user to fix and even save this great software from a premature demise.

First question: What is a big map? In other words, when you think “This is a big map!”, what makes you think that? Is it just the number of topics? The size when expanded? The behavior of MindManager when you are working with it? Where do you draw the line?

• Anything that can not fit in a screen at 100% magnify is big.   Anything that can not print all subtopics on a single sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper is a very big map.
• Big Maps can be simple or they can be complex.  Maps with more than 100 topics are complex.  Maps with more than 3 levels of sub topics are also complex.
• From a file perspective, any maps that have more than 5 connections into Outlook are also going to be complex, same goes for excel or any other program.
• Maps that have embedded pictures (not icons) tend to tax resources as well and can degrade usability.
  

Second question: What is in your big maps? Do all your maps become big, or just some of them? Why do some maps get big and others stay small?

• Business Plans
• Strategy maps
• score cards
• desktop configurations (all my stuff)
• Process planning maps
• Contract management maps
• Website planning maps
• Maps that plan out articles or white papers that end up being more than 1000 words in length
  

    Many of my maps become big.  When they become big, they also usually become worthless and non-functional.  When they start becoming big, I usually try and formulate a MindManager Exit Strategy (How Do I save this data and keep it useful before its lost in MindManager forever)  This usually means that I try and find a way to reformat the information into something that can be published and accessed for posterity.  Since MindManager maps are almost worthless when it comes to sharing with others (emotionally charged phrases there but definitely elements of truth in them) if I do not get large maps into another form, the effort of mapping the information is almost a wasted exercise other than my own self education.

My Large maps are usually transferred to one of these forms

• Website Article via WindowsLiveWriter -> Content Management System  (PS I hope you guys are making progress with the WLW team)
• Static Websites
• Video tutorials or presentations
• Clickable Flash mindmaps to be loaded on a website
• PDF white papers

Third question: What do you do with your big maps? Do you break them up, or do they just get bigger and bigger?

I mentioned my MindManager Exit Strategy before.  I tend to break up maps as I create them today, hoping to avoid large map syndrome.  I used to embrace large maps.  However, that was when I worked in a bureaucratic setting.  Large mindmaps gave me a way to horde knowledge and in a corporation that translates to power and job security.  I don’t have to worry about that type of silly behavior today and for me today, knowledge is not power if its stuck on my hard drive somewhere.  If I can not share it, publish it, teach it, tutor with it, etc. its worthless information to me.  Large Mindmaps today are like dinosaurs stuck in a tar pit.  Their life expectancy is very very short.

Fourth question: What would you like to do with your big maps? Do you wish for specific features or abilities to deal with big maps better than you do today?

I do not think there is anything new in my request that will follow that I have not expressed every few months here on the boards, on the phone with your team, or anywhere else for that matter but I’ll hit the main points again. 

• The Notes section needs an html editor and that needs to include viewing live html
  • that would then give us the ability to embed YouTube video as one simple example
• The program needs to be stable enough to handle large maps
• Connections with Outlook are very poor and can make large maps almost impossible to open.  This needs to be fixed or solved with a different solution (see next bullet point)
• MindManager needs a DB connection interface.   Microsoft has moved to the world of Proclarity and datacubes and scorecards and much more.  MindManager needs to be in this space.  MindManager needs to be able to connect into a database and return results based on mapping that can be configured with PerformancePoint .  Mindjet needs to get some super database programmers in house ASAP if you don’t have them already otherwise this is going to end up as a dead technology in the corporate sphere.
• The DB connectivity would solve this next request, but if it doesn’t happen, MindMaps need to be able to be used by groups in real time across shared servers and also via the internet. 
  
• MindManager could better handle the chaos views of large maps if they moved into 3d mapping technologies.  I’m thinking of a new view (like outline, map, presentation and then 3d)

So that’s what I see.  I think with these improvements this could be a great software program ready to endure another 10 years.  This would open up the software for many more corporations.  It would also make it functional for social networks, even lawyers working with contracts or for example say a Pennsylvania personal injury lawyer trying to organize a case and go to trial against a corporate giant.  This type of tool could level the playing field.

About 8 months ago, I was dabbling around with MindManager org charts and took a Snagit snap of one and then started rapidly adding hot spots.  Before you know it I had a pretty complex image and when I went to save or export it, I realized that I had to save it to Flash.  I’ve taken intro level classes in Macromedia Flash, but working in Snagit was a great deal easier for what I needed to accomplish.

I wasn’t trying to make a South Park cartoon episode nor make a radical flash animated website, just a functional, clickable org chart.

Several months later, and I got around to experimenting more with this functionality, and I think it is extremely useful in making a mindmap very rich in content for sharing either on the web, or for sharing directly with people that do not own MindManager.

Sorry Mindjet, this one may not help sales, but as soon as you find some more ways to get rich media into MindManager, I’ll be a very loud evangelist again.  Until then its work around city!

So I put together a couple maps (one political trying to make sense out of the news and probably failing, and one about a new Google advertising ad system).  Neither make much for reading, but I treated the topics as an opportunity to play with MindManager, Snagit and learn something new.

Plus, it was a good excuse to procrastinate on hunting down some cheap flights to Austin for SXSW.  I hate booking flights.  I have no reason for this, just always feel like I’m getting ripped off.  I’d almost rather drive.

After creating those, I received a email or call from someone in the MindManager Yahoo Group asking me to walk through the creation process and did that.  During that session, I learned and realized that these files do not have to be published on the internet, but that they can be viewable from a hard drive as well, the video shows this in practice and shows how it works.