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.

The IQ Visual Mapping Conference is coming up this October 3rd in Morristown New Jersey. 

The conference will be hosted and led by Brian S. Friedlander, Ph.D. and his professional team of preeminent visual mappers who include: Adam Clayman, Stephanie Diamond, Chuck Frey, Arjen Ter Hoeve, Kyle McFarlin, and Wallace Tait. His assembled team comes from such areas as banking, psychology, manufacturing, business management, marketing and college teaching.
The conference will be held on the campus of the College of St. Elizabeth which is centrally located in Morristown, New Jersey, in close proximity to Newark Liberty International Airport and to Manhattan via New Jersey Transit.

Assistive Technology

I do not personally know if I will be attending or not as I have a slightly competing conference on the other side of the country the weekend before.  However, I would like to meet the speakers, several of whom I’ve known through various mindmapping communities for sometime, but never had the pleasure of meeting in person.

But as these things go, you can’t always make every conference that comes along.  If you are going, or thinking about it, please drop me a comment or an email.  If I can attend (time permitting) I will and don’t want to miss out on something good. 

Gathering together a large number of visual mapping gurus together in one hall has to be a powerful thing, who know what they might conceive, figure out, map out, plan, create, build or fix as a collective, could be finding a solution to oil prices, world hunger, time travel, or maybe something simple like the cheapest and fastest route to and from the airport in Morristown or maybe something kind of odd like charting out the path to creating weight loss pills that work or a list of foods that will increase longevity.

Its hard to say what will be in the ethos, but with so many people that have the ability to think and build together in a visual mapping context, there can’t be too much of a limit on their result.

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.

Last week I was in a hurry and made a rookie mistake.  I was working on a project and needed for some weird reason (using a software program that is not compatible with Firefox - . . . MindManager. .   aahemm. ..  ) to get a copy of all my Firefox bookmarks into some strange and weird program called Internet Explorer 7. 

I had not heard of this program which devotees sometimes call IE7, but I needed to find a way to import in a copy of my Firefox bookmarks, so that I could then use some special function in the desktop software program that I was working with on this special project.

The Problem – I lost my Firefox Bookmarks!

So after I imported bookmarks into this IE7 beast, I noticed about a day later, that I had lost about 80 percent of my bookmarks in Firefox.

Why 80 percent and not 100 percent?

I have no idea.  For some reason the bookmarks in about 100 folders that I had were deleted from Firefox.  They still exist in Internet Explorer which imported them but they were stripped out of Firefox.

So the quick lesson I learned from this, is actually one that I learned a long time ago with IE 6 (yeah I actually had used this beast before, but tried to block it from my memory).  You need to back up your Favorites and Bookmarks to separate special files and folders on a regular basis.  If you add lots of bookmarks often, then you may want to back up more often, if not, maybe quarterly is good enough.

How to back up Firefox Bookmarks

This is pretty easy.  Just go to the Bookmarks button on the Firefox menu, click on the Bookmarks manager.  This will open up a new window and you can now select the export option under the file menu of the Firefox bookmarks menu.  Make sure you send it to a safe place!

This week I have gotten back from my trip to Nevada and simultaneously gotten back to some relatively heavy mindmapping work.  In the process, I found what appears to be a possible bug with MindManager 7 that was not previously present in MindManager 6.  Either that, or my installation of MindManager 7 has become corrupted somehow while my installation of MindManager 6 has remained OK.

The problem takes place when I attempt to export a mind map to Word.  I choose a template from Words standard templates.  The problem is two fold.

1. No matter what template I select, the formatting fails to apply correctly a large portion of the time.
2. Sometimes even when the formatting looks correct, the paragraph styles that show up in word are still listed as MMtopic 1, mmtopic 2 etc. as opposed to Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 or Normal as I set it up to export.

Something seems to be breaking down, but when I open up MindManager version 6, and export the same exact file, it works just fine.

I’ve been experiencing this for a while now (a month or two), but it wasn’t until I got into a mind map intensive amount of work that I was able to confirm that there really was a problem.  As I confirmed it, I was not able to get any screen capture video yet.

This week, I hope to do just that.  Once I have it, I will then begin the troubleshooting process and see if I can eliminate the problem by running a repair or just reinstalling the program all together.

I’m hoping to get to this either tomorrow or by Thursday.  I’ve got some mundane things to take care of first, running some errands to get a camera lens repaired, and pick up some pet and dog supplies.  Plus, Tuesday I have to cover the local election here in North Carolina for my other work.

If you have experienced similar problems, I’d be interested to here what you have run into, and whether or not you were able to solve the problem, and or how. 

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.

I received this email the other day from Mindjet that said that 91% of MindManager users were satisfied with the upgrade to version 7.

Now, when I first read that, I actually misread it.  It was about 2 am and I had been working late on a Sunday night preparing for Monday morning.

I inaccurately thought that it stated that 91% of MindManager Users had already upgraded.

So I thought to myself, why are they sending out this email?  I upgraded a year ago, and it looks like everyone else upgraded too.  At 91% there aren’t going to be any users left to upgrade.

Of course that was fuzzy sleep deprived logic based on a mis read.

When I came back and read it again (after a full night of sleep, the first in 4 nights), it made a lot more sense and was actually a a good number to throw around.

5 MindManager 6 Licenses Available at a Steal

Now, you will notice that it only costs $174 for an upgrade to version 7.

I point that out, because I have a good friend that has 5 unopened boxes with Version 6 inside (never registered or used -license, CD and everything).  If you would like to purchase these  (in the continental US) feel free to make me an offer.  I’m just trying to help a friend unload extra copies.  (they’ve upgraded their copies in use to 7 already too!)

Here’s the Company Pitch on Why You Should Upgrade

1. New! Fewer steps to create, format and save custom topic styles for reuse during brainstorming and project planning.
2. New! Topic Sorting prioritizes, highlights and organizes topics by alphanumeric order, alphabetical only, task completion percentage or task priority.
3. New! Saving of map views plus more control over manipulating and viewing large maps eliminates time-consuming content searches.
4. New! Easy-to-use, Microsoft-inspired ribbon interface simplifies map creation and access to advanced MindManager functions.
5. New! Better Microsoft Office integration.
6. Only $174**—50% off $349 price new users pay.
7. Bonus! Free tools and resources (valued at more than $250), including productivity packs and real-world tips to optimize MindManager Pro 7.

I would simply add to that, that this version is more stable and reliable for the most part.

So if you have to tap one of your savings accounts to try MindManager or upgrade to version 7, what are you waiting for?  If someone asked you if you wanted to be smarter and more efficient today, would you decline and ask for more time?

No thanks, I’ll wait to get smarter, improve my communications skills, and become more efficient at work next week, next month or next year.

There’s not time like the present. 

Here to for, I’ve generally built videos and tutorials with the unorganized approach of recording some video while I do something and then going back and editing it into something useful.

Today, I was working on a viral video for a client and actually built a story board of the video before I put it together attempting to plan out how I would present the video.

This actually worked pretty well for me, even though the story board turned out to be very rough.

Here’s a quick video showing the MindManager map I used for this situation.

Plus, here is the resulting viral video that I created from the story board draft.

Note. there’s a technical sound glitch in the final product that is the result of a problem with Camtasia’s ability to render 2 tracks of sound and a slow motion video clip at the same time.  I’m hoping to resolve this by reworking the clips in Pinacle.  If that succeeds I’ll add a third movie with the corrected result. For now, there are a couple sections where the volume level is a little buggy.

So now, I have to crack open this new software, get it installed and start learning some advanced techniques.  Coming soon, I will have my office on the fishing dock converted into a green room studio, you won’t even be able to see the patio furniture when I’m done, but I’m not sure what I’ll do when the occasional duck flies through my office.

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.