XMind

Kommentare: I used to love XMind and recommend it to everyone, but since they introduced the subscription charges and stopped allowing people to upgrade from previous versions, unless it was the one immediately previous to the new version, I just had to call it a day. There are other tools around that are more affordable and don't require subscriptions.

Vorteile: Having used many mindmapping tools over the years I came to XMind expecting just more of the same. I was pleasantly surprised. In addition to the usual features you'd expect of a mindmapping tool it has a plethora of additional features, some of them unique to XMinds, which takes its usability to the next level. I particularly liked the ability to drill down into specific nodes of the mindmap and create additional sub-mindmaps using those nodes as the central point. That is so cool. I also liked the availability of a large number of flags and icons that could be easily added to a mindmap. Not only did this brighten things up, but it helped to color-code the map to match my particular needs.

Nachteile: There are two things I don't like about XMind. Firstly, I am a Mac user and XMind doesn'd do a good job of following the standard Mac user interface. It feels very much like a PC application that has been made to run on a Mac. This is a shame as it makes it a little clunky to use on a Mac I feel. Secondly, XMind has some weird pricing that seems to have change over the years. At one time I found it to be an affordable alternative to other tools such as Mindjet (which is stupidly expensive). Unfortunately, XMind seems to have complicated its offerings and for some of them gone down the subscription route, which I think is offensive for a desktop application that requires no online services or access. I don't rent cans of beans or chairs in my house, so I object to having to rent software.

Kommentare: xMind is a very useful application for brainstorming, organizing, and connecting ideas. Great ideas happen all the time inside your marvelous brain. But often and rather very quickly, these ideas fly away and are forgotten. Pen and paper works, but a digital version of mindmapping will help a lot with extra features (e.g., auto-arrange, backup, themes, gantt-chart view, presentation, easy sharing, etc.)

Vorteile: Mindmapping helps me to be creative, to organize and connect my ideas into an easily readable format. xMind has been my go-to mindmapping software for this. I'm using version 8, and it has a much better UI (than other similar apps). The Pro features like Gantt-Chart helps me to use it for Project Implementations. The Walk-through (Presentation Mode) is great for presentation during meetings. It also allows to export to multiple formats like Jpg, pdf, etc. Also, backup using xMind Cloud works great for backup and easy sharing. There are many pre-installed themes to make your mindmaps look formal or fun, or colorful, etc. There are similar apps which are Cloud-based, but I prefer to have xMind, which is installed locally and available for use offline (since I'm not always connected to the Internet).

Nachteile: I'm using xMind on a Macbook, but it seems that up to now, smooth scrolling is not yet fixed by their devs. This has been brought up since 2014 (you may Google it) but still not supported. It's a shame because for me, Mac has the best touch pad/scrolling. On the other hand, I've used xMind in Windows and it scrolls smoothly using the trackpad/mouse with no problems.