XMind

Kommentare: I use it for mind-mapping my articles, presentations, and books. It's a powerful simple tool for that. And can form the basis of a great Prezi layout if you use the clip art. Mostly I like that it's a fast way for me to scope and think about an article or book. I typically use the 4MAT model (as originally developed by Bernice McCarthy in 1980) which creates a 4 way mind-map, starting with WHY in the top right quadrant then WHAT in the lower right, HOW in the lower left and continuing clockwise to create a branch about IF? in the top left quadrant. The WHY is all about "Why should people read/know/care about this?", then WHAT is it that I want them to know/do/feel, and HOW do they do this, then finally the IF? is all about What if? What if I (the reader) do this and it works or doesn't work? What if the next step is ... ? What if it everyone knew/did/felt this? 'What if?' is designed to stimulate the thinking processes based on the Why, What, How of the article/book/presentation. 4MAT is a good process and worth learning more about. I start with these 4 trees on the mind-map but the results can cover hundreds of branches as each branch stimulates new ideas. Sometimes I also use it for building models for presentations. Other times for organizational charts or taxonomies. And sometimes I just data-dump a brainstorm of ideas for whatever I'm working on. The clip art and ability to use straight or curved lines, and format text as I like helps for communication also.

Vorteile: I've trialled or used a lot of mind mapping software and this is the one that I stick with. Mostly because it has two big criteria that I look for:
1. Ease of use - fast and intuitive
2. Flexibility - I can use a range of shapes and even the included clip art or my own images. I love that it's also available on IOS devices but so far, have been content to use it mostly on my Mac. I'm using XMind 8 Update 8 Pro via a license with Setapp (a subscription service that aggregates 200+ apps for $10/mth). I use enough of the Setapp utilities and apps that Xmind is basically free for me and that's just another big plus.

Nachteile: Nothing to dislike really. It ticks all the boxes for me. If anything, my main gripe would be that it's not as well known as some other software so it took me a while to find it. It was via the Setapp subscription that I first found it but it is now also in the Apple App Store.

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.