Welcome to our App of the Week series where we highlight Smartphone (and starting today Apple iPad) applications for business.
Does this ever happen to you? You have a good idea, but it’s raw. The concept is there, but you know that it’s a spaghetti strainer of holes. So you start brainstorming it from multiple angles, maybe using a whiteboard or a page in your notebook. As you connect your ideas from one to another, you develop a stronger and stronger plan, adding in points and options as it grows (and removing ones that don’t work). If you did the process visually, you just created a basic mind map. (Note: Wikipedia has a great article on mind maps)
As I admitted to in yesterday’s post, I love whiteboards and mind mapping is a favourite technique. Unfortunately whiteboards aren’t very portable for a mobile professional. So, like many, I use a classic paper and pencil – which is messy to edit multiple times, limited in space and hard to share with colleagues across the country for feedback. Enter the iPad and the app iThoughtsHD.
iThoughtsHD (currently $7.99 from the iTunes store) is designed to make mind mapping simple, mobile and sharable. The application has a very simple interface and starts just like a clean whiteboard – blank. Enter a starting point as the “centre topic” and you can quickly and easily add joining ideas creating an expanding map. Changes and moves are done with simple tap or drag and drop touches. Color and shape changes are done in a few simple touches.
I especially appreciate two features of the app:
- Keep Organized. With this feature turned on, you are free to create while the app makes your creation visually readable.
- Version control. iThoughtsHD keeps a copy of each editing session so you can easily rollback to a previous version.
Sharing your maps is also easy with WiFI or 3G+ connectivity. Although I favour the simple PDF export for sharing, options are available for PNG image and multiple commercial mind mapping software packages (which allow others to edit the map).
Here’s is a video from the creators of iThoughtsHD which further describes how it operates (no sound).
Bottom line
iThoughtsHD for iPad is THE tool to organize, edit and share ideas wherever work takes you. It's a recommended app for all business users.
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