MindManager, called MindMan until version 3.5, is a commercial mind map

Mind map

A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Especially in British English, the terms spidergram and spidergraph are more common, but they can cause confusion with the term spider diagram used in mathematics...

ping software application developed by Mindjet Corporation. Mind maps created in MindManager are based on the mind mapping method by Tony Buzan

Tony Buzan

Anthony "Tony" Peter Buzan is an author and educational consultant. He is a proponent of the techniques of Mind Mapping and mental literacy. He claims to have worked with "corporate entities and businesses all over the world; academics; Olympic athletes; children of all ages; governments; and...

. The latest version, MindManager 9, is available for Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

. and Mac OS X

Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

.

Files created in the most recent versions are compatible with both Windows and Apple platforms. Features include support for manual and automatic task management

Task management

Task management is the process of managing a task through its life cycle, including planning, testing, tracking and reporting. Task management can help either individuals achieve goals, or groups of individuals collaborate and share knowledge for the accomplishment of collective goals...

, filters, an open application programming interface

Application programming interface

An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...

 (API), and RSS

RSS

-Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:* RSS , "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary", a family of web feed formats...

 support. MindManager also provides integration with Microsoft Office applications such as Outlook and Excel.

In 2008 Mindjet introduced Mindjet Connect, an online collaboration service with centralized storage, Instant Meeting, and communications features. Connect is accessible with MindManager 8 and via MindManager Web, a Flash

Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...

-based client.

MindManager supports Ecma International

Ecma International

Ecma International is an international, private non-profit standards organization for information and communication systems. It acquired its name in 1994, when the European Computer Manufacturers Association changed its name to reflect the organization's global reach and activities...

's Office Open XML format and has adopted Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

's Fluent user interface, commonly known as a ribbon

Ribbon (computing)

In GUI-based application software, a ribbon is an interface where a set of toolbars are placed on tabs in a tab bar. Recent releases of some Microsoft applications have embraced this form with a modular ribbon as their main interface. The Ribbon is a contextual interface that offers functionality...

.

Product history

Current product line in bold.

Date	Name and version	Operating system support	Languages
1994	MindMan 1.0	Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...	English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... , German German language German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
1996	MindMan 2.0	Microsoft Windows	English, German
1997	MindMan 3.0	Microsoft Windows	English, German
1998	MindManager 3.5	Microsoft Windows	English, German
1999	MindManager 4	Microsoft Windows	English, German
2000	MindManager 2002	Microsoft Windows	English, German
2002	MindManager	Palm OS Palm OS Palm OS is a mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants in 1996. Palm OS is designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. It is provided with a suite of basic applications for personal information management... , Microsoft Windows Mobile Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft that was used in smartphones and Pocket PCs, but by 2011 was rarely supplied on new phones. The last version is "Windows Mobile 6.5.5"; it is superseded by Windows Phone, which does not run Windows Mobile software.Windows Mobile is...	English, German
2003	MindManager for Tablet PC Microsoft Tablet PC A Microsoft Tablet PC is a term coined by Microsoft for tablet computers conforming to a set of specifications announced in 2001 by Microsoft, for a pen-enabled personal computer, conforming to hardware specifications devised by Microsoft and running a licensed copy of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition...	Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition	English, German
2003	MindManager X5	Microsoft Windows	English, German
2005	MindManager 6	Microsoft Windows	English, German
2006	MindManager 6	Microsoft Windows	French French language French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts... , Japanese Japanese language is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
2006	MindManager 6	Mac OS X Mac OS X Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...	English, German, French, Japanese
2007	MindManager 7	Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows	English, German, French, Japanese
2008	Mindjet Connect	Microsoft Windows	English, German
2008	MindManager Web	All (Adobe Flash Adobe Flash Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast... )	English, German
2008	MindManager 8	Microsoft Windows	English, German
2009	Mindjet Catalyst	Web	English, German
2010	MindManager 8	Mac OS X	English, Japanese
2010	MindManager 9	Microsoft Windows	English, German, Japanese
2011	MindManager 9	Mac OS X	English, Japanese
2011 (September)	MindManager 2012	Microsoft Windows	English

File format

The MindManager file format is a ZIP

ZIP (file format)

Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...

 archive with XML and binary data inside:

• Document.xml: this contains the structure and data in the map. The format of the XML is defined by the XML Schema files also included in the zip archive.
• Preview.png: a small thumbnail-sized image of the map
• xsd\MindManagerApplication.xsd: the primary XML Schema file
• xsd\MindManagerCore.xsd: a supporing core XML schema file
• xsd\MindManagerDelta.xsd: a supporting XML schema file that supports differences between map versions
• xsd\MindManagerPrimitive.xsd: a supporting primitive XML schema file.
• bin\*.bin: all attachments and images not provided with MindManager in the map

The MindManager file format is backwards and forwards compatible with versions 5 through 8. The MindManager file format XSD schemas are also publicly available.

Integration, add-ins

Latter day versions of MindManager create maps which can pull data from Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...

 and Outlook

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, available both as a separate application as well as a part of the Microsoft Office suite...

, and can be exported to Word

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...

, PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint, usually just called PowerPoint, is a non-free commercial presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite, and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating system...

, Visio

Microsoft Visio

Microsoft Visio , formerly known as Microsoft Office Visio, is a commercial diagramming program for Microsoft Windows that uses vector graphics to create diagrams.- Features :...

 and Project

Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is a project management software program, developed and sold by Microsoft, which is designed to assist a project manager in developing a plan, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, managing the budget, and analyzing workloads.The application creates critical path...

, as HTML web pages, as an embeddable Player, and as PDF

Portable Document Format

Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....

 documents.

MindManager also integrates into many other applications through its published API. The availability of this has made it accessible so that third party add-ins can be created to extend the functionality of MindManager. These add-ins cover applications such as Lotus Notes

Lotus Notes

Lotus Notes is the client of a collaborative platform originally created by Lotus Development Corp. in 1989. In 1995 Lotus was acquired by IBM and became known as the Lotus Development division of IBM and is now part of the IBM Software Group...

 and software from Salesforce.com

Salesforce.com

Salesforce.com is an enterprise cloud computing company headquartered in San Francisco that distributes business software on a subscription basis. Salesforce.com hosts the applications off-site...

. MindManager 8 for Mac provides enhanced integration with Apple's productivity tools such as iChat

IChat

iChat is an instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its Mac OS X operating system. It has audio, video and screen-sharing capabilities as well as text messaging...

, iCal

ICal

iCal is a personal calendar application made by Apple Inc. that runs on the Mac OS X operating system. iCal was the first calendar application for Mac OS X to offer support for multiple calendars and the ability to publish/subscribe calendars to WebDAV server....

 and Pages

Pages

Pages is a word processor and page layout application developed by Apple. It is part of the iWork productivity suite and runs on the Mac OS X & iOS operating systems. The first version of Pages was announced on January 11, 2005, and was released one month later. The most recent Macintosh version,...

. Further examples of extensibility for MindManager can be found on the Mindjet Solutions Website and other 3rd party sites such as MMDevX™ and mindmanageraddins.com.

Awards

MindManager has received many awards over its lifetime, including "Collaboration Product of the Year" for 2008 by Intranet Journal, a Jolt

Jolt Cola

Jolt Cola was a carbonated soft drink produced by Wet Planet Beverages. It was created in 1985 by C. J. Rapp as a highly caffeinated cola. It is targeted towards students and young professionals, stressing its use as a stimulant in a similar manner as energy drinks...

 Productivity award for Design and Modeling tools from Dr. Dobb's Journal

Dr. Dobb's Journal

Dr. Dobb's Journal was a monthly journal published in the United States by CMP Technology. It covered topics aimed at computer programmers. DDJ was the first regular periodical focused on microcomputer software, rather than hardware. It later became a monthly section within the periodical...

, and "Best of CeBIT

CeBIT

CeBIT is the world's largest and most international computer expo. CeBIT is held each year on the world's largest fairground in Hanover, Germany, and is a barometer of the state of the art in information technology...

" in the Personal Software category in 2004.

See also

• Brainstorming
  Brainstorming
  Brainstorming is a group creativity technique by which a group tries to find a solution for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members...
  
  
• List of mind mapping software
• List of concept mapping software

External links

, Mindjet Corporation

• MMDevX, 3rd party add-ins
• mindmanageraddins.com, 3rd party add-ins