What is the best mind mapping tool for you and your needs?
Well in today's video, we are taking a look at two very popular mind mapping tools, Mindomo and MindMeister, and I'm gonna pick an overall winner.
Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity Scott Friesen helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress, and in today's video, I'm gonna be using five different criteria to rate these two very popular mind mapping tools.
Let's get started with criteria number one, and that has to do with viewing options.
Viewing Options
We're gonna kick things off with MindMeister, and as you can see, MindMeister is a very simple interface, a very easy-to-use interface, but one of the drawbacks is that this is the only view that we have of what's going on here within our mind map.
Now, if you want to upgrade to a task management suite, MindMeister does have a separate app, but it is something that you will have to connect.
There's nothing that is built right into the interface.
You're essentially stuck with the mind map or mind web interface.
Now, if we go over to Mindomo, one of the great things is the multiple views that we have available.
First off, let's take a look at the outline view within Mindomo.
What this does is it breaks out a bulleted point list, but one of the great things here is that not only can you add checkboxes to a number of your tasks or really any bubble or any thought that you want, you can check them off and continue to work directly from this view, but another one that is often requested when you are dealing with mind maps is a Gantt chart view and Mindomo has that built right in.
You can add dependencies, you can change the duration of a certain task or a certain project, whatever your mind map represents, and have all that information available to you right here.
I have to give a clear-cut advantage to Mindomo in this particular category.
Second up is our interface, and let's stick with Mindomo for right now.
Interface and Ease of Use
Mindomo has a very intuitive interface as you're dragging things around, as you're adding new subtopics and subtasks within your interface, it's quite easy to make a style change.
If you click this little down arrow on any one of your objects, you can quickly add a comment, you can change the font, you can change the color, how you want to branch things out, a fairly intuitive interface.
Now, if we go over to MindMeister, one of the nice things is that they have this overlay available to you at all times.
If I need to change the font on this word small, I can easily do that with just a few simple clicks.
I wanna add maybe a greenish color here, maybe a smiley face or a checkmark or remove, let's keep the checkmark and let's remove the smiley face, I can easily do that with this interface here.
Now, I would say this one probably comes down to personal preference in terms of how you like to work.
In this case, I'm gonna give it an even draw between the two products.
For those who may want fewer options available to you but like this colorful window, you may prefer MindMeister, but for those who maybe like a bit more of a sleeker look, you might have the advantage with Mindomo.
Our third criteria has to do with adding notes because when you think of a mind map,
Note Editing
you often are thinking of a high-level view.
You can see that most of the things that I have added in this particular project, they're single words or something usually a little less than just a few words, but we wanna add further details.
Here you can see that I have a note beside this one listed Reading Material, and you can add an awful lot of detailed information, you can even do some rich formatting here, as well.
If you want to insert a link or a picture or a video, you can do that here, as well.
But one of the things that I did not like about the note feature here within Mindomo is that if I click on this, I can't click on it again and then hide it.
Yeah, I can hover over this or click on it and get a preview of this, but if I go to this second item or something else on my screen, I actually have to come up here and close this window or if I'm changing between two different things on the screen.
Conversely, if we go over here to MindMeister, here's something that I have with a note and I can hover over it and get the note, as well, but again, this is, I think, one of the advantages of having this hover or floating menu here.
If I need to add something to this Cookbook note, here is a note, I can quickly do that and then move on with something else and it's not interfering with my view.
Now, you may be asking yourself, well Scott, I didn't see all the same viewing options here as I saw in Mindomo.
Well, if you click on Advanced, you actually will get a very similar view.
Here you've got indentation and text size, many of the same things that we saw in Mindomo.
It's clear, it's straightforward if you need that.
Otherwise, you can just have this simple text box here down below.
Personally, I prefer this.
I'm gonna give the advantage to MindMeister when it comes to adding additional details and, in particular, adding new notes.
Now, the fourth criteria is most important when dealing with mind mapping software and that is collaborating with others.
Collaboration
I'm gonna give you this warning now, don't even entertain a mind mapping tool that does not allow you to share or collaborate with others.
Of course, both of these tools do.
If I come down below, you can see that I'm already sharing this with one person.
It's gonna show me the details of that individual and I can change things if I want to allow them to edit or maybe I only want them to view, and it's pretty easy and straightforward to add a link if I wanna add other members, as well.
Now, you can add comments to any of your objects within your mind map.
You can actually have a conversation with other people within your mind map.
Now if we go over here to Mindomo, you can see that I have been attached, I've got my initials, SF, here to a few different projects.
I can quickly unassign myself if I need to or assign someone else on my team if I need to, as well.
The other great thing with this collaboration assignment is I can use the search bar at the top of the screen and I can filter by those whom it's assigned to.
Maybe I just wanna take a look at the things that I'm assigned to, great, everything else is minimized and I can just focus on that task.
What about what my teammate is assigned to? Great, it's quick, it's easy.
You can also filter by other things, such as due date.
Remember that Gantt chart view and remember how we can use this like a task list?
You can do that, as well.
This search bar is a lot more powerful than just the text-based search bar that you may be used to.
When it comes to collaboration, I have to give a significant edge here to Mindomo.
Last but not least, let's take a look at access and the different apps available.
Apps and Access
Now, MindMeister has both an excellent iOS and Android app, so you can keep the collaboration going even when you are on the go.
Mindomo also has an app for both iOS and Android, but they do go one step further and that is with a desktop version.
If you need to be working offline, if you don't have access to the internet, you can keep working and then sync back to your original version or sync up with your online version.
This even works with collaboration, as well.
This is also very helpful for those who may just enjoy working in a standalone desktop app and not always working within a browser.
So yes, I'm gonna have to give the advantage here to Mindomo.
Overall, if you're looking for an excellent mind mapping tool, you can't really go wrong with either Mindomo or MindMeister, but for my money and for the features and the functionality in which I'm getting, I have to give the win to Mindomo.
What do you think?
Have you used either of these tools before?
Which would you pick in this showdown?
Be sure to let me know in the comments down below.
Thank you so much for watching and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.
In fact, it's very simple.
