In our recent release of MindManager 2018 for Windows, we introduced a powerful new feature we called the ‘Digital Architect’. With it, you can:
- create new types of diagrams;
- augment existing ones; and
- add additional branding to your MindManager diagrams.
The Digital Architect consists of new Objects that can be added to your diagrams or create entirely new diagram structures.
We’ve introduced rectangular/square and circular/oval shapes, horizontal and vertical lines, text boxes, images, and swim lanes and placed them in the Objects section of the Insert menu.
Used together, one can create entirely new types of diagrams within MindManager.
For instance, we now ship with new Venn Diagram templates, leveraging the circular shapes. Here are two Venn diagram examples. You can easily create additional versions for your own use and use the Text Box object to add a legend to your diagram.
Once you’ve selected one of our templates or have created your own, you can then add ‘floating’ topics and position them anywhere within the diagram. Add icons, links, tags, notes, task information or whatever other properties you’d like to track.
Every Object added to your diagram will also appear in the Map Index in the Elements tab under ‘Background Objects’. Clicking on the object in the Map Index will navigate to and select the object in your diagram. You can also right click any of the objects in the index to ‘lock’ or ‘unlock’ the object. Locked objects cannot be selected in the diagram which makes it easier to use when you are adding topics to your diagram. You will not accidentally select and move or adjust the object. So, you’ll see in the new templates that we’ve created that the Objects are locked and ready for topics to be added. If you wish to adjust the diagram’s shape or design, you can unlock all of the objects (or lock them all up) in a single step by right clicking on the ‘Background Objects’ section heading in the Map Index.
Unlike other diagramming applications, you can also use MindManager’s powerful filtering capabilities, search, conditional formatting, calculations and more tools to transform this from a ‘picture’ into an interactive diagram that you can use to drive your strategy, clarify key points that you wish to communicate and align teams around, develop plans, and more…
Here’s another example of a new diagram type, a SWOT matrix, now available in MindManager 2018 for Windows thanks to the power of the Digital Architect’s Objects.
So, back to my original question: What types of diagrams will YOU build with these new objects?
I’d love to hear if you’ve tried out this feature yet and what you are building with it. Feel free to share your ideas with us by clicking on the Twitter icon below and using the handle @mindjet!
P.S. If you haven’t got your hands on the 2018 version of MindManager yet, we have a 30-day free, full-feature trial program you can take advantage of.
About the author: This year marks Michael Deutch’s 10th year with Mindjet, now a division of Corel. He’s currently our Vice President, MindManager Product Management, but he doesn’t believe in silos — he’s acted as product ambassador, driven social media campaigns, and led 14 successful cross-functional product launches for MindManager. You can reach him at michael [dot] deutch [at] corel [dot] com.