[pneill]

It would be great if OmniFocus had an integrated mind mapper that you could turn into next action items for a project.

[BwanaZulia]

There is pretty good MindMapping in OmniGraffle.

Not sure how easy it would be to integrate.

BZ

[pneill]

Mind mapping in OmniGraffle is a bit of a kludge if you ask me. When I'm mind mapping I just want a blank screen that I can drop ideas into very quickly. I don't like the way I have to use this outline and then move from their to the graph view. It's changing context (at least for me) and that interrupts the flow of brainstorming. Check out the way that MindJet does brainstorming (the Pro PC version) and also look at Inspiration's brainstorming mode. Very good.

[Joel]

You might want to try out working in the diagram view in OmniGraffle, selecting a shape and then Command-clicking the empty canvas to automatically create a connected child, or Option-Command-clicking to create a sibling.

This method obeys the Diagram Styling as well.

[Mario.Batz@cern.ch]

Unfortunately this does not work for me, when using the OmniGraffle MindMap Stencil. Not very convinient.

Originally Posted by Joel

You might want to try out working in the diagram view in OmniGraffle, selecting a shape and then Command-clicking the empty canvas to automatically create a connected child, or Option-Command-clicking to create a sibling.

This method obeys the Diagram Styling as well.

[Bob Nahasapeemapetilon]

I ended up purchasing NovaMind and Merlin.
I do have OmniGraffle Pro and love it, but Nova Mind is more robust for Mind Mapping and integrates beautifully with Merlin 2. They used to have some video tutorials, but it seems they are currently being updated.
Within the mind mapping application you are able to define tasks, assign start/finish dates, show percentage complete, etc.
A 'parent' activity set gets automatically updated based on the status of its subtasks.
And Merlin can also import OMNI Outliner documents. I have not tried that feature yet, though.

[rickla]

Originally Posted by Mario.Batz@cern.ch

Unfortunately this does not work for me, when using the OmniGraffle MindMap Stencil. Not very convinient.

As far as I know, the mind mapping stencil was created, by a third party, before real mind mapping became possible in OmniGraffle. The items created with the stencil are just graphical objects like any other, not mind map items.

To do mind mapping in OmniGraffle Professional, I recommend first opening the utilities drawer, make sure the outline tab is selected, and at the bottom choose Brainstorming - Clouds as your diagram style (doesn't have to be that but it looks good). I create the initial item in the outline drawer but then switch my focus to the main document area and use mainly the Command-Control-Arrow combinations to add new items. These can be tidied up later in the outline drawer if need be. I recommend experimenting with turning the auto layout on and off.

OG isn't a specialist mind mapping tool, and doesn't have the full feature set of things like Novamind, nor the simplicity of Incubator or Pyramid. But a colleague and I often turn to it when we're stuck cowriting a paper, and find the combination graphic/outline interface very helpful.