Q. I work in a business organization. Can I use XMind free version in the office?
A. No problem. There are no any limitations on where to use XMind free version. BTW, it is an open source software dual licensed under two licenses, LGPL and EPL. If you’re a developer, and want to do something, please bear the licenses.

Q. I have bought XMind Pro subscription code via paypal, where is my code?
A. XMind Pro Subscription code has 25 letters and numbers. If you buy with paypal, because of paypal’s rule, XMind system will send the subscription code to the primary email of your paypal account soon after your payment. If you can not find this email at inbox, please also check about the spam folder.

Q. I’m a XMind Pro user, and have a PC and Mac. Should I ordered two subscription codes if using XMind Pro on both of them?
A. No need. Current XMind Pro uses Subscription mode. So once your XMind account has been renewed by subscription code, you can launch XMind, sign in with this renewed XMind Account and enjoy XMind Pro anywhere.

Q. I have not seen any update of XMind for a few months. Are you still working on it?
A. Yes, and we’re working on XMind new version. It should not take long time to wait.

Dan Roam, author of the visual mapping books The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas With Pictures and Blah, Blah, Blah: What To Do When Words Don’t Work, compares the process of visual thinking to carving a faceted diamond out of a rough piece of the crystalline substance. This is a very powerful analogy.

In their natural state, diamonds do not look like the beautiful, multi-faceted gemstones that are one of the world’s most valuable substances. Instead, they look like a lump of crystal. In much the same way, raw information must be carved and shaped to create something of meaning and value. Most people don’t know how to do this.

It takes an experienced diamond cutter to carve the stone and reveal the beautiful facets of the diamond. In much the same way, a visual thinker dissects a large pile of information, classifies it, organizes it and converts it into a cohesive visual presentation out of it that is thrilling to behold. Visual thinkers need to be skilled at systems-level thinking, able to recognize patterns and connections within the bits of information they have gathered, and a keen eye for separating valuable elements from the useless bits.

In both diamond cutting and visual thinking the primary process is one of simplification, cutting away that which is not of value and maximizing the presentation of the parts that remain Like a diamond, information has multiple facets; in a mind map, these are reflected as primary topics, each containing a depth of subtopics, much like the reflections and refractions within a fine diamond.

The final point of comparison between diamonds and visual mapping can be found in the worth of the raw material versus the finished product. Coal has little value. It’s basically carbon formed into a shale-like substance. But compressed under the proper heat and pressure conditions for millions of years and then chiseled and shaped by an experienced diamond cutter, it is transformed into something of incomparable value. In the same way, a visual mapper takes a pile of information and knowledge and transforms it into something of much greater value – a business decision, a plan or a multi-million dollar idea.

That’s the power and value of visual thinking.

During this period, we are glad to see that more and more people spend attention on mind map and mind mapping software, like Biggerplate, the website focusing on sharing mind map. On Biggerplate, there are more than 245,000 maps made by four mind mapping software. It also offers us an opportunity to learn from other tools.

Recently, Biggerplate releases an important feature, GROUP, which is very useful. The members can round up maps those relate to our area of interest as a GROUP, then introduce it to others. Of course, we have a XMind official Group on it too. It will offer a different experience from XMind Share. Worth to try!

This is a mind map about “Why no one pay attention to my mind map”, written by Chuck Frey, a great expert in mind mapping software field.

Many of us are puzzled by why people do not like my maps. We have spent much time on learning the tool, collection information, and formatting the map. But when we distribute them to colleagues, co-workers or managers. No big response.

After reading this article, We could learn more. So I map the content, hope you can find some reasons out for yourself. Or you can leave your ideas as comment.

In 2011, XMind does not make any big things on the software. But after one-year study and preparement,  XMind Ltd understands more on many things, such as product design, web app, iOS development, mobile market and etc.

These knowledge may not let XMind be best at once, but we believe it will be better and better from 2012.

Below are the new 2012 calendar templates we made. If you need or like, please download them. Or you can also translate it to other language and re-upload.

English Version

German Version

Chinese Version

The brief instruction
The template uses Fishbone as the main structure, and spreadsheet chart every month. Each day is in the separated cell as a sub-topic. There are two common usages.

1. Drilldown & Floating topics

• Select the date
• Drill down (F6)
• Add daily things as the floating topics.

2. Multiple sheet

• Select the month (main topic)
• Choose “Insert — New Sheet from Topic” on the menu
• In the new sheet, add the daily tasks as date’s subtopic

XMindlook.

This is made by NG Logic, a company located in Warsaw, Poland. It works on Windows. After installing it, xmindlook will help you to sync tasks between XMind and Outlook.
Recently, they released v2.0 beta 2. In this version, xmindlook will be able to support more online task managers, such as Remember the Milk, Nozbe, Toodledo, and Google Tasks. It works well on Windows. Hope someday, we can use it on Mac OS or Linux.

* This is commercial software, but can be trial 30 days free.

Mind on Track

I have to say the author is very great. He finds a good way to integrate task management idea with XMind. Because XMind can work on multiple platforms, so you can use Mind on Track anywhere too. It’s worthy to try. Another good news is that it’s free.

XMind on Roozz

This is an app in Chrome app store. Roozz makes it. After installing a small plugin, you can use xmind in Chrome. Of course, you do not need to install XMind on your computer. This brings much convenience. It works only on Windows too.

* This is a paid app. But now it releases a Holiday promotion, 50% off.

We plan to release this kind news regularly. If you’re working on this kind application, or know any software, please contact us.

We also want to say thank you to some third organizations, which support xmind file format (for example The Biggerplate and Wikisummarizer), or offer local xmind-related service to users (Please see XMind partner list ). Thank you very much!

Below is a map about Thanksgiving. Hope you like it.

1. Download this zip file at, http://www.xmind.net/downloads/. (You have done this. J)
2. Unzip it to a clear folder, here named XMind Portable.
3. In XMind Portable folder, there will be 5 folders, which are Commons, XMind_Linux, XMind_Linux_64bits, XMind_Mac_OS_X, XMind_Windows, and epl-v10.html, lgpl-3.0.html, readme.txt, xmindpro_licnese.txt and Usage of XMind Portable.pdf.
4. Now according to your Operating System to choose right folder.
5. Launch XMind and enjoy it.

So simple!  No more advanced technique required. Occasionally, some people may use it in a wrong way. Take XMind_Windows for example, people may paste XMind_Windows folder into the Program file folder, and try to launch XMind. Yes, failed every time. Please remember that, if you want to move XMind Portable to another place, please move the entire XMind Portable folder instead of part of it.

Dropbox is a very great cloud service that lets us bring our photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. After signing up an account and install on computer, dropbox will create a special folder on computer. Later, it will upload and save files in this folder to your account. What we should do is to save our xmind files at this folder. So simple.

Some people may be strange, why Frank said “especially for people have subscribed xmind pro”. Because XMind promises, Subscribe one time, Enjoy XMind Pro anywhere*. Yes, Anywhere!

XMind Pro uses subscription model. Once you renew your XMind.net account with subscription code, no matter where you are, Office, Home, or in a Subway, just launch XMind, sign in with renewed xmind account, then you can enjoy XMind Pro features. Even when on a colleague’s computer, you can also launch the installed xmind, sign in with your renewed account and uses XMind Pro features to show your work.

If having interest, begin to try now!

*Normally, you should need internet access to sign in and activate XMind Pro features.