Creaza is a web based tool designed for learners and educators. But spend a few moments with it and you realize that Creaza has scope beyond that. All of it underlined with fun.

What if I gave you four tools that inspire creative, fun ideas – a mindmapper, a cartoon creator, a movie editor and an audio application and asked you to let loose your creativity. I am sure you could come up with a lot of creative and fun ideas. That’s the canvas Creaza gives you to play around with.

Creaza is a suite of four apps for making planning, creating and publishing digital content, or for the fun of it, let’s say digital stories. The four creative apps are :

Mindomo – Organize Your Thoughts

The first step for any creative process is the organization of thoughts or ideas. That’s why you need to start with a mind mapping tool. Mindomo is a Flash based mind mapper. Like any other mind mapping application, you start with a central idea and branch it out to associated ideas, linking them to each other with relationship connectors.

Mindomo is a simple but rich mind mapper which lets you add images, hyperlinks and symbols to beautifully render your thought process on screen. Like a versatile mind mapping utility, it lets you select from a variety of map style and layouts.

Cartoonist – Artwork for Your Thoughts

The hard work of putting your ideas into shape starts with the cartooning tool. Cartoonist is a simple tool with a very short learning curve. The first step lets you select your cartoon theme from the eight provided. For instance you can go for a Manga look or take the one which resembles the classic cartoons of the past. Each theme comes with its own characters, backgrounds and props.

Combine all the artwork in the cartoon editor. You can tell a whole story using sequential cartoon slides. Change the mood of the characters with a single click, change day into night, give the characters dialogues using speech bubbles or do a bit of freehand drawing – just some of the things your creativity can play around with.

The inbuilt player lets you playback the frame where each frame gets displayed for four seconds. You can print out the work or show it on the web.

AudioEditor – Sound Bytes for Your Thoughts

Podcasts have made listening to audio clips cool. The AudioEditor lets you do just that. Make your own audio clips, edit uploaded clips on the timeline or record sound and re-use it, the editor lets you do all that. The audio application also comes with a library of default clips and sound effects.

MovieEditor – Motion Clips for Your Thoughts

If a cartoon is not realistic enough for your story, move to the MovieEditor. The MovieEditor has the same feel and look as other online movie editors (except that it starts with two themes). The Library hold many default video clips as well your own uploaded bits, the Timeline where you drag film, sound, or music clips, as well as your still shots and arrange them into your final movie, and finally the Media Window is the inbuilt player to see how things are shaping up.

Sound effects and special effects have their place on the timeline. The provided media clips might not stretch your story, but the editor gives you the option of uploading your own.

Creaza gives us lots of flexibility to make our own multimedia shows. There are some limitations like the free membership on Creaza entitles us to only 25 MB of storage space for personal media files. But even that’s sufficient for publishing a few stories. The only minus is that the finished product can be shared through a URL – there’s no provision to export it as a finished Flash file.

The full version though opens up many more import and export options for the multimedia content and provides more themes.

Creaza is mostly geared as a teaching aid. The free tools make it easy to translate ideas through easier to understand multimedia presentations.

For instance, take a few cartoons or a video clip and put together a small show on global warming. The cartoon strips can be used to explain anything from eclipses to ethics.

The web application also seems to have collected some recognition for itself as a teaching aid. But its possibilities are limited only by the word we started our post with – creativity.

What uses can you put this tool to? Let us know in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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SlateBox is a web application that may seem knotty at first. But grope around a bit and you soon realize its child’s play. Is that why it’s called SlateBox?

Here I am getting ahead of myself – What’s SlateBox after all?

Very simply, SlateBox is a collaborative visualization tool. Visualization tools are apps which help us plot or draw an idea into an image or diagram. The diagrams are meant to represent relationships between the ideas on display. Mindmaps are what can be called visualization aids. We have covered a few awesome Mindmapping applications, both online and offline. SlateBox is a similar but also a bit different at the same time.

SlateBox is a mindmapping application and a bit more

Although it can used as such, SlateBox helps you with the visual ideas and also enables you to collaborate and share those ideas with others in real time. The visual ideas are built on ‘Slates’ which are like a blank canvas. We mentioned mindmaps, but SlateBox can be a collaborative visualization that for a whole lot of things like – designs, organizational charts, flow charts, process diagrams, work planning etc.

Let’s see how SlateBox works

1. SlateBox requires a simple sign-in and you are ready to roll out your first slate.
2. The basic building blocks of SlateBox are Nodes which are like droppable symbols standing for a step or stage of your schematic. The interface of SlateBox is three paned with the center pane being the main work area. The left panel is the Template Panel from where we drag and drop Nodes onto the Drop Panel (the central pane). The right placed panel is for setting the properties of the panels and the nodes.
3. A fresh slate starts from a click on New Slate. Enter a name, description and select a template. The choices seem thin now. You can also use a website as a template by specifying a URL. Templates are boilerplates with some default nodes. You can also start with an empty template and build it up from scratch.
4. Pick a node from the Template Panel and drop it into the Drop Pane. A mouseover on each node shows a small bar on top with some icons. These are for resizing the node, entering text, creating the relationship arrows, creating a duplicate node and deleting the node.
   
5. Click the little pencil icon to define some text for this node. You can use the right panel for setting the visual properties for individual nodes. And yes, you can embed video or an image in the node.
   
6. To add some subordinate ideas, use the Template Panel to add subordinate nodes.
   
7. Now, click the star shaped icon on each Node to bring out the relationship lines. Drag them across the nodes to connect one to the other. The properties of the relationship lines can be changed from the right panel. I had a bit of problem with the connectors — one of them just wouldn’t connect. Probably, a beta glitch.
   
8. That’s it! Your first simple mindmap is finished. You don’t have to actively save your work because the Slate is always auto-saved.

Working together on one Slate

The collaboration engine is still not fully explained and frankly, I couldn’t try it out for lack of ‘collaborators’ in real time. But according to the site, collaboration will – broadcast changes in real time to all users logged under one shared account. The status panel will also reflect the user who initiated the changes. Changes can also be locked by a user so the Slate can be presented to all users simultaneously.

SlateBox also provides a developer API which can be embedded in websites and used as small web applications. But that’s beyond the scope of an average user.

What a normal user would find in SlateBox is an easy to use and easier to setup collaborative visualization tool. An uncomplicated tool like SlateBox is a fit for small teams and tutor-pupil scenarios. Though in beta, SlateBox shows some promise as a fast collaborative visual mapper.

What are your first impressions on SlateBox (Beta)?

Image Credit: LukePDQ

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• When Is Good – Easily Schedule Your Meetings With Co-Workers (6)
• Ubidesk: Fresh & Comprehensive Online Team Collaboration (15)
• MindMapping: 3 Simple Idea Mapping Software for Mac (13)
• Create Online Mind Maps with Seavus DropMind (11)
• Create Collaborative Flowchart Masterpieces with Online Flowchart Software (13)

Most people will advise you to power down your laptop while learning and burying it somewhere in your back yard until you’re finished, or at least under a pile of clothes in a dark corner of your dresser. I disagree.

Although you mustn’t venture off to Facebook, or go writing articles (you’re smarter than that, aren’t you?), the internet can prove invaluable with helping you master the substance. Below are three online applications that’ll perform miracles for your study skills and, hopefully, for your results as well.

Create Flash Cards with FlashcardExchange

Flash cards are nothing new, and you don’t need the internet to make them. But if you want some truly random questioning, or simply hate using a pen (like I do), there’s an online alternative to improve your flash card study skills.

A web app does not only spare you a lot of work (and more importantly, time), but opens a ton of new possibilities as well.

I can call FlashcardExchange the best online flashcard tool without a shadow of a doubt in my mind. You can create flashcards online, using text or images, and store them on your account. Study using the online web interface, export it to one of the popular offline file formats, or waste some ink by printing them out.

Create Mindmaps with Web Seavus Dropmind

With most classes, it pays to create a visual representation of the information at hand. Making schemes and mindmaps is a study skill that will not only make some concept easier to grasp, they will be easier to remember as well. Online mindmaps are easier to adjust (put away that rubber, those times are past), and evidently offer a variety of additional features.

Personally, I use Seavus Dropmind. It’s a retail application if you want to access all features, but you’ve got more than enough possibilities with the free version. The main disadvantage is that you can only work with one mindmap at a time, but because the canvas is infinitely big, that doesn’t matter much.

There’s an extended review on MakeUseOf here for those interested. In the comments of said article, our readers also suggested MindMeister as an alternative.

Create Cheat Sheets with PocketMod

When I’m say cheat sheets, I try to use it as a figure of speach. I advise strongly against trying to cheat during an exam, and between you and me, there are smaller, smarter and more practical alternatives if you’re really planning to do so.

Use cheat sheets to condense your study material into smaller packages. Use it to list calculus and physics formulas, and to gather the most prominent definitions on one page.

PocketMod is an incredibly original project. You can create and lay-out small booklets online, with different page styles, and print them on standard A4 paper. After a few scissor cuts and a bare minimum of folding work, you’ve got yourself a pocket-sized tiny book.

True, this might take a little bit longer than using a plain piece of paper, but what is an exam without at least a tiny bit of procrastination?

Do you know any other good sites to use the internet, or your computer as a learning aid to improve your study skills? Tell us and your fellow MakeUseOf students all about it in the comments section below!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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In most large corporations, you’ll use professional CAD software, or in smaller companies you may use flowchart software like Visio that aren’t free. But for the individual who’s looking for a high-quality, free alternative there really aren’t a lot of good options.

There are a few that come close, like LucidChart or DIA, the open source alternative to Visio that Karl recently covered. Then of course there are the multitude of mind-mapping apps out there that Kaly and other writers here have covered. However, what I want to share with MakeUseOf readers today is an impressive, professional quality flowchart/mind-mapping application loaded with professional clip-art, images and templates that makes it on par with, or even better than, much of the desktop flowchart software out there. It’s aptly located at Flowchart.com, and that’s also the name of the online application.

It is currently in beta, but you can get a free invite just by submitting your email. The invite came back for me in under a couple of hours. Right now it’s unknown if there’s going to be a scaled down free version of this software, but let’s hope so! Let’s take a closer look at this impressive, online flowchart software.

Don’t Start From Scratch – Use a Template

The first thing you’ll notice when you start up Flowchart.com is that when you start a new flowchart, you’re offered a variety of existing templates to choose from that will get you started without much effort.

As you can see, you can start out with some pretty cool templates like engineering diagrams, mind maps, subject-specific flowcharts, and more.  For the sake of this review, I started out with a blank template. The first thing I noticed was that to the left there are lots of clip-arts and even industry standard symbols to choose from.

There are three areas of the flowchart software that I’d like to point out that you’ll find at the upper left of the application window. In the upper left window, you’ll find the standard symbols, shapes and clip-art organized in easy-to-find subfolders. As you click on a subfolder that that contains the images, you’ll see those displayed in thumbnails in the window below. As you draw your chart in the larger grid-backed design window, you’ll see your design taking shape in the small preview window show here. The large design window is very slick – you can have the images you create “snap to grid” or now, and adding symbols is as easy as grabbing them from the left library and sliding them over to your design area. As an example I’ve designed the start of a diagram for a vacuum pumping system.

As you can see here, when you add a symbol to the design area, you can rotate it and place it wherever you like. In addition, if you click the “M” symbol, you can write a caption for the object as well.

Flowchart.com Features and Limitations

Keep in mind that this software is in beta, so you’re bound to find bugs. I find a few minor ones where the pop-up description for some menu items didn’t always work. You can report those bugs by clicking on the “forums” icon in the upper right corner of the application (the conversation icon).

Below this area, you’ll also find the design toolbar where you can draw your own images from scratch using all of the basic shapes you’d expect to find in any drawing application.

Other features offered at the top toolbar – from left to right in the image above – include snap to grid, show/hide rulers, properties & history, preview, script editor, sharing properties, view recorded charts and record charts. One of the coolest features of Flowchart.com is the fact that it’s not only flowchart software, but it’s a collaborative one at that.

When you click on the sharing icon, you’ll be able to get the url for your online flowchart, as well as manage the people allowed to access and edit that flowchart. Finally, when you’re done with your flowchart design, it’ll obviously save in the system as an online flowchart. However, what good is such flowchart software if you can’t store your charts offline and use them elsewhere? To this end, Flowcharts.com offers the ability to export to either a PNG image or a PDF file.

Here you can see the two icons to do that export in the menu bar. I’ve overlaid the actual PNG image displayed in my IrFanView application so you can get an idea of how your design will convert over. The conversion is pretty much an exact representation with your design, and I saw no quality flaws or errors with either exporting to PNG or PDF.

In my personal opinion, this application is one of the best online flowchart applications I’ve seen, however it probably runs neck-and-neck with a lot of the mindmapping apps out there, which are pretty impressive as well. I only hope that when it goes off beta that the application developers are smart enough to provide  scaled-down free version as a promotional offering – and because…well, most of us here at MUO never usually pay for software unless we absolutely have to!

Go ahead and get your invite, try it out and let us know what you think of this app in the comments section below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• SlateBox – An Easy and Quick Collaborative Visualization Tool (4)
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If you’ve never worked with mindmaps (on paper or on your computer), it’s time to start.

Web Seavus DropMind

DropMind is an online and offline mindmapping application. We’ve discussed a few of these in the past, like WiseMapping and WisdoMap, but DropMind is without doubt one of the most extensive suites on the market.

For this, and other reasons, DropMind comes with a pricetag. The offline software version costs you about $99 for a lifetime license. Sadly, the full-fledged online variant doesn’t come much cheaper, but Seavus does offer a free license with stripped functionality.

DropMind offers an extensive – although very comprehensive – graphical interface. Users can create topics and assign hierarchical values to them, like central, sibling, parent and key topics.

It’s possible to add graphical context aids, including symbols, arrows and callouts, to annotate and clarify your different topic levels. To make your mindmap not only easy, but even pleasurable on the eye, DropMind comes with a flexible format editor and allows you to fidget with the design until it fits your needs.

After you’ve spend some time toying around and getting to know the different options, you’ll discover how intuitive and easy to manipulate DropMind’s mindmaps are. Whether for corporate or studying purposes, you’ve got a new friend in DropMind that makes explaining things a lot easier.

Premium Features

So what exactly are you missing in this ’stripped down’ free version?  What are those golden premium features which you’ve been locked out from?

In essence, most premium features are aimed at the power users, like online-offline DropMind synchronization and Powerpoint export functionality. Nevertheless, there are some missing features that you could benefit from, like the possibility to save your mindmaps as an image, creating templates for future reference, or the celebrated Presentation Mode.

The biggest miss, however, is that you can create and store only 5 mind maps simultaneously as a free user, contrary to the ‘unlimited’ of premium users. You’ll either have to export and delete the mindmaps you’ve made, or make several mindmaps in a single file. In truth, a single file is big enough to house quite a few maps (check the ‘navigator’ in the topmost screenshot to get a basic).

A full overview of all version differences can be found on DropMind’s Edition comparison page.

Academic Licences

The schoolgoers amongst you are in big luck. It doesn’t matter what school you’re in, or what kind of education you’re in, if you’ve got an email address with an .edu domain, you automatically validate for an academic license.

This gives you a 12 month license of the premium version (worth $39) with all it’s features. If that isn’t enough to put a smile on your face, DropMind will give you a 30% discount on your next (if ever) purchase!

What do you think about Dropmind? Best online tool so far, or a waste of time? Perhaps you think the free version is too limited, or know a better alternative?  Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• SlateBox – An Easy and Quick Collaborative Visualization Tool (4)
• MindMapping: 3 Simple Idea Mapping Software for Mac (13)
• When Is Good – Easily Schedule Your Meetings With Co-Workers (6)
• Use Doodle to Make an Online Poll When Planning Group Events (4)
• Ubidesk: Fresh & Comprehensive Online Team Collaboration (15)

For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, here’s the quick description of ‘mindmap‘ quoted from Wikipedia:

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. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.

Basically, here’s what happen in the process of mindmapping: you start with a main topic or idea as the center of focus, then expand the ideas with related points through branches – or children as some people prefer to call them. Each of these children could also be expanded to grand children, great grand children, and so on. If the main idea is too general, you can pick one of the children to focus on.

Personally, I think nothing beats a large piece of paper and several color pencils for mindmapping, but there’s also nothing wrong about doing the process on your Mac. Especially if you have large monitor, and unreadable handwriting

Here are three free, simple idea mapping software for Mac.

1. Personal Brain

This could be used not only for mindmapping but also for other uses such as visual bookmark manager, web site planning and site navigation, and also event planning.

To draw mindmaps using Personal Brain, you write the main idea as the starting point. Expanding the diagram could be done easily just by clicking on one of the points and drag a new child out of it.

For those who want to learn more about the app, the developer site provide users with a Learning Zone and Tutorials. This app is also available for Windows and Linux.

The free version limits users to view only three generations of a map at one time. The ability to attach files is also reserved for the Core and Pro version. To get the complete list of what each version can do, you can see the features comparison between the versions. While this app has many powerful features, I think the price to go beyond the free version is a bit too ‘much’.

2. FreeMind

FreeMind is open source, simple idea mapping software written in Java, so you can use it in any computer which supports Java. I think the interface is not too intuitive and takes time to get used to.

I spent quite a moment sweeping through the main window trying to figure out how to start a mindmap diagram. Maybe it would be better if the “New” button is not so difficult to find. On the left pane, you can find so many icons without any explanation of their functions (I found out later that they are some kind of tags to mark the children).

If you don’t mind the appearance, and willing to spend time learning it, this app is actually very usable. You can even create several maps within one window. The new map will be opened in the new tab.

Then, if you feel like sharing your thoughts and ideas, you can submit your mindmaps in the developer’s wiki-style gallery.

3. MindNode

MindNode is a very easy to use mindmapping application. It features a very simple interface for quickly creating mind maps. Among the three, this one is the simplest. The interface is also the most Mac-ish.

The default starting page already contains a field to fill in the main idea and instruction to drag to create a new node (child). You can also adjust the position of each node easily.

If you want to have more bells and whistles, such as the ability to create cross-connections and use the full screen mode, you can upgrade to the Pro version. To know the difference between the free and the pro version, read the full comparison list. For me, the free version is good enough. There are also video tutorials available on the site.

MindNode is only available for Mac.

What’s Left On The Mind
It’s worth mentioning that I started the list with five examples of simple idea mapping software, and had to eliminated two because I simply can not give the apps a try. One is XMind, which refused to work because of Java error. The other one is Consideo Modeller which couldn’t be opened at all.

It’s possible that the error is at my side. I couldn’t be sure about that. But I felt it’s impossible to review any software without being able to try it first, isn’t it?

To list some alternatives, give Ekpenso, Bubbl.us and Text2MindMap a try. Also, don’t miss out on the 6 Excellent Brainstorming and Mindmapping Sites by Kaly.

Finally, if you have any thoughts, opinions, and experiences on the Mindmapping process and applications, speak up using the comment below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• SlateBox – An Easy and Quick Collaborative Visualization Tool (4)
• Create Online Mind Maps with Seavus DropMind (11)
• When Is Good – Easily Schedule Your Meetings With Co-Workers (6)
• Use Doodle to Make an Online Poll When Planning Group Events (4)
• Ubidesk: Fresh & Comprehensive Online Team Collaboration (15)

MeBeam – Online Video Conferencing

Quick and simple way to setup informal video conference calls. Using Mebeam you can instantly setup video conferences with up to 18 people simultaneously. The cool thing about it you don’t have to register or install any kind of software, just create the conference room and share it with others. The only requirement is a working headset.

ooVoo – Video Conferencing on your PC

ooVoo is a free video chat program that lets you chat with up-to 6 people at the same time. Basically, it’s a video messaging program with powerful video chat capabilities. At the moment it’s only available to Windows users, but they promise to release Mac client soon. Check out ooVoo video demo.

Rondee – Phone Conference Calls

Schedule phone conference calls and invite as many friends as you want. Calls can be scheduled both from the web or phone. You can think of it as a virtual meeting space where you can invite and conference with a group of people using any US phone. To join your conference room, participant only needs to dial Rondee access number (619-276-6333) and enters his/her access code.

For complete features list go to Rondee: Phone Conference Calls

Foonz – Free Group Calls

Quite similar to the above Rondee, but you also get the option to send group voice messages and organize contacts into groups (i.e. family, freinds, work etc.). You get a separate number for each group. Again, works with any phone, both mobile or landline. Read more @ Foonz : Free Group Calls.

TalkShoe – Live Talk Shows and Conference Calls

Online community where users can host, participate, or just listen to live interactive talk shows and discussions. You can schedule live multi-person conference talks and invite interested people to join as participants or listeners. The below image shows the whole idea.

Thinkature – Real-time Collaboration Dashboard

Thinkature is an easy-to-use online brainstorming dashboard with conference support. Here you can create mindmaps, draw and discuss ideas with your teammates in real-time. You can invite as many people as you want. Here is the screenshot.

You can check out Thinkature video screencast here. Interested in other brainstorming applications? See our round up on Top Brainstorming Applications.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Basic Mind-Mapping Tools

(1) ImaginationCubed – awesome looking, simple to use, live brainstorming tool. Invite your partner and share single dashboard to create mind maps. Draw, add objects, type, etc.

(click to enlarge)

Features: Demo

• live collaboration
• send maps by email
• replay your steps
• save/print maps
• background grid on/off

(2) Bubbl.us – lets you quickly create custom bubble mind maps and share them with colleagues for further refining.

(click to enlarge)

Features: Demo

• create/save/print/share/collaborate on maps
• embed maps elsewhere (blog, web profile, etc.)
• export maps as XML, HTML, or as image (JPEG, PNG)
• interactive Drag’n Drop interface
• keyboard shortcuts, mousewheel zoom

(3) Mind42 – cool mind mapping tool for creating highly customizable organization charts. Each chart node can be colored, converted to an image, supplemented with a custom icon, link, attachment and more.

(click to enlarge)

Features: Demo

• sharie and collaborate on notes
• embed maps elsewhere
• print maps
• integrated live chat (Google Talk)
• keyboard shortcuts
• Drag’n and drop interface
• export maps (as Freemind, Mindmanager and RTF)

More Powerful Mind-Mapping

(4) Mindmeister – slightly more flexible alternative to the above mentioned mind42: more styling/formatting options, more diverse collection of embeddable icons, provides handy sidebar next to the mapping dashboard, and more.

(click to enlarge)

Features:

• free account is limited to 6 mind maps
• share and collaborate on mind maps
• print maps
• integrated Skype conference call
• embed maps into your blog or website
• drag’n drop interface
• keyboard shortcuts
• import maps (from FreeMind and Mindjet’s MindManager) / export to an RTF or a GIF image

(5) Mindomo – feature-rich mind mapping tool. Probably the most comprehensive one, check out screenshot and demo below.

Features: Demo

• free account is limited to 7 private and an unlimited number of public maps
• share and collaborate on maps
• keyboard shortcuts
• drag’n drop interface
• import MindManager and FreeMind type maps / export to maps to TXT, MMAP, RTF, PDF, JPG, GIF and PNG formats
• print maps

(6) Gliffy – extremely powerful techy-oriented diagram creation and collaboration tool, create anything from basic flow-chart diagrams to well-documented troubleshooting guides.

Features: Demos Video / Trial

• free account is limited allows you to 3 private and unlimited number of public diagrams
• share and collaborate on mind maps
• embed maps elsewhere (blog, wiki, etc.)
• export mind maps as SVG (Microsoft Visio, Adobe Illustrator, and Macromedia FreeHand)
• interactive drag’n drop interface
• print maps
• map edits history (instantly revert map to earlier version)
• keyboard shortcuts

[UPDATE] Awesome related links contributed by Vic

• Bubble-Mind
• Kayuda (concept mapping more than mindmapping)
• Mapul
• Comapping (kinda rigid, forces left-to-right mapping)
• Webofweb (prob. the oldest still surviving – mayomi came first but has sunk from sight)
• Glinky

And in the area of more general diagramming tools, there’s

• FlowChart
• CumulateLabs (Cumulate Draw)

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