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8 MS Word Templates That Help You Brainstorm & Mind Map Your Ideas Quickly

Saikat Basu — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 19:01:33 +0000

We have featured quite lot of online and offline ways to brainstorm and mindmap. But when you want to jot down your ideas quickly then there’s nothing quite like a simple piece of paper and pen…or its digital equivalent – a document processor. That’s what we saw when we built a mind map in Microsoft Word.

Brainstorming your ideas visually helps with clarity and allows you to connect ideas and interlink them together. That’s where mindmapping took off. You might know zilch about it, but even age old habits of doodling your ideas is better than a blank page. But you don’t have to draw aimlessly because MS Word offers you a few free templates to structure your ideas and sharpen your thought process.

Let’s fire up MS Word and take a look at 8 free Office.com templates that help you generate ideas with Microsoft Word. You can use the search field to get to the template if you have a specific term; you can drill down the categories; or you can follow the links below.

Story Map Templates

The Story Map template looks suitable for writers who are trying to outline a plot. Alternatively, it can be used by students, as intended to plan out a narrative. But it can also be used to plan out a team role-play for a given situation when you are trying to connect a solution to the underlying problem by assigning specific roles to team members.

Process Chart

This is a very simple step-by-step chart that can be used to describe the flow of a process. You can use the process chart to break down a complex event into a sequence of smaller action steps.

Event Map

I have tried using this Word template while plotting the idea for a short story – and it worked. Along with the Story Map template, the Event Map can be a useful tool for beginner writers.

Spider Map

The Spider Map is a little like a conventional mind map. The large central circle represents your main idea, and the branching linear lines can be used to jot down the subsidiary ones. The description says that you can use the spider map to investigate various aspects of a single topic or just to organize their thoughts about a subject.

Umbrella Chart

To be frank, I haven’t figured out a way to use this MS Word template effectively yet, so I have yet to find out how versatile this graphic organizer is. The description says that you can arrange the details of any subject or topic using this visual aid. What I have learnt is that the umbrella chart can be used to represent a core idea and the subordinate ideas around the spokes.

KWL Chart

Using this simple columnar template, you can easily track what someone (or you) knows (K), wants to know (W), and has learned (L) about a subject. It’s a very handy aid for studying and also if you are trying to research something. Wikipedia has a more detailed explanation on its use, and as it says the KWL template can be used to reduce repetition by leaving out prior knowledge and focusing on the W (wants to know). Based on this, students can concentrate on what exactly they want to learn or how and where they want to learn it from.

T-Chart

Every issue has two sides and this template helps you to examine both sides of the same coin. The T-chart is a graphic organizer that can be used to look at different viewpoints and broaden your view on an issue. Anything that can be broken down into two opposing views can be stated using the T-chart.

Fishbone Diagram

The Fishbone diagram came out of Japan (not surprisingly). Also called Ishikawa diagrams, they are somewhat advanced idea organizers in comparison to the others we have on this list. This diagram analyzes the relationship between a cause and its effect. You can use it to drill down into the root cause of a problem by organizing a complex cause-effect event into categories. The Fishbone diagram is widely used in quality control.

The templates are mere tools. Ideas and brainstorming effectiveness will depend on how well you put them on paper or on the screen. But MS Word and its gallery of templates give you easily downloadable files that can be turned into idea organizers in a flash. Customize the templates by changing the text labels and/or adding to the sections.

Are you a brainstorming kind of guy? Tell us how you go about it and tell us especially if MS Word is on your list of tools. What do you think of these brainstorming capable templates?

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Give Your Mind Maps The Hand Drawn Look With Connected Mind [Chrome]

Saikat Basu — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 18:31:36 +0000

Are you searching for a simple mind mapping tool that is more traditional in the way it uses non-linear lines and asymmetric shapes? The Chrome Web Store has a handful of mind mapping tools. The choice gets limited further because some like Mindmeister are commercial. A search through the free ones, revealed the well-reviewed Connected Mind.

The brief description on the Connected Mind Chrome Web Store page says that the browser based mind map tool is about making connections more naturally. Perhaps, the reference was to the more natural form of the drawings.

That’s definitely one of the standout features of the mind map tool as all the items of the mind map have to be drawn by the user. There is no automatic layout option. Also, the nature of the shapes and lines on the mind map takes it close to a hand drawn mind map.

If you like your mind maps to be more natural (like the ones on paper), you will catch the appeal of Connected Mind.

Mind Map on the Cloud

As a cloud based tool, you can also access your created mind maps from any device that can run Google Chrome. Also, as a browser based tool, it’s comparatively easy to reference information and link them to the mind map. Connected Mind allows you to create as many mind maps in the cloud as you can fit in 100 MB of space. Maps are also stored locally and are retained as long as the browser cache is not cleared.

The ‘Hand Drawn’ Mind Map

When we draw a mind map on paper, we don’t go for straight lines or symmetrically curved ones. We go for a more freehand flow. In my personal opinion, this asymmetry in fact, makes mind mapping more effective. Automatic layouts made up of symmetric lines also make one map look like the one that came before it. That defeats the basic purpose of mind mapping.

Connected Mind has quite a few easy-to-implement features for creating distinctive mind maps that seem more natural…

5 Key Features of Connected Mind

You can start a mind map with a shape or an image. In case of an image, you can select one from your desktop.

Clicking on any item (or map node) opens up the Properties dialog box. You can edit properties like color, gradients, font, and text color.

You have a choice of 27 shapes for your node items. Each shape can be customized with gradient fills, text, and strokes.

Connected Mind lets you draw straight lines, and curved lines with more than intermediate points. Each line has formatting properties which can be edited. For example, line thickness for showing main branches and their sub-branches.

Connected Mind gives you choice of 60 fonts which you don’t have to install on your system.

Any node (shapes, images, lines) can be associated with notes. The notes feature allows you to elaborate with extra content like webpage links and extra images for reference. The rich notes editor gives you full formatting control over the notes. Notes are hidden behind the map items and are displayed on a mouse-over. You can toggle them on and off.

Connected Mind also understands speech. Speech recognition (similar to Google Voice Search) allows you to speak out the text of your node items instead of typing it in. But in my trials, it was often off the mark. But do try it out.

Connected Mind allows you to import maps created in other applications in the FreeMind format. Only the content will be imported and not the layout or graphical elements. Connected Mind does not have a print button but you can work around that by using Chrome screen capture extensions that print from the browser.

The learning curve on this mind map tool is minimal. What also helps is the mind map which explains the features of the program. I got it all in one glance. If you do too, tell us about your opinion of Connected Mind or how does it fare against any other mind mapping tool out there.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

5 Different Ways To Generate Ideas Using Brainstorming Apps

Saikat Basu — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:30:57 +0000

You don’t need to hit a problem wall to start brainstorming. Brainstorming is a way to generate creative solutions by hitting a problem with as many ideas a group can think of. But the free-wheeling exercise is also a great way to see a topic from hidden angles.

Physical brainstorming may sound like a carefree slam-bang talk session, effective brainstorming hardly is. One way to notch up effectiveness is to take it online.

Online brainstorming can be done using anything from email to chat meeting rooms, and even Twitter. But why keep it that simple when you have a galaxy of brainstorming software apps out there. Way back we covered quite a few of them in 6 Excellent Brainstorming and Mindmapping Sites.

Since then, there have been quite a few of them that have featured in our directory. Let’s dig some of them out and see the different ways they can help us to pick our own brains.

Text2 Mind Map

Text2 Mind Map saves you a lot of the plotting and drawing work by taking a list of structured ideas and converting it all into a linked mindmap. But does it take a shortcut through the right brain stirring creative process by saving you the line drawing work? That you have to find out for yourself; but yes, Text 2 Mind Map is a fast way to see interlinks between the items in your list. On the mindmap, you can change color, font, line color, and line width. You can download the generated map as a JPEG. (See Directory mention)

Wridea

Great ideas need to be managed and Wridea provides you an online place to do just that. You can create ideas and then categorize them. As ideas need to be spread around, you can collaborate on them by sharing your ideas with your friends. The feature of idea sharing with groups or the Wridea community makes this app a useful brainstorming tool as participants can give feedback and ideas of their own. Once you have your ideas stocked up, you can find an inspiring one with the application’s “˜Idea Rain’ feature. (See Directory mention)

Scribblar

Whiteboards are great for chalking out ideas on virtual drawing surface. If you are a designer, an engineer, or someone who just likes to explain things with a doodle, you can try any of the gazillion whiteboard apps out there. Scribblar is a free whiteboard app that gives you active collaboration features like live chat, live audio, a whiteboard, image sharing, and multi-language support. You can upload and save snapshots and external image files. The whiteboard supports all major browsers and multiple users can brainstorm using tools like a shared pointer and other tools.

Think

If individual brainstorming is what you are looking for, then this simple online mindmapping app is worth a try. You can start off without a log-in if you don’t want to save the mindmap. The mindmap features spheres as nodes and you can drag them around to give shape to your thoughts. You can make the mindmaps public and also export them as an image file. (See Directory mention)

Solvr

Solvr has the interface of a simple search engine but it is actually a unique problem solving app. The next step involves adding a comment, an idea, or another problem to the original statement. After defining your problem, you can send the cryptic URL to your group who can add a comment, an idea, or another query to expand the original topic. The usefulness of this simple brainstorming tool is that with the cryptic URL, you can really spread it around on Skype, email, Twitter, or any social network. Solvr also has a Chrome browser app. (See Directory mention)

Thanks to digital tools, collaborative brainstorming and side-by-side researching has become faster than the speed of thought. You can take any social communication tool and use it to brainstorm an idea.

There’s Twitter for you as a good enough real time brainstorming tool. Or you can use Google Search with a few keywords to get some insight into a problem. An app like Jagimo can also be treated as a brainstorming game with its free iPhone app.

How do you brainstorm online? Let us know about your favorite brainstorming software.

Image: Shutterstock

Thoughtboxes: Mind-Mapping Meets Your To-Do List

Nancy Messieh — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 19:30:22 +0000

Thoughtboxes is a new service that takes a simple approach to getting organised – and may come in handy for those of you whose New Year’s resolutions were to become more organised and efficient. Thoughtboxes borrows some elements from mind-mapping and to-do webapps, offering its members a user-friendly, intuitive interface that will appeal to a huge variety of people.

If you’re a GTD fiend, Thoughtboxes is not for you. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a simple way to get your thoughts, ideas, tasks, or just about anything else, in an easy to read, organised system – you’ll be delighted with what the service has to offer.

Signing up is quick and easy — entering your name, email address and password.

The first step, once you’ve signed up for an account is to create your first Train of Thought. Free accounts can create up to two Trains of Thought, whereas paid members can create as many as they want.

Once you have your Train of Thought, you can begin to add as many Thought Boxes (or lists) as you like. When creating new Thought Boxes within a Train of Thought, enter the name and select a colour to distinguish it from other boxes.

You can then drag and drop the boxes, rearranging their order, as well as rearranging items in each list.

Once you’re done with an item, click the check mark and it will be crossed out.

Thoughboxes is a new and unique way to get yourself organised, and with the way that it’s been set up, there’s no limit to how you can choose to use the service. Thoughtboxes is pretty much what you make of it.

One potential use of Thoughtboxes is a less conventional To-Do list. Trains of Thought become Projects and Thought Boxes become the individual To-Do lists that fall under that project.

Thoughtboxes can also serve as an alternative to mindmapping. Mindmapping as a practice can sometimes be a little overwhelming, and lacks structure. With Thoughtboxes, you can easily mindmap your ideas using a much more structured and ordered system.

If you’re going on a trip, use Thoughboxes to organise every aspect of your holiday – from packing to sightseeing to travel arrangements and dates. Students can use Thoughtboxes as a study aid – whether organising your notes or study schedule.

Another interesting use for Thoughtboxes is to keep a log of completed tasks, whether at home, or at work.

The service is also ideal for brainstorming and collaborating on one project. You can share your thoughtboxes with other users — even if they aren’t members of Thoughtboxes — by clicking on the share button. Once you have your Train of Thought set up, you can then send the URL to any of your friends and literally let them see your thoughts.

As with any new service, we have a small wishlist of things that we hope to see come to Thoughtbox. A feature that would be very useful would be to allow for true collaboration and allow other users add to or edit your Trains of Thought. Teams could then truly make full use of the service.

As you continue to add more information to your account, it may become difficult to manage. The option to hide completed tasks would definitely help the service become more manageable, as well as the ability to search your thoughts and ideas for specific text. After all, some of us are a little bit forgetful, which is why we use apps like Thoughtboxes.

How are you going to use Thoughtboxes? Do you have any tips for staying organised? Let us know in the comments.

How To Use Mind-Mapping Software To Organize Your New Year Resolutions

Jessica Cam Wong — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 18:31:06 +0000

If you’re looking to create (or revise) your New Year resolutions, you might want to peek at mind-mapping software to organize a master plan or outline to house the steps you’ll take to follow through with each resolution. If you have an idea of what resolutions you want to keep in the upcoming year, a good idea might be to set up a system to facilitate getting those goals completed.

Even if you’re jotting down ideas on a napkin or piece of paper, you should know that mind-mapping software can ensure that you won’t get that napkin lost, you can keep an image of the whole outline as your desktop wallpaper, you can move items around cleanly, etc.

There are many mind-mapping solutions online, such as the ones we profiled here. We’ll be using Bubbl.us, a web-based mind-mapper, to create our outline or plan since it’s very easy to use and has got the basic tools we need.

Break Goals Down Into Tasks

Let’s say your goal is to become a more seasoned cook because you can save money and/or simply because your cooking skills truly stink. You can break your goal down to several tasks that might come hand in hand with cooking more, such as:

remembering to go grocery shopping every so often.
eating out less often.
keeping a weekly menu, etc.

We’ll create different bubbles in an outline on Bubbl.us. You can click on Start Brainstorming button on the site to use the demo (or you can sign up if you want to keep a version of this map online for later retrieval).

You’ll want to type your individual subtasks under each goal by pressing Enter for a new sub-item, and Tab for an item of the same level (sibling bubble).

List Resolutions With Monthly/Weekly Goals

Now in order to keep up with the subtasks, you’ll want to set them up in time frames accordingly. Do you want to make sure you keep up with them on a weekly basis or monthly basis? Depending on your answer, you’ll want to schedule items for each day, week, month, or another interval (e.g. every 3 months).

To adjust your mind map, move the sub-items around, under the main goals, and create child bubbles for time-related entries.

Visualize & Transfer To Task Manager/Calendar

Since now you can view your outline in its full glory with all of the sub-items, you can save your sheet as a picture by clicking on Menu on the bottom right corner.

You’ll then get the options of saving your sheet as a PNG or JPG image, which comes out nicer-looking than the way it looks on the website.

If you use a web-based or desktop task manager or calendar, you can also input your items according to the time frames you designated for each subtask.

Depending on your task manager or calendar software (most apply), you might be able to save yourself from inputting repeated items by using the “repeat every:” feature.

Overall, this is a very simplified way to organize your New Year resolutions and plan ahead. I know I have several things I’d like to accomplish next year, but haven’t yet implemented a system to make sure I can follow up with my wishes so I’ll do this for sure.

Do you have any other ideas for mind-mapping software? How do you keep up with your New Year resolutions (if you have any)?

Blumind – A Beautiful, Lightweight & Portable Mindmap Application [Windows]

Jeffry Thurana — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:31:24 +0000

Do you use mindmaps? This method of organizing information is popular among academia because it can help them make sense of information clutters. But the use of mindmaps are not limited to educational environments only.

Anybody can use mindmaps for various uses including, for example, to remember school subjects faster, to expand a topic to write about, to organize ideas, to break down a complicated project, and many more.

While the traditional pen and paper method is still used today, you can also use your computer to generate your mindmaps. There are many mindmap creators out there that you can choose and use. One of the free alternatives to create and manage your mindmaps is Blumind.

Since the site is in Chinese, you might need a little help from Google Translate.

Beautiful, Lightweight & Portable

The first thing that you will notice about this app is how small it is. In the era of gigabytes and terabytes, the size of 250KB is almost non-existent. That’s how small the compressed installer is (even after you extract it, the application is only around 650KB).

It’s also portable, so you can just put it on your thumb drive and bring it with you. But please note that you need to bring the “DocTypeReg” along. It would be easier to put the whole folder on the drive. The app also needs “.net 2.0 runtime” environment – or better. So make sure that you open the app on the machine under Windows 2000 or above and have the runtime installed.

Another thing that you will notice is the interface. I personally think it’s beautiful and user friendly. A bit different than most third party Windows applications.

The basic usage of the app is simple: you click on the center topic box, add/edit the text, then expand it using the “Add Topic” button or hit the Enter key. You can also add “Sub Topic” by clicking the button next to the “Add Topic” or by pressing the Tab/Insert key. To show the relation between two (sub) topics, you can use the line tool.

The relationship between topics and sub topics will also be displayed in the “Objects” pane in the form of a hierarchical outline.

Put Some Colors On It

Aside from drawing interconnected boxes of topics and sub topics, building a mindmap is also about assigning different colors to different classes of items. The colors help us to quickly differentiate items and remember them faster.

Blumind allows you to play with colors using the “Themes” tool. There’s a list of “Windows Color Schemes” that you can use under the Themes button.

There’s also the “General” list for those who want to apply a quick set of colors.

To edit individual items, use the “Property” pane, or open the “Options” window via the File menu.

If you like the color combination that you created, you can save it as a theme by opening the “Themes Manage” window.

Other Tiny Details

You can discard unwanted items by going through them one by one and hitting the “Delete” key. But if the items that you want to erase belong to the same root, you can quickly delete them by clicking on the “minus” button next to their parent box.

Add Topics and Sub Topics (and other standard editing tools) can also be accessed quickly from the right click menu. This is a quick alternative for the mouse fans out there.

If you like to work with less distractions, you can try the “Full Screen” mode. Everything will be hidden, except the mindmap area and the tool button.

As a bonus, Blumind also supports tabs. This feature will allow you to work on several different maps simultaneously without cluttering the workspace.

After you have finished working with your mindmaps, you can “export” them as text or image files (there are several supported formats that you can use). You can also print the maps and put them on your bedroom wall if you want to.

Armed with the lightweight Blumind inside your thumb drive (or maybe inside your Dropbox folder), you are ready to quickly create your good looking mindmaps anytime and anywhere.

Have you tried the apps? Or do you know other alternatives? Share your thoughts using the comments below.

Image Credit: cosmorochester

Mind Map Creatively By Bouncing Your Ideas on BBC’s Pinball

Saikat Basu — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:31:03 +0000

Mind mapping applications are usually bone dry, decision making tools. You don’t expect them to be bear a likeness to an arcade style game complete with sound effects. To add to that, you might ask yourself, what’s a mindmap-like decision making tool doing amongst the online offerings from BBC Scotland?

Mind maps diagrams are great tools to organize information, solve problems, and decide on a course of action.

If this is the first time you are coming across talk of a mind map, do take a look at the mind map tools we have covered before.

BBC’s Pinball is actually a set of online tools (a mind map is just one of the four) that aim to aid the process of creative thinking while tapping into the fun centers of your brain. The name matches that of the arcade game because the online application takes its looks (and effects) from the traditional arcade game.

There’s no iron clad reason why the BBC would set up a Pinball style mind map utility; except perhaps to make it available to the general community for coming up with creative ideas in a fun way. So let’s play with it for a bit.

The first thing you sense is that Pinball is not a mind map tool in the conventional sense. No toolbars, no menus, and no central area to plot ideas. What you have are four tools and the familiar arcade sound effect.

Four Ways To Get Creative Ideas On Pinball

To bounce ideas around, you get play Pinball in four different ways. And just like the game, everything seems spontaneously natural. But if you want, each tool comes with colorful instructions.

Dot Dash For Firing Out Ideas

Dot Dash is like a usual mind map except that it’s loads more fun. Type in your idea, press enter to create space for more interlinked ideas, change the color of your thought bubbles or move them around, insert pictures from your computer, or try to break your mental block by clicking on Lucky Dip. Lucky Dip brings out a random picture or word which sometimes helps to break the logjam in your brain.

When you click on Finish, the whole mind map is displayed on full screen. You can now review it, save it (as a JPEG file), print it, or Flip it to one of the other three tools. Flip helps to connect your ideas generated in the four tools.

Drop Zone For Quick Decisions

If you are stuck in Catch-22-like decision situations and unable to pick one, prod your instincts by putting your ideas in front of you and moving them around. As the decisions scroll in front of you, trust your gut feeling and just pick one. For your choices, you can add words, images, or the random Lucky Dip. Drop Zone helps you to choose a maximum of four critical tasks out of all the ones you write down.

A click on Finish gives you the options as in the last tool.

Snap Shot For Playing With Images

If you would rather doodle or draw to flesh out your idea, then Pinball’s Snap Shot tool is for you. Snap Shot is like a drawing board with tools that lets you fiddle with an image or a word in an attempt to look at it from different perspectives. You can liken this to mindlessly scribbling on a pad till the Eureka moment strikes you.

Wild Reels For Mixing Up Ideas

Wild Reels helps you try out sequences to see how they will look in different orders. The tool is like a slot machine where you put in your ideas and spin them to see the sequence in which they come up. It helps to mix up ideas and see how they might look in different combinations. You can keep any of the spinning boxes fixed while the rest spin around.

Pin Down Your Impressions

Is the Pinball a serious mind tool? Well, that’s open to our individual judgment. I see it as an interesting educational tool that can help teach youngsters a bit about decision making skills. But its greatest feature is its absolute ease of use. When you need to quickly knock your ideas together, learning commands and tools could be too much of a bother. Bounce your ideas around in Pinball and give your feelings a fillip.

How To Build a Mind Map In Microsoft Word

Saikat Basu — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:30:51 +0000

It is said that an average person has 12,000 to 50,000 thoughts in a day. Of course, a genius might have more than you and I, but the figure mentioned was the hypothetical traffic that goes on in our brain. Our thoughts rarely go from Point A to Point B in a straight line. More likely, they flit about like a firefly caught in a jar.

This is where a tool like a Mind Map comes in use. A mind map is not a case sheet for a psychologist but simply a diagram that helps to connect related ideas or concepts around a central thought.

Try it out if you haven’t before”¦it is a great idea-capturing device to bring some order to the chaos that’s our brain.

By putting down ideas or thoughts on a mind map, the brain is encouraged to think from every aspect. A mind map also encourages brainstorming. It forces the brain to think in terms of relationships between ideas rather than forcing everything into hierarchies or lists. The bottom line about mindmapping is that it’s all about “˜visuals’ — words connected to graphical elements that makes it easy for us to take in large amount of data.

There are specialized applications for creating mind maps. But the simplest tool could be a paper and some pens. The second simplest when you don’t have software installed could be to create a mind map in MS Word. But first”¦

Simple Rules For Effective Mind Maps

Think of the central idea and write it down in the middle.
Think of related ideas and place them radially around the central idea. Connect all ideas with meaningful relationships. Use lines, colored lines, shapes, pictures, etc. to graphically describe ideas and relationships.
Leave lots of space between ideas because new filler ideas and relationships will come in as the mind map grows.
Go with the flow.

Simple Mind Maps in MS Word Using Illustration Tools

Creating a mind map in Word is easy with basic shapes and flowcharts. Extended by other illustration tools like Callouts, Lines and Clip Art and a pinch of creativity; MS Word can effectively become a mind mapping tool. Let’s look at the tools we can use to construct a mind map.

The landscape mode gives the most horizontal area to work with. In a New Word Document, select Page Layout ““ Orientation ““ Landscape. If you want to finally print it, select the right Size in the Page Setup group.

Most of the tools we can use lie in the Illustrations group on the Insert tab.

Click on Shapes which has all basic building blocks for a mind map. Simple shapes like ovals or rounded rectangles can be used to represent the central ideas. All shapes can be easily labeled with Text Box. Lines and arrows can be stretched out and connected to represent relationships. Shapes as all other elements can be copied and pasted, thus helping to put down the main ideas rapidly as nodes and sub-nodes.

All elements can of course, be elaborated using the full range of the Drawing Tools. Drawing the first shape brings up the contextual Drawing Tools tab. The best thing is that a mouse-over on any tool gives us a live preview of how the diagram is turning out.

To change the properties of the shape, right click on the selected shape and select Format AutoShape from the context menu.

Any options for Lines connects all the nodes and sub-nodes. Lines are also AutoShapes and their look or angles of rotation can be similarly changed from Format AutoShape or from the Ribbon (double click on the shape to bring up the Format tab).

Shapes and lines can be labeled with text to define the relationships. However, MS Word limits text orientation to vertical or horizontal. Text cannot be rotated to an angle as in PowerPoint, just yet. (Though, in MS Word 2010, one can). Callouts can be used to mark out extra data.

Mind maps can be illustrated with images from the Clip Art gallery or from an image on the hard drive. While inserting images, use the corner handles to define the size of the image.

Creating a mind map in Word can be extended by adding hyperlinks to external sources. Though, a workaround to add notes or attachments within the MS Word file is not there.

Here is a mind map that explains the various elements of what else, but a”¦mind map!

The Last Word on MS Word as a Mind Mapping Tool

MS Word (and even MS PowerPoint) is useful as a rapid tool for building a mind map. It’s better than a pen and paper, because you can easily update it by adding or rearranging the topics. You can copy it to the other Office programs and if need be, even print it out. Presenting it with PowerPoint or email sharing are added options.

MS Word is not a dedicated tool for mind maps. Tools like FreeMind have greater flexibility. Just to cite one feature, it’s not possible to collapse and open the branch nodes in MS Word.

But MS Word can make mind maps. Are you open to the idea? Let us know.

A Writer’s Guide To Free Apps For Inspiration & Organization

Nancy Messieh — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:31:42 +0000

Any creative writer should have three main aims: write, stay organized and get published. The following list of free websites and apps for writers aims to help you do just that.

Get Inspired

Sometimes inspiration hits and you know exactly what your next story, poem, or dare I say it, novel, is going to be about. Other times, it’s not that simple. Using online idea generators is a good way to get the creative juices flowing, if only as a writing exercise. And who knows ““ that writing exercise could turn into your first published novel.

There’s no limit to the number of online idea generators out there, but to get you started, here are a few good ones:

The website Archetype offers a variety of idea generators, depending on what you need help with. There’s a Plot Generator , a Character Generator , and even a Problems generator, if you’re stumped with coming up with an idea for conflict within your story.

The Big Huge Thesaurus, a resource for looking up synonyms, antonyms and rhymes, is another place where writers can get free prompts. They also go so far as giving prompts for bloggers ““ but all of the ideas are for personal blogs more than anything else.

A special mention also goes to McSweeney’s for their Thirteen Writing Prompts feature.

Start Writing

Now that you have your idea, and want to get started on your story, it would be a good idea to use a distraction-free writing app like OmmWriter or a minimalist text editor.

Stay Organized

Once you’re on the right track, you need to keep yourself organized. Sometimes ideas will come to you when you don’t have a pen and paper handy, or aren’t at your computer. A good way to save these ideas is to use basic features on your cell phone – whether it’s using a voice recorder or saving it as a text message.

If you want a more elaborate method there’s UberNote, which allows you to save ideas in a variety of ways. You can save notes to your private UberNote account using email, IM, Twitter, accessing a mobile version of their website, and using browser tools such as add-ons and bookmarklets. At the moment, UberNote offers unlimited storage for your notes.

You could also use MakeUseOf’s popular Gmail tip. Choose a custom address to email yourself your ideas, for example yourusername+ideas@gmail.com, create the appropriate filter, and all of your ideas can be saved under a specific label in your Gmail account.

Mind maps are another popular app for writers to stay organized and to keep track of ideas. Again, there’s no limit to mind-mapping software and services out there, but the free version of Mind Meister is a popular option. You can save up to 3 maps at a time and it has a free iPhone app, browser add-ons, a variety of widgets, as well as email and SMS support.

When writing something as extensive as a novel, you also need to keep your writing itself organized, which is where yWriter comes in. yWriter is a free windows app that gives writers an easy way to jump from chapter to chapter, to reorganize the order of chapters and gives an overview of the story as a whole. You can also keep notes on characters, locations, and outlines of various aspects of your story.

Get Feedback

Once you’ve got something together, you might want to get feedback on your work. Two websites with a great community built around them are ABCTales and UKAuthors.

You can submit any kind of fiction, or non-fiction, to both websites and get feedback in the form of comments. On ABCTales you can get more extensive feedback by requesting it in the forums. Both sites have editors who go through the submitted works, and single out the particularly good writing, distinguishing it from the rest.

Protect Yourself

If you’re going to put excerpts of your writing in a public forum, there is the risk of being plagarised. In order to avoid that possibility, you can protect yourself against copyright infringement with the online app, MyOws.

MyOws allows users to upload their original works (hence the name MyOws) to a password protected account. Once the file is uploaded, MyOws provides users with the necessary evidence in proving ownership of these works.

Through MyOws, you are able to keep a record of all cases brought against copyright infringers who have used your work without permission by filling in the information using their easy step-by-step process.

The site will then provide you with a standard template for a Cease and Desist letter which can be sent to the infringer in order to have the copyrighted material removed from their website. The site will also send proof of your ownership to any third parties at your request.

While in beta testing, there is a 500MB limit on each user account, and your files will never be deleted, provided that the account remains active ““ meaning you have to access your account at least once every two months.

It’s worth mentioning that MyOws is also handy for artists, photographers, programmers, or anyone who needs to copyright their original works.

Submit Your Work

Once you’re done, you’ll want to start submitting your work to publishers, magazines and websites, so it’s very important to keep track of what’s been submitted where.

The Writer’s Database is a good option as it’s web-based, so anyone can use it regardless of platform, and it can be accessed from any place. At first, it takes a bit of effort on your part, feeding all the information into the database.

The information is divided into two main categories. First comes the information on each publisher or magazine you’re submitting to, including their contact details, submission guidelines, pay rate, and response time.

And second is the list of the titles that you will be submitting.

The two are brought together in your submissions panel, where you can list where each title has been submitted, and record the responses.

The app has a Dashboard widget for Mac users, as well as widgets for Google, Netvibes and Yahoo.

If you prefer to have that information safely stored on your own computer, there are a few options out there for Windows users. Sonar 3 is a good example of a program that allows you to store all of this information locally. It has a very similar set up to the Writer’s Database, and again, you have to feed the information into the program.

When adding your works, you can include the genre, number of words, and can also link to the document itself on your computer.

When adding markets, you can include their contact details and submission guidelines.

You can also generate a list of all works, markets or submissions, and print them out. Sonar 3 allows you to record and date responses, making note of payments, and whether or not the work has been published.

If all else fails, you can record all of this information in a simple Excel sheet.

Do you have any special tips or methods that you use to keep yourself inspired and organised? Let us know in the comments!

Image credit: Marzie

Creaza – An Online Toolbox For Creative & Educational Fun

Saikat Basu — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:01:18 +0000

Creativity is a lot of fun for those with that streak. Now add a pinch of learning to it. No, the mix doesn’t turn sour, in fact web apps and multimedia have combined to make learning not only creative but also fun. The result has been that these web apps appeal to the casual set and also those who want to make something serious out of it.

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.