Daily Iteration

Comapping has released some new features to their excellent online mind-mapping tool, and they asked me to take a look and write a few words about it. Took me a while to do it (seems like everything does lately), but finally I managed to give this the attention it needed to come up with a decent (I hope!) review.

Comapping is one of the better online mind mapping tools, and I first heard of it while researching for the first series of mind mapping tool reviews here at Daily Iteration. The newly added features were really important things that were missing, turning Comapping into (on my opinion) the best online mind mapping tool out there.

Now you can import and export files in Freemind format, meaning you can now work on your maps in a full-fledged desktop application and upload them to Comapping to have them available online and edit them together with your remote friends and colleagues. This alone makes this a noteworthy upgrade. You can also exchange files between Comapping and MindManager, a popular commercial mind mapping tool.

Another nice feature, specially for you blogger types, is the ability to embed maps in web pages, just like you currently do with videos. Below you can see a simple map I’ve put together to showcase this option. It is still a little fidgety, as I had to copy and paste the code twice to get it working - but it looks beatuiful once you get it right! and in fact the map I had embedded here no longer works, so I removed it - this might be because I only have a test account, so my maps are not saved permanently, and my embedded map could be pointing to an inexisting file. but after being contacted by Michael (Comapping’s R&D Director) who explained to me the correct procedure, things worked out.

I’m not sure if this is a new feature, or if I missed it when I first looked at Comapping, but there is a “Presentation” feature that allows you to create slideshows from your maps. Leave the map at the state you want it to appear, click on “Add snapshot as slide”. Expand or contract a few nodes, then take another snapshot. Arrange the slides in the ordr you want, and presto, a very nice presentation, with the map changing from one state to the other at the click of your mouse - very nifty! The video below shows this feature at work.

A word about video on this blog: I am still testing things, and for this post I thought I’d try Revver’s Quicktime embedding, as it gives better video quality. If you have problems viewing this, or if you prefer me to post Flash video + the original avi, please let me know in the comments.

A couple of smaller updates were also introduced. Now you can add notes to nodes - not breathtaking, but it can be useful. Also, the “Share” menu was improved, and you can send the invitations to look at your map by e-mail. You don’t have to be a registered user to look at the map, but if you want to edit it you have to pay

And here we get to Comapping’s biggest problem: it is the best online mind mapping tool, but there is no free account available. If you want to edit maps beyond a 30-day trial, you have to pay. On the other hand, they charge a very reasonable US$11.99 for six months, for a full account - no limits on usage.

Overall, if you use mind maps often, need to edit them colaboratively, and are willing to cough up a small amount for the finest online tool there is, it’s worth it.