Not surprisingly, iThoughtsHD offers a multitude of import and export options. That means it’s essential that these apps offer multiple options for exporting your mind maps to other applications. You then transfer your new mind map to a desktop program for further development and refinement. One of the most common usage scenarios for mind mapping apps on the iPad, iPhone and other portable devices is that you get inspired, fire up your device and capture some ideas on the fly. Impressive import and export capabilities You won’t find most of these capabilities in any other iPad mind mapping application. Turn rainbow coloring of topics on and off.Control inheritance of topic colors and shapes.Turn the topic auto-layout setting on and off.Set the map background color and pattern.These are accessible via another inspector icon in the toolbar. This impressive app’s attention to detail carries over into the map-level options it provides. Once again, this is a feature you’d never expect to find on an iPad app, yet here it is in iThoughtsHD. In addition, you can add task information to map topics, including start and end dates, percentage complete and priority. Double-tap on a topic to bring up the context-sensitive menu, and delete the topic – or simply move a topic to a blank area of the workspace and drop it there the delete command appears above it. Obviously, the developer has a strong sense of the principles of user interaction and interface design, because it shows in simple, no-nonsense functionality like this. Drag it until it is overlapping the new topic to which you want to join it and drop it there. Moving topics is simple: You just tap and hold a topic until it is highlighted and its connector line disappears. After you have finished typing your notes, you simply click on a blank section of the app’s workspace and your note is automatically saved. It also contains a tab for topic notes, which may contain live URL and e-mail links. The shape and color of topics, icons and task details can be set via a simple multi-tabbed dialog box. Once you have added some topics to your mind map, it’s time to add some style to them. I also love the fact that you can create new topics from within the mapping workspace you don’t have to reach up and tap on a toolbar icon. I tried this, and discovered that it was a very effective way to add new topics – mainly because it doesn’t require you to tap the screen with any amount of accuracy. iThoughtsHD will automatically create a new topic at that location, connected to the one you selected. You can also add a new topic by first selecting a topic, and then clicking on a blank area of the workspace adjacent to it. Many desktop mind mapping programs don’t even offer this last option, so it’s a bit surprising to see it on the iPad. A set of 3 buttons enables you to add child and sibling topics, and to create a topic at the level before the currently selected topic. This well-designed app gives you several options for adding topics to your mind maps. That keeps them out of the way, yet they are only a few taps away when you need them. It contains just enough toolbar icons to enable you to quickly capture your ideas, while more advanced tools for embellishing your map and its topics are cleverly hidden within several “inspector” buttons. IThoughtsHD has a clean, well-organized user interface that is key to its functionality. In this review, we’ll take a closer look at some of the most valuable capabilities of iThoughtsHD, and why they make it an ideal business mapping tool. It’s also obvious that Scott has a bigger vision for what mind mapping can do on this mobile platform, and a keen eye for usability and interface design. To his credit, he looked for opportunities to leverage the unique capabilities of the iPad, such as pop-over windows. But he didn’t just port his popular iPhone app over to this brave new computing platform. When he heard that Apple was releasing the iPad, he quickly jumped on that opportunity. IThoughts started life as an app for Apple’s iPhone, where its developer, Craig Scott, quickly established it as the leading mind mapping app for that platform ( read my review of iThoughts for the iPhone here). And on the iPad’s large screen, it’s an absolute pleasure to use. More importantly, it contains the features and functionality that makes it eminently useful to business users. In the emerging world of mind mapping on the iPad, iThoughtsHD has taken an early lead with an incredible set of features that no other developer even comes one close to.
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