ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY BLOG | INVENTIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

FYI

I want to inform you that MindMap Navigator 1.3 is released. With new functionality it becomes more powerful and easier to use. Below is the list of features being added in the new version:

- Mapview context menu item "Sync with Navigator" allows to position the currently selected MindManager topic in Navigator tree;
- Enhanced "show branch alone" option: now you can set the level of details for the filter - 1,2 or expand all levels;
- MindMap Navigator now works with Mindjet Connect maps;
- State of options on the toolbar is saved when MindManager closes ;
- Ability to Cut/Copy/Paste and Delete multiple topics in the Navigator tree.
Also, several errors were fixed.

You can download your trial copy with a following link: http://www.mind2chart.com/Downloads/Trial/MMNavigator13_en.zip

This upgrade is free for existing users.

I recently posted about how you can post your PersonalBrain 5 to the web with WebBrain with a click of the mouse. Well pretty close to it. One of the really exciting features of the WebBrain is being able to have access to your links and attachments as if you were working with the PersonalBrain 5 on your desktop. Think of all the possibilities! This is a very powerful feature and one that I will certainly use when I am planning my workshops. Think about giving your attendees a simple URL to your WebBrian that they can access that would allow them to jump to web sites and have access to your attached handouts. That is really an outstanding feature.

WebBrain is evolving as we speak and I just learned that you can now embed your WebBrain in a blog or website by simply clicking on the Share button and copying the embedding code from the Webbrain site. If you click on the Customize option you can change the dimensions to suit your need. I should mention that you can also upload your PersonalBrain 5 files and keep them private so that only you can access them over the web. Likewise you can determine which Thoughts to keep private so that they don't appear when you upload them to WebBrain by marking them as Private thoughts in the PersonalBrain 5. If you have any questions or ideas on how you would use WebBrain - please leave me some comments.

It is hard to believe that this is my Fifth year anniversary of the AssistiveTek Blog which started back in July 2004. Little did I know that this experiment would survive all of these years, and as I close in on my 500th blog post some time this summer I can say thank-you, to all the readers out there that keep me going. It has been a very exciting trip being able to share information and my ideas about mind mapping, assistive technology, project management and Web 2.0 technologies. Along the way I have met some incredible people who have the same passion for the technologies that I speak about. And while others may speak about social networking in the abstract, I would have to say that because of my blog I have enriched my life by meeting so many wonderful people that I keep in touch with on a weekly basis. So as I reflect on the Fifth Anniversary of the AssistiveTek Blog it has been a great road trip and one that I'm sure will continue for another million miles or so. If you have a chance I would enjoy your comments as I celebrate the 5th Anniversary of this blog.

One of my favorite features of the PersonalBrain 5 is the ability to create a SiteBrain from your PersonalBrain. I have used this feature many times in my workshops as a way to give my participants and easy way to move about various resources that I would provide. In the past you would need to Export your Brain as a SiteBrain and then upload it to your ftp site. Now with the release of the WebBrain Beta you can quickly upload your BrainZips and share your Brains with others. Once you sign up for a free account you can upload your BrainZip files and determine whether you want to make your Brain-Public or Private. You can also set the permission to share your Brain by sending a link via an email. I have posted one of my Brain files to show you how it looks on the web. The ability to share your Brain's on the web is a killer feature and one that I will begin to use more and more. You will find find this feature to be invaluable whenever your want to have access to your Brain data when you are connected to the web. So if you are a PersonalBrain 5, please take a look at the WebBrain- you will be glad you did.

Download a Free Trial Version of PersonalBrain 5 by Clicking on the Link Below
Windows
Macintosh

To purchase a copy of the PersonalBrain 5 click here. If you need training or support on how to best use the PersonalBrain send me an email

Yesterday I had a chance to participate and present information about Context Organizer, in a virtual MindManager User Group Meeting at a Fortune 100 company. After presenting and being a participant in various webinars, I am still amazed at what can be accomplished without the need to be in a face to face meeting. The hour long meeting went very smoothly and when it was my turn to present I shared my computer desktop with the group and showed them how Context Organizer, a MindManager add-in can be used to summarize Word documents, web addresses, and PDF files right within a MindManager map.

I have posted about Context Organizer before and I have a couple of video demonstrations to show you the power of this tool. The MindManager User Group had selected to see a demonstration of Context Organizer in action because one of the member's of the group had been using it to plow through large documents with great success. You can think of Context Organizer as a "search engine for documents," in that it finds the most relevant keyphrases and information and succinctly summarizes it for you. If your work requires you to read through large documents or to do analyze web sites, PDF's or Word documents you really owe it to yourself to look at Context Organizer. Having the ability to access Context Organizer within MindManager is a real asset in how the information is graphically organized. For those of you who don't own a copy of MindManager 8 you will be happy to learn that Context Organizer is also a standalone product that can help you summarize documents and send the information directly to Microsoft Word.

As a postscript to this webinar, I should share with you that I used my recently purchased Acer Aspire Netbook to present from. You see when I went to use my Dell XPS laptop the virtual meeting platform did not support Internet Explorer 8, so my only option was to use my netbook. I am happy to report that my netbook worked just fine even with all of the heavy lifting. To complement my presentation, I also used Canson's Papershow product which is an ideal tool to use when you are doing a webinar. With Papershow I could share my ideas and write them down so that other could see them as if I was writing on a whiteboard. Everything I wrote down was shared and at the end of the webinar I could save it as a PDF file to email. Here is an example of what I wrote and shared with the group using Papershow. Papershow is a real natural-when doing virtual presentations or distance learning and is as easy to use as pen and paper.

Please feel free to leave me a question about mindmapping

Last week I had the opportunity to interview Mike Taylor the developer of the recently released MindManager 8 add-in called StrengthsMapper. Mike was kind enough to invite me into the beta testing of StrengthsMapper so that I could get a chance to use it before it was released. I also had the opportunity to read StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath and Strengths Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie which is the foundation for understanding how StrengthMapper can be used on a personal level and with a team in a business environment. Essential to understanding how StrengthsMapper can be used is the notion that as an individual we all possess strengths which when identified can be used to propel us forward in our personal and professional lives. As a psychologist, I can certainly relate to these premises and in my own work with children and adults know how important it is to help focus on an individual's strength as a means to work through their difficulties.

In 2001, Gallup introduced an online assessment, StrengthFinder which helped individuals identify their Top 5 talents among 34 different themes. You can find out more information about the online assessment which has been updated to StrengthsFinder 2, and take the assessment online for a nominal fee. Once you have identified your Top 5 themes you can now begin to put together an Action Plan around them. During the interview, Mike Taylor explained to me that as an engineer and business consulting he learned early on that he could make more headway with his clients when he focused on their individual strengths. Managing talent by helping others focus on their top 5 themes and then developing an Action Plan was a very powerful tool and one that Mike wanted to share with others. Being an avid MindManager 8 user, Mike thought that if he could marry the power of MindManager 8 and present a graphic depiction of an individual's 5 Top themes that he could have a very powerful personal development tool. With this, Mike set out to do just that and developed the MindManager 8 add-in called StrengthsMapper.

Once you take the StrengthsFinder 2 online assessment, you can quickly key in the information into StrengthsMapper and have a visual depicition of your Top 5 themes. You can see my 5 Top themes in the map to the Left. The power of this tool is not only on being able to visually stay focused on your strengths but by being able to build an Action Plan for the week, month and year ahead. StrengthsMapper is an easy and powerful tool to help you tune into your strengths and to build upon them via the Action Plans you create. Two version of StrengthsMapper are available, one for personal use called StrengthsMapper, and StrengthsMapper Pro which was developed for building effective teams by helping organizations to match talents and skills that are needed for a project. For more information you can go to StregthMapper.com

To listen to the audio interview click here or hover over the speaker icon: Interview with Mike Taylor

I have blogged about my experience with the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen since its release and glad to share with you that Vision Objects has released MyScript for Macintosh. MyScript will now give Macintosh Users the ability to convert their handwriting to text for easy editing and formatting. I have used MyScript for Windows with my Livescrobe Pulse Smartpen and found it to work well, even with my handwriting (lets not go there :-).

MyScript for Livescribe is an application that converts your handwritten notes to digital text:

	Send your handwritten notes directly from Livescribe Desktop to MyScript for Livescribe for conversion to text.
	Use your personal dictionary to add names, terms and abbreviations for even more accurate conversion.
	Convert handwriting, shapes, drawings and tables into print.
	Edit the resulting digital text directly in My Script for Livescribe application.
	Edited results can be sent to Microsoft Word or another word processor, to a text file, to your default email application or saved as a picture file.

I was in the middle of doing some brainstorming on the topic of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Math, when I had IM'ed Karen Janowski to see how she was doing via Skype; and when I told her what I was doing, she suggested that we put our heads together and come up with some ideas. I decided to give her call via Skype and then Karen shared an EtherPad address with me so that we could both collaborate in real time over the Internet and record our ideas. EtherPad is a Web 2.0 application that lets anyone quickly share a document so that all parties can collaborate in real time. With EtherPad you are just a click away from collaborating with each other in real time. Once I clicked on the link that Karen had provided me, I quickly copied and pasted my initial ideas that I had in a mind map and we were off and running. Using EtherPad, Karen and I quickly added more ideas and when we were through I was able to export my EtherPad session as a Word document to my computer. Karen and I marveled how easy it was to use Skype for the audio component and EtherPad to record our ideas. Give it a try when you are collaborating to find out just how easy and powerful this combination is.

FYI

I just found out that Matchware has released Service Pack 1 for Mindview 3 which can be downloaded from their website. I have upgrade my version of MindView 3 BE to the latest version without a hitch. MindView 3 feels faster when changing from the various views. Going from a Mind map to a Gantt Chart is much faster than in previous versions. Give it a try and let me know what you think. You can download the Service Pack 1 by clicking on this link. According to the Matchware website here are some of the features of the Service Pack 1.