MindNode 5
Map ideas with this superb app
Free 2-week trial ($14.99 after) From IdeasOnCanvas, mindnode.com Made for iPhone, iPad Needs iOS 11
You’ve probably made mind maps before. The problem is, they can end up looking like the productions of an angry mutant spider when you edit and re-edit as ideas coalesce. Software can bring clarity, as earlier versions of MindNode proved, and this version speeds things further.
You can blaze through the brainstorming stage. Where you’d once have started with a blank canvas, MindNode 5 offers Quick Entry input: Make a bullet-point list and, when you’re done, MindNode squirts your ideas into a new diagram. On iPhone in particular, this is the perfect way to start, rather than constructing nodes when you’re firing on all cylinders.
Alas, maps can’t be edited in this manner from MindNode’s Outline panel. But even when editing diagrams, the focus is on content. In a new panel structure, three buttons at top left provide fast access to your documents, sharing, and an outline. Plus, what was a fixed MindNode 5 is extremely usable even on the iPhone’s smaller display.
sidebar on iPad has become a floating dynamic panel. Its context-sensitive options may initially confuse, but always give logical settings for whatever’s selected; and the panel is bookended by fixed areas with buttons for creating new nodes and usual functions like copy, delete, and undo.
Everywhere you look, the app feels carefully considered. A dark mode is automatically triggered when you’re using the likes of a black background color. You can sort sub-nodes alphabetically with a single tap, or use a new orthogonal branch style to replace curved lines with right angles. When the central element needs to be the most prominent (as in company organization charts), there’s a new top-down layout. And then there are the iOS 11 niceties such as Files support and drag and drop.
The latter is especially handy to quickly get images and text into a mind map, and MindNode 5 intelligently adds content to existing nodes or creates a new parent, depending on where you drag it. Frustratingly, URLs can’t yet be added this way, although they can be placed within an item’s notes. Such niggles are rare, however. For the most part, this efficient and welldesigned app is a joy to use.
The bottom line. Superb. Top of the iOS productivity chart.