Mindjet MindManager Pro 6 review

Mind maps - or spider diagrams, as they're often known - are an invaluable tool for sketching out new ideas and planning projects.

They work brilliantly with just a piece of paper and a pen, so you may be wondering why you should shell out for a computerised version such as Mindjet's MindManager Pro 6. For a start, computers are a lot more flexible. As well as letting you draw complex diagrams that would swamp a piece of paper, MindManager lets you drag and move central ideas around the page, which you simply can't do with traditional methods.

The screen layout is very easy to read, and within a few clicks you can build a substantial diagram. Mindjet provides a quick tutorial that rushes through the basics, so there's no reason why you shouldn't be using the product successfully within minutes of starting it. Each topic you create can be prioritised, and you can add notes, web addresses and even pictures if you wish. While it's true that you can do the same sort of work in a diagramming package such as Microsoft's Visio, MindManager's relationship tracking makes it much easier to reorganise a diagram, turning a sub-topic into a main topic, for example.

However, MindManager could do with better context-sensitive menus. For example, right-clicking a main topic lets you add additional information such as notes to the topic, but you can't add a sub-topic in this way. Instead you have to use the keyboard short cut or resort to the toolbar. Fortunately, the keyboard short cuts have been fixed since the last version, so the same key inserts a new main topic and sub-topic depending on the current object you have selected.

Where MindManager really proves itself is with its Microsoft Office integration. For a start, it lets you import and export files from Word, PowerPoint, Publisher and Excel. By linking this information together, you can reuse existing documents and see changes to them reflected in your diagram.

The really exciting part of the program is Outlook integration. You can create new topics that are Outlook Tasks or Appointments. If you have an Exchange server, you can assign people to these tasks and appointments, adding a degree of work control to your plan. Existing topics can be sent to Outlook to become Tasks or Appointments. Unfortunately, this wiped out the notes we'd already typed when we tried it. As Outlook has space for notes, we'd have liked this information to be carried over.

Once you've created an Outlook object, the data remains linked, so any updates and changes you make in Outlook are reflected in your diagram. Mindjet also sells a Basic version of MindManager that doesn't include the Microsoft Office integration for £50 less. Considering how good the Office integration is, though, this doesn't seem like a very good deal.

MindMananger Pro does a good job of getting your ideas from your head to the screen. It is expensive, though, and is still essentially a business tool, with multi-user collaboration features that enable teams to work together on the same project.