Good Free App. But Paid Version is Excellent.

UPDATE: Sorry, but this review is NOT for the Free version of SimpleMind. It is for the paid / standard version. I posted before I realized my mistake. As a result, I’ve downgraded my rating to 3 stars from 5 stars (and changed the title). I did, however, start with the free version and it had enough features for me to try and convince me that I needed the paid version. I’ve posted this on the paid version’s page with the original 5 star rating. For what it’s worth...

I started with the free version of SimpleMind, but quickly ran into limitations like no automatic-layouts, no text fields (for node descriptions), no way to draw lines and relationships between nodes on different branches, and so on. So I bought the standard version and got almost everything I needed.

Here are the things I wish SimpleMind could currently do:

1. Drag-select nodes with the mouse. Mouse-click + drag moves the whole canvas, which could be done with a familiar spacebar + mouse-drag combo. Selecting nodes happens far more often than moving the canvas.
2. Export a group of selected nodes only.
3. Export all central theme nodes on the canvas as separate files. I tend to create several central nodes for each object in a diagram (to show their relationships in a system), but then need each of those central nodes exported individually for discussion.
4. Export to SVG file.
5. *Allow bending or moving connector lines around nodes to prevent over-/under-lap, resulting in visual confusion.* This is my main/only current frustration.

Here are the things I love:

1. All the auto layouts available. Incredibly useful and beautiful.
2. Easy to reorder nodes in a hierarchy.
3. Complete styling control of every single item on the diagram.
4. Easily attach text to both nodes and connector lines.
5. Branch borders are beautiful. These outline the branch (all subnodes) of a selected node. Really helps highlight areas of a complex diagram.
6. Can add detailed notes to a node. Theyre hidden, but quickly accessible.
7. Easy to import custom icons and images.
8. Can select all nodes in a branch by click-holding the mouse on a node for a number of milliseconds which you can set. Nice attention to details!

In sum, the default styling (which pulled me in), the control of all details (except being able to reshape the line paths, as discussed above), and the auto-layouts are the what sold me. This is the best diagramming tool I’ve ever used. I look forward to its continual improvement.

jbdenham about SimpleMind − Mind Mapping