Mindmap software comparison for DT users

i just played around with two mind mapping programs:

  1. iThoughtsX

  2. XMind

  3. iThougtsX
    Maps are visible AND searchable from within DT.
    Printed pdfs are visible AND searchable from within DT and searched words are highlighted
    Links to DT documents and external files are clickable when viewing printed pdfs within DT.
    Links to DT documents and external files are not clickable when viewing a map in DT. When the map is viewed within the original app, then the links are clickable and open DT documents and external files depending on what type of hyperlink is used.

  4. XMind
    Maps are visible AND searchable from within DT.
    Printed pdfs are visible AND searchable from within DT and searched words are highlighted
    Links to DT documents and external files are NOT clickable when viewing printed pdfs within DT.
    Links to DT documents and external files are clickable when viewing EXPORTED pdfs (Pro feature) within DT (in this case a map exports in a form of an outline with optional picture capture of a map)
    Links to DT documents and external files are not clickable when viewing a map in DT. When the map is viewed within the original app, then the links are clickable and open DT documents and external files depending on what type of hyperlink is used.

Both programs have nice interface but overall it seemed to me that XMind is more feature rich and business oriented. I really wish XMind could print pdfs in such a way that i could open links from DT. This way i could retain both visual representation of the map and linking capabilities (and i don’t really like outlines)

Not sure if this is the latest thread on mind mapping with DT, but it does have some good links. Curio looks very interesting, for example.
I will point out another product that I’ve been using that has some of the same issues the original poster mentioned regarding search and links.
Miro.com (was named realtimeboard originally) is a collaborative workspace that makes a great personal notebook for those that like to capture web pages, PDFs, Google Docs, images, and notes. They have tools for mind mapping that are fluid and that support links, export to PDF, etc. It doesn’t have a global search (except for enterprise customers). Instead you can export a CSV with all the text to DT and/or a PDF and use DT to search the contents and then just open the web page. It works pretty well in DT since it supports touch screen environments that have no right-click ability (like the DT browser).

Would be interesting if DEVONthink could partner with some of these companies to offer a fully integrated offline backup of their products. A one-click export from a web tool into DT would be helpful. Get the advantages of online collaboration with others and then also be able to keep your own copy of the projects and notes with your own tags and organization structure.

Devonthink will export to OPML, which MindNode will import.

It’s ugly but fixable. The text of a markdown or plain text documents ends up in the title of a MindNode node.

DT’s OPML uses a title tag for the title of a node. MindNode uses the text tag for the title and a _note tag for the note.

I think translating DT’s OPML to MindNode’s expectations would be looking for nodes that have a title tag. Change that tag to text, and change the existing text tag to _note.

Might be worth an experiment or two.

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I have been using iThoughts even longer than DT and can highly recommend it as an mindmapping application in combination with DT.

What you can do is use universal DT links to back-up/point to relevant material in a DT database from within the mindmap in iThoughts. As a result you can think about it as:

  • iThoughts being a frontend
  • DT being a backend with additional/supplementary material

As the links work on both mac and iOS, this tended to be a very robust model for me so far.

Tip: holding “shift” and dropping an item from DT into iThoughts creates a link automatically :slight_smile:

Tip2: once done with a mindmap, you can export it from iThoughts as markdown and move into your DT db for notes/obsidian/whateveryoulike

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