Brainstorming App Mac Free

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Ulysses is a Mac-focused writing tool available in the Mac OS and iOS app store. It also automatically syncs files to Apple’s iCloud, so it’s heavily embedded in this entire ecosystem. If you’re in the Mac-obsessed writers crowd, this app is ideal. Ulysses App Pros #1. Ulysses has a single Library that houses all of your documents. More than Brainstorming. IPad, Android, Mac, Windows 10, or Surface Hub. Work remotely or on-the-go with the Stormboard iOS app for iPhone and iPad. 15 Best Brainstorming And Mind-Mapping Tech Tools For Every Creative Mind. But you can also find a free version for the app test drive. The Free Mind Map Tool is one of the oldest mind mapping apps which are still working amazing in 2019. The tool was created on Java and still operates under its banner. This software is compatible with multiple platforms including Windows, Mac, and Linux. Bubbl.us (Web) Bubbl.us is a web-based mind mapping software tool. Unlike some of the other.

Everything starts with an idea. Everything that you see around you — your phone, computer, car, coffee mug — all that came from someone’s mind. There’s nothing quite like coming up with a winning idea, one that leads to something successful. It'd be great to be able to do that every day but, unfortunately, our minds don’t work like that.

Some days you’ll have dozens of ideas floating around your brain, other days there’ll be nothing, nada. If you work in any sort of creative industry, these idealess days are like nightmares. And the more you’re tasked with coming up with ideas, the quicker your brain turns to mush. This is where a successful brainstorming session can help.

In this article, we’ll tell you about mind map tools and the benefits of brainstorming.

What is brainstorming?

The end goal of any brainstorming session is an idea. But the quality of this idea is always determined by the quality of ideation itself. So what does brainstorming mean as a process? You’ll find lots of definitions, but the most comprehensive of all would be the following:

If you dive into the topic, you’ll find a huge number of brainstorming activities, ranging from meeting in a physical space to online brainstorming exercises. Well, considering the 21st century, you’ll most likely choose the latter.

The complexity of available online tools goes from a simple Google Doc to advanced visualization apps. Real-time edits, commenting, interactive checklists, and drawing instruments — all these crazy features can be a part of your brainstorming techniques. In fact, depending on your needs, a digital tool can imitate your live interaction with people on the subject of specific ideas. So that you won’t even notice your collaborators are not in the room.

If you’re up for trying a simple brainstorming flow, G Suite is a nice place to start. Here are all its tools you can use for free:

  • Groups for inviting a group of people to join your brainstorming session. Takes a single email.
  • See when everyone’s available for a brainstorming session in Calendar. You can also create a shared team calendar with customizable time zone settings.
  • Shared drive to quickly provide access to whatever you’re working on — the whole group gets an invite in one click, no matter what organization they are in.
  • Plan projects and brainstorming topics in Sheets. You’ll be able to create a shareable project plan with custom filter views and attach them to your meetings.
  • Docs will give you a perfect spot for laying out your ideas. Share a doc with a group of people, view, comment and make edits in real time, Plus, Google Docs are so simple in use that no one ever gets lost.
  • A conversation is never overrated. Hangouts Meet is a great tool for jumping right into a call with your collaborators.
  • Collect feedback via Forms. The tool allows you to create an editable questionnaire and share it with your collaborators.

Effective, yet not exciting. That’s what a creative person would call G Suite when it comes to brainstorming. If you need more bells and whistles, there are tons of professional alternatives.

For visual types of brainstorming, MindNode is what you need. This app allows you to make beautiful representations of virtually anything, from a storyline to project plan. Here’s how you can use it for visual mind maps:

  1. Use Quick Entry to add your ideas.
  2. Enrich text with links and images.
  3. To add illustrations, use the Sticker Search menu.
  4. Add new and sibling nodes as you go.
  5. Switch to the Outline view to search through your ideas, and enable Focus view if you want to see only specific items.

If you’re more of a let’s-jot-this-down type, consider TaskPaper for writing brainstorming:

  1. Choose a stylesheet that fits your flow.
  2. Type your ideas and let the app apply text formatting automatically.
  3. Organize items by tasks, projects, tags, and notes for easy search.
  4. Integrate with Reminders to add deadlines.

The mentioned apps are pretty robust, but there’s no limit to your brainstorming expectations. We’ll talk about more solutions in a sec.

The rules of successful brainstorming

If you have more than two people working on a project, expect disagreements. In this case, some kind of a regulated process is required. For sure, you can define your own brainstorming rules. But if you want a professional advice, we are happy to provide it.

When it comes to brainstorming ideas, there is no one better to follow than the godfather of brainstorming, its inventor, Alex Osborn. In his book, Applied Imagination: Principles and Practices of Creative Thinking, Osborn talks about the creative process, how to generate ideas and answer brainstorming questions. Here are his four rules:

  1. Criticism is not allowed.
  2. The more ideas, the better. Quantity over quality.
  3. The wilder the idea, the better.
  4. Improve on, and combine, existing ideas.

All these will help you to come up with meaningful ideas.

Why traditional brainstorming sessions are ineffective

Well, you need to commute. But that’s not the only drawback of getting together for a brainstorming session. There are many group-related issues that can hamper your productivity while brainstorming. People are too anxious to voice their ideas, it’s hard to keep track of the timing when you meet in a physical space — so, basically, too much stress involved. This is where the massacre of many brilliant ideas happens. Not to mention the cost of running traditional sessions. With all kinds of free brainstorming software available, it just doesn’t make real sense.

The best format of brainstorming

If you’re working with others, it’s good to go the digital route with brainstorming to document the process easier and not have to decipher other people’s handwriting (important!)

But when it comes to extensive projects, a simple list or an outline may not be enough. This is why we recommend using digital mind maps for a session of any complexity. Here’s how to create an effective mind map online:

  1. Decide on a central idea. This is the powerhouse of your session — a central concept that will shape the course of brainstorming. Place it into the heart of you visual map.
  2. Add branches/nodes. These are the subtopics that you can further divide into smaller chunks of information.
  3. Enrich your nodes with media and links. Images, stickers, illustrations, whatever expands your ideas.
  4. Make connections. You can align subtopics and branches to visualize connections between them.

5 apps to brainstorm more effectively

Whether to draw a professional brainstorming map chart or jot down a few simple ideas, you’ll need a digital space for that. Visual brainstorming will require a tool for adding images and stickers as well as drawing connections. For writing purposes, you can use a handy text editor. We’ve compiled the top 5 apps that do both jobs perfectly.


XMind to document ideas with minimum fuss

XMind is one of the most popular mind-mapping software on the planet. It’s brilliantly simple to use and features a brainstorming mode to document ideas with minimum fuss.

Choose from the list of pre-made templates or draw your own cartoonish mind map and bring it to life with a range of icons, images, and clipart. The absence of any real learning curve is a big part of what makes XMind so great. At the same time, its powerful slide-show presentation and Gantt view modes are what really sets it apart from the competition. The cloud integration allows you to sync, view, and edit mind maps online on all of your devices so that you can brainstorm on the move.

iThoughtsX to get in-depth with your brainstorming and mind mapping

If you want to get in-depth with your brainstorming and mind mapping, you’ll love what iThoughtsX brings to the table. The app boasts multiple layouts, map styles and link styles, and features over 200 built-in icons, clipart images, and background canvas designs. You can change colors and fonts, insert hyperlinks, add notes, and embed documents across all major file formats. Basically, anything that you want to achieve with a mind map can be done here.

iThoughtsX also lets you import and export from many of the most popular desktop apps, including XMind and Excel. Like XMind, cloud integration is second to none, and maps can be edited across devices.

MindNode to keep your ideas in all formats

There’s hardly a better tool for branching out your ideas — especially if you expect to use a brainstorming app on many devices. MindNode allows to store your thoughts in iCloud and access mind maps on any Apple device, including your watch. MindNode makes them look equally beautiful everywhere. Explore in-built brainstorming templates, add stickers to illustrate thoughts, and throw in images. It’s better than words.

To build logical connections across ideas, you can link items, fold/unfold nodes, and place spotlight on specific branches whenever you need. Another great thing about MindNode is that it allows to take ready-to-use mind maps anywhere. You can export project to PDF, image, even a simple text outline.

TaskPaper if you brainstorm in words

Writing brainstorming is not only for writers. We totally support you if you decide to give away all the brainstorming pictures for the sake of a plain page. Apps like TaskPaper come very useful in this regard. If you need not only capture the key ideas, but also expand on them, there’s nothing easier than writing brainstorming.

With TaskPaper on your Mac, you have an outlet for your ideas — no matter how broad they are. Grab a custom stylesheet, type ideas, and let the app apply formatting.

Focused: just you and your brainwriting.

Sometimes, the birth of an idea requires nothing more than a blank sheet of paper. Be it a page in your notebook or a note in your Focused app.

Focused is a simple, elegant and essential app that focuses solely on giving you the creative space to brainstorm, gather ideas, and detail thoughts. Notes are easy to create, save, and find to work on.

Try Focused and you'll be falling in love with app's minimalist design and zen-mode - there's nothing to distract you, just you and your minds.

So get together with friends, use XMind and MindNode to brainstorm, export to iThoughtsX to perfect ideas, and write down the full fleshed out version of what you are trying to create with Focused and TaskPaper. It’s worth to try.

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Looking for the best Mind Mapping Apps in 2019? Well, you are just at the right spot for getting them. Our mind is a powerhouse of creativity, however, while we think a lot, most of our ideas can skip past our mind and we wouldn’t even remember them tomorrow let along using them for some good purpose.

This is one of the reasons why people search for Mind Mapping Apps for Mac so that they can get everything organized and in an easy manner. While most of the apps you are buying for this purpose are paid, we have made sure that you get free Mind Mapping Apps from our website.

What is Mind Mapping Apps?

Contents

Mind Mapping Apps for Windows, Mac, iPad and other platforms are used to organize your thoughts and ideas in one place and create something useful out of it. If you are facing the issue of iPhone asking for password, here is an easy fix for you. Some of these apps using their smart AI can give a whole new meaning to your ideas.

Besides the mentioned platform, we the apps we are bringing are also the best Mind Mapping Apps for Android and iOS. Also, they are free and you will be getting the download links at the end of each review.

Brainstorming App Mac Free Trial

5 Best Mind Mapping Apps

Brainstorming App Mac Free Download

The following is a list of our 5 best Mind Mapping Apps with their reviews, features, and free download links.

1. Mind Node

Free brainstorming app for mac

Mind Node is the best mind mapping app which you can get for free. It is a great platform on which you can gather all of your ideas and create something new out of them. Also, you can build your to-do lists and start acting on them right now. Mind Node is available for Mac, iOS, and Android platforms. The following are some of the major features of the app:

  • Mind Node 6 is the latest version with multiple new features
  • It provides a mind-mapping interface keeping you away from distractions
  • Add as many ideas as you can and whenever ready, just create the map
  • A very user-friendly and interactive interface for the creative mindset
  • Mind Node 6 free app, it is very easy to track your progress.

2. Free Mind Map Software

The Free Mind Map Tool is one of the oldest mind mapping apps which are still working amazing in 2019. The tool was created on Java and still operates under its banner. This software is compatible with multiple platforms including Windows, Mac, and Linux. There are various idea editing option which will end in better results. The following are some main features of the app:

  • Free Mind Map Software is still free in 2019 for download and use
  • The main free mind map template is also free and very interactive
  • The software runs on Java and is compatible with Mac and Windows
  • You can still the latest updates of the software for free

Brainstorming App For Windows 10

3. MindManager

MindManager is another creative app which gathers all of your thoughts and ideas and compiles them in the right order to produce what may benefit you in your work and life. This is the best way to visualize all the information that is inside your brain. It helps you create flowcharts and have a better understanding of how your mind works.

Here are some of the main features of the app:

  • The MindManager download on ours and the official website is free
  • The MindManager for Mac and MindManager templates are quite impressive
  • It provides an interactive interface to organize all the information you have
  • The flowcharts that it creates are quite easy to interpret

4. XMind Mind Mapping

It seems like Java is very convenient when it comes to designing this mind mapping software. Proof of that is in the creation of XMind online software which is used for the proper brainstorming and mind mapping of ideas in 2019. The software is available on Mac and Windows PC.

The following are some of its main features:

  • A great mind mapping software to clarify your thinking and ideas
  • Nothing comes closer to this one while managing complex information
  • You can also use this mind mapping software for group ideas
  • XMind is available for Mac and Windows and now for mobile as well

5. Buzan’s iMind Map for Mac and iOS

When it comes to the compatibility with Mac and iOS, we don’t think there is better software that Buzan’s iMind Map. This software is not free but before you buy it, a free trial of 30 days is provided to test its features. Also, this is a great tool to enhance visual thinking and brainstorm some of your best ideas.

The following are some of its major features:

Brainstorming App For Windows

  • You can use its different workspaces for nurturing of your thoughts
  • A free 30-day trial is provided to test all of its features
  • The best place for the presentation of thoughts and ideas

Conclusion

So these were our rankings for 5 Best Mind Mapping Apps in 2019 for Mac and related operating systems. If you know about other better apps then do let us know in the comments. Keep visiting our website for more interesting content.