Program Details

	Mendeley users please read here...
	Zotero users please read here...
	BibTeX users: don't worry, SciPlore MindMapping is optimized for you :-)

Are you using mind mapping tools such as MindManager, FreeMind or XMind? And reference management tools such as JabRef, Endnote, or Zotero? And do you sometimes even create bookmark in PDFs? Then you should have a look at SciPlore MindMapping.

SciPlore MindMapping is the first mind mapping tool focusing on researchers’ needs by integrating mind mapping with reference and pdf management. SciPlore MindMapping offers all the features one would expect from a standard mind mapping software, plus the following special features for researchers:

Adding Reference Keys Manually
This feature allows assigning a reference key to a mind map’s node. This way, researchers can organize their ideas and reference to the origins.

Adding Reference Keys (BibTeX) Automatically
Most reference managers (e.g. JabRef, BibDesk, Referencer, ...) allow assigning a file (usually PDF) to entries in the bibliographic database. If a file that is linked in the reference database is linked by a node in the mind map, SciPlore MindMapping automatically extracts the corresponding reference key from reference database and adds it to the mind map node. Currently, this feature only works with reference databases in BibTeX format.

PDF Bookmark Import
When researchers read an article in PDF format, some create bookmarks for the most important statements in the article. The same information is likely to be needed in a mind map when structuring ideas or a new paper. SciPlore MindMapping offers the option to import bookmarks from a PDF. Each bookmark is imported as a node and each node is linked to the PDF. If the PDF is included in the user’s bibliographic database, the corresponding BibTeX key is also added.

Monitoring Folders for new PDFs
In SciPlore MindMapping you can specify a "monitoring node". This node then will list all PDF files you store in a certain folder on your hard drive: whenever you store a new PDF it is listed automatically in your mind map.

Backup your mind maps
If you want, SciPlore MindMapping makes a backup of your mind maps to our servers each time you save them in the software. That means, where ever you are, you can access all your mind maps online or in case of data loss you can restore your mind maps from our servers.

SciPlore MindMapping is based on FreeMind (0.9 RC7 Max) and 100% compatible to FreeMind. All mind maps created with SciPlore MindMapping can be opened and edited with FreeMind 0.9 and vice versa. SciPlore MindMapping is developed in Java and runs under Windows (95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, etc.), Linux and Mac OS (Java 1.6 or later is required which is available for free). SciPlore MindMapping is 100% free and published under the GNU/GPL licence.

When you install SciPlore MindMapping you will be asked if you want to allow (anonymous) usage statistics. We would kindly ask you to agree because we would love to do some research on how many people are using mind mapping software, how often, etc. However, if you feel uncomfortable you do not need to activate this function and can use SciPlore MindMapping without any limitations anyway.

User feedback

Here is what users say about SciPlore MindMapping:

• You have read my mind. You have put into practice what I could envisage yet not even come close to develop.
• I love your product
• You are helping to tackle the biggest obstacle to my research
• I really like SciPlore's approach. Connecting papers through a mindmap is genious!
• Great software, thanks!
• I'm in the middle of my PhD and was becoming overwhelmed with the amount of information I need to manage. Nothing else was really cutting it for me and I stumbled on Sciplore.
• Your tool is great
• Great software! Trying to get my adviser and all the graduate students in our lab to start using SciPlore. Keep up the efforts!
• I very much enjoyed using Sciplore and was very impressed by its performance and options.
• Congratulations on a great time saver and program to make PDF Bookmarks useful.
• I'd like to thank you for the great work you're doing.
• Thank you very much for the excellent software. SciPlore has helped me organise my notes and research while undertaking my Masters degree.
• I was greatly surprised to find SciPlore, and it seemed to be exactly what I needed for my work
• Just wanted to say that SciPlore is a wonderful program. I use it to organize my thoughts and my research. Can't wait to see what's coming!
• Thanks for making SciPlore!
• I had dreamed someone would produce such a tool for organizing all the academic papers
• ...

What do you think?

Screenshot

Click to enlarge

Manual / Handbook

• Program Details (Short Description, Homepage, etc.)
• Requirements
• Installation
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • Mac OS
• Operation
  • Importing Mind Maps from FreeMind 0.8.1 (or older) and FreeMind Scholar (Alpha 1)
  • Importing Mind Maps from MindManager, XMind and other Mind Mapping Tools
  • Basic Functionality
    • Disable Direct Selection
    • Create New Nodes
  • Adding References Manually
    • Link a file
    • Add a reference key
    • Link a website
    • Create a note
  • Adding Reference Keys Automatically
    • BibTeX based reference management tools (JabRef, BibDesk, Referencer, etc.)
    • Zotero
    • Mendeley
    • EndNote
    • Other Reference Managers
  • Update Reference Keys in Current Mind Map
  • Copy Reference Key to Third Party Application
  • Hide / Show Reference Keys
  • Import PDF Bookmarks
  • (De)activate Automatic PDF Bookmark Import
• FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Keywords

HOW TOs

We plan on publishing a series of "How To... with SciPlore MindMapping" in our blog. Here is a list of current how to tutorials.

• How to Write a PhD thesis

History

2010/06/22 SciPlore MindMapping (Beta 10)

• New: Special MacOS version released (We hope it works fine. As we have only a virtual machine to test it, some problems might still occur)
• Improved: SciPlore MindMapping should run with Linux now
• Fixed: Sometimes mind maps were not transfered correctly to our backup server

2010/05/07 SciPlore MindMapping (Beta 9) Update highly recommended

• Fixed: Under some circumstances existing mind maps were overwritten with a 0 KB mind map

2010/04/26 SciPlore MindMapping (Beta 8)

• Fixed: Authentification for mind map backup failed even for correct user name and password

2010/04/23 SciPlore MindMapping (Beta 7)

• Improved: Monitoring functions considers .doc, .docx, .txt, .xls, .xlsx, .odt, .rtf files in addition to .pdf
• Improved: Increased performance of monitoring function as folders named .svn are not monitored any more
• Fixed: In Windows, mind map file type is now SciPlore MindMapping Map (before: FreeMind Map)
• Fixed: Monitoring function crashed when certain types of hyperlinks were in a mind map.
• Fixed: Cancelling update of monitoring directory did not work
• Fixed: "Copy reference key" did not work as attribute was case insensitive

2010/04/16 SciPlore MindMapping (Beta 6)

• New: Title is extracted from BibTeX file and displayed in mind map
• New: BibTeX files created by Mendeley can now be processed
• Fixed: On software update, old preferences are taken
• Fixed: Several internal bugs
• Fixed: Saving mind maps produced error when not internet connection was available

2010/04/02 SciPlore MindMapping (Beta 5)

• New: Backup mind maps to SciPlore.org
• New: Information retrieval on your mind maps
• Improved: Monitoring works with relative paths
• Improved: Titles for status messages
• Fixed: Monitoring function imported all bookmarks in all nodes not only in the monitoring node
• Fixed: Nested bookmarks were not imported
• Fixed: Only one PDF was imported when several files were drag&dropped to the software
• Fixed: Defect PDFs were not imported
• Fixed: Java check showed misleading error messages

2010/03/15 SciPlore MindMapping (Beta 4)

• New: Java Check (if Java is not installed, the user is notified)
• New: Entries from right mouse click dialog are now in main menue as well
• New: Logging is activated by default
• New: Update to FreeMind's code base 0.9 RC 7
• New: Java 1.6 required instead of Java 1.5
• Improved: Monitoring folder do not list files that are linked elsewhere in the mind map
• Improved: Optimal Width is now applied automatically to reference attributes
• Fixed: False notifcations should not appear any more
• Fixed: Header of mind maps is now correct

2010/03/08 SciPlore MindMapping (Beta 3)

• New: Monitoring function for folders to import PDF files
• New: Video showing SciPlore MindMappings capabilities now available on YouTube
• Improved: Replaced PDF Box library with JPod library from BerliOS
• Fixed: Bookmarks from PFDs created with Adobe Acrobat 9.x were not imported
• Fixed: Bookmarks from PDFs with two or more dots in the filename were not imported
• Fixed: PDFs without bookmarks are now correctly imported
• Fixed: PDF bookmarks were not imported when a PDF was added via file dialog

2010/01/19 SciPlore MindMapping (Beta 2)

• New: Preference Dialog is now repared for performing information retrieval on mind maps, backups, etc.
• New: Update PDF bookmarks in mind map (via context menu)
• New: Reference key can now be copied as cite\{Reference Key} to clipboard
• Improved: Code base updated from FreeMind Max RC4 to FreeMind Max RC6
• Improved: When editing the reference key manually, the focus now is set automatically on the reference key and not the attribute name splmm_refkey
• Improved: Source code cleaned and redundancies removed
• Improved: All strings are now in the appropriate properties file
• Fixed: When changing a BibTeX key in the BibTeX database, the key is now updated correctly in the mind maps
• Fixed: Attribute bug (splmm_refkey was sometimes called SPLMM REFKEY)

2009/11/15 SciPlore MindMapping (Beta 1)

• First public version of SciPlore MindMapping

Roadmap (Planned Features)

Please send us feedback and tell us what features you would like to have. The following features are planned for somewhen in the future

• Portable version
• Metadata extraction from PDF files
• Renaming of files within the mind map
• Support Zotero file format (only if Zotero team helps us)
• and many more small enhancements...

Contribute

If you like SciPlore MindMapping, you have various options to support its development.

1. Spread the word: tell your friends and colleagues of SciPlore MindMapping
2. Go to the project webpage on SourceForge and rate SciPlore MindMapping. Just click the blue "thumb up" symbol on the right side and enter a short review if you like (no registration requiered).
3. If you have a homepage place a link to http://www.sciplore.org/software/sciplore_mindmapping/ and/or http://www.sciplore.org on it
4. If you have Java skills, join our team and contribute actively to future versions of SciPlore MindMapping

Co-operate

Credits

SciPlore MindMapping is based on others peoples' great work. We have to give credit especially to FreeMind which SciPlore MindMapping is based upon and JPod which we use to import PDF bookmarks.

Licence

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