I got my upgrade to MindManager 7, and the biggest difference is that the UI now incorporates the Microsoft "ribbon" concept, making the menu and toolbars look very different.
As a non-daily user of Mind Manager, this big UI change. And it is something I need to re-accustom myself to every time I come back to it. Fortunately, I use the keyboard for most of my activities and keyboard shortcuts are primarily still the same.
Here are some impressions. Mostly these are negative aspects to the new UI. Sorry guys at MindJet.
- One surprise: The version I have caused a huge CPU spike when it was sitting idle, consuming 50% CPU with one map open. This is something that gets old very fast. It just shouldn't happen.
- In conjunction with this, I find MM sometimes very sluggish. For instance, I was entering a number of thoughts and MM just seemed to sit there thinking without accepting the keyboard input.
- There is no Options dialog. At least I haven't found it yet. It used to be under Tools->Options, but the "options" are gone. I found spell check options in the midst of doing spell check. But I can't find others.
- I can't find the fun little map icons. I can find the "Map Marker Lists" that lets me customize the list of markers. But I can't find the markers themselves. Oh, it's under the "Home" menu. Not the Insert or View or Format menus. What?
The basics of mind mapping with Mind Manager are all the same. That is not going to change, and that is why I like using the tool for a variety of tasks in my working life.