Today as I cranked up MindManager, I had a sudden angst of dread as I considered something that I needed to do with my MindManager mind maps.  I needed to find my mind maps on my computer, because MindManager doesn’t know how to do this simple function.  I hope Mindjet adds this functionality in MindManager Version 8.

When I use Windows media player from Microsoft or Picasa from Google, those programs are smart enough to go out and search my hard drive for all file types that can be used with them.  MindManager which is a software program that has a proprietary file type is not even smart enough to go find its own files that it creates.

That is a severe problem for users of the software that happened to store the files within sub folders other than the default file folder set up by MindManager, My Maps.  This means that you had to go find every folder that you stored a MindManager map within and link it manually into the program so they can then find your MindManager mindmaps and make them readily available for you within the MindManager program.

This is extremely tedious and time consuming and even worse if you happen to have a hard drive that’s a hundred or 200 or 500 GB in size and you’ve got multiple file folder structures.  I like to keep all of my files for a project together with in one folder instead of putting say the word documents for a project in one folder in the MindManager files for the same project in a different folder.  This makes it easy for me to find and organize files on my computer and it also makes it easy for me to share those files or folders with other users on ever need to either e-mail, file transfer, or upload them to a server somewhere.

But when I organize my files the way that I like to MindManager gets lost, and I tend to lose the maps I’ve created with MindManager.

My request for Mindjet working on version 8 of MindManager

So I have a simple request for the Mindjet team developing MindManager version 8.  Please build a simple little hard drive search engine that can search my computer and find all of my MindManager maps.  It should be too hard to utilize this type of search or index type of program.  They have been around for years and there’s lots of different companies and develop them for their own tools as well as generic tools. 

They are not as old as Roman Columns as technology goes but in the world of software they might as well be that old.  Even columns get an upgrade every now and then, ex. see fiberglass columns.

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Last week I was in a hurry and made a rookie mistake.  I was working on a project and needed for some weird reason (using a software program that is not compatible with Firefox - . . . MindManager. .   aahemm. ..  ) to get a copy of all my Firefox bookmarks into some strange and weird program called Internet Explorer 7. 

I had not heard of this program which devotees sometimes call IE7, but I needed to find a way to import in a copy of my Firefox bookmarks, so that I could then use some special function in the desktop software program that I was working with on this special project.

The Problem - I lost my Firefox Bookmarks!

So after I imported bookmarks into this IE7 beast, I noticed about a day later, that I had lost about 80 percent of my bookmarks in Firefox.

Why 80 percent and not 100 percent?

I have no idea.  For some reason the bookmarks in about 100 folders that I had were deleted from Firefox.  They still exist in Internet Explorer which imported them but they were stripped out of Firefox.

So the quick lesson I learned from this, is actually one that I learned a long time ago with IE 6 (yeah I actually had used this beast before, but tried to block it from my memory).  You need to back up your Favorites and Bookmarks to separate special files and folders on a regular basis.  If you add lots of bookmarks often, then you may want to back up more often, if not, maybe quarterly is good enough.

How to back up Firefox Bookmarks

This is pretty easy.  Just go to the Bookmarks button on the Firefox menu, click on the Bookmarks manager.  This will open up a new window and you can now select the export option under the file menu of the Firefox bookmarks menu.  Make sure you send it to a safe place!

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This week I have gotten back from my trip to Nevada and simultaneously gotten back to some relatively heavy mindmapping work.  In the process, I found what appears to be a possible bug with MindManager 7 that was not previously present in MindManager 6.  Either that, or my installation of MindManager 7 has become corrupted somehow while my installation of MindManager 6 has remained OK.

The problem takes place when I attempt to export a mind map to Word.  I choose a template from Words standard templates.  The problem is two fold.

1. No matter what template I select, the formatting fails to apply correctly a large portion of the time.
2. Sometimes even when the formatting looks correct, the paragraph styles that show up in word are still listed as MMtopic 1, mmtopic 2 etc. as opposed to Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 or Normal as I set it up to export.

Something seems to be breaking down, but when I open up MindManager version 6, and export the same exact file, it works just fine.

I’ve been experiencing this for a while now (a month or two), but it wasn’t until I got into a mind map intensive amount of work that I was able to confirm that there really was a problem.  As I confirmed it, I was not able to get any screen capture video yet.

This week, I hope to do just that.  Once I have it, I will then begin the troubleshooting process and see if I can eliminate the problem by running a repair or just reinstalling the program all together.

I’m hoping to get to this either tomorrow or by Thursday.  I’ve got some mundane things to take care of first, running some errands to get a camera lens repaired, and pick up some pet and dog supplies.  Plus, Tuesday I have to cover the local election here in North Carolina for my other work.

If you have experienced similar problems, I’d be interested to here what you have run into, and whether or not you were able to solve the problem, and or how. 

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I just got my call back from the nice representative at Mindjet.  Apparently the email invitations and the account creation system that they trigger do not work with the Firefox browser.

So if you receive the email, you have to open the ‘Get Started’ Button

from the hyperlink behind the button.

To do that, right click on the button in your email, select copy, then open up Microsoft Word, hit paste.

Then select the button, right click and hit edit hyperlink.

Now you can select and copy the actual hyperlink and paste it into that browser that people used to use back in the 90’s called Internet Explorer.

Just kidding, I understand Mindjet is a Microsoft partner and all and I (unlike many others) love Microsoft, I’m jut not to crazy about IE(x).

Mindjet (MindManager) Connect Beta First Unlook | Maven Mapper’s Information

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This week I received 2 invitations to MindManager Connect Beta.  I was pretty jazzed about the idea, but the first invitation came when I was in the middle of wrapping up my taxes and working on a major customer project. 

The next day, I received an email from MindMeister also talking about their MindMeister 2.0 version.  Kind of ironic as MindManager is playing catch up with MindMeister on collaboration, while MindMeister plays catch up with MindManager on look and feel and interface.

Friday, I received the ominous message in the form of a second invitation that I shouldn’t miss the opportunity to try it so I clicked on the button.

That all sounded fantastic!

Well unfortunately, my luck didn’t hold up.  The button with an encrypted hyperlink in it, did not get me into MindManager Connect but did kick me off on the process of having a nice live chat with someone that wasn’t able to get me in either.

Now, I’m feeling a bit like a kid that is promised Santa Clause in July only to be told that Santa won’t be coming until December after all. 

Hopefully, I’ll get a call soon.  I want to open my presents!

Note, I’m not a big fan of Live Chat help these days.  It seems like more an more live chat support workers are unable to actually get anything done.

Customer Service Agent5: Hello, Brett Bumeter. Thank you for contacting Mindjet.
Brett Bumeter: Hi, I can’t seem to login. Probably don’t have a password maybe not a user name. But I received an invitation so I’m a little confused.
Customer Service Agent5: What did you receive?
Brett Bumeter: Mindjet is offering an exclusive first look at Mindjet Connect – a powerful way for teams to collaborate and build communities.
Find out more
With Mindjet Connect, now you can:
Co-edit and share maps simultaneously with MindManager Pro 7
Capture, organize and share maps and files through secure workspaces
Conduct web conferences with integrated desktop sharing, chat and whiteboarding
Start collaborating with Mindjet Connect today and – for a limited time – invite your colleagues and create your MindManager community now!
You will have the opportunity to contribute to Mindjet’s product development efforts by sharing your valuable feedback with us
Brett Bumeter: It also says “Please note – community members need not be existing MindManager users.” which I am, also a trainer.
Brett Bumeter: And this is also my second invitation.
Customer Service Agent5: There should be a link in the email.
Brett Bumeter: Yup, it took me to the login page
Brett Bumeter: http://encryptedlinkremoved.com
Brett Bumeter: sorry, took a while to extract it from the graphic button
Customer Service Agent5: Can you sign in to the login page?
Brett Bumeter: no and when I tried forgot password, it told me my email wasn’t in the system.
Brett Bumeter: I used the email address that the offer had been delivered to.
Customer Service Agent5: You will need to reset your password.
Brett Bumeter: yeah, but how do I reset by username?
Brett Bumeter: It doesn’t even have my email in the system for the username.
Customer Service Agent5: May I have a contact number to call you back Brett?
Brett Bumeter: sure xxx.xxx.xxxx
Customer Service Agent5: We will follow up with you soon Brett.
Customer Service Agent5: Is there anything else I can help you with today?
Brett Bumeter: nope, any idea when? I have a meeting soon.
Customer Service Agent5: Hopefully by the end of the day.
Brett Bumeter: OK, I’ll answer if I can. Thanks.

Maybe I’m getting old, but live chat help just seems to take my blood pressure up, I’d rather replace all of the CAT5e cables on my home theater yet again just for the heck of it.

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