Ideas that grow into structure

6 apps

Mind maps, outliners and infinite canvases are three ways of doing the same thing: giving shape to a half-formed idea. All three are represented here.

01 / Ideas that grow into structure

drawio-desktop

The official Electron desktop build of draw.io. It draws flowcharts, architecture diagrams, UML and network topologies with a large shape library and alignment guides, and files can stay local or sync to your own cloud storage without an account. It suits people who need technical diagrams without an online service.

Access & use

Free

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02 / Ideas that grow into structure

Freeplane

A free and open source application for mind mapping, also known as concept mapping or information mapping, with tools for building maps and navigating mapped information. Written in Java with OSGi and Java Swing, it runs on any operating system that has a current Java version installed, and can also be launched portably from removable storage.

Freeplane
Access & use

Free

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03 / Ideas that grow into structure

VYM (View Your Mind)

A tool to generate and manipulate maps which show your thoughts, usable for time management, organizing tasks and getting an overview over complex contexts. It is offered for FreeBSD, Linux, Mac and Windows with a Qt user interface, and is released under the GNU General Public License version 2.

VYM (View Your Mind)
Access & use

Free

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04 / Ideas that grow into structure

Logseq

A privacy-first, open-source platform for knowledge management and collaboration. Download link: http://github.com/logseq/logseq/releases. roadmap: https://logseq.io/p/NX4mc_ggEV

Access & use

Free

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05 / Ideas that grow into structure

MarginNote

A learning workspace for reading and studying that keeps source material, notes and handwriting in one place. Text and images from PDFs, EPUBs, web pages and video can be excerpted into cards linked back to the source, and cards from different sources arranged into mind maps. Recall along a mind map, condensing of long passages and spaced repetition support review, with OCR and AI assistance on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

MarginNote
Access & use

Free

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06 / Ideas that grow into structure

OmniOutliner

An outlining tool for organising and reorganising information, useful for screenplays, long documents, class notes and meeting agendas. Outlines support unlimited hierarchy with expandable sections, checkboxes that turn rows into a checklist, drag and drop ordering and nesting, and notes attached to rows, plus multi-column documents, custom styles, filtering and automation plug-ins.

OmniOutliner
Access & use

Free

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