Archive for the ‘Server Updates’ Category
21Jun
GEISTESBLITZ, (noun, m.) [’gæstes blîts]:
literally translated as mind flash, is a sudden insight or idea, often brilliant and unexpected. Consisting of the German words Geist (as in Zeitgeist) and Blitz (as in Blitzen, that lightning-fast reindeer of Santa Claus), it is probably best translated into English as brain wave or flash of genius.
The Geistesblitz Tools allow you to quickly submit your ideas (or Geistesblitzes) to your default map in MindMeister (remember, you can set your default map in the Properties dialog). The ideas will be inserted in a special branch top left of the root and remain there for you to copy to other maps, or move around in the default map.
Geistesblitz tools currently come in two flavours:
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Dashboard Widget / Sidebar Gadget
Set up the widget once with your MindMeister username and password, and fire off new ideas at will! Using the widget is fast and intuitive and besides, we think it looks rather dashing… |
System Requirements: Mac OS X (10.4+) or Windows Vista
Download Now! |
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Quicksearch Extensions
Submit your ideas to your MindMeister default map directly from the search field in the top right-hand corner of your web browser. If you use the “Remember me” function on the MindMeister login form, you won’t even have to sign in! |
System Requirements: Firefox 2.x or Internet Explorer 7
Install Now! |
21Jun
It’s been a quiet few weeks on MindMeister. But although we’re quite proud of them, we haven’t spent all our time on the Geistesblitz tools - they are nice add-ons, but the productivity of our mind mapping users happens elsewhere.
So, over the course of the next two to three weeks we’ll be rolling out a number of new features that should benefit most of you - here’s a short list:
- Links between maps / ideas
- Automatic Layouter
- URL and Mail Links
- Changes view date slider
- Reworked, more organic lines
There are two more surprises that we’re currently working on which deserve a more thorough introduction than a mere mentioning in a feature list - stay tuned!
26May
As some of you will have noticed we were offline this morning for an hour or so, when we moved MindMeister onto new server hardware with quite a bit more “oomph”. We’re glad that so many people use MindMeister and want to give everybody a really good user experience.
At the same time we’ve also deployed a couple of new features, some of which people have been requesting for a while. Here’s a small list:
- Ability to assign multiple icons
- Icons groups (click to advance to next in group)
- Copy branch as text outline
- see details…
People have also been asking for more licensing options, so we’ve made a few additions there too, such as the ability to sponsor Premium Memberships for others, and license packages for businesses and resellers.
Also, stay tuned for another update with a few more mapping features, such as links between nodes as well as a solution to the infamous overlapping branch issue!
25Mar
We have just deployed one more update in the private beta phase to try out a few new features and fix some problems. As we’re running out of version numbers below 1.0, we’ll have to go live soon though anyway ;-). This time we have added things like:
- A new changes view to see who has done what on shared maps (use the button in the palette to switch it on)
- Personal messages when sharing maps
- Recenter map function
- Ability to minimize the palette
- Enhanced node editing and zooming
- Import from Freemind / Mindmanager bugfixes
As always, you can find more details on the update in the changelog.
Thanks once again to everybody for the valuable feedback on the new features. We are working on a few more goodies that have been requested by many of our beta testers, such as notes on nodes and more positioning / formatting options. Above all though we want to make this a tool that is easy and fun to use for everybody, so please let us know if we’re getting there, and where we still need to improve!
8Mar
After one month online we are nearing the last stage of the private beta phase and wanted to celebrate this with our biggest update yet - new features include:
- Export to MindManager and Freemind
- Auto-layout on import maps
- Zoom in/out
- Overview navigator
- Many more icons and colors
As always, you can find more details on the update in the changelog.
We’d appreciate your feedback on the new features. If something doesn’t work for you, we’ll try and find a better way. We’ve also decided to make the feedback process more collaborative by setting up a discussion forum where our beta testers can discuss feature requests, bugs, and MindMeister in general. We are looking forward to a lively discussion! (for those who prefer to give their feedback in a less public way, the old feedback dialog option remains active)
27Feb
Another week, another update - last night we updated MindMeister with a new version that fixes a number of problems, most notably the scrollbars which appeared in some browsers when inputting text into nodes. This should work fine now, with automatically resizing textboxes and full line break support (SHIFT-ENTER).
We are also proud to present two brand new features:
- Ability to duplicate maps (in map list context menu)
- Ability to publish maps, i.e. make them visible on the internet e.g. for inclusion in blogs
More to come. Further details on the last update can be found as always in the changelog.
Oh yes, and we’re up to about 3000 users from all parts of the world now, which is great because we still get tons of really useful feedback (even though we might have to work on our japanese to understand it all ;-)).
21Feb
Last night we celebrated the 1000th beta tester on MindMeister, and of course minutes later had to start the first tuning measures - we apologise if the server was a bit slow at times and you got the infamous “Communicating with server” message. We’re working on it 
Also, we have just deployed another update which should fix a few more issues - have a look at the changelog for details (sorry, registered users only).
Meanwhile, we are working on some features that have been requested by a lot of beta testers in the 200 or so feedback messages that we have received so far - such as zoom in and out, auto-arrange branches (and avoid overlaps), export as MindManager / Freemind, as well as minor stuff such as print, toggle background, more icons, hyperlinks etc. Thanks again to everybody for their feedback and apologies again if we can’t respond to everybody personally anymore - we assure you that your comments are not ignored!
18Feb
After receiving lots of very valuable feedback from all the beta testers we have just deployed the first update to the site, which should fix the most eye-watering problems (IE7 scrolling, more key shortcuts, text entry fixes etc). We’d like to apologise to everybody who got kicked out of their session during the update… Also, a <strong>huge</strong> thanks to everybody in the beta test for taking the time to check out MindMeister and for providing very detailed bug descriptions, as well as lots of interesting suggestions (which we promise will all be taken on board) - we sincerely didn’t expect this much positive feedback and hope it’ll keep coming!
