Mindmapping is a useful simple tool to organize writings and thoughts. I have used a number of mindmapping software, and ended up at Freemind. This open source software is cross-platform, light and fast, its data format is a de facto standard for exchanging mindmaps.

Starting in 2017, there is an open source Javascript-based software that helps in viewing Freemind files on web browsers, called Freemind Viewer (indeed, there were similar software based on Adobe Flash – an old technology that Google Chrome doesn’t support any more). With this tool, I find it very convenient to publish my Freemind maps as websites. Below I describe a quick and easy procedure to view mindmap file .mm (Freemind format) on your websites.

1. Download source code at https://github.com/doanminhdang/FreeMindViewer (I made some changes that deviate from the original repository). If you don’t use the tool git, just download the whole code as a Zip file and extract it in your computer.

2. Remove the file index.mm in the top folder of that Freemind Viewer, then copy your own mindmap and rename it to index.mm to replace the old file.

Now, you can already open the file index.html in your computer to test that the mindmap is viewed correctly.

3. Upload the whole folder to a server on internet, if you want to share it. It only requires static HTML and Javascript, so almost all types of web hosts should support it.

3+. If you know how to use github.com or gitlab.com to host a free static website, then it’s convenient to just upload your Freemind Viewer code to one of such free services.

Demo: this website uses github.com to publish my notes from a basic TRIZ course given by Leonid Chechurin, following the abovementioned step 3+:

http://triz.rosetta.vn/study/Systematic_Creativity_TRIZ/

Why I promote using Freemind?

-> for quick note taking and organizing. Beside the software Freemind available for Windows, Mac, Linux, there is the app ZMind for Android and web app http://my-mind.github.io to edit Freemind files.

Why I promote publishing mindmaps to the web?

-> for easy sharing. Especially when a group of learners are exploring the world of TRIZ, the sharing of one’s notes could help others to grasp the summary of relevant information.

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