ConceptDraw MINDMAP Listing Accounting Resources

Accountants and individuals involved in accounting often use mind maps in their work.  I have made available for download a ConceptDraw mind map file that contains a myriad of resources for accountants and financial people.  The file can be downloaded from here.

You can find out more about CS Odessa and our ConceptDraw products from here.

ConceptDraw: A Boon to IT Students and Professionals

Dean Livingston is working on his Masters in Information Technology at the University of Phoenix online. Recently, Dean discovered and purchased ConceptDraw Office at the academic discount to help assist him with his course work. ConceptDraw Office consists of ConceptDraw PRO (business graphics and diagramming), ConceptDraw PROJECT (project management), and ConceptDraw MINDMAP (brainstorming, producing documents and presentations). 

Dean was a long time PC user who switched to a MacBook about 12 months ago. After switching to Macintosh, he then searched for products that could potentially do what Microsoft Project and Microsoft Visio did for him when he was a Windows user. With ConceptDraw Office, he found a suite of products that would address his academic and work needs in one bundle at a greatly discounted price.

Dean discovered ConceptDraw while doing a web search for “Visio Alternatives for Mac”. Right away he decided to download and trial the ConceptDraw suite of products. First use for Dean was ConceptDraw PRO for his “Reliable Backup” class to develop a timeline for how backup should occur as part of a class project. He sees that ConceptDraw MINDMAP will be of great assistance in helping him study for his classes and plan papers while he is working on his Master’s degree.

Dean says, “ConceptDraw Office suite is the best software package, it is amazing how powerful the products are. In the near future, I plan on viewing the instructional videos located on ConceptDraw.com to find out more about each product’s capabilities.”

CS Odessa Announces Software Engineering Solutions in ConceptDraw Solution Park

ConceptDraw Solution Park contains lots of new content that we release for our ConceptDraw products. Today's addition to ConceptDraw PRO and the ConceptDraw Solution Park extends the current vector libraries with a complete software engineering solution. CS Odessa has introduced a new set of libraries that provides a complete solution for software engineering diagrams. The Software Development Area in the ConceptDraw Solution Park includes the Entity-Relationship Diagram Solution, Data Flow Diagrams Solution, IDEF0 Diagrams Solution, and the new-and-improved Rapid UML Solution. These new additions to the ConceptDraw Solution Park are free for current users of ConceptDraw PRO v9.

This solution can be found in the Software Development Area of the ConceptDraw Solution Park which includes collections of templates, samples, and libraries of vector stencils and icons that support software engineering diagrams of any level of complexity. ConceptDraw PRO is compatible with Apple OS X and Microsoft Windows.For more information on all of the ConceptDraw Products and Solutions visit us at http://www.conceptdraw.com.

How much do you pay for team communication? Look at Skype and ConceptDraw MINDMAP as low-cost highly-effective tools

With growing demand for support of virtual teams, the presence of ubiquitools with omnifunctions on platforms for everything from a phone to a computer has exploded in the past decade. Consultancies, small businesses and virtual teams have their pick from a wide range of options to assist in the management of remote staffers.


One low-cost service that has seen increased use since its inception to improve communication is Skype®. With over “250 million active users each month [and] over 115 billion call-minutes logged in quarter 2 (of 2012), alone,” Mark Gillet, Skype’s Chief Development and Operations Officer Skype is a clear leader in cost-effective communications. Now, CS Odessa has capitalized on that popularity and released a new feature for ConceptDraw® MINDMAP that instantly shares and opens presentation documents for each attendee before the presentation begins. 

Unfortunately, when it comes to communication tool-sets, many developers miss the mark when it comes to cross platform applications. Often, the practical solution is a piecemeal of software, email, and phone services that can result in an adequate level of communication; adequate, but not ideal. If some users are not using the preferred platform, a meeting can get congested with dissemination of information, as users can’t all read the same documents.

Since both ConceptDraw MINDMAP and Skype are Windows and Mac compatible, all users have the freedom to access and edit documents mind map documents on their own system while a presentation is underway. Furthermore, even if a mind map was created using other ConceptDraw products, such as ConceptDraw Project, the users can still view the entire document using just ConceptDraw MINDMAP and Skype.

One of the best features of ConceptDraw MINDMAP its cost-effectiveness. For $199 per license, you get a powerful mind-mapping and presentation tool. Using MINDMAP with Skype Presentation, MINDMAP delivers empowering interoperability features that can support meetings, briefings, and brainstorming sessions from across the world with heretofore unseen accessibility, ease-of-use, and power. Combined with Skype’s low or no-cost, Skype Presentation Solution for ConceptDraw MINDMAP gives users a high-powered efficiency tool raises project success-rates dramatically.

How to Write Like a Consultant

Have you ever had a writing assignment that required you to write in a new language? I don't mean a foreign language--just a new one.

I recently began preparing to ghostwrite for a consulting firm. I'd glanced over such articles in the past. But this time I needed to take a deep dive. I was surprised to learn how different it was from everyday English. So the first step I needed to take was to become familiar with the words, phrases, and syntax used in this fairly arcane world.

I began by reading through a number of articles already published by the firm. As I read, I used a ConceptDraw mindmap to begin to capture and categorize the language:

I noticed right away that the verbs used by the consultants were different from the ones I normally use. So I just started typing them into the map, along with accompanying words to help me understand the context in which the words were used:

I did the same with the other major parts of speech, such as adjectives:

I also started a branch in the map to capture some of the tendencies in the writing. Part of the magic of writing like a consultant, it seems, it creating long, meandering sentences--and using passive verbs.

Like all professionals, consultants also use a smattering of "terms of art" and acronyms for which I had to find definitions. I'm keeping them in the map as well:

And as I read an article, I add it to the "Articles Reviewed" so I know which articles I've already parsed for the map.

There is much more to learning to "write like a consultant." But having a concise way to capture and organize this niche language is a good first step.

A Better Way to Manage PR Campaigns

I suppose that many of you, like me, wear more than one hat in the course of a working week. One of my hats is doing public relations. I love to find companies that are doing something great, but that don't know how to get out there and tell their stories. It is the writer in me that helps communicate what a company is all about--without it sounding like some kind of cheesy brochure.

But PR isn't a one-off thing: It's a process. It's about creating a plan, then executing the plan. And PR plans, like most plans are complex. There are a lot of dependencies. Mind mapping helps me merge my creative, writerly brain with my organizational brain.

There are a lot of moving pieces to the typical pr plan, so I thought I'd make a few short blogs about it so you can see how ConceptDraw MINDMAP helps me work quickly and creatively on behalf of my clients.

PR success is all building strong relationships with influencers, and in having clear, compelling stories to tell. To build strong relationships, you have to understand the reporter--and keep track of your communications with them. Here's how I do it.

I have a set of maps where I keep my media contacts (I pull them from a media database I subscribe to). Every time I start a new campaign, I pull from that the names and info of the reporters I hope to work with on the campaign. The map looks something like this (though this map is very simplified):

I'm trying to keep these posts short, so I'll end it here. Tomorrow I'll talk about capturing your pr brainstorming.

CS Odessa Exhibits ConceptDraw at MacWorld 2012

That’s right: CS Odessa will be exhibiting at MacWorld this year and we could not be more excited! To celebrate, we’ll be offering a special on ConceptDraw Office that you’ll have to see to believe. The ConceptDraw Sales team will be in Booth #625 for the whole show, fielding questions and taking orders. This is an incredible opportunity to pick up the complete family of ConceptDraw products at a totally unprecedented value. Come see why ConceptDraw is the premiere cross-platform visualization and business productivity solution in the world, and take it home for a fraction of the usual price!

But wait, there’s more! We want to see you, our loyal readers, at MacWorld. So we are offering the first 100 people that follow this link http://rcsreg.com/macworld/CGA35239 a free guest pass to the show. You read that right: FREE for the first 100 people that register! So don’t wait. Click the link and register, and then check out ConceptDraw at Booth #625 in the MacWorld|iWorld Expo at Moscone Center in San Francisco, January 26-28, 2012. See you there!

ConceptDraw MINDMAP v7: The Importance of Importing Slides

The Presentation Exchange Solution for ConceptDraw MINDMAP adds the capability to import Microsoft® PowerPoint® slideshows and display their contents as a mind map. To see how this feature can benefit you in your everyday work, consider a few possible scenarios…


Scenario 1: Proposal Review

A major proposal to your company includes a PowerPoint slide deck. Clicking through the whole presentation will take far too much time, and in the process you can lose or obscure its meaning. With Presentation Exchange and ConceptDraw MINDMAP, you can easily extract the content and see how it fits together in a single view.

Olga: The entire management team needs to review those proposal slides before the end of the week. I just glanced at the file and there are over 50 slides! There’s no way we’ll have time for all this.

Jeff: You know, ConceptDraw MINDMAP just added this great ability to import from PowerPoint. We can just import that presentation into a mind map, and then distribute the map to our management team for review. You will save them so much time and headache; you might just get a promotion!

Olga: Brilliant, Jeff! You keep this up and you might just get that promotion.

Scenario 2: Presentation Revision

You have to give an important presentation to the Board of Directors on Friday. They picked apart the last presentation you gave, saying it was poorly organized and hard to follow. They felt you needed to do a better job of supporting your critical points. Why not try looking at your presentation in a new way: as a mind map?

Mary: I have to give the most important presentation of my life to the Board of Directors on Friday! And the last time I was in front of them, they were less then pleased.

Ignacio: I heard about how you went down in flames; it wasn’t a pretty sight. How about when you have the presentation completed, you import it into ConceptDraw MINDMAP? In a single view you can look over your slide content, see how the slides support one another, refine the story – the end result is that you’ll look much more professional.

Mary: Ignacio, you are a life saver! I never thought of doing that.

Scenario 3: Academia

The professor for your class has distributed slide presentations that contain lots of study content. Your challenge is to incorporate all the class materials to better leverage your study time. With Presentation Exchange, you can easily pull all that content into a mind map that illustrates the relationships between study topics.

Oscar: I think am going to fail the midterm tomorrow for our Supply Chain class. I’ve been studying from the PowerPoint slides the professor gave me, but it’s taking so long just to get organized. There are extensive notes on every slide! Thinking about it, I just know I am going to flunk that midterm. There’s not enough time left!

Elizabeth: The test for that class is going to be so easy. I finished studying for it yesterday.

Oscar: Yesterday?! How did you manage that?

Elizabeth: I have this cool program called ConceptDraw MINDMAP. I just imported the PowerPoint slides and all of the content appears in a mind map. It makes it super easy to organize. It brings all the notes from the slides in and everything. Then I can add more notes and even hyperlink to a web page or a supporting document. It cut my study time in half. It’s almost like magic!

Oscar: Oh man, that sounds great! I’d better go download it right away.

The Tip of the Iceberg

These are a just a few scenarios we imagined for how the Presentation Exchange Solution can make your daily life and work easier. How will YOU use it? Let us know via email to amersales@csodessa.com (Rest of World sales@csodessa.com, or follow us on Twitter @ConceptDraw.

21 day free trials of ConceptDraw MINDMAP, Presentation Exchange Solution, and all ConceptDraw products are available on ConceptDraw.com.

Start Projects Faster with Mind Maps

Did you know that mind mapping is an awesome way to get your project started in a hurry? The powerful input tools of ConceptDraw MINDMAP make it easy for you plan out your projects, large and small, more quickly than ever.

Try starting in Brainstorm mode. This puts the focus on getting your ideas on the page as quickly as possible, without worrying about how they’re organized. Click the Brainstorm button on the toolbar, and then start typing your list of tasks, phases, and milestones. Don’t concern yourself with structure yet, just input all your content. When the Brainstorm is over, use the intuitive drag-and-drop functionality of ConceptDraw MINDMAP to organize your project. The speed that you can map out a project is only limited by the speed that you can think and type.

Example ConceptDraw MINDMAP

To arrange the new project as a mind map, first change the name of the Main Idea to the title of your project. Then, determine your high-level tasks, or Phases. Attach these to the Main Idea as Main Topics. From there, attach your lower-level tasks to their corresponding phase. In no time, you’ll see your project’s structure taking shape.

Now, go to the Output tab, select the Project Management category, and double-click Open in PROJECT. This will save and close your mind map, and launch it in ConceptDraw PROJECT. You’ll see that your Tasks and Phases are automatically laid out on the ConceptDraw PROJECT Gantt chart, ready for you to set dates, durations, predecessors, resources, etc.



ConceptDraw PROJECT Gantt Chart


This is a great way to save time outlining your project. The fast input and flexibility of organization in ConceptDraw MINDMAP, coupled with its tight integration with ConceptDraw PROJECT, enable you to take your project from a collection of scattered ideas to a concrete plan in just a matter of minutes.

CS Odessa Announces that ConceptDraw PROJECT v6 now has the ability to import and export Microsoft Project files



ConceptDraw PROJECT 6 can
import and export MS Project files.



CS Odessa announces that ConceptDraw PROJECT v6 now has the ability to import and export Microsoft Project XML files, with new PROJECT EXCHANGE. Because of this ability to exchange data between ConceptDraw PROJECT and MS Project; users have increased flexibility on how to exchange project information with all members of the project team. The exchange of project data across different project applications keeps everyone informed and allows for quality collaboration among team members, as well as 3rd parties that have involvement in your project.



The ability to exchange project information is key to a project’s success. ConceptDraw PROJECT 6 has the ability to save to a MS Project XML file format so that ConceptDraw PROJECT files can be shared with users of MS Project (2003, 2007, and 2010) as well as any other project management tools that can accurately import MS Project xml file format. This allows users of ConceptDraw PROJECT 6 and ConceptDraw Office 2 (contains ConceptDraw PROJECT 6) to generate project content that can be shared with all team members.

Project participants also have the ability to import MS Project files into ConceptDraw PROJECT 6 and ConceptDraw Office 2. This gives users an excellent alternative on the way they manage projects, and assists in the interoperability of project information between team members who have Macintosh and PC computers.



The ability to exchange data between ConceptDraw Office and MS Project is a big plus for project members because they can then use the other the other project tools that are part of ConceptDraw Office. As an example, ConceptDraw MINDMAP 7, part of ConceptDraw Office 2, can be used as a project front- end to brainstorm, build processes, identify contingencies and organize information for presentations to brief team members and stakeholders. The PROJECT EXCHANGE can be found in the CS Odessa ConceptDraw Solution Park.



CS Odessa provides a range of professional project software tools that assist you during every stage of your project. ConceptDraw Office uses powerful ConceptDraw INGYRE2 technology to make all tasks as easy as pushing a few buttons. The top to bottom integration of ConceptDraw Office, which includes the innovative standalone ConceptDraw PROJECT 6 product, are valuable tools to help Project Managers work towards their organization’s success.

In addition, CS Odessa also provides many project management solution add-ins that can be downloaded from ConceptDraw Solution Park. The combination of ConceptDraw Product and ConceptDraw Solution Park, from CS Odessa makes for an unbeatable value in project management software tools.

ConceptDraw MindWave Integrates With SAP® StreamWork™



SAP StreamWork has three pricing models

1) Basic Edition  - free account,

2) Professional Edition, & 3) Enterprise

Edition - "On Premise" solution

Clear, concise, comprehensive, collaborative communications creates commodious comprehension in corporate culture. Yes, collaboration between individuals, teams and groups is paramount to success in our fast paced environment we live in. Ambiguous communications between individuals causes problems. The newspaper reporter's mantra of who, what, where, when and how is critical today in understanding one’s job.

The great clarifier of work communications is the “meeting”. In the recent past the issue with meetings was that as teams become more dispersed the cost of meetings increased. The cost of communication became prohibitive. Enter today an effective economic solution that works for everyone from the small business person to the large corporation. SAP StreamWork is a cloud-based collaborative decision-making solution that brings together people, information and structure to help teams solve problems, brainstorm, collect feedback, build consensus and/or drive decisions. SAP StreamWork provides a reliable, safe and secure collaboration backbone that is accessible to anyone. Teams are free to meet, share documents and take decisions based on team contributions.

ConceptDraw MindWave used in conjunction with SAP StreamWork provides a great mind mapping tool that collects, organizes and presents meeting content. By using ConceptDraw MindWave and ConceptDraw Office (a powerful suite of products including ConceptDraw MINDMAP, ConceptDraw PROJECT, and ConceptDraw PRO), with SAP StreamWork, teams can visualize the process of collaborative decision making, and quickly transition from planning to implementation.

Information on ConceptDraw MindWave can be found on the ConceptDraw product site and the SAP EchoHub site.

Create Your Own Multi-Page ConceptDraw MINDMAP Template

Step 1. Open a new mind map document with ConceptDraw MINDMAP.

Step 2. Open the Page Navigator.














Step 3. To add a new page, double-click anywhere in the empty workspace in the Page Navigator. Add the required amount of pages.

Step 4. From the File menu, select Save as Template… or Ctrl+Alt+S to save the document as a template.

Step 5. From the Edit menu, select Preferences.

Step 6. The Preferences window appears. From the General tab, in the New document section, select From template:.

















Step 7. Select the saved template file, and click Ok.

What is in ConceptDraw Office?

A question that we often get is, "what is in ConceptDraw Office" and what is in "ConceptDraw MINDMAP for Projects". A second question that we get often is, "are the individual products that are in ConceptDraw Office and ConceptDraw MINDMAP for Projects dumbed down versions of your individual products".

I have included a chart to show what is included in our products, plus the bundled products are our individual products. This brings great value to you our customers. (Click on image to make larger)

Sharing Our Blog with Readers Around the World

At CS Odessa, we use Sitemeter to keep track on blog traffic and reader locations. So many of our readers are from all over the world!

Up to date, there have been readers from places such as:

• South Africa
• Australia
• Sudan
• New Delhi
• Italy
• Germany
• France
• England

With social media the center of so much attention, we are thrilled to know that our blog has such a versatile readership! It is our goal of this blog to increase a sense of a ConceptDraw community among our users.

The point? We want to hear from you. All of you. From all over the world. Say anything. Tell us what you like about our posts. What you want to see in the future. What you ate for lunch! Share with us your thoughts and ideas on your latest mind maps.

If the entire world is opening up, then so should we!

Look forward to meeting you.....

McGee on Pink

Dan Pink.

I've made a couple of references in the past to Jim McGee's "Musings" blog. He recently posted about one of my favorite modern cultural thinkers, Dan Pink. Enclosed in McGee's post is the presentation Pink did at TED. Go to Jim's blog and watch Dan Pink at TED.

As McGee says, "Once you begin to understand and accept what the evidence base says about motivation, you are left with the challenge of how to take advantage of your new understanding in the face of entrenched systems and practices that haven’t caught up with you. Sharing Pink’s book with your colleagues wouldn’t be a bad way to start."

I've mentioned TED before too. And if you haven't seen much of what goes on at TED, here's where you can go to find out all about the TED Conferences.

ConceptDraw MindWave Beta for Google Wave

Collaborate with others using all the perks of a mind map in Google Wave.

ConceptDraw MindWave is a no charge plug-in for Google Wave that enables users to build maps with others in real time.

Share your ideas and processes with other team players at any momentum!




Read more on this amazing new solution and download instructions here.

ConceptDraw MINDMAP Tutorial: Improve Your Meetings PART 2

This is the second tutorial about using ConceptDraw MINDMAP to improve your meetings. In the first tutorial, we talked about how to use MINDMAP to prepare a rich agenda of an upcoming meeting. This tutorial will focus on how to use the same basic map from meeting to meeting to save time, improve the efficiency of your meetings, and to keep all of your projects on track.



You can also watch the YouTube version of Part 2 of using ConceptDraw MINDMAP to improve meetings.

Subscribe to CSO: The World of ConceptDraw.

PC World Likes ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6.2

PC World has great things to say about ConceptDraw MINDMAP in its Feb. 2, 2010 review. " As one of the premiere tools for business planning and organization, MindMap offers users comprehensive, powerful features in an application that doesn't demand the latest CPU or gigabytes of memory in order to function well, which will appeal to laptop-toting business users."

The reviewer also highights the fact that: "ConceptDraw Mindmap's 30-day demo offers users a full featured version of the product, including online and phone support--a surprisingly helpful and welcome addition in an era in which support isn't always available even for paying customers."

Just to be clear...Online and phone support is, of course, available not just for those who download the trial. It's there for you when you purchase MINDMAP too! :o)

Read PC World Review of ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6.2 .