EdrawMind is a mind mapping software that provides you with tools to shape your thoughts into visual graphs.
As an entrepreneur, you’ll frequently work with your team to brainstorm ideas, create execution plans, and plan weekly projects.
With EdrawMind, you can construct a visual diagram of your strategy to figure out clear future paths and reduce the risk of mishaps. It is an incredibly useful tool that drives you to think outside the box and helps you keep your mind on track.
Let’s dive into EdrawMind features and explore it in depth.
EdrawMind Overview
EdrawMind, like other beginner-friendly SaaS tools, is designed with a non-tech user in mind.
The app has a standard drag-and-drop editor for map composing and straightforward functions to make sure everyone can comfortably operate it.
If you explore the gallery displayed on the site, you’ll find an extensive collection of templates and resource material to get you started. The app provides eight types of diagram styles and nearly eighty pages of presets, including academic charts, strategy plots, life maps, and even picture timelines.
These presets can also show you the extent of EdrawMind features and help you determine what type of maps you can construct from scratch.
Let’s go over the dashboard functionality.
Dashboard
The main page displays a whiteboard comprising two control panels for mind mapping. The top bar provides essential workflow actions for quick grabs while the right-hand panel stores the rest. Each button carries visible icons to help you easily identify their function. But in case you discover an unfamiliar action, hover your cursor over the CTA, and it will reveal its properties.
Coming to the mind mapping editor, the chart design works similar to how you create graphs in Excel; only EdrawMind provides more space and flexibility to accommodate comprehensive plans. The app also allows you to create several pages to work on multiple plans at once.
The incredible thing about EdrawMind is that you don’t have to buy the software to explore the app. EdrawMind offers a free account to new users.
While its free plan certainly has limitations, you’ll still gain access to enough features to discover if it is worth the purchase.
Let me walk you through ten of EdrawMind basic features to give you a general idea of the platform.
1. Custom Mind Mapping
As you know mind mapping typically involves creating paths around the central theme. The idea is to organize your thoughts into easily discernible graphs so you can see the milestones you need to meet to accomplish your goal.
EdrawMind provides you with a blank canvas and four action buttons to sketch your blueprint. You can use these “boxes” and “lines” to represent objectives, key results, and relationships between the topics.
The above image is the SEO template I picked from its free library. The designer has used curved branches to interlink parent and subtopic buttons to create objectives.
With merely two actions, they constructed an entire strategy to illustrate the execution plan.
2. Smart Layouts
EdrawMind’s layout button is one of its best and intuitive features. The function provides a drop-down list of templates, which upon selecting a layout, automatically changes your existing map. You’ll also find a theme option beside the layout button. The theme CTA constructs multiple designs of your chart to show you the different appearances of your chart.
Let me give you an example.
Remember the SEO chart I shared above?
I thought about changing its appearance and picked out a Fishbone structure from the layout collection. The moment I clicked on the template, the map altered my chart to the desired shape, and themes adjusted their suggestions to Fishbone.
They’re remarkable functions that will help you conceptualize your map.
3. ClipArt Collection
Apart from the in-built layouts, EdrawMind also shares a collection of symbols to refine your map. While its paid plan naturally offers more clip art, you still get a decent selection in the free account to explore the elements.
These elements can help you express your thoughts without explaining them in words.
For instance, you can insert a flag to show urgency, emojis to deliver your opinion on the project’s progress or symbols to indicate a goal.
As a diagram doesn’t explain everything, you can use symbols to deliver a message or bring attention to a certain objective.
4. Personalization
EdrawMind offers several colors and image customization features to personalize your map.
You can alter your background appearance, replace the shade of your shapes, switch font types, and redo the entire color theme. You can also insert pictures, modify the image placement, and customize the text inside your project block.
While EdrawMind doesn’t have a free transformation option to scale or contract the box sizes, it does share a collection of different shapes to change the box form. Additionally, you can adjust the branch thickness and enlarge the text.
Suffice to say, the app provides you with enough options to tailor your graph to your satisfaction.
5. Brainstorming Space
EdrawMind extends a separate space to help you organize your thoughts before you dive into map design.
The panel shares a simple typing area and a blank page to store your ideas. Once you’re done, you can drag the points over to the main canvas and begin constructing your map. Any phrase you transport to the whiteboard will automatically transform into floating boxes.
Since mind mapping generally starts with brainstorming, having a blank canvas to play with ideas is a bonus feature. It will allow you to jot down whatever comes to your mind without worrying over specs or whether they should go on your map.
6. Chart Outline
EdrawMind has a feature called “Outline” that automatically creates bullet points as you’re designing your map and generates a text summary of your diagram.
This function transforms a complex visual map into a condescended text version and simplifies the relationship between topics.
It helps you identify any irregularities you might have overlooked while designing your map and allows you to customize the text directly on the outline. Any changes you make to the outline—or the map—will apply to both sides.
It’s an incredibly useful tool for those who work on large or complex charts.
7. Slideshow
Slideshow is EdrawMind’s core feature that helps you break down your map into a sequence of slides. You’ll find this option at the top panel displaying four actions, offering you the flexibility to create manual as well as automatic slides.
If you prefer to generate a personalized slideshow, click on any topic you want to be incorporated into the slideshow, and it will start adding the slides. To automatically create a sequence, you merely need to select the first action button features inside the slide tool.
It is a handy feature for presentations and saves you from constantly zooming in and out of the map.
The free version doesn’t allow exporting slides, though. For that, you’d have to upgrade your plan.
8. Collaboration and Engagement Features
As a presentation tool, EdrawMmind comes well equipped with collaboration and engagement features.
Its collaboration tool allows you to send an invitation to your teammates and assign roles to new members. Once invited, your team can view your map and modify any box.
You can also share your chart on your social account and encrypt the link to restrict access to a certain few. Though the latter is only available in the paid version.
As for engagement, EdrawMind offers multiple actions at the top panel to share instructions. You can add call-outs, embed hyperlinks, drop a quick comment, or write a summary.
Both collaboration and engagement features ease the flow of information and help you communicate your ideas with your team.
9. Gantt Chart Mode (Paid Feature)
Gantt chart is EdrawMind’s paid feature but is worth mentioning because of its functions.
It has an advanced feature that creates a timeline of your project.
It opens up to a horizontal plane resembling an excel sheet, where you’ll find the consolidated information of your project tasks and can make quick edits.
Under each task, you can schedule a starting time, add workdays, and set the deadline for the entire project. You can, additionally, mark your goal as a priority and dedicate it to a member.
It is an important function that helps you keep an eye on the team and track the progress of your work.
10. Integrations
EdrawMind is cross-platform, and it is compatible with multiple devices. You can use the app on both desktop and mobile devices and install it on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It also offers a web version for those who prefer to design charts online.
It offers cloud storage to all free and paid subscribers and provides access to Dropbox. You can save files to your account or export them to your laptop. The app supports seven different formats and downloads the document in an editable word file.
All in all, EdrawMind works well with the most popular formats typically used in project management.
Pricing
EdrawMind price plans vary with the size of the organization and individual status. If you’re in the education sector, the most you’d have to pay would be $50 annually. For enterprises, the price increases with the number of users.
Typically, an average plan per user costs somewhere between $50 to $80 per year.
If you’re not yet ready to buy, you can take a product tour or sign up for free to explore EdrawMind.
How to Use EdrawMind for Free
There are two ways you can use EdrawMind for free.
You can either download it on your laptop or create an online account on its site. For the purpose of the demo, I have picked its web version.
After you click on Try for Free CTA displayed on the Wondershare website, EdrawMind will ask for your email ID. You merely need your email ID to open the account.
Once you’re logged in, select any of the above chart structures and you’ll be directed to the editor.
Start designing your chart.
Conclusion
Running a project takes tremendous effort. While a team can lessen the workload, you’ll likely feel overwhelmed at some point.
Tools like EdrawMind improve your productivity. They require little tech knowledge to operate and save a significant amount of your time. Try it yourself to learn more about it. Good luck!
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