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Hi,
I do a lot of writing and also quite often have to "manage" different kinds of projects and have never really been happy with the present paradigms of either "mind mapping" or "project management".

I quite realize that the normal project management apps work quite well in what might be called "linear" situations.
An example being that in a factory several managers keep track on a large wall chart the progress of the production of several components and when all of the components have been constructed then the completed object can be assembled from the components.

The present model of "mind maps" is that there is a node and other nodes can be made which are attached to that node.
Neither of these apply to a situation in which a variety of things are operating in an asynchronous manner and are not attached to each other either linearly or as a "tree".

It is suggested, and it is only a suggestion, that if the Braindump app was refocused in a different direction that it might be used by a certain group of people and therefore might fill a niche which is, at present, not filled by the other apps.

This might be facilitated if a few things were done a) to how lines that connect nodes are implemented b) if the insertion of objects was finished and that they be able to be thumbnails and inserted as a node c) the "whiteboard" be able to be exported as an object to be placed into another part of the Calligra suite.

A) the suggested new object would be a thumbnail of a document that would automatically display the filename.

B) The insertion of other objects, such as pictures, be completed and to display a thumbnail and the filename.

It is presently possible to "draw lines"

C) It is suggested that the ability to connect two nodes with an "automatically connecting line" be added and that:
i) would be able to be able to be "dragged" with the mouse, say in the middle, producing an arc or an "S" shape or some such.
ii) would be able to be made to (with the appropriate mouse interaction):
a) avoid another line automatically
b) cross over another line automatically with some kind of command and produce possibly and "arch" at the crossover.
c) just "lay" on the line as if it is intersecting it, possibly with a symbol such as a "dot" for the intersection.

It is suggested that this kind of application would be a prime candidate for use in a tablet which, by definition, uses the finger as the drawing instrument and would use say a "button press" to designate the interaction of the line with other lines.

The NEW NICHE:

It is suggested that a possible new niche for Braindump might be: Asynchronous project control and development, and storyboarding, in addition to mind mapping.

Connexion to present project management applications.

The new orientation, niche, of Braindump could then provide a snapshot view of many seemingly disparate subcomponents of a project, because they are occuring at different places and/or asynchronously. Each subcomponent could be tracked with the normal project management apps. A "thumbnail view", possibly relatively large, of each sub-component's progress could be exported as an object and then included as a node in the Braindump app.

By extension, if there was sufficient computing power, the exported object of the normal project management app or the thumbnail view of a document might be able to be "clicked" and enlarged to see the actual document or projetc management graphic.

But, the critical path for the changes would be a) completion of the coding of objects as thumbnails and nodes, b) addition of the new way to draw lines between nodes.

Now,
I) I have absolutely NO clue about whether this could be done easily or with a great amount of labour.
II) It might be that is not possible to produce such a situation.
III) I am quite sure that there are other projects that the developers think are of much greater importance and that is completely understood.
IV) This is merely a suggestion about how Braindump might take on a different niche and thereby possibly produce a new reason for why people would migrate to the Calligra Suite.

Again, the above is just a suggestion for a suite which I use on a daily basis and find to be quite well developed the developers are doing a great job and have my hearty thanks!

I remain,
sincerely yours
woodsmoke

Hello
I am pleased to report that, probably not because of my suggestions, but merely because things were "en train" that:

a) images are now easily inserted into Braindump, although the suggestion of them having a lable has not been done.

Particularly, I suggested a "thumbnail", but, one can easily resize the image and that should be enough.

After some small amount of practice, it is possible to place text on the image and, again, that should be enough.

b) the "line snap" has been...........how to say this....hmmmm....

WONDERFULLY enabled. One clicks the line, one clicks near the centre of either an image or an object and...a very small, shall we say "cryptic" pointer appears, one drags that to another object and the line automagically appears AND ........re-routes itself!!! around the other objects!!!

That is just very nice.

c) NOTE: as to how a newly inserted object interacts with other objects and the "whiteboard" overall. when a new object is inserted and one "drags" the object, the whole "relative" size of the whiteboard enlarges ....or.... the objects reduce ... in size, but in either effect the whitboard/object interaction is QUITE interesting.

d) As noted in another post, there is no export, save, etc. function and there, also, is no "print" function. It may be that this particular kind of "relativistic" interaction creates a situation in which the "defined area" cannot.... how to say it..."easily" be printed.
It could be that a whiteboard with a lot of objects, etc. could cover many, many sheets of paper, don't know.

However, aside from the items mentioned, an export or save as function, Braindump is, indeed, fully functional, at least as far as I have been able to determine.

Here is a clickable link to an image which shows an included image, with added text, editing points and connecting lines.

Here is a clickable link to an image of Braindump. It shows included image, with text and the handles for resizing and also adding connecting lines.



woodsmoke
Kudos to the developers!

I remain
sincerely yours
woodsmoke