Yeah, I heard about this on Boag World.
Fantastic product, but I am not sure if it’s better than FreeMind. It’s a serious contender though!

What will make this product brilliant?
* Extend the text fields to 2 lines rather than truncate them.
* Make the massive page icons smaller (or better range than the slider provided, they’re massive!)
* Allow arrows, or links between two different nodes, clouds and bubbles.
* (This is a really big ask)… Save as PDF!
* Use the “Insert” button on the keyboard to add a new node.

I think I would pay for the product if I could do this.

Really good work - you should be proud!

Posted by stevenmc  on  12/05  at  07:20 AM

@stevenmc
Thanks so much for the ideas! I’m so glad to hear you like using WriteMaps.

* The text fields moving to text areas would be a nice change, however my only worry would be keeping pages aligned horizontally if some are taller than others. That issue has been a tough one to design for so far.
* Too big? Hmm, I suppose I’d like other users to weigh in on this too. To me, they seem to work well as a container for the editing icons for each page in map view. I suppose I’m a bit biased on this…
* re: Arrows - Great idea. There are a lot of technical and interaction challenges involved in keeping this clean and simple. It’s on the list.
* re: PDF - good idea (big indeed). For now, if you’re on a mac you can print to PDF from the print menu and get the print formatted styling. I think there are plugins for PCs to do this too..?
* Insert button sounds excellent (though I’m not sure where it is on my keyboard...). I’m currently working on layering on additional keystrokes as well. I would probably lean towards single letters or shift combos but I’m open to ideas. The issue with adding a page is this: when you click insert, what section does the page get added to? There needs to be scoping for this action, which is why clicking the icons works so well. Maybe this keystroke would only work when you are focused on a text field? If not, would it trigger an overlay to ask where you’d like to insert it (seems counterproductive)?

Thanks so much again Steve. This is the sort of feedback that has driven the app to the state it’s currently in, so it’s greatly appreciated!

Posted by Scott  on  12/05  at  01:23 PM

Posted by Jonathan Terranova  on  12/05  at  01:42 PM

Posted by bpainter  on  12/05  at  06:52 PM

This is all great feedback, thanks so much! Interesting idea about the logo/branding, that has been requested in the past a few times as well. Sounds like drag/drop and multiline text are in high demand.

Since you asked… donations can now be made using our form here:
http://www.writemaps.com/index.php/general/donate_to_writemaps/

Thanks again!

Posted by Scott  on  12/06  at  04:46 AM

Really liking this, came to here from Boagworld (good ol’ Paul!).

Only feedback I have at the moment is if Windows users want to export to PDF, why not use the free ‘CutePDF’ (google it!) as it comes with a print driver too, so printing to PDF can also be achieved like on our Mac counterparts systems.

Loving the app, keep up the fantastic work

Stoo

Posted by Stoo  on  12/06  at  04:13 PM

@Stoo - Thanks for the tip on CutePDF. Have you confirmed that it works well with printing WriteMaps?
Glad to hear you like the app!

Posted by Scott  on  12/07  at  08:43 AM