[kamaal]

>>What makes paper/whiteboard so advantageous ?

This is a very important question. Drawing Maps, especially for testing purposes depends on dumping things from your brain to paper as they come to you. The problem with Map creation software is Mouse and Keyboard, take time to draw a circle(Or at best position a circle), and write things inside the circle. Brain doesn't work in get-idea->hibernate-until-recorded->proceed mode. Our brains pretty much reach an idea, and then proceed towards the other. For that you need a quickly interacting tool. Pen/Paper, Whitboard/Marker is the best tool at this time for that kind of a purpose.

Another advantage of White board is the size. Many software teams gather create a map on a big white board, take a photograph and mail the team.

Also stuff like using Pen/Paper has separate advantages. Like putting in quick note points, or a diagram etc.

[clarry]

I, too, prefer paper for the reasons you noted. However, I also tend to run out of paper and the map becomes a disorganized mess as I cram in new ideas. So often I end up reverting to software. I haven't found nice mapping software, so for the time being I'm using a text editor. So I don't draw circles or write pretty headlines or such; I focus on writing thoughts down (I type pretty fast) and I worry about organizing it later.

A map editor is on my todo list though. The goal is to make something where I can do exactly what I do now (type things down, little to no mousing involved, minimize time spent on the circles/organization/whatever) and shuffle the data around when it becomes more convenient. Diagrams and drawings will still be a pain though. Maybe I'll get a Cintiq or something :-)

[jessedhillon]

Have you tried FreeMind? The interface is quite good -- none of this circle drawing stuff you point out.

[eliasmacpherson]

Bears repeating that the keyboard shortcuts in freemind, particularly enter and insert, remove the need for the mouse. They are much quicker than circle and line drawing with pen and paper.

[jjsz]

I use Wisdomap. One level about Mind42 but I can't collapse parents. I use it to make outlines. Click text mode then manually add the format after exporting. It's a pain. Does Freemind export formats in HTML?

[jessedhillon]

It can export your mind map as a set of nested lists.

[derrida]

If you use Org-Mode in Emacs, you can also export to Freemind (C-c C-e m)