What software to use for everything not on the map?

[Silverleaf]

I'm not sure if you play AD&D, so my 1st comment may not suit your exact needs. I do reviews of RPG DM/Campaign software at my blog, and although the focus is for 1E campaigns, much of the software has been developed for multiple RPGs.

http://bloatedblowfish.blogspot.com/...tware%20Review

Next, if your looking for a simple software app to keep notes, I'd recommend NoteTab Light - a FREE robust Notepad style app, which can do HTML design if needed, but straight out of the box is suited for simple notes. On the downloads page you'll find the link near the bottom.

http://www.notetab.com/

Lastly, I carry a small Piccadilly notebook (with locking enclosure) that I keep notes in. Its very portable, and allows me to write down things on the go when inspiration hits. I then transfer those notes to NoteTab Light when I work on my 35 year old campaign.

Cheers,

[Arhan]

I use TiddlyWiki and Keynote (I checked DEVONthink, I suppose it's a similar type. Less elaborate/pretty). I tried/used/uses Liquid Story Binder for awhile, and it's very pretty, you can customize the background and colors, link images and audio-- but can't help but feeling unnecessarily bloated because I always end up only using one or two features of it.

I really, really like TiddlyWiki most.

[jaerdaph]

I'm sold on TiddlyWiki now too. Mark Thomas (Kredoc from RPGNet) posted these three blog entries on getting started with TiddlyWiki and how he uses TiddlyWiki's features to track his campaign. Great stuff so I'm sharing them here. You could be up and running in less than an hour with TiddlyWiki after reading these:

• Using TiddlyWiki - Part 1
• Using TiddlyWiki - Part 2
• TiddlyWiki - A Minor Tip

In the second and third posts, Kredoc talks about a cool concept in TiddlyWiki called transclusion which allows you to include the content of one Tiddler inside another Tiddler and have that content always be up to date if you update the Tiddler the content is linked from. Really powerful, useful and easy thing to do worth checking out.

[jaerdaph]

And if anyone is interested, these three video tutorials had me up and running with FreeMind in no time at all:

• FreeMind Tutorial
• FreeMind Free Mind Mapping Software Tutorial MInd Map
• Freemind - How to import data to a mindmap

[ravells]

Very cool thanks!

[jaerdaph]

Things I'd still like to learn how to use in FreeMind, if anyone has any suggestions:

1. Attributes and the Attribute Manager. I can't seem to find a good tutorial on using them or how they even work. They look like they might be quite powerful.
2. (and I don't know if this is even possible) Add a text label to a Graphical Link (those lines/arrows you can add between nodes). Yeah, I'm pretty sure that labeling those graphical links isn't considered a mind mapping Best Practice so that's why it might not be possible, but it would be cool if you had the option. It's also the reason why I felt what I really wanted was flow chart software that I mentioned above.

[Midgardsormr]

Is there a way to add an elbow to a line, then label that? Or possibly just put in a color-coded text node between the two with your label, but that might start looking very messy.

[jaerdaph]

Is there a way to add an elbow to a line, then label that? Or possibly just put in a color-coded text node between the two with your label, but that might start looking very messy.

Unfortunately there is no way to add an elbow or node to a line and label it. But thanks for the second idea - it helped me come up with a work-around. What I did was add another node off of a nearby parent node with the label I wanted for the arrow. I dragged that new node to a position so it was near the arrow and between the other two nodes linked by the arrow to label the arrow. I then went into that new node and formatted the edge color to white so that everything around it including the line connecting it to the parent node turned white like the background, effectively "hiding" the branch. I then changed the formatting of the text for the label of the arrow so it stuck out from regular node text. It's a little clumsy and awkward but it might be a good work-around.

[ravells]

I guess the thing about mind mapping software (for me anyway), is that it's meant to be quick and easy to use to get your ideas down quickly. If you start getting bogged down in formatting problems then it's not really carrying out its function.

[jaerdaph]

I guess the thing about mind mapping software (for me anyway), is that it's meant to be quick and easy to use to get your ideas down quickly. If you start getting bogged down in formatting problems then it's not really carrying out its function.

That is very true. And my method of labeling the arrows is actually more of a nuisance than a help, especially once you start moving branches around the "invisible" branches get in the way.