TheBrain12.0.32.0

Moderately useful mind-mapping software, but interface is clutzy and becomes impossible to see when many items exist on any level. Price is excessive; upgrades far to expensive for what's offered. (And this is from a user who purchased v5 for $249, a v6 upgrade for $120, and a v7 upgrade for $100.) Just not worth the money for the usefulness/productivity provided.

Moderately useful mind-mapping software, but interface is clutzy and becomes impossible to see when many items exist on any level. Price is excessive; upgrades far to expensive for what's offered. (And this is from a user who purchased v5 for $249, a v6 upgrade for $120, and a v7 upgrade for $100.) Just not worth the money for the usefulness/productivity provided.

At first sight, it looks like a good rival for Mindjet MindManager but it gives me errors when trying to import MMM's maps, so I couldn't push my trial very far... Will wait until they correct the import issue, hopefully in a future version.

TheBrain 9 is the official release at this point, even thought the company stills says it is in Beta. If you go to TheBrain website, version 9 is what you will download. It is, for the most part, superior to version 8, starting with the fact that the developer has abandoned Java and has created native apps for both Windows and Mac. If you've tried TheBrain in the past, you should evaluate it based on version 9.

To the dev: That's a very minimalist image of your app above; couldn't you have chosen something containing a bit more visual information? OTOH, don't go overboard like the Tinderbox crew!

There's no info on how data is stored and if it can be easily migrated to other environments. I can't waste time with a tool that locks in my data, so it would be wise for the the developer to state upfront the details about this.

I've had this for awhile - as the individual free version. I really WANT to like it, but honestly don't use it a lot. That is partly because I expect it may evaporate as a "free for single use" app, though it hasn't yet. I'd like to own it, despite people griping that it is un-mac-like, but this price is insane, imo. No product seems to have hit mindmapping perfectly yet & the prices are outrageous for software that may turn out to be a bust. I haven't found the ideal brainstorming app which is within my budget. This one has a sort of pleasant interface compared to some competitors (who ALSO were originally targeting the Windows platform & keep a very ugly interface with icons which feel as though they were designed by 1st graders!) And who are more a subscription than owned software. At least that's the perception of this Mac user. I have price limits beyond which I would not drift these days.

As a Mac user, probably one of the first things you notice using this software is that it was not made for Mac originally. It is a bit clunky, but overall I must say it is stable and works the way it should most of the time. The most powerful and most anticipated feature of this software, the fact that it works 'like a brain' is a big disappointment. It becomes a big mess if you interlink too much thoughts, witch is why that feature is unusable. Unfortunately making it fancy-looking, overpriced and simple mindmapping software (with promise). Make it possible for users to interlink as much thoughts as they wich, without creating a big mess, and this software will do it's name (and price a little bit more) right.

This is a trivial comment I know, but is there a corresponding app called "PinkyAnd"?

Hate trials,although love the app

I wanted to update my review from a couple of years ago. I continue to use PersonalBrain on my office PC and on my MacBook. Using WebBrain, I can keep "Brains" on both computers in sync. Beyond this, PersonalBrain is simply fun to use. It's one of the few applications I've found that inspires me. I think of it as a GPS system for my information.

well, just not a cocoa application... it would be worth to transfer real OS X interface aka a real mac development

Bought and used Personal Brain Pro 4,great expensive application, bought upgrade to PB Pro 5, still a great but overpriced application. Have tried to buy the new upgrade, but the website payment routine now consistently tells me I`m not eligible for a paid upgrade to version 6. Yes, I have sent an e-mail explaining the situation, including my personal information and previous key numbers. No answer received after 3 weeks. Yes, I am disappointed!

PersonalBrain is an excellent application, but has a few faults. To adequately describe PersonalBrain would take more space than I have here, and there is no need to, because the developer provides wonderful videos and screencasts. Essentially, the application allows you to drill down to any level of detail in your information and still see the bigger picture, and it does so far more effectively than any other piece of software I've used... and I've used a lot of them. I also like the fact that I can run PersonalBrain on my PC at work and on my MacBook at home, sharing some of the same databases via Dropbox. I do wish PersonalBrain had a more robust note editor. Right now it is really only useful for jotting simple notes, not composing long text. But you can associate RTF documents with your PersonalBrain items, and quickly open those in your favorite word processor. Copies can be stored internally or externally, and are fully searchable. In short, PersonalBrain is a well thought out information manager with a unique and very powerful user interface.

Interestingly, their website says there's a new version 5.5 available, but the only download you can do is for a 5.0.4. The new 5.5 version does have some way cool enhancements: http://www.thebrain.com/site/personalbrain/download/PersonalBrain_5.5_Feature_List.pdf

Overpriced for HTML export. No OPML, .doc, keynote, rtf export. Too long time to start. No service in text. Not too much responsive... Seem bloated like Word.. But a good tool !

Um, this is not a free product ...

Excellent product but : Overpriced Some features missing for Mac version : export to format OPML export to Word document. It is a shame to overprice the possibility to export in HTML format.

Interesting app. WAY too overpriced. Too bad.

I started working with the free version of PersonalBrain a couple of months ago, and it is absolutely phenomenal. There is, simply stated, nothing else like it. To the reviewer who was upset that the next version up from the free version was $150, and then the pro version is $250, I must respectfully disagree with your negative impression. I think it is absolutely unbelievable that there is ANY free version of this software at all, and I think it is a serious gift that there is. Even the free version is tremendously useful. About two weeks ago, I upgraded to the pro version. Visit their website... they offer video tutorials to get you going, and they have frequent, live, free webinars where you can get a great demo and get your own specific questions answered. This product is fast, stable, and unbelievably useful. Spend an hour with it... get to know how to use it... there's just no turning back!

This program has completely captivated me in a way that very few others have. For years I have tried every personal information manager, and mind mapping, and file management tool I could find. At first I found it a bit awkward, but as I used it it quickly grew on me--so much so that I upgraded to the Pro edition (at first I thought I'd just stay with the free edition...). Here's why: - The learning curve was surprisingly fast. I didn't expect this because the app is still relatively new to the Mac and there are some very un-Mac things about it. However, after a few initial puzzles, I quickly found myself breezing through reorganizations of large clusters of thoughts, establishing relationships with things far separated in the network (hierarchy doesn't really apply), moving files into and out of my Brain, gathering quantities of data (links, files, images) from the internet and keeping it all manageable, viewable, and most importantly, findable with very little effort. - It actually allows me to organize thoughts and files the way I think rather than the way the operating system thinks. Establishing and changing relationships among thoughts is easy and fast. Though it's possible to mimic conventional, two-dimensional mind maps, this is not what PersonalBrain is designed for. In cases where full control of the visual presentation of information is key, I use other apps to create documents which are then stored inside my Brain. - At first I didn't like having 100% control over how the information was displayed on the screen. Now I am continually delighted and relieved not to have to deal with this sort of thing. Whenever you activate a thought, the entire display shifts around so you can see as much of the structure as you want in relationship to that thought. In the fully expanded view you can move things around a bit in case an area is extremely dense with thoughts, but I am finding that the more I use PersonalBrain and refine how I establish relationships, the less I need to do this. The beauty of not controlling the layout is that you don't have to maintain the layout--PersonalBrain takes care of it elegantly. - The biggest drawback to PB lies in some of the un-Mac-like aspects of the interface. It's a very small price to pay for functionality which, for me, has replaced several other apps. The developers are putting a lot of attention to the needs and concerns of Mac users, so this area will only get better. - The learning curve would have been even faster if there were a really good manual for version 4 (there's a manual for version 3 and a "transition guide" for version 4). Hopefully they will finish the version 4 manual soon. (8/31/2007, Version: 4.0.8.9)

Personal Brain is amazing. I am a single mother of a teenager, I'm getting my house ready to sell, buying a new-build across country, and have all the other stressors of everyday life. And if that weren't enough, I also have PTSD and bipolar disorder. I have always thought "I wish I could have a new brain!" (the one I have doesn't work all that well), and now I have it. I actually fall asleep quicker because I don't have all kinds of things I need to remember floating around. I can see everything I need for a task in one place, and I can easily connect tasks without having to duplicate tasks on different but related lists. This is so much more than mind-mapping or to-do lists.

PersonalBrain is not as useful for mapping workflows as some other mindmapping software, and I really have a hard time comparing it to other mindmapping programs because it's in it's own class. I think of it more as a note or file browser. It allows me to link seemingly unrelated things to each other, and store them in a manner that is relevant to me. There are multiple views available, the Normal view is what I consider the "micro view" which allows me to only see items related to the active though (be it pictures, files, text, hyperlinks). For brains with hundreds of thoughts, this keeps the information overload to a minimum, and you can't really customize it's layout, just the notes and other tools around it. The Distant Thoughts view allows you to see thoughts one more link away, and the Expanded view allows you to move thoughts around, collapse, or expand some to really get an idea of the relations and your brain layout. There's rumors on the forums that we may be able to save expanded views somtime in the future, which will open up new avenues of viewing your brain. As PersonalBrain is so "out of the box" it's really hard to describe effecively how to use it. Here's a link to a website using the Brain interface to hopefully explain it better than I. http://sociate.thebrain.com/brainekp/

So interesting to me the number of people who judge solely based on UI standards rather than on functionality. I have been using this software the moment the beta came out for the Mac. I find the paradigm for managing thoughts deceptively simple and amazingly useful. The developers are very responsive to UI enhancements and feature requests. While there are certainly ways in which the program can be enhanced for the mac experience (the developers are strongly committed to this and have much in store), I am tired of hearing the whining that invariably comes whenever a Java app is released because of some misguided attachment to Apple interface standards. Simply put, while UI is nice, functionality trumps it. And I find the functionality to be very promising even if not fully enhanced for those of us dedicated to the Mac platform.

I agree with the critics above re. the flaws. But its automatic focusing on what you are working on is a huge advantage compared to apps like Novamind. All you don't need at the moment is out of the way. All the flaws in mind, I wonder if there is an alternative with the same concept (interactive auto-focusing) and without the weaknesses (look-and-feel, partly obtrusive and illogical behavior...)? Thanks a lot for a hint!

I tried using this software to sort out some notes for an ARG we're planning and I can say hands down that it is one of the ugliest and most un-mac like pieces of software I've used for a while. The interface completely gets in the way of actually storing anything. Whilst the features seem good, and the concept is nice, the terrible interface makes this absolutely useless.

I've been using PersonalBrain since 2.x and with the 4.0 release it's now available for the Mac. It's based on the mind map concept, but instead of having single documents with a map on them (for example MindManger) the software is the map and documents, notes and bookmarks can be stored within it. Some of the more useful features are only available after upgrading to core or pro (like a calendar, file attachments). What makes PersonalBrain so powerful to me is it provides context to tasks, files etc. For example, if I have a "Thought" for a project, I have related thoughts for files, resources, websites attached to the original thought as parent or children links immediately available. Searching is also easy as it indexes the content from websites, yuour notes, .pdf's etc. Hard to explain, but easy to use. Currently it's missing some of the OS integration I've come to expect from Mac programs, but the developer is very responsive and the software has improved in leaps and bounds since the beta realease.