A mind mapper, and at the same time an easy-to-operate hierarchical editor with a strong emphasis on folding. These two are not really two different things, just two different descriptions of a single application. Often used for knowledge and content management.

FreeMind is a mind mapping tool that allows you to create images that capture ideas visually. Whether you are planning a project, writing an article or a book, or simply working through a concept visually, FreeMind can help you create diagrams that can be easily manipulated—unlike a simple document or spreadsheet, you aren’t confined to linear structures (e.g., paragraphs or spreadsheet cells).

FreeMind is a cross-platform tool that runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS machines with the Java Runtime Environment installed, which means that it is accessible to most users. It is an open-source project, so anyone is welcome to contribute to the software.

Features

The purpose of FreeMind is to enable non-linear approaches to brainstorming and mindmapping, and most of the product’s noteworthy features support these tasks.

FreeMind’s MindMaps are created using notes that are joined by branches. You can choose to have your nodes and branches shifted around automatically, but you can also rearrange items manually if desired. FreeMind also allows you to make batch edits by copying and pasting groups of items (without loss of formatting).

Other design features include folding branches, icons on individual nodes, and clouds around branches. And if you want to refer to outside files, you can add HTML links, as well as links to files living on your local machine.

FreeMind allows you to export your work into HTML, XHTML, PDF, and OpenDocument formats. However, if you prefer to create an image file, FreeMind also supports PNG, JPEG, and SVD.

The software stores its maps in XML format, so if you decide to move to another product, you may be able to export the maps it creates and then import them into the tool of your choice (assuming it supports XML imports).