Ian's Messy Desk » Creativity http://www.ismckenzie.com Helping you get the most out of the 24 hours in your day. Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:32:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Special Projects Idea Generator http://www.ismckenzie.com/special-projects-idea-generator/ http://www.ismckenzie.com/special-projects-idea-generator/#comments Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:16:06 +0000 Ian McKenzie http://www.ismckenzie.com/08/15/special-projects-idea-generator/ Are you looking for the next big idea that sets the Internet buzzing and makes you a boat-load of money? Have you run into idea block? Free your mind with the from The Directors Bureau.

Click on the twisty arrows in the centre and the three word wheels spin. When they stop, you have your idea. If you don’t like the idea, click again. If the concept needs a little tweaking, click the arrows above and below each word.

Who knows, you might build the first transparent levitating exercise machine.

Ideagenerator

Recommended: The Zen Habits Handbook for Life!

]]> http://www.ismckenzie.com/special-projects-idea-generator/feed/ 0 Mindomo News http://www.ismckenzie.com/mindomo-news/ http://www.ismckenzie.com/mindomo-news/#comments Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:16:05 +0000 Ian McKenzie  continues to add and upgrade features to its powerful on-line mind mapping tool. Today’s announcement:

(you can click the thumbnail images to see the full size)

We are happy to announce that today we have deployed a major update of Mindomo. We have redesigned our ribbon bar in order to comply with the Microsoft® Office Fluent UI design guidelines and we have added several new features.

Redesigned ribbon bar

We have rearranged the functionalities of Mindomo in a way which follows the Microsoft® Office Fluent UI and hopefully is much more intuitive. The new ribbon bar contains the Application button, the Quickaccess toolbar and the application title bar.

Redesigned_ribbon

Ability to open multiple maps in tabs an copy branches between them (Premium Users Only)

Now you will increase your productivity by opening multiple maps and copying branches and other information between your maps.

Multiplemaps_in_tabs

Spell checker (Premium Users Only)

We have added a spell checker which will check your maps for spelling errors.
The available languages are: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish and Polish.

Spellcheck

Fullscreen view (Premium Users Only)

You can switch between normal(embedded) view and fullscreen view during your presentation or editing.

Fullscreen_view

Map locking for avoiding simultaneous editing

If another user has already opened for editing the map you are looking to modify, on the bottom-right side of the screen you will see a panel which keeps you informed of the map’s status. When clicking the Refresh button, the map will be reloaded with the latest modifications made by the user which currently holds the lock. If the other user has finished editing, upon refresh you will be the one locking the map for editing.

 Open_readonly

Added new boundary types

We’ve added a number of new boundary types to help you make your maps more exciting.

 Boundary_typeBoundary_type_map

Added new relationship types

We’ve added new types of relationships to help you increase the comprehensiveness of your maps.

 Relationship_stylePatterns Relationship_style_map

Added new hyperlink types

You can now choose between various types of links which can be added in your map nodes.

 Multiple_hyperlink_typesHyperlink_types

Added new options to browse your maps

You can now choose between a thumbnail view or a list view when you are browsing your private maps.
You can now easily filter your maps by typing the name into the filter field.

 New_browseview

Application Menu with recent maps

We implemented an application menu which helps you clearly choose your map operations and also enables you to quickly open one of your recently edited maps.

 Application_menu

Implemented minimized ribbon bar state

This new feature allows you to minimize the ribbon bar in order maximize your map display area.
In order to switch between the minimized and normal state of the ribbon bar you have to double clicked the opened tab.

 Minimized_ribbon

- Fixed several other small bugs

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Recommended: The Zen Habits Handbook for Life!

]]> http://www.ismckenzie.com/mindomo-news/feed/ 0 Bits and Pieces – July 6 http://www.ismckenzie.com/bits-and-pieces-july-6/ http://www.ismckenzie.com/bits-and-pieces-july-6/#comments Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:15:03 +0000 Ian McKenzie http://www.ismckenzie.com/07/06/bits-and-pieces-july-6/
  • Excellence, Version 2007! A Seven-part Harmony! The Best I Can Do! – Tom Peters’ 2,700 slide PowerPoint master presentation: in 7 files. I love to scan through these master files. If you’ve read any Tom Peters, you will have some sense of what he might be trying to say with any given slide. I also find these slides to be a great way to jump start my creative thought processes. For example, if I’m preparing a presentation, I’ll scroll through the slides and see what sorts of ideas I pick up for formating my slides.
  • Lifehacker Top 10: Top 10 DIY office projects – Don’t waste money on office accessories. Here are ten projects you can complete on the cheap.
  • Mapul – Still another web-based tool for creating mind maps.
  •  – 10 Strategies for dealing with the “human black hole.”

    • Recommended: The Zen Habits Handbook for Life!

    ]]>     http://www.ismckenzie.com/bits-and-pieces-july-6/feed/ 2     World’s Best Presentation Contest Winners Announced http://www.ismckenzie.com/worlds-best-presentation-contest-winners-announced/ http://www.ismckenzie.com/worlds-best-presentation-contest-winners-announced/#comments Mon, 07 May 2007 21:39:44 +0000 Ian McKenzie http://www.ismckenzie.com/05/07/worlds-best-presentation-contest-winners-announced/ SlideShare today announced the winners of the World’s Best Presentations contest:

    Winners (chosen by the judges)

    1. Shift Happens by Jbrenman (see below)

    2. Meet Henry by Chereemoore

    3. Sustainable Food Lab by Chrislandry

    People’s Choice Winners

    1. PaniPuri–An Introduction by Thakkar

    2. Shift Happens by Jbrenman

    3. Meet Henry by Chereeemoore

    Guy Kawasaki notes the common elements that make these great presentations: “big fonts, big graphics, and a “storytelling” orientation. These are three crucial qualities of a good presentation.”

    Shift Happens

    SlideShare » Contestdetails

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    Recommended: The Zen Habits Handbook for Life!

    ]]>     http://www.ismckenzie.com/worlds-best-presentation-contest-winners-announced/feed/ 0     Bits and Pieces – April 13 http://www.ismckenzie.com/bits-and-pieces-april-13/ http://www.ismckenzie.com/bits-and-pieces-april-13/#comments Fri, 13 Apr 2007 21:00:51 +0000 Ian McKenzie http://www.ismckenzie.com/04/13/bits-and-pieces-april-13/
  • Big Rocks First: Double Your Productivity This Week – Plan for and do the big items first and let the smaller items fall in around.
  • Clearing Your Inbox with Minimal Pain – An 8–step blueprint for an empty inbox. It works well. I cleared out my inbox in an hour or so on Tuesday.
  • David Byrne on PowerPoint: Freedom — who needs it? – When you pick up a pencil you know what you’re getting — you don’t think, ‘I wish this could write in a million colours.’

    • Recommended: The Zen Habits Handbook for Life!

    ]]>     http://www.ismckenzie.com/bits-and-pieces-april-13/feed/ 0     CS Odessa ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5 increases business and personal productivity http://www.ismckenzie.com/cs-odessa-conceptdraw-mindmap-5-increases-business-and-personal-productivity/ http://www.ismckenzie.com/cs-odessa-conceptdraw-mindmap-5-increases-business-and-personal-productivity/#comments Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:05:38 +0000 Ian McKenzie http://www.ismckenzie.com/04/11/cs-odessa-conceptdraw-mindmap-5-increases-business-and-personal-productivity/ CS Odessa has released ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5 for Windows.

    Press Release:

    5Odessa, Ukraine, April 10, 2007 – CS Odessa today announced the release of ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5 for Windows, an application that is targeted at increasing productivity for business and individuals. Version 5 has an improved new look and feel, and increased integration with MS Office and MS Project management software (also tightly integrated with CS Odessa Project 3). Version 5 has extensive support for mind mapping, personal productivity methodologies and brainstorming techniques within an easy to use software tool.

     

    Quick and easy text outlining is essential for most tasks; ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5 has a unique text outline view that can be presented simultaneously with the map view. MINDMAP 5 also allows users to rapidly switch between the map view and the outlined text description, with all changes and additions appearing real-time in both views.

     

    To address the customer requirement for visually rich mind maps ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5 now has smooth lines and text along with gradient fills and transparency settings for any map element that gives users an unparallelled amount of control over a mind map’s appearance. Vector drawing tools contained in MINDMAP 5 allow users to draw handmade style mind maps or create custom visual elements and shapes for decorating a document.

     

    MINDMAP 5 includes support for personal productivity methodologies, such as Getting Things Done by Dave Allen; ConceptDraw MINDMAP allows users to add, edit and track task information, priorities and links in detailed project maps or build a simple task and priority map to track task progress. MINDMAP 5 has added integration with MS Outlook as another essential element for integrating one’s workflow into a mind map.

     

    ConceptDraw MINDMAP5MINDMAP 5 has new Brainstorming features that allow users to quickly add new ideas as free-floating topics, and then freely rearrange them via drag and drop. A built-in session timer manages the scope of the brain storming sessions. MINDMAP 5 now has a more extensive feature set that allows users to manage brainstorming sessions to achieve optimum results.

     

    MINDMAP 5 has a suggested retail price of $199, educational and nonprofit pricing is available.

     

    You can read more information about ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5 and download Free Trial version here.

    The owners of earlier versions can upgrade to ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5 for only $129 here.

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    Recommended: The Zen Habits Handbook for Life!

    ]]>     http://www.ismckenzie.com/cs-odessa-conceptdraw-mindmap-5-increases-business-and-personal-productivity/feed/ 0     World’s Best Presentation Contest http://www.ismckenzie.com/worlds-best-presentation-contest/ http://www.ismckenzie.com/worlds-best-presentation-contest/#comments Thu, 22 Mar 2007 18:44:08 +0000 Ian McKenzie http://www.ismckenzie.com/03/22/worlds-best-presentation-contest/ Do you think the PowerPoint deck stored on your computer has potential to be the best in the world? Here’s your chance to find out. is holding a contest to select the world’s best presentation.

    Enter your PowerPoint today!

    You could win a cool prize!

    Your presentation could be about anything you know or care for. From teaching 5th graders history to pitching your ideas to VCs; tell us why your city is great or convince us to buy hybrid cars; evangelize Linux or share a recipe for that perfect apple pie.

    How to enter the contest

    • To enter the contest, do the following:
      • First upload your presentation to SlideShare.
      • Now find the “Edit” button for the presentation (click “edit” for that presentation from your “My SlideSpace” page).
      • Find the “Participate in Contest” dropdown and select “World’s Best Presentation Contest” and press “Update”.
      • Your entry will now show up in the contest.
    • You can upload PowerPoint (PPT & PPS), OpenOffice (ODP), PDF and Keynote (for Mac users). If you use Keynote, save the presentation in PDF format and upload.
    • You can enter UP TO 5 presentations only.
    • While uploading the presentation file, you should tell us something about it in the description section. This will give the voters and judges some context as to your presentation. Specifically, tell us which of the below options describes how your presentation was or is meant to be used. “PowerPoint Deck as Leave Behind” OR “In Person Presentation Support” OR “Both” OR “Other”.
    • Also, be sure to specify what country you are from in your SlideShare profile. Only contestants from USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Israel, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and India can enter their presentations (sorry, this is due to contest law issues!).
    • Please make sure you are only submitting material that you own the copyright for.

    Voting Mechanism and Winners

    SlideShare’s users will vote on the entries while the contest is on. The winning entries will be decided by our panel of judges, which is comprised of the who’s who of the presentation world. The People’s Choice prizes will be decided on the basis of the votes polled. Winners will be announced one week after the contest ends. For details read the contest rules.

    The judges:
    Guy Kawasaki (http://blog.guykawasaki.com/)

    Bert Decker (http://www.deckerblog.com)

    Garr Reynolds (http://www.presentationzen.com/)

    Jerry Weissman (http://www.powerpresentations.blogs.com)

    Anyone in the world can vote

    Click here for contest details, prizes and rules – SlideShare » Contestdetails

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    Recommended: The Zen Habits Handbook for Life!

    ]]>     http://www.ismckenzie.com/worlds-best-presentation-contest/feed/ 3     Bits and Pieces – March 16 http://www.ismckenzie.com/bits-and-pieces-march-16/ http://www.ismckenzie.com/bits-and-pieces-march-16/#comments Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:17:23 +0000 Ian McKenzie http://www.ismckenzie.com/03/16/bits-and-pieces-march-16/
  • How to Make Stikkit into Your Personal GTD Powerhouse – Cranking Widget’s take on turning Stikkit into a powerful GTD tool.
  • Five secret filing hacks from the masters – Working in a “paper-less” environment somehow still requires a lot of filing. Matt has five tips to streamline the process.
  • Fuel the positive with gratitude – Keep a positive attitude by keeping your focus on gratitude.
  • Nagless Reminders – Get the Recipient to Respond On Time and Cut Through their Email Overload.
  • Maryland Ballet Theatre & Arts Company –  – A random inspirational thought for dancers.
  • – Some GTD helps to set as desktop wallpaper.
  • 10 Simple Tips to Start Getting Things Done – Getting started with GTD.

    • Recommended: The Zen Habits Handbook for Life!

    ]]>     http://www.ismckenzie.com/bits-and-pieces-march-16/feed/ 1     Bits and Pieces – February 16 http://www.ismckenzie.com/bits-and-pieces-february-16/ http://www.ismckenzie.com/bits-and-pieces-february-16/#comments Fri, 16 Feb 2007 16:26:06 +0000 Ian McKenzie http://www.ismckenzie.com/02/16/bits-and-pieces-february-16/
  • – putting GTD to work on your messy desk.
  • How To Give A Good Compliment – There’s nothing like a warm, sincere compliment to make your day. Instead of waiting for one, why not give one out?
  • How to Make a To-go Coffee Cup Tissue Pop-up – I bought one of these at the Dollar Store the other day. It was the first time I had seen one and now, here are instructions to make your own.
  • Making PDFs with free software – from Free Software Magazine. Don’t spend big bucks on Acrobat, use freeware to create your own PDF files.
  • The Ultimate Getting Things Done Index – The GTD user’s “Everything Within” reference.
  • – one cranky coot explains how he uses Google to manage his GTD system.
  • – a Fast Company podcast.

    • Recommended: The Zen Habits Handbook for Life!

    ]]>     http://www.ismckenzie.com/bits-and-pieces-february-16/feed/ 0     Bits and Pieces – February 2 http://www.ismckenzie.com/bits-and-pieces-february-2/ http://www.ismckenzie.com/bits-and-pieces-february-2/#comments Fri, 02 Feb 2007 21:34:17 +0000 Ian McKenzie http://www.ismckenzie.com/02/02/bits-and-pieces-february-2/
  • GyroQ brings GTD and MindManager closer together – Eric Mack on using the GyroQ tool from Gyronix.
  • 7 Rules for Maximizing Your Creative Output – maintaining a state of creativity is a skill that requires training.
  • – Lightweight project management software for individuals and small teams.
  • Maximise the Power of Your Brain – Tony Buzan MIND MAPPING video at YouTube.

    • Recommended: The Zen Habits Handbook for Life!

    ]]>     http://www.ismckenzie.com/bits-and-pieces-february-2/feed/ 0