Cayra is a neat little concept and mind mapper and in my view is greatly undervalued, probably because Cayra.net is now an advertising site, and the software is no longer supported. But copies can be downloaded from Cnet and other download sites and it is very usable.

It has some of the qualities of mind mapping software: Organic lines and colour; but at the same time, the connections it can make allow it to be used to make concept maps with cross links and linking phrases.  It even lets you have multiple maps on the same page, and has a good ergonomic design to handle this, providing for ‘parking’ separate maps at the foot of the screen.  Nodes can have pictures and hyperlinks, links to files, and dates/times for project management tasks.

Be prepared to spend a few minutes understanding how it works, because it is not quite like other mappers, but it is well worth the time, because it has a flexibility that other mappers do not.

Its most unexpected feature is that it uses the self-centering mechanism like Topicscape or Brain.  Click a node and that moves to the centre and its branches expand.  This can be switched off, and if you then save the file, it will operate in ‘Fixed mode’ from then on.

It comes with a help map, but also has comprehensive built-in help.

Price: Free

More about Cayra on Mind-mapping.org

Vic

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I did see a comment on Twitter that Cayra doesn’t work in Windows 7.  I haven’t tried it on that, but it works on Vista.   Cayra has an update function built in, and the place it checks for updates no longer exists, so I wonder if that gives the impression of Cayra not working.  I just set my firewall not to give Cayra Internet access.  Vic.