Bubbl

So you have this great idea for a website, book, product, etc. What now? How do you get it done? What else is involved in making your idea a reality? You’ve got a lot in your head that you probably don’t even realize is connected to your bright idea!You need to get those thoughts out of your head and into a format that makes sense. This is commonly referred to as “Mind-mapping” and is often part of the “Brainstorming” process as well.

Bubbl.us is a newcomer to this small, but important industry that strives to help you “clear your mind”. And frankly, they do an awesome job. Join me today as we discover this wonderfully useful and enjoyable tool.

Video: To see visual examples of the steps in this article, see my free video at the top of this page

The Anatomy of Bubbl.us

I highly recommend you get an account with Bubbl.us. It’s free and allows you to save your mind-maps for access later. If you choose though, you can use Bubbl.us without an account, but you won’t be able to save your projects.

Here are the primary parts of the software and their function: A. This is your starting “Bubble”. Most of your controls are actually contained here. This is the primary tool in Bubbl.us. Each new Bubble will contain the same controls, making expanding your document very simple.

See the video to see the Bubble in action. B. This section contains a few of the extra controls that you will need from time to time.

• Center – focuses the view back on the “main” bubble.
• Unpin All – returns all your bubbles back to there default positions.
• Undo - undo your last action.
  Note: I prefer to use “Ctrl-Z”.
• Zoom – Get closer or farther away from your project by clicking the “+” and “-” buttons.Note: I prefer to use the scroll-wheel on my mouse to zoom because it is faster.
• Set Print Area – Clicking this allows access to a box tool that lets you specify what area of the document you want printed (demonstrated in the video)

C. You can access your account details, contact the Bubbl.us team, or sign out.

D. The tabs here ONLY affect the area indicated by the box. It will not change your view.

• My Sheets – This is the “main” tab you will use. You can access your previous projects (called “sheets”), save new ones, delete sheets, etc.
• Collaborate – If you are “sharing” one of your sheets (one of the options in the “My Sheets” tab) or someone is sharing with you, you can open those sheets here so that you can work on the same sheet as a friend!
• Friends – You can find friends by name or email in this tab with whom you can share sheets. If your friend doesn’t use Bubbl.us yet, just click the “click here to invite them by email” too shoot them an invitation by email.

E. The menu button contains the following important functions:

• Send read-only link – Want to show your sheet to a friend but don’t want them to edit it? This is the ticket. Clicking this sends a link to the email(s) of your choice that will show your sheet to your friend(s) without the controls.
• HTML Embed Code – Outputs a snippet of code that you can insert in your website, blog, etc.
• Export and Import – You can save the xml code for your current sheet to your computer, or import a previously saved code into Bubbl.us.
• Editor Settings… – Allows you to tweak some settings in how Bubbl.us runs.

Example Project -

Here is a simple example of how you might create a Mind-map for that new Ferret business you were planning to start! Make sure to watch the video for visual examples of these steps.

Steps:

1. Start by renaming your center bubble by clicking the name and typing “Ferret Biz”. Press “Enter” when you’re done to automatically create a child bubble.
2. Name the new bubble “Website”. Because this is not the only child we want under “Ferret Biz”, press “Tab” when you are done, instead of “Enter” to create a sibling.
3. Name this bubble “Ferret Resources” and press “Enter” to make a new child.
4. Type “Ferret Kennel” and press “Tab” to create a sibling.
5. Name it “Ferret Product Vendor” and click outside the bubble to enter the text.
6. Because our website will probably list the products of our “Ferret Product Vendor” we can connect these two by clicking and dragging the little blue circle on the right-bottom of the “Website” bubble to the “Ferret Product Vendor” bubble.

Those are the basic tools for constructing your own mind-maps, large or small!

Beyond this -

You can use Bubbl.us for planning projects or businesses or you can use it to brainstorm and map-out your thoughts on any subject (goals, values, business opportunities, etc). Share it with your friends and partners, print for your records, or use it to make a project road-map that you can post on your blog or website.

With so many possibilities, the Bubbl.us developers really deserve a pat on the back for creating such a flexible and easy-to-use system.

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Evaluation:

Competition to Bubbl.us comes from sites such as Mindomo.com and Mindmeister.com. Both of these sites offer a service similar to Bubbl.us. Mindomo.com offers extended features such as task and project management. Mindmeister is very similar in features to Bubbl.us. While Bubbl.us is entirely free, both Mindomo.com and Mindmeister offer limited free plans and paid plans with extended features.

The site is very responsive, and the editor responds as well as a dedicated desktop application. Page loads happen quickly, and most operations performed in the editor are instantaneous. Navigation is very intuitive, as is using the editor. The software for the site is very well-written and no glitches were observed while creating or editing mind maps. There is no advertising displayed on the Bubbl.us site.

Here are some highlights features:

• Web based, create colorful mind maps online
• Collaboration, share and work with friends
• Embed your mind map in your blog or website
• Sharing, Email and print your mind map
• Save your mind map as an image