Mind maps are a great way to put down your ideas on paper. It is a diagram used to represent ideas and tasks by interlinking words and arranging them into a structure around a central idea. Mind maps help in visualizing ideas and are often used in brainstorming, problem solving and decision making. Often people use such crude hand drawn mind maps to organize ideas - a party at home, preparing a vacation etc. I'm sure you must have done it too.

A typical rough mind map

ConceptDraw MINDMAP is such a tool for creating mind maps. From the publisher's description:

ConceptDraw MINDMAP is a software for brainstorming, mind-mapping, and visual thinking. It's your personal assistant when discussing ideas, making decisions, and planning projects. ConceptDraw MINDMAP enables you to present information in a simple, visual way by building trees of ideas, or Mind Maps. Use it to organize brainstorming sessions, take notes, plan your work, and make presentations.

The Sept 08 edition of the UK MacWorld magazine gave away free licenses of ConceptDraw MINDMAP v 5.0 which sells at $199. But you can avail that offer too. To get your free license:

• Download ConceptDraw MINDMAP v 5.0. (Note: version 5 is no longer available from the publisher's website since the release of version 6)
• Windows users visit this page and fill the form to receive your free serial via email. Mac users use this page.

Install ConceptDraw MINDMAP v 5.0 and use the serial to activate it. Done.