FreeMind is a free mind mapping application written in Java. It therefore runs on a wide variety of operating systems, including Linux.
This software enables the user to visualise ideas, projects, brainstorming, concepts, internet research, or any activity that benefits from having a structured overview.
FreeMind has a modular design, and can be used to edit any kind of data, dependent on the current mode. The data is represented as a Mind-Map, while data, behavior, node style, edge style, color, etc. are determined by the mode. It features one-click fold, unfold, and “follow link” operations.
FreeMind provides multiple ways to navigate around a map, including clicking on the map background and dragging it around, as well as horizontal and vertical scrolling.
Key Features
- Clones: nodes and its sub-nodes can be cloned. The two copies will then be synchronized.
- Collaboration: two or more people can work simultaneously on the same map.
- Restore complete session.
- Location based mindmapping.
- Spell checking on input.
- Fully functional following of HTML links stored in the nodes.
- Folding branches; clicking on a node in a map causes all child topics below it to fold into the currently selected topic, making them hidden from view.
- Fast one-click navigation, including folding / unfolding on one click and following links on one click at the same time.
- Undo.
- Smart Drag’n Drop, including the possibility to copy nodes or copy style of nodes; dragging and dropping of multiple selected nodes; dropping of texts or list of files from outside.
- Smart copying and pasting into, including pasting of links from HTML or structuring the pasted content on the basis of the number of leading spaces in a line; pasting of lists of selected files.
- Smart copying and pasting from, including plain text and RTF.
- Export of map to HTML, with folding.
- Find facility, where found items are shown one by one as you do “find next”, and the map is unfolded only for the current item.
- Use and edit long multiline nodes; even with newlines.
- Decorate nodes with built-in icons, colors and different fonts.
- Maps stored in XML format.
- File mode enables you to browse the files on your computer, seeing the folder structure as a mind map.
Website: freemind.sourceforge.net
Support: Documentation
Developer: Joerg Mueller, Daniel Polansky, Petr Novak, Christian Foltin, Dimitri Polivaev and others
License: GNU General Public License v2.0

FreeMind is written in Java. Learn Java with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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