The best-tasting food is the kind that comes from your own efforts, because victory tastes oh-so-sweet. Conquer KFC-style fried chicken, smoky barbecue, wood-fired pizza, five-minute bread, and other DIY delicacies with these great food-focused projects. More »
Behance and 99 Percent founder Scott Belsky spent years researching how creative leaders at Google, Disney, Zappos, and other firms turned brainstorms into completed projects. This excerpt from Making Ideas Happen suggests ways of tackling urgent matters without sacrificing long-term goals. More »
Windows/Mac/Linux: Sometimes the easiest way to make sense of a big project is to get its details out of your brain so you can visualize it. Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) helps you map your ideas, then make presentations out of them.
Mind-mapping tools are great for corralling snippets of information and brainstorming details into one place so you can see how they fit together in the big picture. If this is your first foray into the world of mind-mapping apps, you’ll find VUE easy to set up and use. (Our previous guide to mind mapping is a great resource to help you wrap your head around mind maps.)
You’ll need to register at the app’s web site for a free account before you can download the Windows, Mac, or Linux version of VUE at no cost. Once installed, you get get started right away setting up nodes containing ideas or concepts, then linking them with arrows to form relationships between them. You can also include clickable URLs, images, files, and more. Want to include videos and documents? Just drag them over and drop them on your map.
Unlike many other mind-mapping tools, VUE can go a step beyond the mind map, turning your brainstorms into slide presentations so you can share them with others. They’re laid out so viewers can walk through the information contained in your map in a way that helps them understand how the concepts are laid out. VUE has tons of features that are likely to appeal to novice and expert mind-mappers alike. Check out this demo video to get a better idea of what VUE can do for you.
VUE is a free download for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
Web-based project management tool Gantter has an interface that looks remarkably similar to Microsoft Project—and even lets you import and export your Project files.
Using the application is fairly simple—just start adding tasks and resources just like you would on the desktop version of Microsoft Project. Once you've finished, you can download the project as an XML file, which can then be imported back into Project. You can import projects, open saved files, and use the wide array of keyboard shortcuts all from a web-based interface that works anywhere and requires no account to use—making this worth a look for anybody dealing with project plans and TPS reports.
Gantter is free to use, available in your web browser. For more, read about project management in a nutshell, check out free hosted project management with Clocking IT, or replace Microsoft Project with the open-source OpenProj. Thanks, Climbup!
Taskbarn is a web-based project collaboration tool with a focus on ease of use, transparency, and feed-friendly updates.
Taskbarn covers the basics of project management, including assigning due dates to tasks and marking parties responsible for completing them. In addition to the standard tools, each project is set up with a unique feed. Updates to the project can be published both within the Taskbarn feed and to an external Twitter account. Each feed update can be given a file attachment of up to 10MB—handy for tossing in pictures and voice messages to keep a group posted on progress.
In addition to task management and publication of project updates, there is a messaging system for keeping up with your fellow collaborators and a notes section for attaching notes and files that don’t quite fit into the task list. There is a 100MB limit on file storage, so if you’re working with bulky multimedia files, you’ll need some alternate storage space. If Taskbarn doesn’t quite fit your needs, you may want to check out another web-based project manager we’ve reviewed, HiTask. Taskbarn is a free web-based service.
