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Having described how to sync MindManager (MM) tasks with Outlook and then how this relationship could be used to create an interactive dashboard as well as some of the limitations and issues involved in this approach in my earlier posts, I’ll conclude by highlighting some of the potential uses for MM dashboard maps.

First, a general comment on the range of people who may find this method useful, and those who may not. Unfortunately the limitations I outlined in part 3 are likely to rule out those users working in team environments because of the difficulties involved in assigning resources to tasks. As I noted, any resource created and assigned in an MM project map is summarily removed by the process of syncing with Outlook. While task assignments made in Outlook are retained they are visible but not editable in MM; in theory it would be possible to manage resources from Outlook, but this is a fairly convoluted approach.

Those users who rely on multiple text tag groups in their maps are also ruled out, as again these groups are summarily stripped out by the syncing process to be replaced by an Outlook-compatible categories group. Similarly, topic properties defined in MM are overwritten by an Outlook-defined status property. Both of these are editable from within MM, but can’t be deleted or replaced. And it isn’t possible to work around these limitations by using icons or labels as proxies either – while these aren’t removed from the source maps, they aren’t synced to Outlook and the dashboard maps.

Users wanting to create dashboard maps without these limitations are probably better off purchasing a dedicated add-in designed for this purpose. The two main contenders are Gyronix ResultsManager (US$297) or Olympic Limited’s TopicTracker (UK£49). Both these programs can create dashboard maps but in different ways. To quote their respective websites, ResultsManager “sweeps maps looking for incomplete activities, and dynamically creates focused dashboards designed to support action and review processes”, while TopicTracker “gives you a way to share specific Topics from your Mindjet MindManager Maps with other Topic Tracker users, allowing them to be kept informed of changes to specific Topic elements when required”.

These are both excellent add-ins but they are expensive (especially ResultsManager) and as I noted in my first post may be overkill for many users. If you currently don’t use features such as resource allocation, multiple text tag groups or topic properties or can at least live without them – for example, if you are managing multiple projects using MM in a single-licence environment– then the Outlook-based model I have outlined may be helpful. This process is not too complicated and it’s also free, provided you already have Microsoft Outlook. Here are some potential uses:

Potential uses of MindManager Dashboard Maps

1. Creating an interactive snapshot of current task deadlines across multiple projects. This is the most obvious use of dashboard maps and is particularly effective if you use assign a category to each project or major sub-project as outlined in my example. You could create a daily or weekly snapshot of current tasks and then update progress, which after syncing will be incorporated in the original project maps. If task roll-up is turned on in your dashboard map you will also get a visual warning about what tasks are at risk or overdue.
2. Prepare an overview of what’s coming up – or what’s already been completed. Similarly you can look at what’s due next week, in the next two weeks or next month – or you can specific any date range from the current date or within a set range in the future. This approach is great for managing your upcoming workload, which will also be visible in the Gantt chart. As well as reviewing what has to be done, you can also look at which projects have been completed in, say, the previous 10 days.
3. Review selected categories/projects or tasks with specific priorities or other attributes. As I indicated in my previous post, Outlook queries allow you only to select all categories or only one. There is however a way around this; use a power filter in the dashboard map. You can filter on the basis of categories, or on the basis of any other task topic attribute, for example priority, specific progress level or the presence or otherwise of topic notes or attachments (all attributes which are maintained through the syncing process).
4. Prepare and maintain a detailed management map for a single project which incorporates non-task items. While the process I have outlined in this series of posts has concentrated on creating dashboard maps involving tasks, don’t forget that emails, appointments, contacts and even notes in Outlook can also be incorporated. Of these, only tasks and appointments can be initiated from the MM side, but all items can be sent from Outlook to MM and synced (with varying degrees of success). This provides the opportunity to create a complete project management map as a dashboard separate from the initial planning map, with links to these Outlook items as well as to documents and working files. While it is possible to do this with more than one project category in the same map, this approach is best reserved for providing a detailed overview of a single project. Don’t forget however that some topic attributes are item-specific, so if you apply a power filter to show, for example, task due dates or progress status, all non-task items in the map will be hidden.

Obviously there are many other potential uses for dashboard maps, which I’ll leave you to explore. I’ll conclude this series with a minor correction to my previous posts explaining the process, but one that opens up further opportunities. I stated that the categories which underpin this approach could only be created in Outlook and then sent to MM via a dummy task, where they could be applied to topics before syncing. This strictly speaking isn’t the case; while the first category must be created in Outlook, once syncing is undertaken further categories can be added in MM. The dummy task is still needed to send them back to Outlook, which is also the only place where category colours can be added, but this means that you brainstorm your categories in MM first.

In the previous post I demonstrated how MindManager (MM) tasks could be integrated with Outlook categories when tasks are synced between the two programs. In this article I’ll show how a single dashboard map can be created to provide a snapshot of progress across multiple projects by using MM in combination with Outlook and how once this map is created you can also use it as a “one stop shop” to update progress across a number of separate project maps. As with part one, this approach is best suited to MM users who have had some experience in using MM as well as Outlook. A copy of the PC desktop version of MM from version 9.2 onwards and Outlook 2007 onwards are required and you need to have established that these programs can sync with each other. The following process also assumes that you have set up one of more project maps and that you have linked the tasks in these to Outlook using the process I described in the first post.

Sample project planning map based on the instructions in part 1, synced to Outlook and with Outlook categories applied

1. Set up a new blank map in MindManager (MM) and insert an Outlook query. Go to the Advanced tab and click on the Outlook items under Queries. A list of query options should appear; we’ll start with This Week’s Tasks. Click on this and all the tasks that have been synced from your project maps and which are active this week should appear as sub-topics grouped under main topics representing their categories and in most cases coloured appropriately (I’ll come back to this in a moment) under a single main topic with the name of the query and which has the query icon.
2. Choose a map layout and edit the query. The map layout is a matter of personal choice but I think an org chart works best with dashboard maps (you may have to apply the map style to both the central topic and the query separately before the map formats properly). Now click on the query icon in the main topic; the Outlook Query dialogue box will appear. If you have followed step one the fields for Query Name (This Week’s Tasks), Folder (Tasks) etc should be filled in. The things you should check are the Sort by field (ensure this has Due date showing), the maximum number of results (the default is 30 but you might want to increase this) and that Category is set to Any and the Group topics by category box is ticked. When you click on OK the query should update and may change depending on what parameters you have entered.
   

   Query dialogue box

   

   Dashboard map based on a This Week’s Tasks query applied to the sample map. Note that those tasks that fall outside of this week are not shown

3. Filter the map. Despite choosing to sort the dashboard map by the due date in the previous step, you will notice that the map shows tasks which fall due both during and after this week, which is a little confusing. What the query is actually selecting are the tasks which are current for this week, which includes tasks that are due this week, tasks which commence this week and tasks which run through this week, all sorted by the due date. If you want to show only the tasks which fall due this week you need to take one more step, which is to filter the map using a Power Filter. To do this, click on the Power Filter button, click on Power Filter in the menu and then click on Task Info in the menu that appears. Starting and Ending fields should then appear – leave Starting and the other fields blank but click on the drop-down arrow next to Ending. Choose This Week from the list that appears, then click on Filter and click on Show Matching Topics. The dashboard map should then show just the tasks which are due this week. You can save this query for later use and to remove it just click on the Remove Filter button.
   

   The dashboard map, filtered to show only those tasks due this week. Note that the “Walk 30 minutes” task which was not actually due this week has now been filtered out.

4. Review the dashboard. The dashboard map should now be ready for review, showing just the incomplete tasks that are due this week, grouped as subtopics by category. You might expect the category colour also to be displayed both for these subtopics and the parent main topics, but one interesting aspect of maps prepared from Outlook queries is that MM’s Task Roll-up is applied automatically at the category level, whether or not it was used in the parent maps. As a consequence two things happen; first, task roll-up icons appear on the category main topics (more on that in a future post) and second some of the tasks themselves, as well as the category main topics, will be highlighted with MM’s past-due and at risk task colours as selected under the Calendar & Display Options. These colours override the category colours.
5. Update task status and re-sync the dashboard map. You can now update the proportion of progress made on each task. To transfer this to the project maps you will need to resync the dashboard map back to Outlook and then in turn sync the project maps with Outlook. To start this process, click on the Microsoft Outlook Query icon on the central topic in the dashboard map and then select Sync query topics with Outlook. Also confirm that the Power Filter has been retained – if not, reapply it. When the sync and filter processes are completed the updated status should also be reflected in Outlook and in turn should appear in the project maps when you sync Outlook with them. If a task is ticked as 100% complete then it will disappear from the This Week’s Tasks map entirely. Importantly, when the calendar rolls over into a new week and you update the dashboard map, it should reflect the new week’s tasks

In my next post I’ll discuss some of the other interesting things you can do with these dashboard maps, as well as their limitations. For now, please bear in mind that dashboard maps are designed primarily to review and update task progress and that if you are planning any major changes these should be made in the main project maps.

Do you use MindManager, and have you always wanted to have one map to rule all the other ones? This series of posts outlines an approach that can be used to provide such a map, or at least one that would give you the opportunity to review other maps and make minor changes to them. 

Recently Andrew Wilcox posted a great MindManager map on his Cabre Applications of MindManager blog which provides a comprehensive overview the many ways in which MindManager (MM) can be used to manage tasks. As he states and as the map demonstrates, MM offers “so many options and add ins” to achieve this as a stand-alone program as well as in combination with other members of the Mindjet “family” or in conjunction with external programs including Microsoft Outlook.

One option that MM does lack is the capacity to set up a single dashboard map that can give you a snapshot of progress across all your projects, an issue that’s caused some lively debate recently on the Mindjet forum. This is because MM does not have an internal database of tasks from which such a dashboard could be created and in the absence of such a beast, MM’s file structure makes it difficult for a mindmap to be used to survey status across other maps.

The most obvious alternative is to use an add-in like ResultsManager, from Gyronix, which provides such a database, but while this is a very powerful tool it is fairly expensive and may be overkill for many users. There is another way, however, which is free if you already have a copy of Outlook; this is to exploit MindManager’s capacity to synchronise tasks (and other items) between the two programs. In effect, Outlook tasks are used to form a database of MM tasks.

Here’s the first stage of a process I have developed that will allow you to do this. Not only that, once the dashboard map is created you can also use it to update progress in the individual project maps without touching Outlook (though you can certainly use Outlook to do this as well).

This approach probably isn’t suitable for MM users who are complete novices, but while it is a little fiddly it really isn’t all that difficult. As well as a copy of the PC desktop version of MM from version 9.2 onwards you will need Outlook 2007 onwards and to have established that these programs can talk to each other. If you are not a regular user of Outlook you should have a play with it as well, particularly with Outlook tasks and the process to assign specific categories to them, but as I said you don’t need to interact with Outlook once the maps are set up (provided MM can talk to it).

In stage 1 I’ll outline how to link your MindManager project maps with Outlook and in particular how to apply Outlook categories to the tasks in these maps. I’m using MM15 and Outlook 2010, but the steps are similar in any recent version of both programs:

1. Create your project maps in MindManager incorporating all the tasks involved. You should know how to do this; make sure that all tasks you create have been given start and due dates, a priority level and the progress symbol is set to 0% (or whatever proportion has been completed to date).
2. Work out a system of categories – but don’t apply them to the tasks in your maps just yet. For various reasons – mainly the change in the method of syncing tasks between MM and Outlook introduced in version 9 of MM – categories first created in MM are simply not recognised in Outlook. You can sync tasks either way between the programs, but for categories to be recognised at both ends and kept in sync they must be first created in Outlook and then sent to MM.
3. Set up a dummy task in Outlook as a basis for assigning categories and category colours. In Outlook create a dummy task with an obvious name and a date that’s well outside the likely date range of your actual project tasks. The purpose of this dummy task is to act as a transport so that the categories can be imported into each MM project planning map from Outlook. Then click on the categorise button under the Home tab on the ribbon and add your list of categories, assigning colours to them as you go. The resulting list of category tags should contain all the categories you want to use across all your maps. How to approach categorisation is up to you, but for the rest of this guide I’ll assume you are setting up categories and colours based on projects or sub-projects.
   

   Dummy task created in Outlook to transfer categories to MindManager

4. Send the dummy task(s) to the relevant MindManager map(s). Open up the project planning map in MM and click on either the central or main topic. Return to Outlook, select the dummy topic and click on the Send to MindManager button. If this process is successful the dummy topic should appear in the map, along with each of the categories listed under a separate “Categories” tag group in MM, which is available on the Map Index tab. You may have to sync the dummy task again for this to occur, but once the Categories list appears this task’s work is done and you can delete it from the map (but retain a copy in Outlook in case you need to repeat the process). You can sort the Categories group in MM but don’t change the name of the group. If you want you can repeat this process with several dummy tasks each specific to a particular map and assigned a subset of the categories relevant to the specific map.
   

   Dummy task as it appears in MindManager

   

   Categories tag group in MindManager

5. Send the MM tasks to Outlook from each map before you assign categories to them. You can send each task individually or as a group; if the process has been successful each task should now have an icon in your map indicating it is now a “Microsoft Outlook Task” and of course it should appear in the task window in Outlook. It would seem logical to apply the categories before doing this but resist the temptation, as they still won’t be recognised in Outlook until the next step is completed.
6. After the task topics have been sent to Outlook, assign categories to tasks from the Categories text tag group in each map and then resync with Outlook. Both assigning category tags and syncing can be done either individually with each task or with a group – again, you may have to sync twice. Once this is done the tasks in your project maps should be identical to their counterparts in Outlook, with the same colour and tag.
   

   Sample project planning map, synced to Outlook and with Outlook categories applied

Any changes you now make to a task in either program – including category changes – should be reflected in the other once the tasks are synced. Just remember that while multiple categories can be assigned to a task in either program and the text tags are visible in both, MM has no capacity to display multiple colours and therefore topics with multiple categories will have no background colour.

This may be all that some people need to do if they just want to manage tasks from their MM project maps in Outlook, but once this relationship has been established you can use it as a basis for setting up proper dashboard maps where the use of Outlook is optional. I’ll describe this in my next post.