SmartDraw 2010 & Project Management

I have been a SmartDraw user for some time now and was delighted to learn that SmartDraw 2010 was soon going to be released with some new mind mapping and project management features that I was interested in exploring. As I shared with you in a previous post I was introduced to some of the new features of SmartDraw 2010 by the CEO Paul Stannard who is extremely passionate about the product. One of the markets that SmatDraw realizes there is a strong need for their product is in the area of project management. So with this release they have added more functionality and have made the product easier to use and have cut down on the steps it takes to go from mind mapping a project to creating a Gantt Chart or a timeline.

In SmartDraw 2010 you will still find it easy to create a basic mind map using the the SmartPanel. If you want to create your mind map even faster in SmartDraw 2010 you can quickly create a mind map using the Control and Arrow keys to create your ideas on the screen. I found this quite intuitive and within minutes was able to complete a mind map. If you like there are several mind mapping templates that ships with SmartDraw 2010 can be a great starting point for your session. I personally would have liked to see more templates and be able to have the option to change the direction of the mind map so that I could have top to down or left to right. You will find in SmartDraw 2010 that you can easily apply styles, so that your finished mind map has a a very professional and polished look. You will also find that SmartDraw 2010 spaces everything just so that branches on your mind map are equidistant from one another which is a nice touch. There are lots of ways to share you maps in SmartDraw 2010- you can export it 12 different file formats- everything from PDF to HTML or send it to Microsoft PowerPoint. The list is extensive! SmartDraw 2010 has also added the ability for users to add Comments on the mind map so that when they are shared they can be reviewed somewhat similar to the feature found in Microsoft Word. This is a wonderful feature especially in corporations that are using SharePoint. SmartDraw 2010 integrates seamlessly with SharePoint and lets you browse your server and open SmartDraw files.

Going from your mind map in SmartDraw 2010 to a Gantt Chart or Timeline is very easy. Simply select the View As button and select Gantt Chart or Timeline. Within seconds your Gantt Chart is displayed on your screen. SmartDraw 2010 has been updated and will allow you to manage much larger projects than in the previous version. I believe that in SmartDraw 2009 the limit was 100 tasks. You will also find that moving around SmartDraw 2010 even with larger data sets is easy to do and the program doesn't even skip a beat. SmartDraw 2010 now shows a Summary bar when you have subtasks under a topic- which works really well. HOwever, I would have like to see the Summary bar automatically reflect the percentage of the work done based on the completion entries in the subtasks. For now you will have to enter a the percentage completion value into the Summary task manually. You now more control of the information that is shown on the Columns in your Gantt view and it is easy to add Start Dates, End Dates, Cost, Duration, % Complete, Department, Number, & Resource to your Gantt chart. Whiel SmartDraw 2009 supported Finish to Start dependencies, it is a lot easier to set them up in the SmartDraw 2010. Unfortunately SmartDraw 2010 does not support Start to Start, Finish to Finish or Finish to Start dependencies. When you have completed your Gantt Chart in SmartDraw 2010 you can also export it to Microsoft Project. Likewise, you can also import data from Microsoft Project and bring it into SmartDraw 2010.

It is now just as easy to create a timeline from your mind map which is just a click away. Simply select the Timeline option from your mind map and within seconds you have a professionally delivered timeline of your project which for some will be able to comprehend more easily than if it were presented as a Gantt chart. You will find SmartDraw 2010 a flexible and easy to use application to handle small to medium projects. It is an ideal tool for communicate your project and getting all of your stakeholders on board. You will find it easy to print our comprehensive Gantt charts and timeline which can go a long way to keep your projects on time and within budget. For more information about SmartDraw 2010 click here.

SmartDraw 2010 Upgrade Available

I have been a user of SmartDraw for the past several years and have always found it to be an easy tool to use application to create a wide variety of professional looking visuals. Just last week I had a chance to get a sneak peek of SmartDraw 2010 during a webinar that was hosted by Paul Stannard, CEO of SmartDraw. It is not every day that the CEO of the company takes the time to give me a 1-1 tour of their product, SmartDraw 2010 has been refined taking into account just how users are really using the product. I believe that once you try SmartDraw 2010 you too will find that it takes you less clicks and less time to be more efficiently producing professional looking documents and materials. I have just received my copy of SmartDraw 2010 and will put it through the paces especially in the area of mind maps, project management, and timelines. For more information click here

Dr. Friedlander is Interviewed on the SmartDraw Blog

Several weeks ago I was interviewed by Laurence who runs the Official SmartDraw Blog on the topic of: Why Do Adults Forget About Visualization? We had a chance to delve into mind mapping, graphic organizers and SmartDraw 2008 and why I feel today's student will need to have well developed visualization skills. We had some really good conversations and the result can be found on the Official SmartDraw Blog. I hope you enjoy it. I would be interested in know how you feel about this topic.

SmartDraw 2008- A First Look

It is becoming increasingly clear that there is a real need in today's society for students and individuals to become more adept at both understanding and creating visual graphics that depict information using graphs, mind maps,
charts, and pictographs. We are all bombarded with all kinds of information and data that is much more easily digested when put into a visual or graphic form. Many of us were first introduced to these type of graphics in the USA Today. It certainly was a point of departure from other newspapers as we learned how to decode the meaning of these artistically created graphs and charts that appeared in the paper. For many, it was a new way to digest information and make sense of an enormous amount of data in a condensed format.

But what tools are out there that can help students, educators and business people create well designed graphics without the need to be a professional graphic artist. While there are a number of applications that come to mind for creating educational and business graphics all assume some degree of artistic ability which may not be the case. One application which I was recently introduced to called SmartDraw 2008 takes a very unique approach to designing your presentation graphics. Using both templates and wizards you can produce professionally looking graphics within minutes of opening the application. SmartDraw 2008 is a Windows based application that will run on Vista, XP or Windows 2000. Before I write about SmartDraw 2008 I would like to thank Laurence Favrot, from SmartDraw for providing me with a copy of SmartDraw 2008 to review. SmartDraw 2008 is a comprehensive business and educational graphics application that supports creating the following types of graphics:

• €Flowcharts
• € Org Charts
  
• € Project Timelines
  
• € Gantt Charts
  
• € Marketing Charts
  
• € Bar Graphs & Pie Charts
  
• € Forms
  
• € Floor Plans
  
• € Scheduling Calendars
  
• € Mind maps
  
• € Mapping applications
  
• € and much more.
  

SmartDraw 2008 unlike other applications has you start with the end point in mind as you first select the template for the graphic that you are going to create. For the purpose of this demonstration I have decided to create a timeline. So first I select the Timeline SmartTemplate from the list of available templates. Once I have selected the a timeline template, I am presented with the template on the screen and can now use the SmartPanel to add individual
elements to my timeline. Setting the timeline's start and end times is easy to accomplish. I found the the process to be very intuitive and straightforward. If you do need assistance you can click on the Help icon and the Smarthelp panel will open to guide you through the process. One of
SmartDraw's strengths is the way it formats the graphic for you creating color styles and schemes that always produce professionally looking graphics. By simply selecting the timeline element I can apply a consistent color theme to my timeline with a click of the mouse. Because it is so easy to do you can easily test out different color themes to see what the results are
before printing out your graphic. Another strength of SmartDraw 2008 is its tight integration with Microsoft Office. With a click of the mouse I was able to transfer my timeline to Microsoft Word. For that matter I could have sent it to Excel, PowerPoint or saved it as a PDF file to share with others. SmartDraw 2008 has an extensive library of graphics to choose from which I was able to use to adorn my timeline. For someone who was new to SmartDraw 2008 I quickly became comfortable with the Smart Template and SmartPanel approach as was able to complete the timeline rather quickly.

There are hundreds of SmartTemplates to choose from when you first launch the
program, which gives you lots of starting out options. I did take a look at the mind mapping options in SmartDraw 2008, which is a new feature. While SmartDraw 2008 does give you the option to create and print mind maps it is not an ideal tool if you are planning to use your mind maps to manipulate or organize your information.

One of the new features of the latest upgrade to SmartDraw 2008 are LiveMaps
which lets you pull live map data off of the web and include it in your graphic. Using the Tele Atlas maps you can zoom in and select satellite view or hybrid views. I found it very easy to integrate the maps into my presentation graphic- and it is certainly a powerful feature that has been included in SmartDraw 2008.

Overall, I found SmartView 2008 to be an easy to use application for creating professionally designed graphics without the need to be a graphics artist. Using the system of SmartTemplates, SmartPanels, and SmartHelp moves you through the process of designing your graphic with all the right scaffolds in place. It is nice to know that the supports are in place if you need them or if you are more inclined you can manually design your graphic. If you are looking for one drawing program to help you communicate information in a professional manner then I would suggest you take a look at SmartDraw 2008. With SmartDraw's large SmartTemplate and graphics library I'm sure you will find a place for SmartDraw 2008 in your presentation toolkit- I know I have! If you are interested in trying out SmartDraw 2008 you can download a trial version from the website.