You don’t need to create an account or login to get started: just head to the Diagramly site. The bulk of the screen is taken up by a blank grid, where you’ll create your diagram. Along the left-hand side of the screen are palettes of shapes (rectangles, circles, connecting lines,  arrows, etc.), BPM flowchart symbols, and clip art — to use these you just drag and drop them onto your grid, and then preposition and scale as required. At the top of the screen you’ll find tools for adjusting things like zoom level, text size, gradients and fills, and line color. There are also undo/redo, copy/paste and file open/save buttons at the top-left.

Once you’re happy with your diagram, you can save it locally (either in Diagramly’s native XML format, or as a PNG, JPG or SVG file). Unfortunately, there’s no option to save your diagram to the cloud, and you can’t collaborate in real-time with other Diagramly users, which would have been nice features to see. Cleverly, you can open Visio files using the app; if nothing else, Diagramly could prove handy for those times that people send you a Visio file and you don’t have it installed.

If you’ve used a desktop diagramming app like Visio, Diagramly will probably feel familiar. It does have some quirks that take a little getting used to: Some of the icons in the left-hand sidebar don’t really match the shapes produced, for example. However, while it’s not quite as polished as commercial desktop diagramming apps, it’s free, and with a little patience it’s capable of producing pretty decent results.

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Fast and Easy

The learning curve on working with the LucidChart is minimal: you can draw lines and add shapes with the click of a mouse, as well as drag and drop images from your desktop into your diagrams. You can collaborate in real time, with no limitations on the number of users who can be working on a given diagram at one time. Adding new members is a matter of a quick invitation. Bringing a team up to speed on using LucidChart is a trivial matter.

It’s worth noting that the CEO of LucidChart, Karl Sun, came from another company that makes easy to use products — Google. There is a level of user-friendliness in LucidChart that would be nice to see in more web applications.

Considering Mobility

Because LucidChart is built entirely on open standards, making use of HTML5, it offers an advantage for anyone working from a mobile device that can’t handle Flash  s adbe), like the iPad. There’s no need to buy and install a separate application for mobile devices. Considering that mobile diagramming tools can get pricey (one iPad application costs $49), that flexibility makes LucidChart stand out. If you’re working with a team that needs to be able to access flowchart and diagrams from a variety of devices, LucidChart may be your best bet.

Pricing for Teams

While LucidChart has a free version, it allows just one user to interact with the diagrams created in the application. With a Professional account, however, 25 people can collaborate on as many diagrams as your organization needs. The price tag for a Professional account is $50 per month. If you need to bring in more than 25 users, you’ll need to contact LucidChart for its enterprise solutions. That pricing is lower than many comparable products, many of which may require more work to keep perfectly synchronized. A single license for Microsoft Visio, for instance, starts at $249 and can hit $999 if you’re looking at the premium version.

Let us know what you think of LucidChart below.

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SmartDraw 2010 from SmartDraw.com offers an easy-to-use drawing and diagramming solution for Windows, targeting those of us who aren’t professional graphic designers. It integrates with other tools, and has built-in features for creating diagrams for pretty much any business purpose: charts and graphs; floor plans; flow charts; matrices; mind maps; network diagrams; org charts; storyboards; project charts; timelines; and maps.

The application is available as a direct download from SmartDraw.com and costs $197 (for a single-user license), with a 30-day trial available.

Integration with Microsoft Project

The Project Chart feature includes the editing, formatting and management tools that you might enjoy in other full-featured project management applications. You also have the option to import and export Microsoft Project files. Once you’ve imported a Microsoft Project file into SmartDraw 2010′s Project Chart, you can continue modifying the overall project including time frame, tasks, milestones and properties. You also have the option to view your project chart as a Gantt chart, mind map or time line.

My import tests seemed to hang while SmartDraw 2010 was formatting the charts. Not a good sign, but despite the time it took, I was able to get very clean imports from Project into SmartDraw 2010.

Mind Mapping

Once thought of primarily as a brainstorming tool, mind maps are now used for communicating project requirements, process flows and creating other visualization artifacts. SmartDraw 2010 supports mind maps, though you may find the level of support basic compared to full-featured mind mapping applications like MindJet MindManager 8. I do like how SmartDraw 2010 includes a Mind Map view in its Project Chart feature.

Integration with PowerPoint

PowerPoint presentations do power many business meetings, even though the application lacks robust drawing tools. With SmartDraw 2010, you can plan out your PowerPoint presentations with the PowerPoint Storyboard feature, then import your storyboard directly into PowerPoint to give you a jumpstart on creating your presentation. You also have the option to send many of the charts and diagrams you create in SmartDraw 2010 directly into PowerPoint using a menu option.

Collaboration with Visio

SmartDraw 2010 includes a Visio import filter, which should assist collaboration between Visio and SmartDraw 2010 users working on the same project.

While I tend to gravitate towards Visio for my Windows-based drawing needs, I found SmartDraw 2010 to be an impressive tool with a well-rounded feature set. It should appeal to users who aren’t graphic designers and who need a diagramming tool with a short learning curve.

Have you used SmartDraw 2010? Share your experience below.

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Like most of the product in the Office suite, Microsoft Visio 2010 beta has been overhauled, making it easier to use and offering better options for creating and managing Visio diagrams, while also integrating real-time data into your drawings.

Pre-drawn Shapes, Sample Diagrams and Templates. I love all the shapes, sample diagrams and templates that Visio provides; they are a real productivity boost for me.  While these have always been an integral part of the application, Visio 2010 beta includes a growing library of business, engineering, flowchart, general, maps and floor plans, as well as network templates.

Subprocesses and Containers. Managing large and complex diagrams can be a daunting task for even experienced Visio users. Visio 2010 beta includes Subprocesses and Containers to group related shapes in a logical manner. You can break complex Visio diagrams down into more manageable pieces by using Subprocesses to create mini-diagrams on a separate page that then link to a Subprocess shape in a larger Visio diagram. I can see Subprocesses coming in especially handy for large process flow and network diagrams and look forward to trying them out on a client project. Shape management can also be a challenge when creating large Visio diagrams; you can use Containers to organize different sets of shapes.

Real-time data support & integration. While Visio is best known as a diagramming tool, with this release Microsoft  has made it an application front-end by enabling you to link your Visio diagrams with data sources including Excel, Access, SQL Server, SharePoint Services or any ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) data source using the Data Selector and Automatic Link wizards. It’s easy to think of Microsoft Visio as just a diagramming tool, but this feature offers a number of intriguing options for real-time data visualization.

What are your expectations for Microsoft Visio 2010? Share them below.

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Before I proceeded testing out an application, I wanted to have a better understanding of what mind mapping was all about so I went to Wikipedia for a definition:

A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.

The more I read, the more I was excited to try mind mapping in some form because I certainly could use some help with organization, problem solving and decision making in my Web working business.

What I immediately liked about bubbl.us is that the moment I arrived at the site, all I had to do was click a big button that said “Start Brainstorming,” and I was presented with my first bubble ready for me to fill it in.

By hovering my cursor over the bubble, I was given pop up descriptions of each feature such as: click and drag to move the bubble, create a sibling bubble under same parent, create a new child bubble, select bubble color, even connect two bubbles with a directional line. For someone who gets hives from reading the manual, these bite-sized instructions available to me at any time as I built my map was like ambrosia.

The first map I made was for my company, Moonbow Productions, Inc. I wanted to get a sense of what services I offer to clients. This map took less than 10 minutes to produce.

The next map I made was to get a grip on the many “irons in the fire” or projects I have in progress. This map took me 20 minutes to produce.

The last map I made was a list of services I offer with the corresponding clients who are utilizing the various services. This map took me 10 minutes to produce.

In less than 40 minutes, I had three different ways of visualizing the work I do on a daily basis and a much clearer perspective of where I spend my time.

As usual, I’m only scratching the surface of the features of yet another Web app, but with this tiny scratch, I’ve really taken care of a big mind itch.

How Mind Mapping Can Help Web Work

Here are some of the ways might think of using mind mapping:

1. Visualize how your work is distributed. Where are the profit centers, and are you focusing most of your time and energy on those?

2. Identify loss leaders. Where are you spending time during your work day that isn’t having a direct impact on your bottom line?

3. Organize tasks. How can you group tasks together to be more efficient with the work you do each day?

4. Plan for expansion. If you are looking to grow your business, what areas should you augment? What areas could you pare down because they aren’t really paying the bills to make room for new things?

5. Diversify. Are you concentrating too much on a single area of Web work? What if that work dries up? What other areas can you branch into in order to have other options

If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of mind mapping, you might want to take a look at “The Mind Mapping Manifesto” by Chuck Frey or go to his blog The Mind Mapping Software Blog. Although his material seems very “salesy” at first, you can find some gems tucked in between the hard sales pitches.

“You’re a victim of ‘information overload,’” says Frey. “To survive, you need to sift through a mountain of information, ideas and knowledge, synthesize meaning from it and communicate it in reports, plans and other business reports.”

Don’t we all!

Are you mind mapping and if so, how are you doing it and what has it done for you?

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