When a plan or project I’m working on just doesn’t come together in my head, sometimes I like to do some visual brainstorming to tighten things up for myself. Tried a few different options for flowchart software that were either too clunky, too complicated for my taste or stored oneline (not fond of that). Many times I just sit down with pen and paper to scratch it all out.

Here’s something I found that fits the bill perfectly for creating flowcharts: IHMC CmapTools

The CmapTools program empowers users to construct, navigate, share and criticize knowledge models represented as concept maps. It allows users to, among many other features, construct their Cmaps in their personal computer, share them on servers (CmapServers) anywhere on the Internet, link their Cmaps to other Cmaps on servers, automatically create web pages of their concept maps on servers, edit their maps synchronously (at the same time) with other users on the Internet, and search the web for information relevant to a concept map.

The CmapTools client is free for use by anybody, whether its use is commercial or non-commercial.

Platforms: Windows, Mac OSX, Linux (Intel), Solaris (Sparc)

It’s quite easy to use and after playing with it all night I haven’t found anything to complain about.