Mindmapping is a process for organising ideas and facts that uses both sides of the brain. This helps learning because it is easier to remember facts and they can be quickly moved around topics.

Freemind is an opensource mindmapping tool, so it is completely free to download and use. The only requirement is that the Java Runtime Environment is installed first.

A Freemind documents starts like any othe mind map with a central theme or idea. Related ideas are represented as branches from this central idea with as many sub topics as required.

Branches and topics can be marked with icons and surrounded with lines to show they are grouped. The topics in branches can be collapsed to stop the map from getting too crowded.

Finished maps can be exported in a variety of formats, including HTML, PDF, JPG and OpenOffice Writer.