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loadingreports667 · 4 years ago

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Free Flowchart Software Mac

Flowcharts are used for graphically visualizing a matter. Rather than just having a theory based knowledge, if the learners are provided with graphs, charts, symbols, diagrams, etc. the knowledge are believed to be most strongly imprinted in their minds and thus help improve the overall result or outcome. But, actually having to draw a flowchart using a pen, the paper might seem harsh, especially when there are many complicated things to be explained. So, with the advent of flowchart software, it becomes really simple to design your flowcharts according to your needs and demands. Here's a list of top flowchart software for your varying needs.

1. Gliffy

This software can be used for various needs like documentation of a decision flow or the approval process, illustrate a particular software or product development and production process, create an infographic etc. It is an HTML 5 based diagramming tool so it is twice as fast as Flash and can be operated on any type of modern web browser. It supports an easy drag and drop interface. Even while being on the browser itself, you can edit your flowcharts and share them by just sending your URL to the required people. See Also: - Top 9 Photo Stitching Softwares You Must Try They even come with various types of templates and themes that can help you get started on developing a software. On the free account, you can afford up to 5 free diagrams (2 MB limit) and after that you need to shift to the paid versions whose price starts from $3.99.

2. XMind

This is one of the old and most recognized chart creating tool that offers you a lot of varieties and features and can work correctly on Linux, Windows and Mac OS, X. It has 10 new amazing fonts and themes that are cross-platforms and open-sourced and thus can help you beautify your maps and charts looks. The three essential parts are relationship, boundary and summary where the relationship between and two topics on a graph on a map can be shown with the help of customized lines, Boundaries let you emphasize on a certain topic or content by making a closed area over those contents and the summary provides you with a lucid overview of those topics. See Also: - 10 Best Clothing Design Software for Windows This software makes use of marker to highlight any relevant matter or any type of priority or progress, etc. For each subject, you can give a single or numerous label depending upon your uses and needs. Presenting your job or slide becomes even easier with the help of slide-based presentation. It does come with a free plan that is useful for very basic use, but if you intend to use it with more advanced features then you can purchase a license to extend their functionalities.

3. yED

This powerful desktop application can run for free on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and all other Java Virtual Machine Supported platforms. Along with the intuitive user interface, it also allows you to import data from .xls or XML files. See Also: - 10 Best Clothing Design Software To Download for Mac With the help of pre-made templates, the entire process of designing a flow chart will be made even easier. You can bring in various documents, images and designs from other sources into yED and the software will arrange them into a full-fledged top quality flow chart. Even if your diagram consists of the many complexities and diversities, the software will untangle them and give you a simpler looking layout to make your understanding better. yED makes it easy to create, edit and handle diagrams by making use of simple mouse, touch and keyboard gestures. It also covers a broad range of deployment and platforms so that you can run it on your own platform.

4. Lucid Charts

Lucid Charts come with an intuitive and collaborative diagramming solution that attends to all your varied types of diagramming worries. It also offers high compatibility with other programs like google apps and also provides support with Microsoft visio documents. See Also: - 10 Best Car Designing Software | Both Free & Paid It has separate categories and functionalities for making flowcharts for producing engineers, business related work and to design related work. As it is not a software, but an online web page, so you need not have any updating software problem or no additional downloads, etc. The simple drag and drop options and scalability option really perk up your flowchart making experience. Also, as it is built on HTML 5 and web standards so, it can function correctly on almost any major browser or Internet-enabled device.

5. Creately

This offline tool supported by WYSIWIG based software come with over 1000 ready made templates and examples that can serve almost every type of your need, just to make your flowchart creating experience really free from problems. With the help of one-click create, drag and drop shapes, easy arrow heads and styles changing, simple aligning, sizing and grouping etc. the flowchart becomes very easy to draw. Sometimes when it's difficult for you to draw a shape to represent some idea or text in your flowchart, then you can just write it down as a text and the software will change it to complex forms accordingly. See Also: - 10 Best Software to Create Fabulous T-Shirt Designs With the help of connectors, lines and shapes can be matched correctly to the linking forms. With the aid of real-time collaboration, you can invite anyone to collaborate with your flowchart and if they make any change to your flowchart then it will be visible to you simultaneously and they can even leave you their own comments and reviews regarding the necessary modifications in the flowchart. Also, if you want hen you can import visio and visio stencils directly to your working field on Creately. You can also import your flowcharts to Abode Illustrator, Inkspace, MS, Visio etc. for modification. It is compatible with Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and the price is free for up to 5 diagrams and then you will be charged with minimum $5 per month.

6. Smart Draw

This notable drawing software comes with varied range of applications and features, thus making it one of the most sought after drawing tool. You can also include shapes, photos, images and diagrams using keystrokes and keyboard. With nearly 100 of templates and 70 different types of diagrams, charts, and other visuals, your whole process of flowchart creation becomes really simple. See Also: - 10 Best Transcription Software for Windows (Free+Paid) With the help of Smart Draw cloud, you can create and edit diagrams in modern browsers on both Mac and Windows. As it offers high compatibility, so you can export your diagram to Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook and can also save your drawing to Dropbox, Google Drive or One Drive. Furthermore, with the help of built-in examples and drawing tools, the process of creating a complex flowchart becomes extensively straightforward and easy.

7. Draw.io

This diagram application is free to use and offers excellent solutions and offers to build your flow charts. It is made on Google Drive (TM) using which you can create not only flowcharts but also UML, entity, relation, network diagrams, etc. With the help of simple drag and drop techniques, it becomes easy for anyone to use this free application. As soon as you visit the website, you can get on with drawing your flowchart without wasting any time on unnecessary registration information, login details, advertisements, etc. The files get saved as a .xml file and can be used by various other programs. You can export your diagrams in the format of .jpg, .png, .pdf, .gif and .svg so as to enable the method of sending the file via e-mail or sharing them with others. One of the most attractive capability of draw.io is the availability of basic vector graphics. Your diagrams get saved to the Google Drive, so you don't have to be afraid of losing them. You can also resize, move or copy the images in your diagram according to your needs.

8. Cacoo

This software comes with lot many varieties of clip art and simple vector images to ease the process of flowchart creation. Furthermore, with the help of the option 'Find Stencils On the Cacoo Store,' you can search for even more clip arts and vector images. It can work on any PC and is also available as an app for Android users. See Also: - 10 Best Transcription Software for Mac (Both Free & Paid) With the help of the free account, you can save up to 25 sheets of diagrams. Then to continue using the services you can pay a minimum amount of $4.95 per month and become a premium user. Your charts are sure to be saved, secured and synced so that you can open them or use them whenever you need. Also, it offers you the option of viewing real-time changes in your app and gives you the option of in-app chat. Your diagrams can be exported to various other formats like jpg, png, pdf, etc.

9. Lovely Charts

It is used for creating a professional looking layout. Using this software, the creation of flowcharts, sitemaps, wireframes, basic symbols, etc. is possible. It works fine with Desktops, the web, and iPad. The Android version of this software is currently in progress and will be available soon. The user interface is too excellent and easy to understand and use. With the help of simple drag and drop option, you can add desired contents and images to your flow chart. The files and flowcharts can be exported in .png and .jpeg format. See Also: - Top Free 2D Animation Softwares And Cartoon Creator The desktop version comes free of cost, but it has a particular disadvantage that the features on the desktop version are limited compared to the web and iPad version. The paid version plans start with a minimal amount of $3.99/year.

10. Dia

This free, open source online diagramming software functions correctly with Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10, Linux and Mac OS X. This software carries features that are highly similar to Microsoft Viso app. With the help of this software, you can easily create various diagrams like Flowcharts, UML diagrams, Assorted Diagrams, Circuit to Network Diagrams, etc. on the go. It is also a storehouse of a large variety of symbols and tools that can ease out your process of diagram creation. Also, you can work simultaneously on more than one flowcharts or diagrams on multiple tabs. Your layouts get loaded and saved to a custom XML version which can then be exported to several formats such as XFIG, PNG, EPS, WMF or SVG. Moreover, if necessary the software allows you to take a printout of your diagrams too. It is the overall list of all the flowchart creation software, which can give you a well looking professional flow chart for any your need.

Aug 27, 2021 Download Strom Flow Chart Software for Mac to draw flow charts from ready-made components. 3 months free with 1-year plan. Download Now Best for customer support. This good tool for making flowcharts offers fifteen different flowchart shapes such as Decision, Connector, Process, Data etc. Best Flowchart Software for Mac. Explore these highest-rated tools to discover the best option for your business. Based on ratings and number of reviews, Capterra users give these tools a thumbs up. Select a product to learn more.

Analysts have discovered that learning with the utilization of flowcharts causes the brain to get a handle on the substance. Furthermore, with the consistent ascent in innovations, a few online Flowchart Software for MAC have been created to make online flowcharts.

These outlines don’t just assistance in ease in adapting yet in addition successively sorted out, helpful, and appealing.

Online Flowchart Maker Software utilizes important information sources and makes a yield as flowcharts according to the need of its clients. There have various prerequisites for various areas.

Though; a point by point stream diagram comprising of different subdivisions in an officially structured manner, having an excellent introduction would be ideal by the organizations in their meetings and conferences.

Top 11 Flowchart Software for Mac to Use in 2021

A rundown of probably the best online Flowchart Software for Mac and Windows has been assembled as per the necessities of its clients. They are as per the following:-

1. LucidChart

Want to work on a common platform for – diagram, collaboration, and visualization of data? Then LucidCharts serves you. The flowchart technology is cloud-based; hence you can start and share the diagrams irrespective of the device and browser.

The features of – optimization, brainstorming with remote teams, and multiple simultaneous collaboration allure many tech giants. Basic single account users can access LucidChart at $4.95 per month, while the Pro single has to pay $8.95 per month. Free users have limited access to features with only 60 objects per diagram, but Team accounts have to pay $20 per month to avail services.

2. Google drawings

It is essentially free diagramming software. It is available as a web and desktop application on Google’s Chrome OS. You can create flowcharts, mind maps, concept maps, and other diagrams as well.

You can even collaborate with other users in real-time. It is a common platform for all other google applications – Docs, sheets, slides, forms, sites, and keeps. Easy to import, download and create files like – PDF, SVG, JPEG, etc. hence highly recommended.

3. Cacoo

The main idea of this software is to encourage teams to work together. Hence highlighting the idea of cross-platform diagram sharing. Not only preferred by developers and Designers but also collaborators.

It is packed with features of editing, tracking, and conversing cross-platform or in the same room simultaneously. The integration of the work with other apps, deeper cross-functional teamwork, highly intuitive tools, and charming templates are highly recommended. It even has a free version with a free trial, but with limited features, so you can access it for $6.00 per feature per month.

4. Visme

Do not worry; even if you are a beginner or non-designer, you can still create amazing diagrams. This facility is provided by Visme.

It is essentially a seamless platform for the presentation of social media images, infographics, etc.

Best Free Flowchart Software Mac

It would help you build the brand of your work. Visme is free. But premium users have access to core features.

5. Draw.io

It is primarily a free online diagram software. You can save your diagrams to Google Drive, One drive, Device, Dropbox, GitHub, and GitLab. You can employ it to create your flowchart, online UML, and designing the database schema.

It is enabled with a familiar interface hence highly compatible with the users. Compatible with Windows PC. Free and easy to use.

6. SmartDraw

One of the easiest and powerful flowchart makers. It has over 70 different diagram types, from flowcharts to floor plans. It is equipped with automatic formatting.

Easy collaboration with relatively higher enterprises. Even has the feature of – easy integration with other apps. Different sectors have to pay the following annually:

Enterprise- less than $1 per user per month.

Team- starts from $5.95 per user / month.

Individual- $9.95 per month

7. Visual Paradigm

Provides basic and advanced visualization. Essentially an online diagram drawing software. You can import diagrams from the cloud to the desktop.

Best online ER diagram tool. Essentially employed for enterprise scaling, versioning, and tracking. Highly preferred over SmartDraw, LucidChart, Viso, etc., by highly interactive Interface and amazing user-friendly features.

8. Gliffy

Want to create diagrams without installing the apps? Then the right tool for you is Gliffy. The created diagrams- Venn, UML, flowcharts, floor plans, etc. can be shared, edited on a real-time basis.

Diagram And Flowchart Software Mac

Essentially an HTML5 cloud-based online app. The price starts at $3.99 per feature per month. No free trials are provided, but free versions are available if you wish to go hassle-free.

9. Textografo

Free Flowchart Software For Mac Os X

Need someone to auto-format for you? Here is the best tool at your service- Textografo. Essentially a cloud-based diagramming tool.

You can create top-notch flow charts, mind maps, decision trees, etc. Used in almost all industries for designing softwares and new processes. It starts at $4.00 per feature per month with facilities of free version and free trials.

10. WireFlow

Need an application to document your workflows? Tackle the complex interactions for mobile and web apps? It is the best tool for you. Essentially a hybrid design document combines wireframing and flow diagramming. It is free and open-source.

11. YED

Free Flowchart Software Mac Version

Amazing for general-purpose diagramming. It. Has a multi-document interface written in Java? It is compatible with Linux, Mac OS, and Windows. It loads and saves diagrams from/to Features like automatic layout, large diagram printing visualization, edit, allure even many commercial designers. Free of cost and extremely user-friendly.

Best Free Flowchart Software

Eleggible’s Final Words

We have checked on and thought about the best flowchart software for mac right now. Draw.io is best for chipping away at all stages.

Lucid Chart is the best online flowchart maker as a result of its joint effort highlights and its similarity with Microsoft Visio.

It works best for drawing straightforward and complex outlines. Visme is an infographic and introduction instrument which can be utilized by little and enormous associations.

Flow Chart Template Mac

Smart Draw is valuable for everybody who needs to draw an outline. Visual Paradigm is best for Software engineers. Gliffy has great cooperation includes and is best for learners.

Textografo is an electronic flowchart producer that gives the highlights of group-based job featuring and going layouts to graphs. Google Drawings is a free online instrument for making drawings. Cacoo is best for making custom outlines and charts.

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tttree780 · 4 years ago

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Best Free Java Code Editor For Mac

Below you’ll find 12 first-class free text editors that are designed with coders’ needs in mind. Whether you use a Windows, Mac, or Linux machine – you’ll find a few options here that will satisfy your code-authoring needs. These IDEs offer a variety of features, like: building Java applications, TestNG, debugging, code inspections, code assistance, JUNIT testing, multiple refactoring, visual GUI builder and code editor, Java, Maven build tools, ant, do data modelling and build queries, and more. 14 Best Free HTML Editors. Arachnophilia is an open source HTML editor written in Java. Bluefish is an open source code editor that can run on Linux, Mac OS X.

Free Java Code Coverage Tool

Free Text Editor For Mac

Best Text Editors For Mac

Whether you’re a developer or a writer, a good text editor is a must-have on any computer, in any operating system. The humble text editor is great for managing code, writing down quick notes, or just as a distraction-free writing tool. This week, we’re looking at five of the best, based on your nominations.

Earlier this week we asked you for your favorite text editors, and while you suggested far more than we can highlight here, there were a few that earned more nominations than the others. Here are the tools you liked the best:

Sublime Text

Cross-platform and feature packed, Sublime Text was a crowd favorite in the call for contenders thread, partially because of its amazing feature-set. Plug-ins and add-ons are available for specific programming languages and uses in Sublime Text, the app features extremely powerful search and go-to features, tons of keyboard commands to help you never have to take your hands off the keyboard while you use it, a distraction-free mode that lets you focus right on your work—whatever that work may happen to be, and much much more. Sublime Text has a tabbed interface so you can have multiple documents open at the same time, and a 10,000ft view on the right so you can see where in your document you are at any time. You can select multiple rows to make simultaneous changes, customize shortcuts to suit your own needs, and even chain shortcuts together to perform complex—but fast—operations. It’s remarkably powerful.

Sublime Text is available for Windows, OS X, and Linux. It’s distributed as evaluation software (meaning it’s free to try, but there’s no time limit on how long you can use it for free) and a full license will cost you $70. A full license is per user, so you can use it on as many computers as you like once you have one. In the call for contenders thread, those of you who nominated Sublime praised its impressive feature-set, developer-friendly plug-ins and API, side-by-side file comparisons, and much more. Read all about it in the nomination thread here and here.

Free Java Code Coverage Tool

Notepad++

Notepad++ has been around for a long time, and many users have only ever used Notepad++ when they’re ready to upgrade from Notepad or Wordpad. It’s stil under development though, and combines the simple interface of Notepad or Wordpad with advanced features that will make writers and developers happy. Some of them include a customizable interface that you can make as minimal or toolbar-rich as you choose, a document map so you can see where you are in your work at any time, a tabbed interface so you can work in multiple documents, auto-completion and text shortening, macro recording so you can customize shortcuts, and more. You also get customizable syntax highlighting, text folding and collapsable parts of the document (to make things easier to read,) and options you can use to launch the app under certain parameters, just to make your work easier.

Notepad++ is free (free as in free speech and free beer) and available for Windows only. You can grab it as an installable app, or a portable app to run from a flash drive or cloud storage service like Dropbox. If you’re not sure exactly what you’re looking for in a text editor, it’s a good place to start, especially because it’s free. You can donate to the project though, and if you enjoy it, you should. The code is available too, so if you’d rather contribute, you can do that as well. Those of you who nominated it praised its simplicity, wealth of plug-ins for just about every type of user, and of course, its price tag. Read all about it in the nomination thread here.

Vim (and Its Iterations)

Oh boy, Vim. Designed to bring the simplicity of Vi to every platform and person who needed a configurable but not-too-heavy text editor, Vim is one banner of the Holy Text Editor Grail Wars to march under. It’s not without good reason—Vim is cross-platform, free, and while it’s aimed squarely at programmers who want an interface they can tweak to their liking and really get some work done in, you don’t have to be a programmer to get the most use out of it. Instead, you just have to take the time to configure it so it works the way you prefer. It won’t hold your hand (although its extensive help is useful for beginners), but once you remember its keyboard shortcuts and commands, download tons of user scripts to apply to it to streamline your work, and learn your way around, it quickly becomes an essential tool. It supports dozens of languages, keeps a history of your actions so you can easily repeat or undo them, supports macro recording, automatically recognizes file types, and lives—once installed—at your command line.

Vim—and most of its iterations, which include editors that add a GUI to the app so you can launch it without resorting to the command line—are free (GPL licensed). It’s available for any operating system with a command line of just about any type, and it’s charityware, meaning instead of paying for the app, the team behind it suggests you donate to children in Uganda who could use the support via the ICCF. Those of you who praised Vim noted that it takes some commitment to learn, but once you’re familiar with it, the sky’s the limit. Read more in the nomination thread here.

Atom

Free Text Editor For Mac

Calling itself a text editor “for the 21st century,” Atom earned a lot of praise in the nominations round for being a text editor designed for the needs of today’s developers. It’s built by the team at GitHub, and incorporates some of the lessons the team there learned by managing so much code on a regular basis. It’s flexible, customizable, themeable, and even though it’s relatively new, it already has a large following and tons of plugins, thanks to its open API. It operates like a native application, and even the application package is customizable so you only get the modules you need. It packs a tabbed interface, multi-paned layout, easy file browser, and easy learning curve so you can get up and running with it quickly. There’s also solid documentation to help you get started if you need it. Only downside though: Atom is currently in private beta, and you’ll have to sign up for an invite and cross your fingers if you want to give it a try.

Atom is currently OS X only (10.8+), although Windows and Linux versions are on the roadmap. It’s also free to use while it’s in beta, but when it’s finished and released, the team behind it says it’ll be “competitively priced.” Those of you who nominated it praised its customizability and available plugins, and pointed to the tool’s potential to become one of the best and most powerful text editors we’ve seen in many many years. You can read more about it in the nominations thread here.

Update 07/2015: Atom has released its first stable, 1.0 version, along with fully supported versions for Windows and Linux! You can check out the details here.

Emacs (and Its Iterations)

If you’ve used an operating system with a command line interface, you’ve had Emacs available to you. It’s been around for decades (since Richard Stallman and Guy Steele wrote it in 1976), and its the other major text editor to stand behind in the Holy Text Editor Grail Wars. It’s not the easiest tool, but it’s definitely one of the most powerful. It has a steep learning curve, but it’s always there, ready for use. It’s had a long and storied history, but the version that most people wind up using is GNU Emacs, linked above. It’s richly featured, too—Emacs can handle almost any type of text that you throw at it, handle simple documents or complex code, or be customized with startup scripts that add features or tweak the interface and shortcuts to match your project or preference. Similarly, Emacs supports macro recording, tons of shortcuts (that you’ll have to learn to get really familiar with it), and has a ton of modules created by third parties to leverage the app for completely non-programming purposes, like project planning, calendaring, news reading, and word processing. When we say it’s powerful, we’re not kidding. In large part, its power comes from the fact that anyone can play with it and mold it into something new and useful for everyone.

Emacs is completely cross platform, with versions and derivatives available for Windows, OS X, Linux, and just about every other operating system on the planet. It’s free, as in both free speech and free beer, and comes with detailed help, tutorials, and guides to help you get started using it if you’re new to using Emacs. Those of you who praised it in the call for contenders thread highlighted its flexibility and power, complete customizability, and the fact that you can play Tetris in it, which is admittedly a nice bonus. You can read all about it in its nominations thread here.

Now that you’ve seen the top five, it’s time to put them to an all-out vote to determine the Lifehacker community favorite.

Honorable mentions this week go out to TextWrangler (OS X) and UltraEdit (Windows/OS X/Linux). TextWrangler, as BBEdit’s lighter brother, works equally well as a writing tool as it does a development tool, although it’s designed to be the latter. It’s a great general-purpose text editor with an auto-saving cache that keeps all of your data and documents intact even if you don’t save them to disk between launching the application and closing it. UltraEdit on the other hand, is another crowd-favorite and sports a customizable layout, built-in FTP, find and replace that supports regular expressions, syntax highlighting, and more. Plus, it’s cross-platform. They’re both great options that just missed the top five if you want something more than the top five offers.

We really can’t say how many amazing nominees we got in the call for contenders thread this week. If you’re wondering where your favorite editor is, odds are it was nominated back in that thread, so make sure to go check it out. Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Don’t just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative is—and make your case for it—in the discussions below.

The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it didn’t get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it’s a bit of a popularity contest. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at [email protected]!

Best Text Editors For Mac

Title photo by Darrell Nash.

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chipotle · 5 years ago

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Panic's Nova text editor (a review)

Review: Panic’s Nova text editor

Panic, the long-established makers of Mac utility software, seems fully aware that introducing a new, commercial code editor in 2020 is a quixotic proposition. Is there enough of an advantage to a native editor over both old school cross-platform editors like Emacs and explosively popular new editors like Visual Studio Code to persuade people to switch?

I’m an unusual case as far as text editor users go: my primary job is technical writing, and the last three jobs that I’ve worked at have a “docs as code” approach, where we write documentation in Markdown and manage it under version control just like source code. The editor that works best for me in tech writing is the venerable BBEdit. When it comes to editing code, though, BBEdit lags behind. My suspicion is that BBEdit’s lack of an integrated package manager has hurt it here. Also, BBEdit’s language modules don’t support extending one another, making it effectively impossible to do full highlighting for a templating language like JSX or Jinja.

When I was a web programmer, I was one of many who moved to TextMate, and used it for everything for a while. When the Godot-like wait for TextMate 2.0 became unbearable, I wandered the text editing wilderness, eventually splitting my loyalties between BBEdit, Sublime Text, and more recently VS Code. At this point, I suspect nothing will pull me away from BBEdit for technical writing, but for programming I’m open to persuasion.

So: meet Nova.

I’ve been using Nova off and on in beta for months. I’ve reported some bugs, although I may mention a couple here that I didn’t catch until after 1.0’s release. And, I’m going to compare it to the GUI editors that I’ve been using recently: BBEdit, Sublime Text, and VS Code.

Nova is a pretty editor, as far as such things go, and with files of relatively reasonable size it’s fast. With stupid huge files its performance drops noticeably, though. This isn’t just the ridiculous 109MB, nearly 450,000-line SQL file I threw at it once, it’s also with a merely 2MB, 50,000-line SQL file, and Nova’s offer to turn off syntax highlighting in both files didn’t help it much. This may sound like a silly test, but in my day job I’m occasionally stuck editing an 80,000-line JSON file by hand (don’t ask). This is something BBEdit and VS Code can do without complaint. Panic wrote their own text editing engine for Nova, which is brave, but it needs more tuning for pathological cases like these. They may not come up often, but almost every programmer has one stupid huge file to deal with.

Nova has an integrated terminal and an integrated SSH client, and even an integrated file transfer system based on Panic’s Transmit. In fact, if you have Transmit and use Panic Sync, it knows all of those servers out of the box. Nova has a task workflow system for automating building and running. You can associated servers, tasks, and more with individual projects; Nova’s project settings are considerably more comprehensive than I’ve seen in other editors. You can even set up remote tasks. Nova has a serviceable Git client built in, too. Like VS Code, Nova uses JavaScript for its extension API, and it has built-in Language Server Protocol support—it’s a superbly solid foundation.

Beyond that, some smaller features have become table stakes for modern GUI editors, and Nova handles them with aplomb. “Open Quickly” can jump to any file in the open project, as well as search by symbols or just symbols in currently open files; it has a command palette; you can comprehensively edit keybindings. It has multiple cursor support for those of us who like that, and a “mini map” view for those of you who like that, although know that you are wrong. Nova’s selection features include “Select all in scope” and “Select all between brackets,” a command I often use in BBEdit and miss dearly in Code. (Both Nova and BBEdit select between brackets and braces, although BBEdit also selects between parentheses.) This effectively becomes “Select between tags” in HTML, a nice touch. There are a few other commands like “Select all in function” and “Select all in scope” that I didn’t have any luck in making work at all; a little more documentation would be nice.

That’s worth an aside. Panic has created a “library” of tech note-style articles about Nova sorted by publication date rather than an actual manual, and it’s not always easy to find the information you want in it. I know this is just what a technical writer would say, but I’d dearly like to see a human-organized table of contents starting with the editor basics and moving to advanced topics like version control, server publishing and extension authoring.

The Zen of Language Servers

A lot of Visual Studio Code’s smarts depend on the implementation of a “language server” behind the scenes: language servers offer almost spookily intelligent completion. For instance, take this PHP snippet:

if ($allowed) { $response = new Response(405); $response->

If you have the Intelephense PHP language server plugin, Code understands that $response is an instance of Response and, after you type the > above, offers completions of method names from the Response class.

Right now, Nova’s mostly limited to the language servers Panic provides, and they’re… not always so smart. In that snippet above, Nova starts by offering completions of, apparently, everything in the open project, starting with the variables. If I type “s,” it narrows things down to methods that begin with “s,” but it’s all methods that start with “s” rather than just the methods from Response. The “Jump to Definition” command shows a similar lack of context; if I highlight a method name that’s defined in multiple places, Nova shows me a popup menu and prompts me to choose which one to jump to, rather than introspecting the code to make that decision itself.

But, this is a solvable problem: there’s (I think) no reason someone couldn’t write an Inteliphense plugin for Nova. If Nova’s ecosystem takes off, it could be pretty formidable pretty quickly.

Walk like a Mac

Even so, LSP support isn’t Panic’s biggest selling point. Unlike Sublime Text or VS Code, Nova isn’t cross-platform: it’s a Mac-only program written to core platform APIs. Is that still a huge draw in 2020? (Is it instead a drawback?)

You can definitely see a difference between Nova and BBEdit on one side and Sublime and Code on the other in terms of resource usage. With the two Ruby files shown in the screenshot above loaded, I get:

VS Code: 355 MB, 6 processes

Sublime Text: 338 MB, 2 processes

Nova: 101 MB, 2 processes

BBEdit: 97 MB, 1 process

Code is an Electron-based program, although Microsoft famously puts a lot of effort into making it not feel like the black hole a lot of Electron-based apps are. Sublime uses its own proprietary cross-platform framework. In fairness, while us nerds like to harp on research usage a lot, if your computer’s got 16G or more of RAM in it, this probably isn’t a big deal.

You notice Nova’s essential Mac-ness in other ways. Its preference pane is, like BBEdit’s, an actual preference pane, instead of opening in another tab like Code or just opening a JSON file in a new tab (!) like Sublime. And while all editors better have first-class keyboard support—and Nova does—a good Mac editor should have first-class mouse support, too, and it does. You notice that in the drag-and-drop support for creating new tabs and splits. Nova’s sidebar is also highly customizable, possibly more so than any editor I’ve regularly used. (Yes, Emacs fans, I know you can write all of Nova in Lisp if you want. When one of you does that, please get back to me.)

Unlike BBEdit, though, Nova doesn’t have a Mac-like title bar, or a Mac-like outline view of the project files, or Mac-like tabs. (Well, BBEdit doesn’t have tabs at all, which turns out to be a great UI decision once you have a dozen or more files open, but never mind.) This isn’t necessarily bad; people often say BBEdit “looks old,” and it’s hard not to suspect that what people mean by that—whether or not they know it—is that it looks like the long-established Mac program it is. Nova is relying less on “we have a Mac UI and the other guys don’t” than on “we have Panic’s designers and the other guys don’t.” Make no mistake, having Panic’s designers counts for a lot.

What may be more disappointing to old school Mac nerds is AppleScript support: none whatsoever. It doesn’t even have a vestigial script dictionary. Again, this may not be something most people care much about; personally, I hate having to write AppleScript. But I love being able to write AppleScript. BBEdit’s extensive scriptability is one of its hidden strengths. Nova’s Node-based JavaScript engine is probably more powerful for its own extensions and certainly more accessible to anyone under the age of 50, but it may be hard to call it from external programs.

So is it worth it?

That probably depends on where you’re coming from.

If you loved—or still use—Panic’s older editor, Coda, this is a no-brainer upgrade. If you used Espresso, a Coda-ish editor that always seemed to be on the verge of greatness without ever reaching it, Nova may also be a no-brainer for you.

If you’re a fan of Sublime Text, BBEdit, TextMate, or another editor that doesn’t have native Language Server Protocol support, you should definitely try Nova. Sublime and TextMate have more plugins (especially Sublime), but many extensions seem to be languishing (especially TextMate). BBEdit never had a great extension ecosystem to start with. All of these editors have strengths Nova doesn’t, but the reverse is also true, and Nova may catch up.

If you’re an Emacs or Vim power user, we both know you’re just reading this out of academic interest and you’re not going to switch. C’mon.

If you use Visual Studio Code, though, it’s way tougher to make the case for Nova. Code has a vastly larger extension library. It has the best support for LSP of any editor out there (LSP was developed for Code). Despite being Electron-based, it’s pretty high-performance. Code doesn’t have an integrated SSH or FTP client, but it does have an integrated terminal and task runner and Git client. If you don’t object to using an editor that isn’t a “perfect fit” with the Mac UI, Code is very, very good… and it’s free.

I don’t object to Nova’s pricing model—$99 up front including a year of updates, $49 for future years of updates—but I can’t help but wonder if Panic should have gone with super aggressive introductory pricing. Also, I saw more than a few suggestions on Hacker News about how there should be a Code-to-Nova extension translator; I’m not sure automatic conversion would be practical, but a guide on manual conversion seems like an excellent idea.

For my day job of technical writing, I’m going to stick to BBEdit. (One day I’ll write up an article about why I think it’s the best “documentation as code” editor on the market.) For programming and web editing, when I was working on both a Ruby and a PHP project—the former a Rails learning exercise, the latter an obstinate “I am going to write a modern PHP app without using a framework” exercise—I kept trying Nova’s betas and then switching back to Code for Inteliphense and, I swear to God, MacVim for Tim Pope’s amazing rails.vim plugin. I suspect Nova could duplicate both of those, but I’m not sure I want to be the one to do it. (Also, while Panic has decent reference documentation for writing extensions, I’d like to see a few simple end-to-end walkthroughs for those of us who look at a huge list of reference topics and don’t know where to start.)

But Nova isn’t just pretty, it’s powerful, and has a lot of promise. The editors I’ve been comparing it to have been around since 2015 for VS Code, 2008 for Sublime Text, and 1992 (!) for BBEdit; it’s not reasonable to expect Nova to blow past them in every respect right out of the starting gate. Even so, they are Nova’s competition. Catching up fast is an essential requirement.

So: yes, I’ve bought Nova, and I’m rooting for Panic here. I’ll come back in a year and report if I’m willing to stay on the update train.

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xmind-crack-uz · 3 years ago

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💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥 Free download XMind v When editing, you can quickly open, close and switch views with just one click. This feature increases your work efficiency and improves your mind mapping experience enormously. XMind performs well in mind mapping field. It has a big crowd of users all over the world. Not only does it provide users functions in creating mind mapping but also offers open source. XMind aims to be the top cross-platform idea generation and brainstorming mind map software for Windows, Mac and Linux to help users boost efficiency. It is widely used for project management, brainstorming, concept management, meeting minutes taking, and business management and so on. Features of XMind Powerful mind mapping application designed to help you visually organize your ideas. Keeps track of your brainstorming sessions. Improves your problem solving capabilities in order to increase your productivity level. Enables you to generate master plans and ideas to inspire creativity. Makes your thoughts from disorder to order. Lets you choose from various types of diagrams, like flow charts, brainstorming charts, personal management, reading journals, and others. Helps you think more, think further. Empowers you to explore different creative pathways. Automatically store and synchronize mind maps online. Creates mindmaps using different structures such as Org-chart, Tree-chart, Logic-chart. Analyze the relation between different factors and develop strategies. Keeps your ideas and thoughts password protected. Exports mind-maps to the most common file formats including XML,.

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soulwebonline-blog · 6 years ago

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Consider Of Package With The Mind Map Software Application

Some freeware mind map software application is web-based and allows the users to team up and have their mind maps on the web and the users require to have flash on their system to have this performance. Another freeware mind map software application lets the user draw vibrant idea maps and mind maps with excellent visualization and likewise have automated subjects' design performance. Various complimentary mind map software application featured their own performance, users can have other performances in these mind map software application such as exports, free-float texts and images, color and font styles, abundant text notes, job details, summary exports and a lot more.

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concettolabs · 6 years ago

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Announcing Flutter Version 1.2 – With Development Dart Tool

One of the new addition into the arsenal for the app developers is Flutter. Basically, Flutter is a UI framework used to build beautiful, interactive and fluxional cross-platform native apps on Android and iOS using Google’s Dart programming language.

As Google has constantly worked on improving the performance and stability of the framework, Google has announced very first feature updated of Flutter known as Flutter 1.2 along with a new web-based suite of programming tools called as Dart DevTools with the purpose of analyzing and debugging apps.

The aim and focus area for launching Flutter 1.2 is to improve Performance, Stability, and Quality of the core framework. Responding to several highly demanded customer features like app bundles and in-app payments. Polishing work on the visual finish and functionality of existing widgets. Also to develop best Flutter applications adding new web-based tooling for developers.

With Flutter Version 1.2 updates the Cupertino widget tent to be set with improvements towards achieving constancy on iOS and Material widget to support more formable usage.

Flutter version 1.2 has a larger set of animation assistance functions with support for new mouse hover and keyboard events which are being made information for the desktop-class operating system in the near future.

This Version 1.2 includes an update for in-app purchases, for android app bundles, Dart 2.2 SDK that improves the performance for compiled code with its language support for declaring sets. Also bug fixings for maps, webview, and video player.

A Hope Development tool for Flutter Developers – Dart Dev Tools

With Flutter version 1.2 Google has introduced a new web-based suite of programming tool known as Dart Dev Tool; that can help Flutter developers to analyze and debug their build apps.

This tool includes tooling for inspecting and debugging Flutter and Dart both applications. This tool is available for installation together with Flutter’s extensions and add-ins for Android studio and Visual studio code.

Dart DevTools undertakes some of the capabilities such as:

A full source-level debugger that let the developer steps through the code, set breakpoints and explore the call stack.

The tree hierarchy used by Flutter for reproduction, this tool provide widget inspector that enable exploration and visualization for that.

Timeline view which helps to determine application at a frame-by-frame level which indirectly helps to identify the computational and reproduction work that can lead to animation ‘jank’ to the apps.

A Logging View: By this view can see all the activity log of an application as well as the framework, garbage collection event, and network.

A Future of Flutter: RoadMap

With these features, the main aim is on the growth of Flutter beyond mobile platforms. A hummingbird that brings Flutter on the web – a technical preview of this could be released by the near future.

The new Flutter Desktop Embedding that brings the framework to the desktop-class devices which could package and deploy apps for OS like Mac and Windows. The high-level details for RoadMap shared by google are some of the broad themes that have been established in the near future:

Fundamentals: These Fundamental contains performance improvements with new UI widgets and also some bug fixing as usual.

Ecosystem: These are what all the Flutter developers must want as it making easy for the Flutter users to do the things they need quickly.

Cross-Platform Support beyond mobile: As we have discussed above it’s nothing but an experiment – The Hummingbird project that can bring all the Flutter feature on the Web.

Dynamic Updates: The Dart Platform that is also known as hot-deployment that provide the ability to push or update the code without having to re-deploy apps.

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Originally Published by Concetto Labs > Announcing Flutter Version 1.2 – With Development Dart Tool

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hireindianpvtltd · 7 years ago

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Fwd: Urgent requirements of below positions.

New Post has been published on https://www.hireindian.in/fwd-urgent-requirements-of-below-positions-2/

Fwd: Urgent requirements of below positions.

We have an Urgent requirements of below positions.

Please see the job details below and let me know if you would be interested in this role.

If interested, please send me a copy of your updated resume, your contact details, your availability and a good time to connect with you.

Perforce SCM Engineer——->HILLSBORO, OR AEM ARCHITECT———>MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA Senior Workday Developer——->Rosemont, Illinois Test Lead- PeopleSoft—->Rosemont, Illinois Technical Lead- Eclipse. Java——->Peoria, IL Technical Lead- IoT or M2M——–>Peoria, IL Technical Consultant——–>Peoria, IL

Job Title Location Job Description Perforce SCM Engineer Oregon, Hillsboro

Duration: 6 Months

Experience: 8 Years

Visa: USC/GC/OPT EAD

Job Description:

Manage a large-scale distributed configuration of Perforce to serve teams operating worldwide. You will maintain and manage Perforce source code repositories for internal and open source projects as well as third party resources.

Responsibilities

Install, configure, administer, and extend Perforce for the purposes content development. This includes integrated code peer review, compilation, continuous integration, performance data collection and analysis, systems admin and monitoring, and more.

Work closely with build engineers on multiple content teams to train, mentor, and evangelize Perforce best practices.

Define and enforce best practice utilization of Perforce by end users.

Work with content and development teams to build systems around and support pipelines.

Define requirements for hosted servers and cloud services to accomplish Perforce based continuous integration systems.

Monitor and upgrade the servers and systems as necessary to enable distributed development among teams located in multiple studios worldwide.

Define, implement, and continuously improve workflows and processes including branching strategies and integration, site proxying and mirroring, disaster recovery, and archiving.

MUST HAVE

2+ years of experience implementing and managing Perforce based source code control and continuous integration systems, base source code control

2+ years of experience working with perl scripts

Experience supporting Perforce usage in a large organizations.

Scripting skills required in batch mode

Experience installing, configuring, and managing Helix Swarm

Experience acting as system administrator for Perforce running on Linux servers with clients on Windows, Mac, and Linux

Strong communication skills and the desire to teach and mentor other engineers with varying domains of expertise

Strong desire for continuing self-education in Perforce software and its best practices

Familiarity with an interactive experience development pipeline is a plus

Git/Github/Gerrit knowledge is a plus

Python/C# experience is a plus

AEM ARCHITECT California, Mountain view

Duration: 6 Months

Experience: 10-15 Years

Visa: USC/GC

Job Description:

Good knowledge of AEM 6.x Architecture and changes in the new platform including migration and upgrade process.

Should extensive knowledge of Sling framework at architecture level and to do customization on top of them

Should have knowledge of AEM administration and configurations

Should have knowledge of authentication against LDAP server., SSO, SAML etc.

Should have knowledge of secure web application development and deployment process.

Should have knowledge on Adobe AEM deployment options in on-premise and cloud.

Should have knowledge of integration third party applications/software with Adobe AEM

Should have knowledge of infrastructure/ sizing estimation

Work with Project teams/Tech Lead/Developers in defining application architectures and implementation to ensure adherence to business requirements, technology standards, best practices, business strategies

Translate requirements into detailed solutions for the new platform

Lead technical design sessions; architect and document technical solutions that are aligned to project objectives

Develop technical and conceptual design in support of the overall application design with respect to Adobe Marketing Cloud

Defines integrations between the Adobe Marketing Cloud Products (Adobe Analytics , Adobe Audience Manager, Adobe Target and Dynamic Tag Management)

Designing a solution architecture

Identifying components and templates for web pages

Identifying and recommending performance requirements

Identifying and recommending a security model

Senior Workday Developer Illinois, Rosemont

Duration: 3-6 Months

Job Description:

Should be able to the design and develop Integrations during the implementation of Workday.

Should have been involved in at least 1 full Workday Implementation project as an implementer developing integrations.

Experience designing and developing both outbound and inbound integrations using all of the Workday Integration types including EIB, Core Connectors, Cloud Connect and Workday Studio.

Experience with document transformation, XSLT, XPath and MVEL.

Experience creating Workday custom reports and calculated fields. General knowledge of 2-3 Workday functional areas.

Good understanding of Workday security.

Demonstrated ability to work and communicate effectively with all levels of Business and IT management

Excellent organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple projects effectively

Experience working with Agile and Waterfall methodologies

Test Lead- PeopleSoft Illinois, Rosemont

Duration: 3-6 Months

Job Description:

Good experience with Peoplesoft, Alfresco, API & Manual Testing

Review and analyze system specifications

Execute test cases (manual or automated) and analyze results

Evaluate product code according to specifications

Create logs to document testing phases and defects

Report bugs and errors to development teams

Help troubleshoot issues

Conduct post-release/ post-implementation testing

Work with cross-functional teams to ensure quality throughout the software development lifecycle

Technical Lead- Eclipse. Java Illinois, Peoria

Duration: 6+ Months

Visa: USC/GC

Experience: 7-12 Years

Job Description:

Can navigate and build Java projects in Eclipse. Java

Has strong experience in

– Writing distributed applications

– Writing highly parallelized applications

– Writing fault tolerant applications

Object oriented design and SOLID principles

SqlServer — 1+ Years

SQL — 3+ Years Strong understanding of data modeling and complex queries and update statements to databases

Entity Framework — Able to map new objects to the database, write and optimize queries, do updates, and handle transactions.

REST –1+ Year Knowledge of building and designing rest interface. Experience optimizing or writing apis with high throughput and fast response times

Develop and deliver business feature user stories as determined by the Technical Lead and Product Owner in the slotted sprints.

Report on common sources of technical issues or questions and make recommendations to product team

Communicate key insights and findings to product team

Constantly be on the lookout for ways to improve monitoring, discover issues and deliver better value to the customer

Delivery of business user stories and defect resolution for CCDS Program Increment 9

– Must have code coverage of 85% at minimum

– Must have all code reviewed and approved by Technical Lead or delegate

– Must have all newly developed user stories reviewed and approved by Product Owner

– Must have all defect fixes reviewed and approved by Quality Assurance Lead and Technical Lead

Technical Lead- IoT or M2M Illinois, Peoria

Duration: 6+ Months

Visa: USC/GC

Experience: 7-12 Years

Job Description:

Experience in internet of things (IoT or M2M) verticals and evolving connected car call flow is desired

Knowledge and experience with Platform as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service environments or other application development platforms.

Experience in industry leading IOT/IIOT platforms such as Azure IOT HUB, GE Predix, Siemens Mind sphere

Knowledge of the complete lifecycle of IOT device Lifecycle Implementation

Familiarity with Java, .NET, Python, Nodejs, Python, JavaScript, C, REST APIs and SOAP

Experience in Azure native development

Experience on Single board microcontroller and its configuration like Ardunio Yun, Raspberry Pi etc.

Experience on device management and connected devices

Experience on Rest Services and security management in data sensing.

Experience on Message Management services & RDMS

Experience on creating and parsing JSON object will be added advantage.

Familiarity machine learning, artificial intelligence Python / R / Scala / Julia

Fundamental understanding of GSM, GPRS, LTE networks and SS7, RADIUS, SMPP protocols

Must be able to work independently, responding to customer requirements and driving them to solution without supervision

Participate in the specification, design, and provide inputs in development of IOT Software applications and IoT Data Connect.

Familiarity with Linux kernel, Linux device driver and RTOS is a plus

Familiarity with internetworking technologies and understanding of networking protocols.

Drive towards continuous improvement through Digitization and integration of IT and OT world.

Contribute across the broader team on initiatives to integrate various components with IOT Platform.

Define and develop architecture framework based on industry standards and build actionable solutions for practical, implementable architectural vision and framework tailored to customer requirement.

Build professional quality engineering design documents and presentation material targeted for enterprise clients

Technical Consultant Illinois, Peoria

Duration: 6+ Months

Experience: 7 -12 years

Job Description:

Strong problem solving skills with an emphasis on product development.

Experience using statistical computer languages (R, Python, SLQ, etc.) to manipulate data and draw insights from large data sets.

Experience working with and creating data architectures.

Knowledge of a variety of machine learning techniques (clustering, decision tree learning, artificial neural networks, etc.) and their real-world advantages/drawbacks.

Knowledge of advanced statistical techniques and concepts (regression, properties of distributions, statistical tests and proper usage, etc.) and experience with applications.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills for coordinating across teams.

A drive to learn and master new technologies and techniques.

We’re looking for someone with 5-7 years of experience manipulating data sets and building statistical models, has a Master’s or PHD in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science or another quantitative field, and is familiar with the following software/tools:

Coding knowledge and experience with several languages: C, C++, Java,

JavaScript, etc.

Knowledge and experience in statistical and data mining techniques: GLM/Regression, Random Forest, Boosting, Trees, text mining, social network analysis, etc.

Experience querying databases and using statistical computer languages: R, Python, SLQ, etc.

Experience using web services: Redshift, S3, Spark, DigitalOcean, etc.

Experience creating and using advanced machine learning algorithms and statistics: regression, simulation, scenario analysis, modeling, clustering, decision trees, neural networks, etc.

Experience analyzing data from 3rd party providers: Google Analytics, Site Catalyst, Coremetrics, Adwords, Crimson Hexagon, Facebook Insights, etc.

Experience with distributed data/computing tools: Map/Reduce, Hadoop, Hive, Spark, Gurobi, MySQL, etc.

Experience visualizing/presenting data for stakeholders using: Periscope, Business Objects, D3, ggplot, etc.

Thanks, Steve Hunt Talent Acquisition Team – North America Vinsys Information Technology Inc SBA 8(a) Certified, MBE/DBE/EDGE Certified Virginia Department of Minority Business Enterprise(SWAM) 703-594-5490 www.vinsysinfo.com

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jenniferverdon · 7 years ago

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Top 20 Customer Journey Mapping Tools: An Overview

With rising customer expectations, the need to deliver an exceptional customer experience (CX) is at an all-time high. And frankly, the best way to achieve this superior level of CX is to visualize it – which is often done using a process called customer journey mapping.

This essentially tells the story of the customer’s experience – which starts at the initial point of contact all the way through to a long-term relationship – giving us critical information about key interactions along the way. For this process to be a successful one and because it can be quite complex, many businesses seek the assistance of customer journey mapping tools.

Here are 20 different customer journey mapping tools that will help you create customer journey maps that both fit your needs as well as your budget! Why are customer journey maps so complex exactly? This is mostly attributed to the fact that there is not just one single way to create one. It often comes down to preference…. Here are three types of tools that aid in creating customer journey maps:

Journey Mapping & Visualisation Tools

Customer Experience Software & VoC Software

Collaboration Software

Let’s take a look at each of these in more detail and that tools that fall under them…

Journey Mapping & Visualisation Tools

For those seeking a solution to simply visualize the journey, journey mapping & visualization tools might be the best option. These tools allow users to visualize the journey using flowcharts, diagrams and other more technically sophisticated charts.

1. Microsoft Visio

Microsoft Visio is software used for creating a variety of diagrams and flowcharts. With this visualization tool, users can create simple or more complex customer data diagrams. It also offers a wide variety of built-in shapes, objects, and stencils to work with. The main idea behind Visio is to make diagramming as easy as possible for the user. Note: this is a Microsoft product, sold as an addition to MS Office. Pricing: Standard: $299, Professional: $589, and Pro for Office 365 $15/month. Website: www.products.office.com

2. Gliffy

Gliffy is a web-based editor use to create and edit diagrams. Though Gliffy is a bit too lightweight for highly technical diagrams, especially those that require collaboration to draft, it offers plenty of simple features such as Venn diagrams and organizational charts. With a free account, you can only make a total of five diagrams and all the diagrams you make are public. This means if you need to draw something confidential, such as company networking maps, it is not advised to use the free version. Pricing: Free, Professional: $7.99/month, Team: $4.99 per user/month, Website: www.gliffy.com

3. Canvanizer

Canvanizer is a mapping software that can be used for many different areas of your business including the customer journey. You can develop, brainstorm and structure ideas and concepts with your team on a canvas. You can use it as a daily task manager, where you distribute tasks to your colleagues and keep track on their progress. There are pre-built templates for different types of projects as well as the possibility to import spreadsheets from a CSV file, or you can start from scratch with a blank canvas. Pricing: Free Website: www.canvanizer.com

4. XMind

XMind is an open-source platform that combines idea management and idea-mapping into a single software solution. The software comes with commercial extensions for the world’s leading operating systems – such as Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, and Linux. This journey mapping solution allows users to easily integrate it into their products, place data securely into XMind Files, or create their very own mind mapping application. With great usability, a simple and straightforward interface, and a nice set of functionalities, XMind helps developers achieve effective communication and collaboration. Pricing: XMind 8: Free, Xmind 8 Plus: $79 XMind 8 Pro: 499 Website: www.xmind.net

5. OmniGraffle

OmniGraffle (created by OmniGroup) is a diagramming tool that can be used for everything from wireframe design to interior design. With this tool, users can create precise and neat customer journey maps that can then be shared with colleagues. Everyone from professional artists and designers to casual data mappers and beginning diagrammers can make use of OmniGraffle. What makes OmniGraffle exceptional is how easy it is to get started. Pricing: There are various packages ranging from $49.99 to $199.99 depending on if you want Standard or Pro and if you’re using it on Mac or iOS app. Website: www.omnigroup.com/omnigraffle

6. Smaply

Smaply is a visual customer experience management software that helps users map customer engagement and experiences with their company. Using maps and graphical tools, Smaply makes customer journeys tangible. The software also features a mapping tool for stakeholders to visualize product ecosystem and help companies get a clearer picture of metrics and parties that impact their product. The software has three main outputs: Personas, Journey maps and Stakeholder maps. A Persona editor allows you to describe and define the context of customer types visually, like looking at real social user profiles. On the other hand, the Journey maps editor helps you create storyboards, text lanes and channel lanes to plot customer experience. Pricing: Starter: $25/month, Regular: $50/month, Business: $100/month, Enterprise: by request. Website: www.smaply.com

7. Touchpoint

Touchpoint Dashboard is a web-based tool for customer journey mapping. It is a method for visualizing processes and services from the client’s perspective. The main purpose of Touchpoint Dashboard is to improve all customer touchpoints in order to enhance customer experience. Companies of any size in any industry can use it to visualize the customer experience, map every interaction and store key customer data behind each touchpoint. Pricing: Pricing on request Website: www.touchpointdashboard.com

8. IBM Journey Designer

IBM Journey Designer allows users to start creating customer journeys in minutes. Marketing, sales and customer service can collaboratively visualise cross-channel journeys, set common marketing goals and design tailored customer experiences for various priority segments in a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface. Users can also engage in conversations, send files and notify team members of any activities while building customer journeys. Pricing: Not available Website: www.ibm.com

9. CFN Insight

With CFN Insight (a journey mapping tool created by CustomersFirstNow), you can identify every customer touchpoint, assign a business owner who is accountable for improving the appropriate metrics and success of their touchpoints, and who can manage the workflow of changing and improving your overall CX. This tool also gives you insights into interactions at every stage of the journey (from the customer’s perspective) as well as provides a way of linking customer feedback data and other insights to improving your business. Pricing: Not available Website: www.customersfirstnow.com

Customer Experience and VoC Software

For a more in-depth look into customer journeys, however, you may want to Customer Experience and VoC Software – also known as 360 VoC software. These types of tools focus on bringing customer feedback into the organization at every Moment of Truth (or MoT) along the customer journey. The benefit of using such a tool is that they aim to bring in both quantitative and qualitative data from various channels and touchpoints.

10. MaritzCX

MaritzCX is a platform that allows its users to take data from their different feedback channels and turn it into a cohesive set customer data that everyone in the organization can use and benefit from. Users can create visualizations of customer touchpoints and interactions within the customer journey. It also includes three Journey Mapping engagement levels that give users access to different services within the platform. Pricing: Not available Website: www.maritzcx.com

11. SuiteCX

SuiteCX is an easy-to-update tool with an intuitive interface that combines diagnostics, storytelling, prioritization and planning into a powerful and comprehensive customer experience management platform. This journey mapping tool provides several Customer Journey Mapping (CMJ) visualization templates and tools with all interaction and segment information kept in a centralized database. Pricing: Pricing on request Website: www.suitecx.net

12. cx/omni CEM Cloud Customer Journey Mapping Software

cx/omni CEM cloud is a customer experience management platform for internal communication of all CX/UX insights which includes a customer journey mapping tool. This CEM helps you monitor customer sentiment, various pain points, emotional journeys, and even performance gaps. Users can also access real-time feedback data. Pricing: There are a variety of packages which start from €29/user/month up to €69/user/month. Pricing for the unlimited edition is available on request. Website: www.cxomni.net

13. Clarabridge

Clarabridge is a customer experience management platform that helps users understand and improve the customer journey. Clarabridge collects and transforms all forms of customer feedback into intelligence, allowing businesses to activate the voice of the customer across the enterprise. Data is very easy to interpret thanks to dashboards, reports and alerts available. Pricing: Not Available Website: www.clarabridge.com

Collaboration Software

On the other hand, if you’re team is more adamant on using a tool or software that will facilitate smooth collaboration among team members, collaboration software might be your best bet. These tools are focused on working around the journey together with your team and will help you avoid these common mistakes. They include generic project management tools as well as tools that are more centered on the customer journey itself.

14. Trello

Trello is a visual collaboration tool for planning tasks and projects. While commonly used by agile software development teams, the solution is also used in other departments such as marketing, sales, support and HR. It works great for customer journey maps too: Trello makes it much easier for teams to work together organizing, prioritizing and creating detailed maps. Users can add comments or attachments to ‘cards’ (which represent tasks). Trello integrates with a number of online applications including JIRA Cloud, Bitbucket Cloud, Google Drive, GitHub and Slack. Pricing: Trello has a free subscription, but also offers a professional package ($9.99/user/month) and an enterprise package ($20.83/user/month). Website: www.trello.com

15. Jive

Jive is a leading collaboration tool that connects team members, upper management personnel, and other relevant parties in the corporate environment. It has lots of advanced features and capabilities, all aimed to help businesses achieve strategic alignment and improve productivity for employees and teams. In terms of customer journey maps, it enables users to identify major influencers as well as track various trends and optimize engagement online. Users can also track every stage of the customer lifecycle. Pricing: On request Website: www.jivesoftware.com

16. Asana

Asana is a project and task management app that facilitates team communication and collaboration. Users can also use this tool to create customer journey maps and enable teams to track them collaboratively from beginning to end. It is possible to add team members to projects and tasks, share files and communicate with them. As soon as a change is made or a task is assigned, users will receive notifications in their inbox which invite them check, follow, like, or comment the update. Users can also be mentioned in task comments to keep them in the loop. Pricing: Free, Premium: $9.99 per member/month, Enterprise: On request. Website: www.asana.com

17. Mural

Mural “helps you get your team together anytime, anywhere through consistent workspaces you can access from any device, in-person or online”. Using this collaboration tool, users can create and share items to keep stakeholders informed. With built-in templates and frameworks, users are able to gain insights much more quickly. This tool can be accessed from any device using your web browser or native apps for Windows 10 and iOS. Pricing: Business $12 per member/month, Enterprise: On request. Website: www.mural.co

18. UpWave

UpWave is an advanced task manager for small and medium business that offers lots of unique features. This tool has a very modern interface with lots of detailed tutorials making it easy-to-use. UpWave gives digital teams the opportunity to plan and share tasks and ideas by way of visual boards. These boards help them to track workflows and streamline productivity. All information is stored in a cloud so that each team member can access it regardless of the device he/she is using. Pricing: Standard: $3.75/per user/month, Enterprise: By request Website: www.upwave.io

19. Blank Canvas

Blank Canvas is another collaboration tool that works great for customer journey mapping. This tool is great because it doesn’t force you to create lists and/or hierarchies. Users can visualize the information the way they want as well as create as many versions of maps as they need. This tool also enables the user to collaborate in real-time and can be used for small and large groups alike. Pricing: Prices range from $5/user/month (basic) to $49.99/user/month (enterprise). Website: www.blankcanvas.io

20. Workzone

Workzone is an easy-to-use, cloud-hosted project management and document collaboration app that is great for customer journey mapping. Around since 2000, this tool is rated among the most mature online project management software in the market. You can use Workzone to organize projects with tasks and subtasks, assign responsibilities, and be notified when a task is due. You can also connect tasks together to see how a change in a single area impacts the rest of the project. Pricing: Anywhere from $24 per user/month to $44 per user/month. Website: www.workzone.com

Mapping journeys in a way that suits your needs

Because there is no one way to create a customer journey map, it’s important to identify which approach you want to take to map the journey. Are you looking for the more simple journey mapping and visualization tools? Or CEM tools that tie in various channels and touchpoints? Or maybe it’s more of a collaboration solution you’re after…either way it’s critical you get started now if you want to have a good customer experience that keeps your customers happy. What’s also important to mention here is that these types of tool are only a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to understanding the online customer journey. Many customer journey mapping tools are strengthened by the application of a customer feedback solution. Customer Feedback Analytics software Mopinion enables digital-first companies to capture feedback during the online journey and pinpoint where problems are occurring as well as identify what is keeping customers from reaching their online goals.

By: Erin Gilliam

#UX #CX #user experience #customer journey #roadmap #sitemap

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etechwire-blog · 7 years ago

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Best Microsoft Office alternatives in 2018

New Post has been published on https://www.etechwire.com/best-microsoft-office-alternatives-in-2018/

Best Microsoft Office alternatives in 2018

Best Microsoft Office alternatives

While Microsoft Office dominates the productivity app sector there are many flexible alternatives. In this guide, you’ll learn more about some of them.

Many free and open source suites such as LibreOffice support the Open Document Format, which is used by the UK government. Open standards are useful as when developers discontinue software, users may not be able to access documents stored in a proprietary format. This has happened in the past to former users of Microsoft Works.

If you manage an organisation, you may be unable to pay for MS Office software licenses for every machine. For this reason all the products discussed here are available free of charge, or offer a free tier such as WPS Office.

Some of the tools in this guide also incorporate useful features not found in Microsoft Office, like converting PDFs to DOC format. All of the suites listed below can both open and save Microsoft Office documents such as DOCX, XLSX and PPTX.

1. FreeOffice

A free alternative which looks very similar to MS Office

Interface very close to MS Office

Touchscreen compatibility

No macOS version

If you are looking for a free and easy alternative to Microsoft Office, then FreeOffice is the suite for you. The company, SoftMaker, has been developing office software since 1987 and its office suite is their flagship product.

FreeOffice is a complete office suite that is free to use for both home and in the workplace. It is developed for both Windows and Linux, and offers a basic version for Android users.

The suite itself is fully compatible with all Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint formats. This means that you can not only view but save files in formats such as DOCX, XLSX and PPTX. It also supports older file types such as PPT and XLS.

The new interface that was launched this year gives you the option of either working with modern or classic menus and toolbars. This makes switching from Microsoft Office easy to do as the interface is eerily similar.

For those users who have the luxury of a touchscreen PC you can use touch mode with larger icons. This mode is available for both the newer version look and the classic menu-based interface.

In order to download FreeOffice you must register an account via the website first. The download link will then become available.

2. LibreOffice

A flexible and fairly lightweight suite

Open source

Cross-platform

Some compatibility issues

LibreOffice is the offspring of The Document Foundation and split from OpenOffice in 2010. The suite itself is free and open source, and is made up of a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software, and is available in 110 languages.

While LibreOffice uses the ODF (OpenDocument) format it still supports a range of other format types such as those used in Microsoft Office. LibreOffice is the default suite for most Linux distros and it is also available for use on Windows and macOS. There’s also a LibreOffice viewer for Android.

As with most open source software all your technical support comes from online, but seeing how easy this is to use, support will be rarely needed. The platform also offers the option to export your files into PDF format amongst others.

You can add extra features to LibreOffice via extensions from its website. These include extra templates for documents.

While still a smaller download size than Microsoft Office, LibreOffice weighs in at 228MB so is still a fairly large suite to install.

One of the criticisms that has been noted in relation to LibreOffice is that if you create a document within its word processor and then open it within a Word document, it may interfere with fonts and formatting.

3. WPS Office

Has an excellent free tier and advanced features for subscribers

Generous free tier

Multi-language support

Android app too large

WPS Office was released in 2016 by Chinese software developer Kingsoft. It is an office suite that is available for Windows, Linux, Android and iOS. The suite is available in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and Russian.

It offers a free and a premium tier. The free tier allows you to use Writer, Presentation and Spreadsheets, which are alternatives to the Microsoft Office suite which it also resembles closely. WPS offers a PDF to Word converter which is fast and easy to use. It supports bulk exportation and can also split-merge PDF files if needed.

The suite offers 1GB of free cloud storage for iOS and PC users, but this service is not yet available for Android.

The ‘Premium’ tier is $29.99 (£22.96) per year and allows the user to connect up 9 devices at once. It also gets rids of all those annoying adverts that are commonplace on the free tier.

WPS has been criticised for not allowing collaboration beyond those that track changes and allow users to insert comments. Users have also said that the interface can be quite slow at times when it comes to loading documents. Linux users have mentioned that not all fonts are automatically included and that they have to be installed separately.

For Android users installation is quite large and criticism has been levelled imploring the developer to make it more lightweight.

4. iWork

An excellent, free and easy to use office suite

Beautiful Interface

Simple to use

Only available for Mac

iWork is Apple’s alternative to Microsoft Office. It consists of Pages, Keynote and Numbers. These are broadly equivalent to Word, PowerPoint and Excel. It is exclusive to macOS for a local install, but there are versions on the cloud that can be enjoyed by users of other platforms.

iWork is much more lightweight than MS Office and this would suit most users. There are a lot of features in MS Office that the majority of users do not even know exist nevermind actually use. That might be a pro for power users but many users may just want a straightforward interface with only a few tabs to choose features from. This is where iWork comes in.

iWork is free and can be downloaded from the App Store on your Mac. There are three separate apps, each for word processing, preparing presentations and for creating spreadsheets. Numbers, Apple’s spreadsheet alternative, offers a blank canvas for you to begin on rather than showing a daunting grid view on your spreadsheet. It takes away that feeling of it being a ledger and it is very easy to use and add images, tables and charts as you go.

The word processor, Pages, is very simple and is perfect for straightforward documents, and it is not inundated with the layers of options that exist within MS Word. Pages also allows users to collaborate on their work and has now added a feature that supports EPUB, which can be created and shared to iBooks if you see fit to do so.

The presentation app, Keynote, has been referred to as the better alternative to PowerPoint by online users as it is easy to use. It creates beautiful presentations without the hassle that can be associated with PowerPoint.

MS Office may not be able to open documents created in iWork, but all iWork applications can export to other formats that are compatible with other suites.

5. Calligra

A free office suite with some excellent advanced features

Free, open source software

Mind map and project management tools

MS Office compatibility issues

Calligra Office suite was initially released in October 2000 as part of KOffice. It is an office suite developed by KDE as well as being suitable to use for graphic art design. It is available on Linux, macOS, Windows and Android.

Calligra is a free and open source software suite and can be downloaded directly from its own website or from KDE’s downloads page. It is completely distinct from LibreOffice.

While LibreOffice has the familiar look and feel of MS Office, Calligra does not. A lot of the useable features tabs are set on the right-hand side of the screen and not on the top like MS Office and other office suites. This means that the page you are currently editing does not take up the full screen.

One of the extra features that makes Calligra stand out is that it offers a mind-mapping and project managing tool. Usually these cost extra.

Calligra allows you to read DOCX and DOX formats but you cannot edit them. This can cause difficulties if your contacts send you Microsoft Office documents, so ask them to use a different format such as ODT (Open Document Text) instead.

6. OfficeSuite

Has some excellent editing tools for those willing to pay for them

Allows syncing across devices

Free tier

Free tier is basic

OfficeSuite is an application that was developed by MobiSystems and is available for Android, iOS and Windows. Devices that are made by Amazon, Toshiba, Sony and Alcatel come with OfficeSuite pre-installed. The Android app has been named amongst the top applications for business.

You can synchronize between devices using your OfficeSuite account and only one license is needed for all your devices.

It has several tiers to choose from. The ‘Basic’ tier is free and allows users to view and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. The suite has full compatibility with most formats such as ODT, RTF, CSV, DOC, and ZIP. The free tier also enables users to view PDF documents and offers cloud support via services like Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive.

The ‘Personal’ tier enables the suite on one desktop, one tablet and one phone. This tier costs €29.99 ($35). It has all the free tier has to offer along with the ability to track changes, export PDF’s to other editable formats and advanced PDF features such as digital signatures and passwords. The ‘Group’ tier is €49.99 ($58) per year and allows you to use across five desktops, five tablets and 5 phones. The ‘Business’ tier offers up to 100 licenses for €3.99 ($5) per user per month.

OfficeSuite has received much praise online but it has also been criticised for pushing users to purchase premium subscriptions.

7. Polaris Office

Use the Polaris arsenal of tools to edit and create multiple file types

Excellent free tier

Cross-platform

Ads can be distracting

Polaris Office is developed by Intraware and was initially released in March 2014. It is a free office suite that is available for Android, iOS, Windows and macOS. It appears to be a popular suite amongst businesses and is used by the likes of Amazon and Samsung.

While the free version is very generous there is a business version to which you can upgrade. To enquire about the cost, you will need to send Polaris a ‘Purchase Query form’ which can be found on their website.

With this powerful suite you can edit many different file formats including PPT, XLS, DOCX and HWP. As your account synchronizes amongst your devices you will be able to edit and create from wherever you are. All your data is secured by AWS (Amazon Web Services).

With the latest edition of Polaris you can now convert and edit PDF documents. Users can also convert voice and image files to documents if the need arises.

The suite supports several different languages such as French, German, Korean, English and Russian.

The only real criticism there is of Polaris is that while the free edition offers a huge range of features the ads can be a little distracting at times.

8. OnlyOffice

A useful range of features for users who don’t need extensive documentation

Free and open source

Excellent free version

Support issues

OnlyOffice is an open source office suite developed by Ascensio Systems SIA. It is available in over 22 languages and boasts of Oracle being one of their leading clients.

The completely free version, known as the ‘Community Edition’ is most suited for small business and allows up to 20 connections at once. This suite does not just offer the usual features such as word processing or spreadsheets but is very useful in relation to order fulfilment and for documenting sales.

The handy calendar feature allows user to keep up to date with personal and work-related tasks as well as keeping an eye on deadlines. Third party integration is also supported. You can create your own Mailboxes with the ‘Mail’ tool.

As with other office suites there is the ability to create and edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Users can collaborate on projects and make comments in files where necessary.

Users have reported that support can be hard to find and that the online chat forum community that is used to provide help can be a bit tricky to navigate.

9. WordPerfect

WordPerfect proves there is no school like the old school

Free trial version

MS Office compatible

UI is unwieldy

WordPerfect was developed by Corel nearly 40 years ago and is available on Windows only. It was most popular in the 80’s where it was known for its DOS and Microsoft Windows versions. It was soon eclipsed by Microsoft Office upon its release.

It is an all-in-one office suite. The standard edition costs €372.99 ($432) for the full version. It offers its own word processor, spreadsheet program and a slideshow creator. The latest version now includes improved photo-editing and management. WordPerfect offer a free trial version which you can download from the main site.

Like other suites it can save to many different formats such as DOCX, PDF and HTML. The common file extensions for WordPerfect files is WPD. It also offers ebooks publishing and macro management.

The PDF feature gives users the ability to edit and fill in forms via PDF, as well as change the form’s appearance e.g. font/color. WordPerfect supports opening multiple documents at one time.

Online reviews have critiqued the UI saying that it is not user-friendly and it can cause problem with fonts. You also sometimes have to delve into the manual to fix problems which would not be an issue if using MS Word.

10. Apache OpenOffice

An easy to use and reliable productivity suite

Consistent performance

Free and easy to use

Rudimentary presentation templates

Apache OpenOffice (AOO) is an open source office suite that is available across all platforms. With over 20 years of development behind it, the suite is a consistent all-round performer.

Like LibreOffice, OpenOffice uses the Open Document format (ODF). It can view and edit a large number of other file types, particularly MS Office files. OpenOffice cannot save or edit documents using the open XML format e.g. DOCX. You can however open these files and save them as a different format.

As it is an open source suite anyone who has the know-how can suggest improvements or fix any bugs. As with other open source applications it has a great online community who are always willing to lend a hand to other users.

While the formula tool, Math, has the basic features needed to calculate equations, it is not for advanced users. OpenOffice has the option to create basic presentations through Impress, but there are very few design templates compared to PowerPoint.

#alternatives #Microsoft #Office

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marie85marketing · 8 years ago

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How to Know Exactly What Content to Deliver to Convert More Prospects

Back in the 1940s, psychologists Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel conducted an experiment. They showed study participants an animated film consisting of a rectangle with an opening, plus a circle and two triangles in motion.

The participants were then asked to simply describe what they saw in the film. Before you keep reading, take a look at it yourself. I’ll be here when you come back.

So, what did you see? Out of all the study participants, only one responded with “a rectangle with an opening, plus a circle and two triangles in motion.” The rest developed elaborate stories about the simple geometric shapes.

Many participants concluded the circle and the little triangle were in love, and that the evil grey triangle was trying to harm or abduct the circle. Others went further to conclude that the blue triangle fought back against the larger triangle, allowing his love to escape back inside, where they soon rendezvoused, embraced, and lived happily ever after.

That’s pretty wild when you think about it.

The Heider-Simmel experiment became the initial basis of attribution theory, which describes how people explain the behavior of others, themselves, and also, apparently, geometric shapes on the go.

More importantly, people explain things in terms of stories. Even in situations where no story is being intentionally told, we’re telling ourselves a tale as a way to explain our experience of reality.

And yes, we tell ourselves stories about brands, products, and services. Whether you’re consciously telling a story or not, prospects are telling themselves a story about you.

Are you telling a story? And more importantly, does that story resonate with the way your prospective customers and clients are seeing things?

This is the key to knowing what your prospect needs to hear, and when they need to hear it, as part of your overall content marketing strategy. And in a networked, information-rich world where the prospects have all the power, this is your only chance to control the narrative.

What kind of story to tell?

You need to tell a Star Wars story. And by that, I mean you need to take your prospects along a content marketing version of the mythic hero’s journey.

In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell identifies a “monomyth” — a fundamental structure common to myths that have survived for thousands of years. Campbell’s identification of these enduring myths from disparate times and regions has inspired modern storytellers to consciously craft their work following the monomyth framework, also known as the hero’s journey.

Most notable among those inspired by the hero’s journey is George Lucas, who acknowledged Campbell’s work as the source of the plot for Star Wars. As a content marketer, you can also consciously incorporate the monomyth into your launches, funnels, and general editorial calendar.

The image above shows the general elements of the hero’s journey, which can be broken down into much more detail than presented here. It’s important to note that not all monomythic stories contain every aspect, but the original Star Wars faithfully follows almost every element of the hero’s journey.

Let’s focus on the first two steps of the journey, in the “ordinary world” before the journey truly begins. Here’s how those elements occurred in the original Star Wars.

Luke is living in the ordinary world of his home planet, working on the family farm.

The “call to adventure” is R2-D2’s holographic message from Princess Leia, the classic princess in distress.

Luke initially refuses the call due to his family obligations, until his aunt and uncle are killed.

Luke meets his mentor and guide, Obi-Wan Kenobi, who convinces Luke to proceed with his heroic journey.

Obi-Wan gives Luke a gift that determines his destiny — his father’s lightsaber.

How does this apply to content marketing? Simple. As I mentioned last time:

Your prospect is Luke. You are Obi-Wan.

The mistake most often made in marketing is thinking of your business as the hero, resulting in egocentric messages that no one else cares about. The prospect is always the primary hero, because they are the one going on the journey — whether big or small — to solve a problem or satisfy a desire.

The prospect starts off in the ordinary world of their lives.

The call to adventure is an unsolved problem or unfulfilled desire.

There’s resistance to solving that problem or satisfying the desire.

A mentor (your brand) appears that helps them proceed with the journey.

You deliver a gift (your content) that ultimately leads to a purchase

By making the prospect the hero, your brand also becomes a hero in the prospect’s story.

And by accepting the role of mentor with your content, your business accomplishes its goals while helping the prospect do the same. Which is how business is supposed to work, right?

8 core steps in the buyer’s journey

I’ve been using the hero’s journey to teach marketing and sales since 2007. I’ve found that just the act of thinking of the prospect as the hero makes you a better content marketer.

When you think in terms of empowering people to solve their problem by playing the role of mentor, you’re naturally performing better than competitors who take an egocentric approach.

This is also the exact way we come up with content marketing strategies for our own launches, funnels, and general editorial calendar. After years of using this strategic process, I’ve found that every buyer’s journey contains key points where you must deliver the right information at the right time to succeed at an optimal level.

Remember, each journey is tied to a particular who that you have documented. Some people create content journeys for multiple personas, but my advice is that you pick one at first and focus. Even Apple stuck with one target persona for the entirety of the Get a Mac campaign.

You’ll notice I use the word “problem” below, rather than “problem or desire.” An unfulfilled desire is a problem in the mind of the prospect, so it works on its own.

1. Ordinary World: This is the world (and worldview) that your ideal prospect lives in. She may be aware of the problem that she has, but she hasn’t yet resolved to do something about it. You understand how this person thinks, sees, feels, and behaves due to the empathy mapping process.

2. Call to Adventure: The prospect decides to take action to solve the problem. It could be a New Year’s resolution, a longstanding goal, or a problem that rears its head for the first time.

3. Resistance to the Call: At this point, the prospect starts to waver in her commitment to solving the problem. Maybe it seems too hard, too expensive, too time consuming, or simply too impractical. As we’ll discuss in a bit, this is a key content inflection point.

4. The Mentor and the Gift: This is the point that you are initially accepted as a mentor that guides the buyer’s journey. The prospect accepts your offer of a gift, in the form of information, that promises to help her solve the problem.

5. Crossing the Threshold: This is the point of purchase where the prospect believes that your product or service will lead to the problem being solved, which will lead to transformation. The most important thing to understand is that, unlike flawed funnel metaphors, the journey does not end at purchase.

6. Traveling the Road: The customer begins using the product or service with the goal of achieving success in the context of the problem. Who cares if the customer stops the journey right after purchase, right? Wrong — too often this leads to a refund request; plus you miss out on the huge benefits that accompany a happy customer.

7. Seizing the Treasure: The customer experiences success with your product or service. What does this look like for them and you? How will you know when it happens?

8. The New Ordinary: The customer has experienced a positive transaction with you, and yet we’re just now getting to the really good stuff. This is a perfect time to prime them for repeat or upsell purchases or referrals. At this point, deliver content that aims at retention for recurring revenue products, and make savvy requests for direct referrals, testimonials, and word of mouth.

Of the eight, only Traveling the Road isn’t universal — if you’re an electrician, you show up and either fix the problem or don’t. But if you’re selling software-as-a-service, for example, content that gets users engaged with the platform is critical to reducing churn.

These core steps can provide you with a beginning framework for a detailed map of the buyer’s journey. The next step is to add the touchpoints that are unique to your product or service.

Your unique journey map

You may be thinking about how exactly you’re supposed to map this out. Fortunately, there’s already an established procedure for this, just as during the who phase.

An experience map is a visual representation of the path a consumer takes — from beginning to end — with your content, and then with your product or service.

By mapping the journey, you know where the additional crucial touchpoints are, and what content can empower the journey to continue.

Here’s an example from Adaptive Path for Rail Europe:

This map demonstrates the journey a consumer would take while riding the trains in Europe. It follows her from the early stages of research and planning to the end of her trip.

You see what she is doing (searching Google, looking up timetables), what she is thinking during each action (do I have everything I need, and am I on the right train?), and what she is feeling (stressed: I’m about to leave the country and Rail Europe won’t answer the phone).

Do you see the correlation with the empathy mapping exercise you did back when developing a snapshot of your ideal customer? It’s no coincidence that we’re now applying what the prospect is “Thinking,” “Seeing,” “Doing,” and “Feeling” in their ordinary world to the journey they need to travel.

In a piece called the Anatomy of an Experience Map, Chris Risdon at Adaptive Path suggests your experience map should have these five components:

The lens: This is how a particular person (or persona) views the journey. Keep in mind, this journey will not be the same for everyone. You will more than likely have more than one experience map.

The journey model: This is the actual design of the map. If all goes well, it should render insight to answer questions like “What happens here? What’s important about this transition?”

Qualitative insight: This is where the Thinking-Seeing-Doing-Feeling of an empathy map comes in handy.

Quantitative information: This is data that brings attention to certain aspects of your map. It reveals information like “80 percent of people abandon the process at this touchpoint.”

Takeaways: This is where the map earns its money. What are the conclusions? Opportunities? Threats to the system? Does it identify your strengths? Highlight your weaknesses?

You can find more detailed information on creating a customer experience map here. Like empathy mapping, it can be done solo, but works even better as a collaborative process, so that everyone on your team understands the journey from the perspective of the prospect and subsequent customer.

Mapping the 7 key influence principles

When you consider influential content, you may naturally think that it’s about how your present the information. While that’s true from an engagement standpoint, which principle of influence to apply and when to emphasize it is an exercise in what as well.

In other words, beyond the raw information of the what, you’ll also want to identify the order of emphasis for things like reciprocity, social proof, authority, liking, commitment and consistency, unity, and scarcity.

Every successful digital marketer I know purposefully applies those seven principles in their content and copy, because they all treat Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini as their bible. If you haven’t read it, you should — but in the meantime check out this six-page PDF that explains the original six principles, and here’s an article by Sonia Simone on the all-important 7th principle of unity.

At Rainmaker Digital, we think in terms of four different types of content when mapping the buyer’s journey. Keep in mind that great marketing content contains all of these elements; you’re simply selecting a category based on the primary aim of the individual piece at the appropriate time.

First up we have Attraction content, otherwise known as “top of funnel” information. This corresponds best with the Resistance to the Call point of the journey — it addresses the problem while also addressing common objections to moving forward. In addition to creating the feeling that “you’re reading their mind,” you’re also invoking early influence through reciprocity, social proof through share numbers, and establishing authority.

Next up, you have your cornerstone influence principle thanks to Authority content. The important thing is that you demonstrate authority, rather than claim it. Your Attraction content sets the stage, and your Authority content should be gated behind an email opt-in. At this stage, you’re establishing clear authority, continuing to leverage reciprocity and social proof, and adding liking, plus commitment and consistency thanks to the opt-in.

Affinity content solidly positions you as a “likable expert,” but it goes beyond that. This is where you let your core values shine. You reflect the prospect’s worldview back to them in a completely authentic way, prompting the powerful principle of unity. Never underestimate how often people choose to do business with people they like, and who also see the world like they do.

Finally, it all comes down to Action. Unlike Phil Connors, you don’t look for ultimate action at the beginning of the journey. But you do rely on smaller actions along the way, especially at the bridge between Attraction content and Authority content. That said, the key influence principle at this stage is scarcity, which you’ve earned the right to employ thanks to the other six principles. People fear missing out more than they desire gain, so make sure to use it ethically.

This is the outline of your story

It’s tempting at this point to try to imagine how you’re going to execute on your strategy, but you’re not quite there yet. Soon, I’ll share with you a “real world” example of how this looks in action.

For now, map the journey experience. In addition to your character, you’ve now got the plot points in the narrative you’re weaving.

All that’s left is to figure out how to tell the story. That’s up next week.

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hypertagmaster · 8 years ago