I recently started using a program to create "analytical frameworks" useful in answering law school exams. It is a brainstorming tool from Mindjet that essentially lets you quickly visualize text for a better understanding. I would describe it as power point drawing on steroids--providing a quick way to "draw" relationships between ideas. The tool is now "morphing" into additional uses (e.g organizing a paper on knowledge management within the legal industry) & the applications seem endless: 1) mapping case info; 2) creating high level project plans; 3) collaborative decision making etc. Mind Manager allows the embedding of other objects(e.g. pointers to Word Docs & Excel, & URLs) & exporting to your favorite office productivity apps; for me it works in place of the "lost outliners" that Doc Searls & others have been ranting about.