Featuring the new Office Ribbon Interface, Microsoft Project Professional is now much easier to navigate. There is an excellent timeline view that makes organizing the execution of even complicated and long projects much easier. The compatibility from other Office apps is also much improved, meaning you can quickly copy paste into Microsoft Project Professional while retaining your formatting.

Microsoft Project Professional allows you to manage a team of people on a project with a really visual resource view that allows you to easily see who is available and when. Creating tables, adding columns and so on is much easier now, and there are some great data mining tools.

For new users there are wizards to get your project plan up and running. Setting projects up is still a long process, but it's not difficult. Once you start, Microsoft Project Professional is full of automated aspects that make life much easier. Graphs, calculations and reports can all be automated.

When you add in integration with the Office suite, Microsoft Project Professional really is the finished product, a great application for creating workflows and plans for projects of all sizes.

Download Microsoft Project Professional 2010 in Softonic

With Microsoft Visio, you'll be able to create and share a variety of diagrams, organizational charts, flowcharts, floor plans and even network maps. You can choose from a wide variety of templates to help you get started, modifying as easily as you go thanks to an intuitive ribbon interface and drag & drop capabilities.

Even if you haven't used a tool like Microsoft Visio before, you shouldn't have many problems. As you would expect from a Microsoft product, there's plenty of help and when you first run the program, an interactive guide.

Modifying diagrams created with Microsoft Visio is easy - all aspects are totally modifiable - from both an aesthetic and technical point of view - and you'll be able to insert all kinds of extras, such as hyperlinks, documents and CAD drawings.

To ensure the validity of your diagrams, Microsoft Visio has a Diagram Check function, which will point out all of the possible errors in your document. Ideal for business situations, you'll also be able to share your documents via SharePoint, as well as importing Excel documents and automatically converting them.

Microsoft Visio isn't very flashy, but it is a solid tool for creating diagrams and charts of various kinds.

Download Microsoft Visio 2010 14.0.4760.1000 Premium in Softonic

Sometimes complicated project management tasks can be made easier by compiling the data graphically. Similar in concept to EDraw Mindmap, MindManager is a very complete tool that will help you do just that, mapping your ideas and hopefully streamlining and refining the decision-making process while it does.

MindManager is an attractive tool that most users will immediately feel comfortable with. It's worth following the Interactive Quick Start guide so you can familiarize yourself with the program's main functions and features. By the time you've finished, you should easily be capable of creating your own maps. There are endless uses for MindManager. If you have the ideas, this program will give you the means to express them, in an attractive and ordered way that will make it much easier when the time comes to act.

MindManager has lots of extras that allow you make your maps as detailed as you want. You can add multiple Topics, Sub-Topics, Relationships and other elements. Everything can be dragged and dropped, and right clicking will allow you to add elements such as icons, notes, images, links and attachments. Once you've finished, you can treat the document as any other text, editing, spell-checking and exporting to various formats.

MindManager's main attraction lies in how easy it is to organize information and ideas. A complicated idea soon becomes a workable plan when you get it down on paper, and MindManager's user-friendly interface means that you can move elements around as much as you like until you get it right. MindManager also has features such as a timer, brainstorming mode and built-in internet capabilities, elements that take an already great program to another level.

MindManager makes organizing even the most complex projects a total breeze.

Download MindManager 2012 10.0.445 in Softonic

With Microsoft Visio, you'll be able to create and share a variety of diagrams, organizational charts, flowcharts, floor plans and even network maps. You can choose from a wide variety of templates to help you get started, modifying as easily as you go thanks to an intuitive ribbon interface and drag & drop capabilities.

Even if you haven't used a tool like Microsoft Visio before, you shouldn't have many problems. As you would expect from a Microsoft product, there's plenty of help and when you first run the program, an interactive guide.

Modifying diagrams created with Microsoft Visio is easy - all aspects are totally modifiable - from both an aesthetic and technical point of view - and you'll be able to insert all kinds of extras, such as hyperlinks, documents and CAD drawings.

To ensure the validity of your diagrams, Microsoft Visio has a Diagram Check function, which will point out all of the possible errors in your document. Ideal for business situations, you'll also be able to share your documents via SharePoint, as well as importing Excel documents and automatically converting them.

Microsoft Visio isn't very flashy, but it is a solid tool for creating diagrams and charts of various kinds.

Download Microsoft Visio 2010 14.0.4760.1000 Professional in Softonic

PersonalBrain is one of the better applications out there for this kind of task, allowing you to map your ideas very fluidly as you think. You can use PersonalBrain to create diagrams, networks or simply sketch out your thoughts. You start out with a 'Brain' (i.e. a thought), and then build it up into something more concrete. What makes PersonalBrain a bit better than many other similar apps is that you can even drag and drop files and web pages into the mind map to make it more useful and richer.

The functionality can be poor at times however. Because its based on Java, it can take while to startup and responsiveness can occasionally be slow. Surprisingly as well, PersonalBrain will only let you export your mind maps in HTML format, and it would have been nice to have a choice of other formats such as OPML, Powerpoint and RTF formats for more flexibility, such as that offered by EDraw Mindmap. It's also a little expensive to upgrade but this trial version should give you a good enough idea as to whether it's really worth it.

On the whole, PersonalBrain is a very flexible mind mapping program which lets you write down and connect your thoughts very easily.

Download PersonalBrain 6.0.7.0 in Softonic

As a time recording tool, TimeSheet will keep track of the exact amount of hours you spend on each task and each project. In that way, not only will you have more exact data when you need to create reports or generate invoices, but you won’t lose money again for those extra hours you work but are never included in the bill.

TimeSheet is based on a very simple principle: the program lets you associate each application you run with a specific project and calculates the time you spend using this app. The association between application and project is done automatically, with TimeSheet displaying a desktop alert every time you run an app for the first time. Once your work day is over, or when you’re done with your project, you can easily check the total amount of time you devoted to it in TimeSheet’s reports – and export the data to Excel.

The idea behind TimeSheet is good and the program works fine. On the downside, time tracking based on used applications is not that accurate and the program’s configuration can be a bit tricky.

TimeSheet is a simple time tracking tool that helps you calculate the time you spend on each project and task.

Download TimeSheet 1.1.12 in Softonic

Dolphinity Planner displays all information in a very clear, concise way classified into three groups - projects scheduled, pending projects and tasks "to-do". It also has a handy roadmap where you can see projects that need to be carried out during each period, the initials of the person responsible, and the start and end dates for the project. From the list of resources, you can assign each project to a person. This person may be internal or external and in addition, through its filters, you can easily see which tasks assigned to each employee.

For a free program, this is a remarkably good spreadsheet and planning program although it lacks advanced features for those that are running bigger projects.

Download Dolphinity Planner 1.2 in Softonic