So, I’m starting an undergraduate thesis (a history thesis) and all my ideas are a little mixed up in my head. I just drew an elaborate concept map by hand, and it was actually a really helpful exercise, but the little lines and boxes are already hopelessly tangled.
I’m hoping that one of you Dopers knows a neat online app that I can use to make an even bigger, better concept map, with links to my sources and different colored boxes and… okay, I’ll stop before the excitement of extreme organization overcomes me.
I tried a google search and didn’t find anything great that was online and free - so I would prefer recommendations of apps you’ve had experience with. (Something free I have to download is okay too, though not preferable.) Thank you! 
My son’s school uses Thinking Maps. Here is their home page . They also have software for drawing the diagrams, but you don’t need it, it’s basically just learning the different types of maps, which is appropriate for what kinds of situations, and how to use them.
Hm, interesting suggestion. It’s not so much that I’m having a hard time understanding how the concepts I’m working with are related to each other, though. I just need an application that will let me make an infinitely complicated concept map, if necessary. Kind of like database software with an interactive interface, if that makes sense. Maybe that’s what I’m looking for?
Thinking Maps sounds like a great tool for teachers, though - I wish my high school had used it!
ETA: In other words, I’m looking for a way to organize a large quantity of highly interrelated information.
I fooled around with Axon Idea Processor for a while. It’s pretty nifty.
Yeah, something like that! Unfortunately, the free version will be too limited for what I want to do (I already have more than 30 entities in my hand-drawn map, I think), and $135 for the full version is… a tad out of my price range.
I’m keeping my hopes up, because I swear I saw something perfect online once (and failed to bookmark it). In fact, chances are, I came across it on the Dope.