In testing the current version of Scrapple, I have a question about the Inspector option, “Point to note centers.”
I created a new note, connecting it to an existing note; however, the dashed line connecting them does not point to either note’s center. In both notes, the dash line connects about a quarter of the note away from its center. Should they be pointing to the centers?
Also, for a note whose connector does point to its center, when I move the note it’s connected to, the location of the dashed line often shifts to a new location on each note.
How exactly is “Point to note centers” supposed to work? Is it supposed to “stick” to a note’s center? I checked Help but couldn’t find mention of it.
Point to centre just means point to the actual note centre, not to the edge centre. So, imagine the line terminating at the centre of the note itself. The arrow is pointing towards the centre, it won’t be at the centre of the edge. Thus, yes, it will shift when the notes are moved.
There are no plans to add options for extra padding around notes.
By the way, there is a dedicated Scapple forum for posting questions:
Thanks - considering the love/hate relationship users have with the Scrivener icon, it’s a relief that the initial feedback of Scapple’s official icon has been positive.
We’ve been through the icon with a fine toothed-comb over a couple of months, and have hashed out every detail, so we are happy with it and it won’t be changing further. Thanks anyway.
I like to imagine you all locked in an windowless conference room. Blount is slamming books on graphic design onto tables and shouting things like “NO ONE LEAVES UNTIL WE AGREE ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF CHALK DUST ON THE BACKGROUND.”
If the reality is different, I don’t want to know.
Heh, if you swap the boardroom for something more virtual, that’s scarily close. But you than have to cut to several weeks later, where everyone is slumped in their chairs, wild-eyed, dribbling and biting their knuckles while Ioa rubs his chin and ponders, “Hmm, you know, I think we should have 0.0037% more opacity in the grain pattern and contract the third rectangle by one pixel at the 32x size, but bring out the second grain line in the right part of the frame in the 64x version. And maybe try everything in green.”
I’ve downloaded Scapple and have begun using it. It seems very promising already and I think it could really be a big help. The openness of the format seems to give you the freedom to create notes without being entirely sure where they belong or what their implications are. I know this is precisely the point of the program, but it really does seem liberating. Thanks very much for recommending it.
Suggestions and Commments from a very new Scapple user
I very much like its ease and freedom.
• I find long notes a little unwieldy. They have a tendency to clutter the screen. One possible suggestion: make it possible to hide the text in the bottom of the note with a “window shade” like they have in Indesign. Basically, you move up the bottom border of the note and only the text above the border remains. The rest is still there, but out of the way, and you can get to it immediately when you want it.
• What seems crucial is the ability to easily make notes look different from each other. I therefore have found it useful to work with the inspector window always open. What would be even nicer would be a pallet with buttons for things like relevant styles – blue highlight, jagged border, etc. whatever would be useful. Then you would just have to make a note and click on the button in the palette to make the note looks the way you want it to.
• Export. I realize this is the very beginning of the program and that much isn’t worked out. However, two suggestions: first, it would be great if some simple hierarchical structure could be maintained when it’s brought into the scrivener corkboard. Basically, if there are files that are linked with lines that one of them could be made the parent of the other.
2) export to tinderbox. Clearly there are both similarities and differences with scrapple and the map view of tinderbox. I know you are different companies, but also companies that cooperated with each other. The two programs might be seen as rivals. However, I see them as complementary. The closest analogy that comes to mind is Lightroom and Photoshop. It would be great if a quick structure of notes could be put together in scapple and then pasted onto a tinderbox map with elementary structure, such as a linked notes, being maintained. Features of tinderbox, such as prototypes, aliases in agents and outlines, etc. could then be applied. The people at tinderbox might disagree, but I find it a bit easier in scapple to quickly jot down notes. In part this is tied to the long text problem I noted above. Tinderbox makes a distinction between the title of a note and content that can be put inside it. I can understand very well why the scapple might want to remain as minimal as possible, and, like scrivener, not add features that would mitigate its simplicity. However, being able to work fluidly with both scapple and tinderbox would be a big plus. In addition to maintaining some structure, I wonder if your export module might do something like recognize two carriage returns, say after the first bit of text in a file, as its title and what follows as the content that would be put in the tinderbox note? I realize it is possible to copy a scalpel note onto a tinderbox map. However, this seems to work for only a single note at a time. When I tried to copy several notes only one was created in tinderbox, with the additional’s Scapple notes being put as text inside what is now the main note.
Very useful program, in part because of its inherent simplicity and ease-of-use.
Although this version 1.0 (or will be), most things have now been worked out and it is very near release now. Many thanks for the feedback, though, all of which has been registered, please forgive the short reply - it’s a Friday night.
Is the beta still available, if not, when will it be available for purchase. I just heard about this and it sounds ideal for my purposes, but the beta says it has expired.
Thanks - I love Scrivener and this sounds like a wonderful companion. You guys really do know what tools writers need!
