Transferring connections

[Nick Sloan]

Is there currently any way in Scapple to transfer an existing connection directly from one note to another. Eg: A is connected to B; you want to connect B to C instead. I believe that currently this is a two-step process: you have to detach one connection and establish the new one separately. What I was looking for was a way of modifier-dragging one note onto another (in this case B onto C) with the effect of detaching any existing connection/s while establishing another.

It just so happens that I have been playing around with a lot of clusters of notes where I have had to transfer notes between clusters, and this would have been a very useful time saver.

[AmberV]

I can’t think of a better way to do this either. It would be difficult for us to just use a modifier for this for two reasons:

1. Most of the modifier combinations are already used for the different arrow styles.
2. There would be no logical way to drag B to C in such a way that A’s connection status between it and B would be recognised. In this very simple example, sure we could assume that, but what if A is also connected to D? Or what if B is connected to E? There wouldn’t be any way to determine which should be “moved”.
3. If the action comes from the connection itself, there are still problems over which end to detach. If I drag the connection line (ignoring for the moment that this already does something) to "C", how would the software know you meant the "A" end to detach rather than the "B" end, resulting in an A-C connection?

[Nick Sloan]

Many thanks for considering this AmberV. I believe that I do have answers for your objections.

1. Most of the modifier combinations are already used for the different arrow styles.

Most, yes, but not all. What about Option + Shift? Currently that does tha same as Option alone.

1. There would be no logical way to drag B to C in such a way that A’s connection status between it and B would be recognised. In this very simple example, sure we could assume that, but what if A is also connected to D? Or what if B is connected to E? There wouldn’t be any way to determine which should be “moved”.

This was why I wrote "…detaching any existing connection/s". It would be all or nothing. Clearly there is no way to pick and choose, but in my scenario I'd be happy for the mod-drag to detach all existing connections while establishing the new one. Mostly you'd just be switching from one to another; if that was not what you wanted, you'd not use the technique.

Your 3) does not apply, because I would not suggest dragging the connection itself for the reason you suggest. Could this merit further thought do you think?

[AmberV]

Ah, sorry I missed that detail. While it would solve the problem I posed, I wonder if that would render the feature too narrow in scope to be broadly useful (i.e., how often will there only be one existing link, or where it is also desirable to lose all other links?) I don't know, I will add it the list for consideration nonetheless, as I can see workflow ideas for this kind of activity.