Feature Requests / Suggestions

[Eddy]

I too am totally in love with Scapple, it's brilliant!

Having been using it quite a lot for planning out and taking notes on various things, my wish list is below. I expect some or all of these will fall foul of the simple design philosophy but if you don't ask...

Eddy

- Snap / Grid
I know this has been asked before, and I know you said it wasn't part of the design philosophy but adding an optional 'snap to grid' feature would be brilliant. Align / Distribute are great features, but not really a substitute for very quick and easy accurate placement of note relative to each other as you work.

- Panes
The ability add panes to a map, where each pane is a freely resizable rectangle (and possibly titleable) which contains no text and is transparent such that lines and arrows are visible 'underneath' it. Currently, making a big blank note and sending it to the back hides lines/arrows, as they fall underneath it. This would also be great if each pane could have a custom background colour. Useful for splitting a large map into 'zones' of interest, would supplement the nice existing ability to colour notes.

- Curved lines/arrows
An option to have connecting lines curve around any intermediate notes that they pass through instead of passing straight under them.

- Lock
Such that each note can be individually locked (as opposed to the whole map), which prevents accidental dragging or editing, even if it's selected as part of a group which is then dragged (ie: locked notes within the group would stay in the same place)

- Multiple paste auto select
When multiple notes are cut and pasted, the new copies appear in the middle of the document window and are unselected. If the newly created notes were auto-selected then that would make dragging them all out much easier.

- Intelligent placing on paste
When pasting, would be good if the new copies appear near the mouse pointer instead of always in the middle of the drawing area (which is often already occupied by stuff).

- Hotlinking documents together
The ability to link one map to another (a bit like an HTML link). The name of the linked document would appear much like a link on a website (I think this might be in already? Couldn't figure out how to do it!)

- Nesting maps
The ability to have one map contained within another, such that the 'child' map would appear as a special kind of note, which, when double clicked would replace the parent map. The inspector could be modified to provide 'go to parent' and/or 'go back' controls to navigate back to the parent. (Guessing this falls outside scope - too hierarchical.)

[dissidently]

I strongly support Nesting. I'm now at a size where a Nested visual representation of elements of my map might make performance much better. It's huge.

Double clicking the representative "screen shot" image should open the nested Map in a new window/tab for editing/viewing.

A nested map should be able to be placed in a background object. Essentially be like an imported image. So probably a "rendered to texture" image shot of the Map. Sprite Kit might have something like this.

[alphaai]

I would like the AutoLayout feature that is available in CmapTools.
Please visit the website cmap.ihmc.us/download/ or type cmapTools in google. Try out the application. Investigate the Autolayout by adding some nodes. Hit Cmd + L.

Autolayout will rearrange the nodes, and even tidy the appearance of the nodes. What I mean by this is that if you have nodes that you have added at numerous points on the screen, Autolayout will bring them together, rearrange them from parent to child etc. Perfect.

Your app wins hands down if you put this feature in. CmapTools make it difficult to add images. In rearrange to scapple, I do not have time to muck around with rearranging my notes so that it looks pretty. Something that CmapTools does already. Please put this in. Thanks, Ben )))))

[Leodis]

I wonder if Literature and Latte realise the potential goldmine that has been created with Scrapple.

Fully appreciate that the concept is to keep the program simple, but it is exactly what I have been looking for for years. I do quite a bit of studying and, when it comes to revision time, I create flip charts os study notes - sort of like a rich picture, but very much like what can be created with Scrapple. I have tried mind-maps, but even the best mind-map ends up too structured for my type of learning and planning.

There are a few features that I would like to see that would make a great program fantastic:

- Paste in copied images (e.g. select a shape in a pdf, copy and paste into Scapple). Work around at the moment is to paste into another program (e.g. Pages) and then drag and drop to Scrapple

- A line inspector

- Multiple font sizes and colours within a single scrapple

- Select multiple scapples (notes) and create a box/shape round them with a single selection

- Group scapples, including surrounding boxes

- Grow the background before you create/move scapples (it works at the moment, but could be smoother)

- Create a master "subject" at a top level and then be able to click on sub-documents as self-contained sections (maybe this is what people mean by nesting?).

iPad version would be the icing on the cake.

[KB]

- Select multiple scapples (notes) and create a box/shape round them with a single selection

- Group scapples, including surrounding boxes

These two are already possible. Select some notes, ctrl-click and select New > Background Shape Around Selection. Tick "Magnetic" for the shape and moving the shape will move the notes too.

A master subject is definitely against the whole ethos of Scapple, which is to be unstructured and freeform. A line inspector is also out of scope as it would add to the complexity and turn it into more of a presentation-based app rather than a thinking-based app.

Glad you're liking it for the most part, though!

All the best,
Keith

[jplzimmer]

A line inspector is also out of scope as it would add to the complexity and turn it into more of a presentation-based app rather than a thinking-based app.

Does this include bezier curves?

Seeing lines and groups of lines (and sometimes in weights)
is part of how working with maps help me think through relationships and patterns.

is there a way to use background shapes to group elements for export?

love the app
thanks
jz

[KB]

Definitely bezier curves, sorry. The whole idea of the app was simple: write anywhere, drag and drop to connect notes. Everything else on top of that was just icing. Adding curved lines would require whole new, complex drawing routines, in which you had to grab parts of lines and drag them around, like with bezier curves in Photoshop.

If you use OPML for export, then shapes will enclose notes, yes.

All the best,
Keith

[Leodis]

Thanks for the hints and the reply Keith.

I'm very much using Scapple as a freeform thinking tool and not for presentations. By line inspector I meant a simple way of changing the colour and type of a line - it is so that I can easily categorise and change relationships.

I like to set my thoughts out in multiple colours. This allows me to have a lot of info on a large page, but to also focus past surrounding text into one area. I find that having different shapes and colours allows the brain to switch between the whole and selected areas very easily. Can currently set the colour of a whole note, but not text within it.

This is the most useful tool that I have ever found for capturing study notes and creating assignments. Very grateful to you for having produced it.

[Drastic]

Just adding a voice in support that a few more connecting options would be useful--different thicknesses or colors would be quite useful from a visual thinking standpoint. I've been using Scapple to play with relationship maps in a few projects I'm writing, and a few more connector distinctions would help with that, altering nature of connections and relationships between characters and elements, things like that.

The workaround I've been using to add a touch of nuance to connections is just double-clicking on the connection line to add a brief note between A and B ("mutual respect" "rivals" etc) but simply being able to click once and change color coding to meet a similar range would be helpful in the core goal of the software meaning to get ideas down without too much fiddling with it.

But I certainly understand wanting to keep the scope of the software constrained, and after too-recently discovering it, Scapple's my favorite mind mapping type application I've ever used, from ease of use and lack of fiddliness, and especially that it's built from a philosophy of not forcing hierarchies from the get-go. It could have been made from eerie mind-reading of what I've always wanted from a relationship-map sketching tool without frills and umpty unnecessary things.

[charlie.stross]

I tend to do my outlining and brainstorming in other tools -- notably OmniOutliner and iThoughtsHD on iOS. So I've got a bunch of mind maps/outlines ... and no sane way to get them into Scapple that preserves their relationships.

I know Scapple can export OPML. Is it too much to ask that an import filter be added to allow Scapple to import OPML files from elsewhere?

[s.mackesey]

Thanks for a great app! I second the request above for the ability to paste images directly into the app. I'm using Scapple to build a map for certain mathy subjects and I do a lot of clipping of formula screenshots. Currently I have to save them to Desktop and drag them into Scapple, it would be fantastic to just copy-paste.

[TexasRunner]

I love Scapple and use it for "brainstorming," plotting, timelines, family trees for characters -- the possibilities are endless. I often have more than one Scapple file for a project, and would like to be able to "Find all Projects in Spotlight" as you can in Scrivener.

[Cameron]

I am a long term user of Scrivener and have been using Scapple now for about 6 weeks. I've also encouraged adoption by about 10 new users, whom I'm confident will end up purchasing as well.

Scrivener is an amazing authoring tool.

Scapple is exactly what I need for a free-form thought capturing tool. I'm hesitant to ask for too much, but here are a couple of things that would be awesome.

1. The ability to have other shapes besides the rectangle background object. All other capabilities being exactly the same. Embedded text, magnetic, etc...
- Circle
- Triangle
- Free hand

2. The ability to manage line attributes would be nice.

Again, I have become a heavy user of Scapple for home and work, and am sharing very actively in all areas, with both the Windows and MAC versions. I'm a MAC fan & advocate.

This is an awesome product. If nothing changes, I'm still an ecstatic customer. If any of the above is added, all the better and I become an even greater advocate.

Thank you for this solution to my Mind-Mapping & thought capturing needs!!
Cameron

[DavidS]

+1 for the "lock" feature. to be able to lock elements would be very useful

for example, it could be used to put a PDF as a "background" (a screenplay, for example) and put comments, shot indications, script supervisor notes, right "over" the screenplay - not having to put them on the side, which is very impractical for shots / script supervisor notes

[deathraylabs]

I would love Linkback support and the ability to drag and drop equations from LaTeXit to scapple.

I understand if this is outside of the scope of what you want to accomplish and also see that MathType is supported, as well as dragging PDFs onto the page. I just love the simplicity of LaTeXit and the ability to edit those equations that are possible with LinkBack.

Thanks for taking the time to read this feature request. I love your work (and hearing you on nerdy podcasts).

BTW - I played around with MathType a bit and it's the complete antithesis of the excellent work the indie mac community (like you) is producing. The interface does not follow typical mac design guidelines and the output (the equations) are just plain ugly compared to latex. Sorry, just a pet peeve.