Feature Requests / Suggestions

I really love Scapple for organizing research. Putting together ideas, files and concepts on a limitless space in a non-hierarchical manner is really great. Scapple is by far one of the best mind-mapping tools that I have tested so far. However, to make it even more powerful I would have some suggestions.

add scaleable background images, for example horizontal and vertical lines (with adjustable distance). I use Scapple for time-lines and it would be cool to use background lines as indicator for days, years etc.
Add a comment or note feature. As I said, I use Scapple for research and sometimes need to write memos for certain nodes (for example when Data is incomplete or whether I need to check an idea). Memos would be cool to keep track of things that need to be done
It would be helpful to give names to the connecting lines and arrows, which would enhance usability for flow-charts or causal chains
Also, add the MacOSX quick-look feature for documents that are embedded within the mindmap. Other mind mapping tools do this and it is great
Make a mobile version (iPad) to edit on the go

Ok, thanks!

Just so you know where I come from: I love Scapple as is. Bare bones, simple, just a jotting paper or napkin where I throw down a few words or phrases and sometimes draw e line or arrow between a couple of them, underline something and ringing in a couple of notations… So any suggestions that makes Scapple less of a paper napkin and more like one of all those rigid and complicated mind-map apps that tries to read my mind, makes me nervous.
But this is not a bad idea, actually. If it can be introduced, and with minimum fuss.

Scapple is my favorite way to organize my thoughts - they’re not linear enough for most mind mapping software, so I love that I can put it all down on paper and then find the connections.

One thing I’d really love to do with it would be the ability to flatten items onto the background. The items already group as layers, so hopefully it wouldn’t take a big coding change for you, and it would allow me to post my thoughts directly on top of pictures (for example), instead of having all the comments have to be outside of the image - well, you can kind of force a comment on top of an image now, but it takes some finagling to get it there, and anything connected to the comment shows the line under the image instead of across the top.

What I’m wanting to be able to do is something like this, where I added my own measurements for a project I’m doing, but I’d like to be able to connect those measurements with other comments, and right now, the lines to connect them go under the image instead of across the top of it.

Hi,

It would be great if Scapple notes could be revolved and/or angled. To turn right or left, vertical writing at least. Also to have the possibility of inserting circular notes, and curved lines.

Thanks, great software.

Guille, Buenos Aires

Another vote for enhanced importing into Scapple, primarily OPML but Markdown support would also be very useful.

Call me a fundamentalist, Scapple(without R)-hugger. But I’m against anything that makes Scapple more complex or “versatile”. Theres a shitload of programs like that, that (probably due to my limited intelligence/attention span) I just couldn’t get my grips on.

Enter Scapple, and suddenly I could do whatever I needed to do: sketch out a scene, disentangle an argument… without first define some central thesis, just jot down random thoughts and observations and draw some lines between them.

I even drew Keith’s ire when I in the Beta stage characterised background shapes as eye candy. Now I’ve come to see the point of background shapes, even if I don’t really use them. But I have to agree with Keith that

It’s up to Keith. But from my “less is more” (sorry, I’m Scandinavian) point of view: Keep It Simple!

In love with Scapple! Points of further improvement could be:

• An obvious place where background textures are stored (like icons in Scrivener). Cannot find it now. Looked in Library > Application Support > Scapple and in the package contents of Scapple. Maybe that would ease collecting textures. And a few samples by L&L would be nice

• Using arrows is a bit cumbersome imho. Would be great to be able to easily change connections into arrows. And change arrowheads from left to right to both. Probably best from the inspector.

• I do not understand why ‘Arrow Keys Move Notes’ is a file setting and not a program setting. For me it could better be the latter.

Would be nice if (Multi)Markdown files (*.md, *.markdown, *.mmd) would be treated like *.txt files. I mean the import dialogue.

OPML would be a plus.

Basic question…some of these feature requests were submitted 4 years ago. As far as I can tell, none of the requests has seen the light of day. Is Scapple still being actively developed? Are there plans to include any of these features some day? Don’t get me wrong, I like the app a lot, but I would like to know it is still actively being developed.

I’d love it if Scapple could be used “in the cloud” for collaboration. Is that in the cards?

@swehba, Scapple for Mac is coded by Keith, who is the sole Mac and iOS programmer; as such, for the last few years his focus has been on major developments for Scrivener 3 as well bringing the code in line with new Apple frameworks, and, having had to take over the programming of the imminent Scrivener for iOS project, for the last year has had to concentrate on bringing that to fruition. In that scenario, Scapple has inevitably been put on the back burner. He will be aware of requests that have been made, and no doubt, when the time is available, he will put his mind, time and energy to those he thinks have merit.

@skyriani, I am sure that Keith is fully aware of how many people would love an iPad version, and my betting is that Keith sees the merit of an iPad version, but, given the above, I wouldn’t predict its appearance any time soon, as that would be yet another new project. (On the other hand, who knows, maybe he has been tinkering away at it in the small hours of the morning as a relief from his 14 hour days on Scrivener programming! )

As for the Windows version, LAP and Tiho_D must be fully involved with working on Scrivener 3 for Windows, bringing it up to parity with the Mac version, and at the same time rewriting the code as necessary in the newer version of Qt. They too are unlikely to have time or energy for Scapple until Scrivener 3 is out.

All that said, Lit&Lat, has always made clear on their website that, while being open to suggestions and comments, you should buy their software for what it can do, not for what you would like or hope it could do at some point. They give very generous trial periods precisely so that people can thoroughly road test their software to see if it meets their requirements or not before purchasing.

Mark
Just a user of Scrivener, and although I have Scapple, I have not yet found a compelling use for it.

Feature Request: Bidirectional on both types of lines

Scapple is lovely! I fully understand the simplicity you want to enforce and thus helping the user to focus on the real value elements.
However, adding arrows to both line patterns really adds meaning in some contexts.
Currently, only the continuous lines have arrows.
Could you please take into consideration this small addition?

Thank you.

Marius

Feature Request: auto-cycle background color for new notes

Proposed Option:

• Upon creating a new note, the background color is provided by way of cycling through note colors
• The color cycling could be, for example,linear, random, etc.

Currently, Scapple preferences provide an option to specify the fill color of new notes through the user-selected “fill color” checkbox and drop-down menu. How about an option to cycle the fill-colors or new notes? Perhaps options such as sequential, random (or however implemented)?

Now, if I’m overlooking this as already implemented, please let me know. I also know nothing about coding, and the idea within this post is offered humbly. I absolutely love Scapple (and I’m a Scrivener fanatic as well ).

Thanks everyone,

Jake

Greetings and thank you for creating Scapple. It’s a great product.

I have the following Feature Requests:
(a) Ability to create my own Emojis and import them into Scapple.
(b) Marquee select a set of notes
© Ability to add pop-ups when I hover over notes
(d) Intelligent Re-alignment… i.e all notes will be moved slightly to improve layout.

Also, could you please let us know when the next version of Scapple is due.
Thanks much.

Hello, all - brand new to Scapple and looking for some advice. I’m using it to rough out ideas for presentations that will be accompanied by powerpoint presentations and other visual aids. Could there be any way to link a note in Scapple to an external file (not to bring in the actual file / diagram into Scapple but a link to, for example, the file in Finder so that it can be opened externally)?

Many thanks,

Michael

Late to the party – just discovered Scapple and delighted with it in principle: a free-form place to jot down and move around ideas is just what I’m looking for!

There’s one simple feature it lacks though, which for me comes close to a deal-breaker: viz the ability to choose where connecting lines between notes get anchored (ie top/bottom v. side). Without that, something as simple as, say, wanting to create a tidy stack of notes on the left (ie all aligned & same width), a second tidy stack of notes on the right (ditto), and then draw various criss-crossing connecting lines between the two columns, goes totally pear-shaped, because Scapple insists on anchoring the lines at the top or bottom of the notes instead of the sides, making the connections impossible to see!! Going back to pen and paper for now…

I do understand why it would be too complicated for the program to draw curves around intervening notes, but simply allowing users to dictate which side of the note the lines emanate from would go a long way in helping keep connections from being covered up!

Less crucially, I’ll also add my voice to those asking for the possibility of formatting bits of text within a note: ie colour and font and font size. Personally, I use different sizes and colours and yes fonts (ie print v. calligraphic script) when I handwrite notes to myself — even on the back of a napkin — so that would make Scapple more of a competitor against old-fashioned pen and paper for me…

I don’t know if there are any plans for updates to Scapple (you guys have a LOT on your plate with Scrivener!) but when and if you do, these changes would really go a long way to make it a bit more flexible and useful!

My feature request:

• Connect a note with two lines. For instance, (Character A) -> (Character B) -> (Character A) with two line connecting.
• The ability to add a comment to a line. So in the above (Character A) -[hates]-> (Character B) -[doesn’t notice]-> (Character A)

That’s all.

My Feature Request: Option of hiding arrows.
Would be great to have the option to hide all arrows. Done this, the arrow(s) of one note appear only if I hover this note. So it is easier to follow the connections if I have a big map with a lot of stuff. Thx!

Dear Gentlemen, Ladys,

I just started testing Scapple for future use. (Windows) So far it poses a nice addition to physical paper notes, or in my case, white board notes. I like the simplicity of it. However there is one thing…Scapple Inseption. Judging from the importable files, I can not put Scapple files into each other. (When I tried it just opened the second file in a new window)

What I thought of was for example this:
-I make a “story” scapple where I jet down my idears for a story.
-I make a second “character” scapple where I write down basic character idears. Especially usefull to me if I have some characters appear in a series of texts.
Now I put the “character” scapple with drag and drop (or whatever) into the previous scapple. It’s just a link basically which can be connected via lines like a normal scapple notes. However when I click on it it opens the second scapple page and shows me the “character” page.

The above is already doable with textfiles and such, but I thought staying in Scapple to quickly develope ideas would be useful. Also I “intend” to use it as a organizing tool, where sth like the above would come in handy.
I read that no major changes are planned for Scapple, and I’m sorry if I suggested something already present.

greets&greed

I’d like line colors, but I think the idea behind Scapple is to allow us to get ideas and *basic relationships out of our heads and into a visual representation quickly.

Certainly, I use it to ponder large and small scale connections and line colors would help, but that’s not the function of the app, that’s how I sometimes use it.

The basic function is to dump and to organize and put back into Scrivener.

To that end, it would be nice if those relationships in Scapple survived with more organization than they do when dragged to the Binder, as I have to re-create them.

I have no idea what kind of headache or impossibility that is.