Scapple 1.3 Free-form mind mapping tool

Scapple 1.3 Free-form mind mapping tool

is the software equivalent of how I work out my rough ideas on paper. (If I didnt hate the word brainstorming so much, Id probably call it brainstorming software.) When Im in the early stages of any project, whether thats a writing project or a software project, I tend to throw a bunch of ideas down on a big piece of paper, spacing out as-yet unrelated ideas, clustering related notes, and drawing connections between them, trying to work out how everything fits together. In short, then,
Scapple is a tool for getting early ideas down as quickly as possible and making connections between them.

The main advantage of doing this in Scapple instead of on paper is that you dont run out of paper (the Scapple canvas expands to fit as many notes as you want to create), you can move notes around to make room for new ideas and connections, its easy to delete and edit notes, and its easy to export your notes into other applications when you know what you want to do with them. Im well aware that theres already a plethora of mind-mapping software out there.

Where Scapple is slightly different from most is that it doesnt force you to make any connections, and it doesnt expect you to start out with one central idea and branch everything else off that. Instead, you are free to write anywhere on the virtual paper and individual notes can be a short or as long as you like. Creating and removing connections is as easy as dragging one note onto another.

 Most importantly, because its purpose is to allow you to get ideas down and make connections between them quickly, Scapple is dead simple to use. Although Im currently writing a full manual for it, the QuickStart Guide a little further down should contain everything you need to dig in and get using Scapple.

Version 1.3:

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