![]() Even though it could benefit from a touch-centric companion app for tablets, I foresee this becoming one of the most frequently used applications on my Macbook.1 User Manual Scapple for Windows Literature & Latte October, c, Literature & Latte LTD. You might want to give Scapple a try if you are looking for a free form note taking application. I’ve yet to explore how much I can get the map canvas to expand, but I can image an hour lecture would have to get rather large. ![]() While the application does possess an page-setup dialog, it seems to apply only to a document when it is printed. The larger the map, then, the larger the “page-size” will be in an exported PDF or image file. A Scapple expands expands as nodes are placed near its edges. One interesting aspect of a Scapple map is the notion of the “page.” Interesting because it’s actually non-existent. When printed without the “shrink to fit” option enabled, this map would take up 9 sheets of of paper. As is apparent in the example, images are also able to be dragged on to the map and connected just like any other node. I’ve included an image of a test map which I created in Scapple 6. The structure of the document is bound only by the imagination of the user. Unlike a typical mind-map, however, these links are visual only. Ideas can be dragged on top of each other, however, and modifier keys will either create arrows in various directions or dotted lines 5. In Scrapple, unless ideas are specifically bound together in a background shape, each idea is considered independent every other idea on the canvas. Created, in fact, by Literature and Latte – the same company which develops the greatest writing application ever, Scrivener. Scapple is the name of this brilliant piece of software. I was so excited as I explored it’s capabilities I almost wanted to go out and sign up for a community college course, just so I could try it out while taking notes 4. ![]() On the surface it works like many mind-mapping applications, but in reality, it’s completely free form. This week, however, I picked up a piece of software which finally works the way my mind thinks. A pen and paper simulation on a tablet is nice, but just not the same. ![]() Though, as you can see by the image to the right, I have tried my note-taking method using various paper-simulation apps and a stylus. In fact, I’d never found a piece of software which allowed me to create a completely free-form note-map on a computer which was as easy as paper 3. These, after all, need to show up as being only semi-connected to the structure of the map. Structured maps also aren’t great at creating “asides” which contain personal reflections, or thoughts which the user wants to go back and explore at a later time. Going back later to connect ideas which did not appear near each other in a lecture, for example, is hard to do in a typical mind-map app – especially if the connection is one the user makes, thus breaking it completely out of the logical structure created by the map. Mind-maps, however, aren’t great at dealing with a free-form flow. I use such maps often, particularly iThoughts on iOS and OS X. ![]() This is something at which most mind-map apps really excel – they brilliantly and quickly create a hierarchy of structure in order to map an idea. Computers are all about logic 2, and logic depends on having a well-defined structure. That’s not a knock on mind-mapping software, which I love, it’s simply pointing out a limitation of a computerized mind-map. Nowadays we’d call it “mind-mapping,” but the form I ended up using was much more free-form than the types of mind maps you get from most software packages nowadays. The result was a note-taking method which was unique to me, but looked the way my mind worked 1.Įssentially, my college notes are drawings of boxes, filled with ideas and connected with arrows which denoted the flow of the lecture. When I was in college, I was finally able to break free from the “make sure you use proper outlining form for your notes if you want full credit” mind-set and find my own way to process class information. ![]()
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