Scapple App Reviews

Superb design and easy to use. Please add more arrow/connection types.

I rarely review anything, let alone software. I felt compelled to take the time to write a review for Scapple. It is one of those rare finds that excels in its simplicity. Click anywhere, type, repeat. Then drag one word/sentence/idea onto another to create a link. Select one or more items and just move them wherever you want - the workspace seems to be unlimited. Very simple makes this app very usuable. 5 stars.

I have another mind mapper, but am often frustrated by the connections I am forced to make before I can see the ideas in front of me. Scapple gives me a set of virtual index cards I can arrange as Im ready. Wish: an easier way to create new notes with a style applied, like a quick shortcut or ability to see the styles in the inspector.

I have been struggling to use mindmapping programs for brainstorming stories but so far have found them very frustrating. They dont seem to work like I think. Scapple is different. I can get ideas on the page then make the connections, use color coding to group ideas that link together or ones I am thinking of abandoning. It is an excellent tool for brainstorming and marshalling ones thoughts as well as managing different story lines.

Im finding Scapple fun, easy, and useful for brainstorming ideas or discovering order out of chaos. After 20 to 30 minutes in Scapple, I have a clearer picture of an idea. I feel both hemispheres of my brain are benefiting from the experience. Scapple is definitely not mind-mapping software, so if thats what youre expecting keep looking. When starting a new writing project I play with ideas in Scapple. When the ideas become clear I reach for Scrivener. If I feel stuck I return to Scapple and push around ideas until I have a better sense of direction. Scapple is part of my workflow for writing projects, and having the Scapple document up on an HDTV or 30-inch display I can set back and compose in Scrivener on a MacBook Air. Your mileage may vary depending on your requirements, but for me Scapple works and works well at what it does.

I have a mind-mapping program and a diagramming program, and theyre both good, but neither really supports the kind of fast idea-wrangling I like; the mind-mapping program branches everything off a single root, which isnt how I brainstorm, and the diagrammer is a little slow to use, being intended for fancy presentations. Scapple is the perfect blend of versatility and fast workflow. For 15 bucks its a steal.

I like mind mapping. I like to be able to move items and branches around within a tree structure, and to be able to expand and condense maps, depending on the level of detail I want to see. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, scapple does neither. If I have an item with connections to a few others (e.g. what might be subpoints on an outline), and decide to change the order of those subpoints, I can drag them around individually to achieve my goal. But each one gets dragged manually. And if I want to add another item, in the middle of my list of subitems, I have to create the item, then drag every other item around to get the arrangement I want. I started a writing project with Scapple, and was pleased with how easy it was to get some initial ideas out quickly. But once I got into the vicinity of 20 items or so, and wanted some structure, I felt that I really needed to move to my mind-mapping software.

There is a problem with this update; after I downloaded it, the software crashes every time I attempt to open documents created on an older version of Scapple that I have stored in iCloud. If you need to open older versions of Scapple documents, do not download if you can avoid it. I have contacted customer support, but they have not responded. Great little program, but this needs to be addressed. I was finally contacted by Keith the developer. After hours of troubleshooting we were unsuccessful. I was able to recover my files by going back in Time Machine to the day before the update. Everything works fine now. I seem to be the only one who has had this problem, so maybe it was a one of a kind difficulty.

I really like this app. Well done, a little rough around the edges, but the highly polished alternatives like OmniGraffle cost 10x more! I can handle a couple rough patches for 90% savings. Nice work!

I very rarely leave reviews, but Scapple deserves my time to write one. My favorite feature is the “enter” key creates a new note and pressing it again completes it. This allows me to truly brain storm without my hands ever leaving the keyboard until I want to begin making connections or formatting. This application can be used just fine as is, but please continue to add more functionality. ***I would love to be able to hot-key notes into existence with a style already on it.***

Seriously its awesome if your like me and you tend to get off topic when you write, It seems logical to sit down and do a bubble graph like you did in jr high just with out paperwork to lose, and on your MacBook, or whic ever device you use now. Another great app with this concept in mind is Note Away, I use both and even together if I am multi-tasking two different toppics or more. Both apps are really good ways to allow you to do multiple tasks, while staying focused, structered, and finally you can be productive even when your thoughts are racing on many different topics or issues at once. Its a lot better than havng several stikies pulled up, or realizing weeks later you missed an important detail because you got side tracked in Note pad. Thanks for bringing out a little natural OCD to ballance the ADHD

Too many of the productivity software was too complicated for me, I gave up figuring out how to navigate through Evernote because learning all the various functions was too much. I think I tried Scrivner before, too. I just wanted a simple software that lets me map stuff endlessly and this really just does the trick. It is easy enough for someone not all that tech savvy as me, and helps a great deal in clarifying my conceptual scheme of my writing. Modification is quite simple, and the flexibility and simplicity of this software is a gem. We write as we think, and think as we write, what would be too rigid in concrete outline can flow and be reshuffled as we change and discover new thoughts as we tweak around and scapple. And also, unlike my scribbles on napkins and back of envelope, these will be readable when I return to it days later.

Just what I needed! This app is the perfect tool to collect my thoughts. It’s simple and easy to use.

a little pricey, but it sure does what it promises. Ive looked at a lot of software like this to help with writing and research. Popplet was promising, but a little buggy and now theyve switched to a subscription model, which i hate. Gotta say, Im really digging Scapple. it really lets you focus on what youre doing, not on the software.

For roughing out ideas I find mindmapping software too rigid. This is a perfect digital replacement to handwriting in my notebook. I love the freedom it gives to jot things down without having to make connections in all cases. Keeps my mind open for creative thinking; makes it easy to capture as you go and organize as needed.

I love this app! I use it every day to organize papers, presentations, and projects for college. It is so easy to use and very versatile. Brilliant and simple. I love how you can drag images into the app and export anything you do to a PDF. This is literally the best investment I have made on the App Store in a long time. It might seem a little pricy, but it was totally worth it. This software is far more flexible and user friendly than almost anything else out there at a similar price.

This is first review I’ve ever written for a piece of software, and I typically never write reviews for anything, but I’ve been searching for a mindmapping application that allows me to get my ideas out as easily as I would on paper, but with the added benefit of future editing and organizing, for as long as I can remember, and Scapple is the only one I’ve found that works for me. I love this application! It’s intuitive and simple enough that it doesn’t get in the way of the flow of ideas… it helps facilitate the process. It’s amazing that such a simple application could fill such a huge void, but I find myself needing something like Scapple several times a week, almost daily. I’m so glad that I will never again have to through the frustrating process of testing one mindmapping application after another, and being dissapointed over and over. Scapple is fantastic!

It’s so simple - but there’s so much thought put into how it works. Just because there aren’t a lot of buttons and functions - it doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of functionality hinding unobtrusively behind the scenes. I started using this software at the most basic level - typing lots of ideas all over the canvas - relishing the freedom, then I thought “now I’m ready to start connecting things,” so I dragged one box on top of another not really expecting anything to happen, but they connected. I tried it with multiple boxes too - and it worked. Then I thought… “I want to make these boxes more prominent” - I didn’t want to go via the menus to change formatting so I just tried Command +++ on a whim and it made the text bigger. You can setup the default box styles to something different, and when you’re ready to start turning your map into something ordered and presentable, you can select multiple boxes and format them individually and use the notes/align tool to start to pull items into rows and columns to make sense of things. Loving the fluidity of this tool - it just gets out of the way of the creative process, but gives you enough ways to make sense of things visually once you’re done with the brainstorming phase and you’ve entered the idea-documentation phase.

App does exactly what it claims, which is always shocking when it comes to the app store…. the only thing that would help is some sort of alignment menu, kinda like the palette in photoshop or illustrator allowing you to align the components in the flowchart.

As an engineering manager, I always have to create presentations and work on design problems. Before Scapple, my workflow was to scribble all my ideas down on paper and then transfer them into Powerpoint. The problem was that my paper would become cluttered as I continued to add content and it became difficult to keep my ideas organized and connected. Not to mention that my handwriting is not all that great and that made it difficult to even read back what I wrote. Scapple solved all of these issues as now I have an unlimted canvas for my thoughts and I can connect my ideas in any fashion. I researched tradtional mind mapping applications but they are too structured and not freeform like Scapple. A couple of feature request - It would be nice to have a few built-in background textures and it would be nice to have keyboard shortcuts for the Notes->Align and Distribute functions as I use those a lot. Great job and great app!