Hi, I am using Scapple for Mac and it’s ideal for my workflow but I now have to work in an office which only uses Windows PCs . Are the Mac and Windows Scapple files compatible? Is there anything I should know about feature variations between them ?
Many thanks
Chris
They are completely compatible. The main issue you may run into is typical for cross-platform, and that is subtle font shifts. Since of course each system uses a completely different font rendering engine (not to mention cases where fonts might just not be available on one or the other, and must be substituted) this can cause small differences in how large each note is. In a program like Scapple that is heavily dependent upon text scale, this can with some documents mean that you get some goofy looking notes. It’s not a big deal, you would just drag the note size out to accommodate the different font size. Using slightly larger note boxes will in most cases mitigate this, so once you’ve gone back and forth between platforms a few times, it should settle down. But in the best case, you shouldn’t see any issues—it’s mostly a problem when the font must be substituted entirely.
This might explain the problem I have discovered (upon testing what seems to be a remarkably helpful program!!!): I am making a visual map of my entire story, and after working very hard on it on my Windows desktop, I opened the file in my mac and discovered that all of my notes were weirdly overlapping. I had to manually select each “stack” of notes (every act is a stack) and re-stack them to get them to sort out. I then had to repeat the process when I opened the file again in windows. This is a little time-consuming.
Could you describe your solution in more detail? It sounds like you are saying I should create more space around each note? One problem with that solution is that I am already trying to pack a LOT of information onto one sheet, so space is my enemy. 
Are there fonts that are more or less the same on both operating systems, that I could set as the default font? Would that prevent this adjustment issue? Or perhaps you have an even better solution, which is usually the case…
Yes, that is exactly what this problem will look like if you have notes that are very close together. They can end up overlapping each other or weirdly word-wrapping when you switch platforms. That’s mainly because the height of the box is not fixed, but determined by the text content (otherwise text would crop out of view).
You don’t need much extra space though, I’m only talking what it takes to display the note on both platforms without the text content changing the size of the box. That may be as small as a few pixels in some cases, and you may find some fonts work better than others in this regard.
You guys amaze me, with your quick and thoughtful replies. What other software company in the world is like this? THANK you.
It sounds like your answer is: try different fonts and spacing, and teach yourself which ones shift the least… Seems fair. Do you, or any other reading this board, have favorite choices in this regard?
I will be sure to report back if I find a good solve myself.
I just use Macs for work, Windows for testing, so I don’t really have any cross-platform workflows honed or anything like that.
One thing I did forget to mention is that you shouldn’t have to restack, it’s been a while since I checked, but I think all you need to do is select all of the notes in the stack and drag the right edge out a bit. All of the notes will resize together and should go back to being adjacent.
Aha. I will try that.
Heh, I bounce between the Windows and Linux versions. My recipe file was actually created on a Mac. If you’re going between Mac and PC, be sure to use version 2.0 of the Mac one. (Although I don’t know if it’s an issue anymore? I’m sure some are still using the 1.x tree.)
Also, be sure to move the entire project over to the mac. On the mac, it’s just one file, as I understand it. On Windows/linux, it’s an entire folder. (It’s something that’s tripped up people bouncing between operating systems before. Me? I just whack on the “-” key on my PC when I want to eject a DVD/CD.)
garpu, are you talking about Scapple or Scrivener?