I just downloaded Scapple and trying it for the first time.
Dragging stuff from Scrivener etc. Had quite a bit on there (unsaved) and then I must have hit a combo of keys by accident which closed the program… So all that time and effort lost!
A simple auto save feature would be brilliant, as a starting point.
Maybe when a new blank scapple is opened, it could prompt for a ‘save to’ filename and location, and that would facilitate the auto-save at regular intervals Default say 5 minutes, but user selectable.
A backup (with say an iterative filename (projectname_001, projectname_002 etc) and options for users to select whether they want auto backup, and/or autosave and at what intervals would be ideal. . That way it can be set up tio user’s own desires.
As noted in that thread, there already is an auto-save that runs in the background at all times. The request there was for a way to turn it off.
But perhaps you mean only in windows that aren’t attached to any files yet. That could be possible, though it might take some thought as to how to do it.
I wouldn’t agree with the notion that you should be forced to choose a file name as soon as you create a new document, like Scrivener does. Unlike that, Scapple is more like Notepad or something simple, where you might very well just want some “scratch paper” that you never save, and here is the important reason for why auto-saving new windows shouldn’t ordinarily be necessary—you have to make that choice when you close the window.
That’s the weird part, like I say, you should get a warning asking whether or not you want to save the file at that point. It shouldn’t just let you close the window and destroy everything you’ve done without a peep. Are you certain it wasn’t in fact saved somewhere and thus actually auto-saving all along? Check the File ▸ Open Recent ▸ submenu.
So really, the main thing auto-save on anonymous documents should be for are really out of bound cases, like your system going into emergency shut down because the battery is low, or crashes. So it’s still not a bad idea, but specifically it shouldn’t be necessary for the much more common scenario you’re describing.