I know this may never happen, but I can dream, can’t I?
This is a wishlist forum, yes?
So, already knowing I might not get it, I wish there was a Fishbone chart feature. Maybe in Scrivener 3.0 or higher one day.
As a writer, the best way for me to chart a story’s outline and plot/details/etc. is not by notecards, not by timeline, not by standard outline… but by Fishbone chart.
I wonder if it would be “easy” (I know nothing in programming software is really easy) to have the OPTION of changing the notecard system to a fishbone charting system. There are already several ways to display the outline and synopses, having a fishbone chart would only be one more way.
You could simply take the same information that is already in the notecards/etc. and then allow the user to custom-display them/that same info as a fishbone chart without much change.
All you would need, hopefully, is just to write the new app-code for a fishbone charting system, but base the core of it around the notecard/outline stuff already there.
And then people would have 3 options. Notecard, Outline, Fishbone.
Anyway, I see this as a killer new feature. Maybe it will never happen, but just my wish.
Tee hee, don’t take this the wrong way, but I love it when users start sentences with, “all you would need to do…” Let’s put it this way: the corkboard alone took about three months of coding and bug fixing.
Also, it’s not a good sign that I had to Google “fishbone chart” just to learn what one is. I think you are after a mind-map sort of feature, right? This is actually a common request (probably the top request, along with “Can we have a timeline?”). I’ve always said I will consider it for 2.0 - but only consider it, mind. To be honest, I’ve been thinking lately that a timeline and mindmap really don’t belong as part of Scrivener, as it will end up with me trying to throw everything and the kitchen sink into Scrivener, which would be a mistake. Scrivener certainly has a lot of stuff in it, but the corkboard, outliner and binder are all very closely integrated. I’m not sure how a mindmap could really show the outline data in a reasonable manner. Consider - in mindmap apps, you create one mindmap in a single document, and save it. But in Scrivener, you have lots of levels of outline, which would mean lots of mindmaps in one project (it would be another view). For each one, it would have to remember the location of the individual nodes -which may be moved when manipulating a higher-level outline too. All in all, I think it’s best to plan out a project in dedicated mindmapping software, if this is how you work, and then import it into Scrivener as PDF. I doubt Scrivener could really compete…
Yes, you are right. Anyone that works in computers (which I do, too)… hates it, or at least laughs, when someone else says, “Oh, that’ll be easy!”
So, yes, I agree, what I think is easy… well, probably isn’t! And the importing a fishbone chart PDF idea is actually a great idea I never thought of! I already have a fishbone app, and will just use that, and then import as PDF.
I know we all wish Scrivener could be everything we want and even bring world peace, but I guess we have to realize, it is what it is. But still the best!
Let’s put it this way: the corkboard alone took about three months of coding and bug fixing.