Scapple for macOS Public Beta
This release represents a re-write of essential, core functionality in Apple’s new language Swift, which is a wonderful new method of crossing vast computational distances in a mere nothingth of a second, without all that tedious mucking about in Objective-C.
In Scapple 1.4.2, we replaced Scapple’s engine with a new one written in Swift, while the rest of her remained unapologetically Objective-C. Now, in the upcoming Scapple 1.4.3, the faux-leather seats, white-walled tyres, and eight-track cassette player are getting upgraded to groovier Swift versions that can, with a little ‘to me, to you’, be used in other vehicles.
Essentially, we’re doing this work for two reasons:
- Swift is now Apple’s preferred development language, and the more Scapple’s Swift code increases, the longer that Scapple will be around; plus it makes it easier to add more features.
- The Swift code is portable and can be used on other platforms (for instance, iOS).
Download Link
The beta is available to new and existing users. If you do not have a Scapple licence, the betas will run in trial mode, allowing a total of 30 non-consecutive days of use. (For example, if you run the beta 12 days before its expiry date, you’ll have 18 days remaining to test subsequent beta releases.)
Download Current: Beta 8, version 1.4.2.9.1 (11714)
Expiry date: 2024-04-30T22:00:00Z
Change logs
Installation...
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After downloading the ZIP file, open your Downloads folder in Finder.
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Unzip the ‘scapple-1429.zip’ file by double-clicking on it, if your browser has not already done so for you.
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Drag the “Scapple” application icon into your Applications folder to install it and replace the stable version.
Alternatively, refer to the instructions below for keeping the stable version installed, if that is your preference.
System Requirements and Compatibility
macOS 10.15 “Catalina” or later.
Testing Notes
Virtually all the interactions you will have with the app as a user will involve this new code. We’ve tried hard to eliminate all bugs and issues, but so much code has changed that there are bound to be some remaining. We’re interested in any and all issues you encounter in daily usage.
Known Issues
The following are bugs specific to this build that we are aware of and know how to reproduce. No further reporting or investigation is necessary at this time.
- Regression: Labels and connectors are using white/black at all times, instead of the board’s default foreground colour.
- Right-to-left text can sometimes overlap characters when using left note alignment.
- Some colours, such as board backgrounds, are loading using the wrong colour profile, which can cause visually darker or washed out results. This only impacts the appearance of the board rather than its settings.
Installing the Beta Alongside the Stable Version
It is possible to have both Scapple 1.4.2 and the beta version installed simultaneously, but you will need to choose a different name for one of them. We suggest placing the beta version into your Downloads folder initially, where it can be renamed to something like “Scapple - Beta.app”, before dragging it into your Applications folder to install it.
Setting up the default version...
If you would like to associate your existing Scapple documents with one version in particular, so that they always load in the beta or stable version:
- Locate any .scap file in Finder.
- Use the
File ▸ Get Infomenu command. - Expand, if necessary, the Open with section of the palette.
- Select which version of Scapple you would like to use for this file.
- If you want to make this a global setting, click the
Change All...button, and confirm.
For opening documents manually, as you will need to do in the version you do not select above: drag Scapple files onto the appropriate app icon for the version you want or use File ▸ Open... within Scapple to access the board.
Given how macOS works, if you have a version of Scapple open already it will be used to load the board, even if it is specifically set to use another version. Use the manual open method if you intent to run both versions at once.
Change Logs
The following notes may contain details pertinent to bugs that arise during beta testing, which will not appear in the final change log that will only list fixes and updates made from the previous stable version, 1.4.2.
Beta 8 change log
- Incremented expiration date to 1 May, 2024.
Previous beta notes
Beta 7 change log
- Fixed bug whereby notes containing more than one line would not auto-fit after editing the note, when applicable.
- Optimisations have been made to overall board drawing speeds, which should improving stuttering and lag, which could be seen when scrolling, panning and zooming.
- When stacking notes together, the width of each note is now respected rather than changed to match the width of the first note. If you prefer stacked notes to have even widths, use the
Notes ▸ Make Same Widthcommand. - Fixed bug in style storage and application whereby certain attributes were not properly read when loading an existing board, and would be subsequently lost once saved.
- The Sparkle framework, used to check for and install upgrades for the direct-sale version, has been upgraded to the latest version. This should reduce excessive requests for update checks on some older systems.
Beta 6 change log
- Fixed bug where use of the New Note menu command or shortcut threw an exception.
- When dropping styles into the Note Styles inspector area, the selection halo has been fixed to be visible again, in macOS 14.
- The factory default styles no longer apply too many kinds of formatting to notes (e.g. “Red text” only changes the text to red).
- Fixed bug that would block all drag and drop events in boards that had notes with labels on connectors.
- Fixed bug where dragging style examples, out of the inspector and into the board to create a new styled note, did not work.
- Fixed bug whereby multi-byte fonts, such as Japanese or Korean, would not properly hold inline formatting applied to portions of the text within a note.
- Fixed bug that would cause stacks to break formation, when editing notes within them that contain multiple lines.
- GUI layout fixed in the RTF and RTFD export dialogues.
Beta 5 change log
- Fix issue where dragging an image note could lead to the app hanging for several seconds.
- Expiry date pushed to February 1, 2024.
Beta 4 change log
- Fixed an exception being thrown when dragging notes into the inspector’s Note Styles pane, or when dragging styles between inspectors, across boards.
- Fixed a bug where typing a ‘dead key’, such as
´, meant to be combined with a letter, likeé, would cause a crash if typed into a board without a note open for editing. - Fixed a bug making it impossible to drag selections containing images to other boards, or to duplicate-drag within the same board.
- Fixed a display bug which would cause exception reporting to use black text on dark grey, when in Dark Mode.
Beta 3 change log
- Fixed issues where stack order was corrupted by array ordering, where stack order sometimes produced unexpected results.
- Fixed issue where labeled connectors would remove label from copied notes on paste.
- Default styles now save their border widths.
- Fixed issue where export images would create files incorrectly.
- Fixed issue where export to OPML would append “.xml” to the filename when the path contained a space.
- Expiry date pushed to October 1, 2023.
Beta 2 change log
- Changes made to underlying code to ease porting to iOS.
- Expiry date pushed to August 1, 2023.
Changes since last release
This will document all changes to the software that are notable since the last stable release, and thus form what will be the final change log once 1.4.3 is published.
Official Change Log (Working)
Refinements and Changes
- Board textures now attempt to detect the overall lightness of the image, and adjust the foreground colour appropriately, when the Default Color is cleared in the Document Settings area of the inspector.
- Improved adaptive foreground colour handling in contextual cases where a shape or note background is different from the overall board background. E.g. black shapes on a white board will no longer host black on black notes.
- Shift-clicking on a note or shape that is partially out of view will scroll the canvas until it can be fully seen.
- The
Replace Allbutton will now replace text found in connector labels. - When stacking notes together, the width of each note is now respected rather than changed to match the width of the first note. If you prefer stacked notes to have even widths, use the
Notes ▸ Make Same Widthcommand. - The Sparkle framework, used to check for and install upgrades for the direct-sale version, has been upgraded to the latest version. This should reduce excessive requests for update checks on some older systems.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed bug whereby dragging two notes by their connection line would cause a crash in macOS 13 “Ventura”.
- Fixed issue with the cursor colour not following the board’s current foreground colour, causing it to become invisible in some cases.
- Fixed crash on adding new notes to connection lines that also contain labels, in .scap files that were originally created with the Windows version.
- Fixed a bug that could cause some boards to silently fail to load.
- Fixed a bug and would cause some boards to not save, throwing an error dialogue stating that “there was a problem creating the XML data”.
- Fixed issue with connection labels printing and exporting to PDF as white-on-white if the board itself was dark and the Default Color was cleared.
- Modified inspector’s behaviour to end the editing of notes when it is opened, to avoid issues with modifying a notes appearance while it is being actively edited.
- Fixed a crash whereby typing a ‘dead key’, such as
´, meant to be combined with a letter, likeé, would cause a crash if typed into a board without a note open for editing. - Fixed issues where stack order was corrupted by array ordering, where stack order sometimes produced unexpected results.
- Fixed a display bug which would cause exception reporting to use black text on dark grey, when in Dark Mode.
- Fix issue where dragging an image note could lead to the app hanging for several seconds.
- Fixed bug whereby multi-byte fonts, such as Japanese or Korean, would not properly hold inline formatting applied to portions of the text within a note.
- Fixed bug that would cause stacks to break formation, when editing notes within them that contain multiple lines.
- GUI layout fixed in the RTF and RTFD export dialogues.
- Fixed bug whereby notes containing more than one line would not auto-fit after editing the note, when applicable.
- Optimisations have been made to overall board drawing speeds, which should improving stuttering and lag, which could be seen when scrolling, panning and zooming.
- Fixed bug in style storage and application whereby the Size attribute was not properly read when loading an existing board, and would be subsequently lost once saved.