Hi folks,
I saw an area for the Scrivener wishlist, but none for Scapple - sorry if I missed it. So posting here.
First off - Scapple is great. Here are some suggestions that could increase its productivity a lot.
- GRID
…aimed at making alignment easier and faster. This is the only aspect of the software I find myself cursing softly.
So for instance, my weapon of choice to tackle this would be to be able to switch on a grid, the visibility of which could be toggled on and off (on for adjusting the size to what you want, then switch off for uncluttered workspace). If I could only choose a grid of say, size 5 pixels, and all nodes try to snap to that when created or moved, there would be no more need to do the repetitive selectnodes + rightclick + align + align left. You could then have a hot key that when held down, overrides the grid and allows one to move the node freely if that is sometimes needed.
- Drag direction locking, a la photoshop.
The idea being to hold down a key or key combo that causes moving a node to be constrained to horizontal motion, or vertical motion. Super handy, and super missed at the moment.
- Print interactive preview that allows one to still drag nodes around
This is especially important for big spreadsheets where you might have a long row of nodes, and want to space them so they don’t lie over the crack between two pages. Right now, to do that, one has to go into Print, enter the scale factor (which does not get remembered so has to be entered each time), check how things sit by flicking through the pages, try to remember where the nodes need adjusting and how much, then quit out of print, move the nodes hoping you remembered the right ones and how much they were off, go back into print, enter the scale factor again, flick through the pages again, find you didn’t quite nail it… rinse and repeat. Becomes a show stopper when you have ten or more pages to print, each of which requires adjusting of node positioning.
- Subnetworks
Would be nice for many applications to be able to enter into a node where one can build a new network.
- Insert images
I’ve seen folks mention this before so won’t belabor it.
I think 1 and 2 are perhaps the biggest bang for development buck. I hope my words were able to convey how those two functions would greatly enhance user experience. 3 might be more work but personally feel its super important. 4 and 5 are just whimsical as they represent an expansion of core functionality rather than making the core concept of Scapple completely shipshape.
Thanks for your hard work - I really hope you stick with Scapple and keep it growing. It is off to a great start!