Dear Friends: I would like to experiment this summer with the Scapple for Windows public beta version. I am concerned about the potential “conflict” with my existing Scapple program, which I have created many files. Could I easily use this beta version apart from the original one? Almost as two (2) separate and independent programs?
Thanks as always. --Joe
Yes, if you scroll down in the announcement post, there’s a section that discusses how to work with both versions installed side-by-side. To ensure you’re working in the intended version, launch Scapple first and then use File ▸ Open... to access your board (rather than double-clicking the board file, which will cause it to open in the more recently installed version). Boards can be edited in either version, and while the beta uses different default padding for notes, as mentioned in that post, that will only impact newly created boards. You’ll see more of a difference going the other way, creating a board in the beta and then opening it in the older version; in that case, the original padding would be lost and so your notes will space out a bit differently.
What I’d recommend is creating a zipped backup of your current boards (just via the Windows file system; right-click the .scap file and choose Send to ▸ Compressed folder); you could also create a copy of the file with a new name for testing, but the zip backup will also ensure you have a restore point should you accidentally open a board in the wrong Scapple version and need to go back prior to that for any reason. Then do try using those boards in the beta to see how it goes. Ideally there’s very little difference, just potentially some slight shifting because of different word wrapping, but if there is anything greatly amiss, during beta testing is exactly when we want to catch and fix that!
Many thanks for your generous response. I hope to give it a try. Much appreciated. Thanks again.
–Joe