Software: Literature & Latte's "Scapple"
Scapple is a mind-mapping desktop client created by the geniuses at Literature and Latte, the same folks who are the masterminds behind my go-to, long form word processing program, Scrivener.
I had every intention of writing what will probably be a ridiculously long review of Scrivener (I’ve literally written tens of thousands of words in it after all) before I even mentioned Scapple. But then Literature and Latte went ahead and announced today on their Twitter feed that they were taking Scapple out of beta next week.
So, naturally, I thought I would help spread the good word.
What it does:
At its core, Scapple exceeds most at being very easy to use. You double-click anywhere in the window to create text objects (blocks or “bubbles” of text, images, etc…), and then you drag these text objects on top of each other to link them together with a dotted (or solid, or arrowed) line.Seriously, that’s it.
Of course if you dig a little, you’ll find that there is way more that you can do with this powerhouse of an app! But I love, love, LOVE the fact that you can launch it and, without a tutorial, be making very quick and versatile mind-maps of anything in under 5 minutes!
I’ve used Scapple for mapping out chapters in novels I’ve written, making diagrams of floor plans, any kind of hierarchy I can think of and, with its ability to export to PDF, I’ve even used it professionally in my day-to-day!
Just Get it...
Like Scrivener, its strength lies in its core simplicity. If you need it for anything beyond that, the tools are there, patiently waiting. For that aspect alone, I give it my highest recommendation.Next week the finished version will be available for purchase (L and L says it will be under $15) on the Mac, so go out and support it folks. You won’t be let down. I promise!
Here’s the link to the beta download if you want to give it a try before the official 1.0 release!
UPDATE - Download links:
- The official 1.0 release can now be found on their site right here!
- If the Mac App Store is more your speed, you can find the link to that version here. (though you'll most certainly get updates to the app much quicker if you purchase the version directly from Literature and Latte's site.)