Scapple is a product for writing, planning, and brainstorming from Literature & Latte, the creators of one of the most popular writing tools, Scrivener. While Scrivener is a comprehensive writing program, Scapple has a more narrow focus. It’s a simple but powerful program that makes it easy to organize your ideas and draw connections between them. Here’s our detailed Scapple review, along with Scapple’s discounts in the pricing section.
An Overview of Scapple
Scapple is a sophisticated, yet simple-to-use, application for getting the most out of your notes. If you’ve ever made a mind map or flowchart, you already understand the basic idea behind Scapple. Mind maps and flowcharts, diagrams with connecting lines between words, help you see the links between ideas. You can think of Scapple as an advanced digital version of the flowchart, with a host of features to help you create useful notes and draw connections between them.
● Connect notes by dragging and dropping.
● Import text files, images, and PDFs into Scapple to use in your notes. Notes can include all types of content, including text, photos, and even mathematical or scientific formulae.
● Customize the appearance of your notes. You can change the size, fonts, and colors.
● Group-related notes with background shapes. For example, if your note lists characters in a scene, you can place the names within a rectangle.
● Stack notes in columns.
● Move notes and arrange them in new formations.
● Export notes or print them.
● Download with either Mac or Windows.
These are just some of the features that make Scapple a convenient way to organize notes for any purpose.
The Benefit of Mind Maps
Educators, business people, writers, and others, have long used mind maps and flowcharts to organize their ideas better. The traditional mind map might have been scribbled in a notebook or on a blackboard. Scapple is a high-tech version of this concept.
It’s natural to write down words or ideas when working on any project. The value of a mind map is that it helps your brain notice the connections between ideas. You can think of a mind map as a visual representation of how your brain works on problems. The brain doesn’t merely store thousands of disconnected ideas but puts them together in various ways. It’s often the links between these ideas that create the biggest breakthroughs.
Writers, for example, often have promising ideas. If you’re writing a novel or screenplay, you might have a brilliant idea for a character. Or you might have certain actions or plot developments in mind such as a heist, shootout, romance, or trial. A mind map helps you put these elements into a meaningful context as you connect different portions of the work. The same is true for nonfiction. If you’re writing a paper or book about history, for example, you need to keep track of how different people and events impacted one another. A mind map helps you do this. It not only helps you clarify existing ideas but also forms new ones.
Create Digital Mind Maps With Scapple
Scapple is a more efficient way to create mind maps. As you learn the functions, you’ll be able to map out your ideas almost as quickly as they occur to you. Although Literature & Latte caters to writers, Scapple is a tool that can be useful for many purposes.
While you don’t need a digital tool to create mind maps, Scapple can speed up and simplify the process. If you want to make adjustments to your diagram, you don’t have to start from scratch as you would with the one you’ve written down. You can move things around, change their appearance, and explore different possible connections to see which makes the most sense.
Some of the Ways to Use Scapple
Literature & Latte specializes in writers’ tools, and that’s the most straightforward way to use Scapple. You could use it along with the company’s other product, Scrivener. However, you can use it as a standalone tool, for writers, as well as for others.
● Fiction writing. For novels or scripts, you can organize and draw connections between characters, scenes, and plotlines. In a screenplay, for example, writers often create storyboards that map out each scene. You can use Scapple to develop storyboards for scripts or novels.
● Nonfiction. Scapple is equally helpful for nonfiction writing projects such as books, essays, white papers, and business reports. You can create notes that include information such as chapters, historical periods, concepts, or data you want to add. Drawing connections between your notes helps you organize the project and helps you see all the relevant links and relationships.
● Business applications. Scapple can be a useful tool for business purposes. Mind maps are a powerful tool for planning creative and successful projects. You can use it to brainstorm features of a new product or marketing campaign. Plan the agenda of your meeting, or use it to help you create a business plan for a startup.
● Education. Mind maps and flowcharts are valuable tools for classrooms or any training environment. Teachers and trainers can use it to plan lessons and to show students the relationships between ideas. You can also use it in technical fields such as math and engineering, as you can put formulae or numbers into your notes.
Support and Community
When you buy Scapple (or Scrivener), you have access to the company’s support as well as a wide selection of video tutorials. There’s also an online forum where you can gain the benefit of other users’ experience. The Literature & Latte forums are quite active and provide users with an easy way to get help. You can get questions answered and learn tricks on how to use the software. Aside from forums about the products, there are more social discussions on topics such as literature and writing.
Pricing for Scapple
You can download a license for Scapple for $20.99 for either Windows or Mac. While you can use the software on multiple devices, the license only covers one platform. In other words, if you use both Mac & Windows devices, you’d need two licenses. Students, academics, and others in the educational profession can purchase a license for the discounted rate of $16.79.
Scapple Coupon Codes and Discounts
Normally, throughout the NaNoWriMo event (in November), you can get 20% off Scapple.
Use coupon code NANOWRIMO to get 20% off Scapple.
Value and Recommendation
Scapple is a useful tool that has many applications. It’s also a reasonably priced app that costs less than $21 for a lifetime license. While most software tools have fairly specific uses, there’s almost no limit to how you can apply Scapple. It’s helpful for any situation in which you want to highlight words, images, or ideas and note connections between them. While it’s certainly a valuable writing tool, it’s equally good for other types of thinking and brainstorming. Scapple is highly valuable to anyone who wants to boost their ability to see connections between ideas.
