Release Notes

Refinements and Changes

• Updated the in-app store.
• Improved drag and drop from Scrivener to work with multiple selections.
• Enabled the title bar to adapt to the Windows dark or light mode Color setting.
• Corrected text in an activation error message.

Scapple 1.4.1 requires a manual update. If you are upgrading from 1.4.0, simply download the 1.4.1 update installer and run the .exe file when Scapple is closed to update to the latest version.

If you are upgrading from 1.2.6 or an earlier version, this upgrade represents a switch from a 32-bit app installation to a 64-bit and requires a 64-bit version of Windows 10 or greater to run. Please follow the directions for upgrading detailed here.

If you have attempted to update from an unsupported system and find yourself with a copy that no longer runs, please visit our legacy download page to retrieve an older copy of the software.

Refinements and Changes

• Scapple’s Qt framework has been updated to version 6.3.2.
• A new Styles tab in Options allows customising the shortcut key modifier for styles. The settings for default note styles have also been moved to this new tab.
• The file browsing dialogues (Open, Save, and Save As…) now remember the last location through closing and relaunching Scapple, rather than only during the session.
• If the currently-set dictionary is deleted, Scapple alerts the user on startup and internally disables the spell check, rather than attempting to default to English. Open Edit ▸ Spelling ▸ Dictionaries… to download and select your preferred dictionary and re-enable spell checking.
• The default inspector width in new boards now accommodates Windows text scaling. The width can also be manually adjusted in any board by dragging the divider between the canvas and inspector.
• Scapple now stores image heights as well as widths to allow the upcoming macOS version to create same-size placeholders as a fallback for any image types it does not support.

Bug Fixes

Hot fix applied, 2022-09-21, to fix application metadata and certification on the executable.

• Fixed a bug whereby Save As… could overwrite the path of a different board currently open in Scapple.
• Fixed a bug whereby some dictionaries were not correctly recognised after downloading and could not be used or did not display in the dropdown menu for selection.
• Fixed a bug whereby creating an empty note in a stack would delete the empty note as expected but then misplace following notes in the stack.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the top note of a stack to shift out of the stack when using right or centred alignment.
• Fixed a bug whereby creating new notes stacked below an image ignored the image’s attributes (width, border style, etc.) even when Use selected note style for new notes was enabled.
• Fixed a bug whereby toggling the inspector in a board maximised across multiple screens could cause the Scapple window to size down to a single screen.
• Fixed a bug whereby Edit ▸ Substitutions ▸ Smart Links could not be deselected.
• Fixed a bug whereby the menu toggle options in Edit ▸ Spelling ▸ and Edit ▸ Substitutions ▸ (set either from the menu or the Substitutions panel) acted as global settings rather than being saved per board, with new boards using the most recently toggled settings.
• Fixed a bug whereby Edit ▸ Find distinguished between straight and smart quote marks, so a search might not return expected results.
• Fixed a bug whereby the Default style preview in the inspector incorrectly displayed the shadow and text alignment set for default notes in Options.
• Fixed a bug in the auto-update process so that future updates can be downloaded and installed from within the app.
• Ensured the starter help text that appears on empty boards remains legible by dynamically adapting to the board background colour.

As part of this extensive update, the code base has been upgraded for 64-bit support, meaning that Scapple 1.4 requires a 64-bit version of Windows 10 or greater to run.

This change also requires a manual update from earlier versions of Scapple to 1.4. Please follow the instructions on our announcement page to upgrade your copy of Scapple.

If you have attempted to update from an unsupported system and find yourself with a copy that no longer runs, please visit our legacy download page to fetch an older copy of the software.

Refinements and Changes

General

• Scapple is now a 64-bit app, with its Qt framework updated to version 6.3.1.
• Compatibility has been improved both between Mac and Windows and between different screen resolutions, significantly reducing cases where auto-sized notes would wrap unexpectedly when opened on a different system.
• Scapple’s dictionaries have been updated from Aspell to Hunspell and include more languages.

Inspector and Styles

• Access to note and document settings has been streamlined into an inspector sidebar with a new styles panel that previews available styles and allows easy application, creation, and editing via drag and drop.
• The inspector is now shown or hidden per board and its state will be remembered when the board is next opened.
• You can now easily create a style by dragging a note onto the Default row of the Note Styles section in the inspector. Existing note styles can be updated by dragging and dropping notes from the board onto the style name.
• Styles can be conveniently copied between boards by dragging and dropping from one board’s inspector to another’s. Styles can also be updated across boards by dragging and dropping a note from one board onto an existing style in another board’s inspector.
• Dragging a style from the inspector onto an empty space on the board will create a new note using that style; holding the modifier keys while dragging will connect the new note to previously selected notes just like when double-clicking to create a new note.
• Style modifications (creating, redefining, deleting, and importing styles) can now be reverted using Edit ▸ Undo.

Saving

• You can now adjust the auto-save interval or disable auto-save entirely from the General tab in File ▸ Options….
• Previously open, unsaved boards are now restored on launch in the event of a crash.
• Undo now works on changes made to the Document settings (board background colour, font, etc.) in the inspector.

Note Connectors

• Labels can now be added to connections between notes.
• Text in connection labels will be included when using Replace All.
• You can now choose whether to use dashed lines (default) or solid lines for connections without arrowheads, by toggling the new setting in the General tab of File ▸ Options….

Import and Export

• ODT files can now be imported as editable notes.
• SVG rendering has been improved so that images remain crisp when resized on the board. (For compatibility with the Mac version, Scapple also provides an option on import to add the image as a bitmap instead.)
• Imported PDFs are now drawn with a transparent background.
• Pasting notes or clipboard text (via the right-click menu or Ctrl+V) when a note is selected will now paste the notes as a stack beneath the selected note, including inserting notes or text into an existing stack.
• The Export as Plain Text dialogue has been spruced up and now more clearly displays multi-line separators and whitespace characters.
• Exporting as Plain Text List now produces single-spaced notes rather than double-spaced, matching Mac.

Board Navigation

• The middle mouse button can now be used for panning. (Holding the space bar still allows panning with the main mouse button.)
• You can now hold the Ctrl key to increase the speed while moving notes via Shift+ArrowKeys.
• Movement mode (Edit ▸ Arrow Keys Move Notes) is now toggled simply with an unmodified M key.
• Numerous keyboard shortcuts have been added and several have been updated for simplicity or to harmonise with Scrivener’s similar menu actions.

UI

• Scapple now offers a Dark Mode, which can be set in File ▸ Options….
• The default background, note styles and colours of new boards have been refreshed and brightened, matching those used in the Mac version.
• Page guides have been slightly darkened for better visibility.
• Note padding has been slightly adjusted for new boards, improving readability for longer notes. (Existing boards will not be impacted, retaining their original spacing and layout.)
• The note border selection menu now displays a visual representation of the border width.
• The default font for new boards has been changed to Arial. (You can set your preferred default font under Document Settings in the Inspector.)
• When multiple notes are selected, the footer bar now displays this count as well as the total number of notes.
• The footer bar now displays a lock icon when File ▸ Prevent Editing is enabled.
• Notes now inherit the board colour when they have no fill colour, ensuring their text remains readable even when overlapping another note or connection label.
• Previews of new machine translations have been added, available from the language dropdown menu in File ▸ Options…. Since these are incomplete and unreviewed, they must be set manually (“system language” will still default to English even if your language is available as a preview). If you would like to volunteer to improve these translations, please let us know!

Note Manipulation and Editing

• The minimum width for notes has been reduced.
• It is now possible to deselect notes using a marquee drag by holding the Alt key while dragging.
• Two new alignment commands have been added, Center Horizontally in Background Shape and Center Vertically in Background Shape.
• New shapes are created layered behind existing items to simplify interaction with enclosed shapes. (Use Notes ▸ Bring to Front or ▸ Send to Back to adjust the layering.)
• The default spacing for stacked notes, as well as the margin of tolerance for detecting a stack, has been slightly increased and now matches the spacing used on Mac, ensuring compatibility between platforms.
• Notes overlapping a coloured background shape now take on that shape’s fill colour if they have none of their own, making the association more apparent.
• When Enter ends editing is enabled, new lines in notes can be created using Shift+Enter.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a crash that could occur using Replace or Replace & Find.
• Fixed a bug whereby pressing Ctrl+Delete or Alt+Delete when a shape was selected would crash Scapple.
• Fixed several bugs with Find/Replace that could cause unpredictable results in the replacement order, skip matching terms when using Replace All, or cause Scapple to freeze when using Replace & Find on the last instance of the search term.
• Fixed a bug whereby table content could be pasted into a note as an editable table which would then be lost on save. Table content now pastes purely as text.
• Fixed a bug whereby notes that had been auto-sized down retained that reduced width, or narrowed further, during editing. Automatically-shortened notes now expand to the default note width when editing.
• Fixed a bug whereby file names containing periods would be truncated in the title bar and in the Save As name field.
• Fixed various discrepancies in the order of notes when exporting to OPML, plain text, and rich text formats and when dragging and dropping into Scrivener’s binder. These should now better follow the order described in §9.2.1 (The Order of Things) of the user manual.
• Fixed a bug whereby notes exported to RTF with the separator field left empty were separated with a blank line rather than a single return; this bug also padded any separator entered with blank lines, which now are instead single returns.
• Fixed a bug whereby moving a board across monitors with different resolutions could cause the font size to shift, disrupting the board’s layout.
• Fixed a bug that affected Scapple boards opened on the lower-resolution monitor of multi-monitor setups, causing notes to temporarily enlarge while dragged, making it difficult to accurately position notes.
• Fixed a bug whereby the board would scroll unnecessarily to keep items entirely within the view when they were dropped near the edge of the visible space.
• Fixed a bug causing a delay when moving images on the board via drag and drop.
• Adjusted the auto-save algorithm to reduce lag.
• Fixed a display bug whereby fill colour applied to a note via a style might not appear until the board was reopened if the note’s font size did not match the font size saved in the style.
• Fixed a bug whereby resizing a note with the mouse switched the note to editing mode when the mouse button was released.
• Fixed a bug whereby resizing multiple notes together could not be undone in a single action (each size increment needed to be undone one at a time).
• Fixed a bug whereby dragging multiple selected notes onto a connected note failed to disconnect the notes.
• Fixed a bug whereby copying and pasting a group of notes, or duplicating them via Ctrl+drag, did not leave all the pasted notes selected.
• Fixed a bug whereby the first character of text pasted from Google Docs could appear with hyperlink formatting.
• Fixed a bug whereby text containing a hyperlink pasted from Google Docs could have the link formatting extend to the end of the paragraph after closing and reopening the Scapple board.
• Fixed a bug whereby hyperlinks were lost from imported DOC files and linked text was missing from imported DOCX files.
• Fixed a bug whereby notes copied from one board to another retained their original font until the board was reloaded.
• Fixed a bug whereby the board’s default text colour would be used when exporting to RTF or copying and pasting from Scapple in a rich-text format, which could result in unreadable text. Scapple now uses black text in these cases whenever a note does not have its own text colour applied.
• Fixed a bug whereby applying a note style with font formatting did not remove existing formatting that was not part of the style.
• Fixed a bug whereby scrolling the board while dragging an item could misplace the drop position.
• Fixed a bug whereby selecting or deselecting the Enter ends editing option could toggle the state of the other Enter key behaviour setting in Options.
• Fixed a bug whereby the magnetic setting for shapes was entirely hidden in the inspector rather than disabled when a shape was not selected.
• Fixed a bug whereby the temporary zoom state while pressing the Z key could get stuck when the Ctrl key was also held down.
• Fixed a bug whereby aligning or distributing magnetic background shapes did not also move any overlapping notes; the notes are now treated as a unit with the shape.
• Fixed a bug whereby Alt+clicking a shape selected surrounding shapes rather than only those fully contained within it.
• Fixed a bug whereby the Ctrl+Alt+Shift modifier to create a double-headed arrow connector did not work if pressed before beginning to drag the note.
• Improved the behaviour of the auto-scrolling when dragging notes near the edges of the board.
• Fixed a bug whereby dragging magnetic shapes moved overlapping shapes that were not fully enclosed in the magnetic shape.
• Fixed a bug whereby the Select ▸ Notes Overlapping Selected Shapes failed to select notes and shapes within the selected shape.
• Fixed a bug in the export order of notes, improving predictability per the description in the manual.
• Fixed a bug whereby the spelling dialogue could be hidden behind the Scapple board.
• Fixed a bug whereby the language dropdown in Options appeared blank when using the default setting (system language).
• Fixed a bug whereby the shape-related alignment options for notes were not available unless the note fully overlapped the shape.
• Fixed a bug whereby note indentation level was not preserved when exporting to RTF.
• Fixed some buggy behaviour of note text and connections not properly updating to a contrasting colour against background shapes or after certain changes to the board background when the default foreground colour is cleared.
• Fixed a bug whereby the commands in Edit ▸ Transformations ▸ always affected the entire note, even when only a portion of the text was selected.
• Tidied the output when exporting to OPML with the option to create a “notes” field enabled, so that the heading always uses the shorter of the first line or the first 50 characters and includes an ellipsis if the line must be cut.
• Fixed a bug whereby the check spelling dialogue opened in a disabled state when accessed via the accelerator key shortcuts.
• Fixed a bug whereby merging notes from one stack into another did not reform the stack the notes were taken from.
• Fixed a bug whereby edits that changed the width of notes when the auto-size notes setting was enabled were not properly reversed or restored with Edit ▸ Undo or ▸ Redo.
• Fixed several bugs whereby a Scapple board could be altered despite File ▸ Prevent Editing being enabled, including disabling Edit ▸ Redo, Format ▸ Note Style ▸ Delete Note Style ▸, and Edit ▸ Spelling ▸ Show Spelling…, as well as adding the ability to copy notes, note styles, and note text while in this mode for pasting into another board or application.
• Fixed a bug whereby shadows could appear lighter against dark backgrounds.
• Fixed a compatibility issue with the Mac version whereby notes containing only whitespace would have that space removed on Windows, resulting in the note disappearing if it were toggled into and out of editing mode.
• Fixed a bug whereby notes could jump position when edited while Auto-size notes was enabled in Options, which could also cause stacks to break.
• Fixed a bug whereby notes created by dragging a style from the inspector would shrink to fit the default text if Auto-size notes was enabled in Option, rather than retaining the default width until the text was edited.
• Fixed a bug whereby Notes ▸ Bring To Front|Send To Back did not adjust the layered position of the selected note if it was not currently touching another note.
• Fixed a bug whereby a note with no fill colour overlapping the edge of a shape would obscure the shape’s shadow but not its border.
• Fixed a bug whereby Format ▸ Note Style ▸ Copy|Paste Note Style incorrectly included the copied note or shape’s size and its magnetic and faded states.
• Fixed a bug that could leave a temporary ghost copy of a note after dragging the note.
• Fixed a bug affecting high-DPI monitors whereby dragging notes, making marquee selections, and similar drag actions could leave lines and other drawing glitches on the board.
• Fixed a bug whereby, when editing a note, Ctrl-clicking another note selected the second note without ending editing on the first.
• Fixed a bug whereby pressing Z to activate QuickZoom would always zoom out if the board had been zoomed in, even when all notes were already visible.
• Fixed a bug whereby pressing Z did not enable the QuickZoom feature in some cases when a single note in a certain position in the board was scrolled out of view.
• Fixed a bug whereby creating a stack with right or centred alignment could cause the first note to end up outside the stack.
• Fixed a bug whereby Alt-clicking on a shape to include its overlapping notes in the selection did not combine with Ctrl-clicking to create a multiple selection.
• Fixed a bug whereby the Replace All Scope setting in the Find dialogue affected the scope of functions beyond Replace All.
• Fixed a bug whereby changing the board font could additionally remove bold formatting from notes and require Edit ▸ Undo to restore the formatting for each note individually.
• Fixed a typo in the Options.

Bug Fixes

This update resolves a critical issue with our 3rd party Paddle software. Unfortunately, it again has to do with automatic re-activation preventing continued use of Scapple. We sincerely apologise and hope this is the last we see of Paddle-specific issues within Scapple.

Bug Fixes

This update resolves another critical issue with our 3rd party Paddle software, introduced end of June 2019, principally with automatic re-activation preventing continued use of Scapple.

Bug Fixes

This update resolves a critical issue with the Paddle software, introduced end of June 2019, principally with automatic re-activation.

Hotfix 1.2.3: 

• Resolves outstanding licensing and activation issues introduced by the switch to Paddle.
• IMPORTANT: Activation through the new Paddle system requires Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 and Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.2 or higher. The latest .NET Framework for your system can be installed via Windows Update under optional recommended updates. After installing, please be sure to run a new check for updates to ensure all follow-up security patches are installed.
• Vista users: Following further investigation and adjustments to Paddle's minimum requirements (previously given as .NET Framework 4.0 but now determined to require the TLS 1.2 security protocol, which is not available on older systems or enabled prior to .NET Framework 4.6.2), Scapple now forces the use of TLS 1.2 in the .NET Framework 4.5 on Windows Vista. This should allow Vista users to activate and continue using Scrivener 1. (Requires Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 and Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 or higher. Run Windows Update with recommended updates to ensure your system is up to date.)
• XP users: As Microsoft ended support for Windows XP without implementing support for TLS 1.2 or .NET Framework 4.5, XP does not support the minimum requirements for activation through our new licensing provider. XP users should not install Scapple 1.2.3.

Refinements and Changes

Version number incremented to 1.2, to reflect feature parity at the same version level on the Mac.

Licensing and Activation

• Scrivener’s licensing and activation system has been updated to work with our new e-commerce provider, Paddle.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug whereby note size was not saved into styles.
• Fixed bug in the installer, which would add itself to the system path.
• Core toolkit updated to Qt 4.8.6 and signing certificates updated.

Initial public release.