is Scapple the best for "thinking on paper"

Posted by Franz Grieser
Nov 26, 2017 at 09:44 PM

Funny thing. “Thinking on paper” means for me: thinking things through. I do that by mulling over things, writing thoughts down, connecting thoughts (through words and sentences I write down), getting new ideas, writing them down…
This kind of process involves a lot of words (written, deleted, moved…). That’s nothing I’d do in Scapple (or a mind mapping tool). I use Scapple for writing down words or short sentences, for arranging them on screen, connecting them, rearranging them. Sometimes I use Scapple for creating diagrams I use in books/articles/presentations.

What I am still looking for is a tool that lets me combine both: long text and visual representation, visual arrangement - and, hopefully, the ability to discover connections visually that did not occur to me when writing.

I tried several wiki-style apps (TiddlyWiki, Dokuwiki, ConnectedText) but none clicked. Tinderbox might be what I need but it’s Mac-only - and I do most of my writing/thinking on Windows machines. TheBrain is another candidate, I’ll give it a try after I finish my current book project.