Scapple - Rough Out the Family Story

Scribbling — who hasn’t done that?? That is where you quickly write out a phrase, name, term, or short sentence so that will not be forgotten. You may have placed them on scraps of paper and now those are in numerous places and in no order.

Using your computer, there is a British firm which has developed an easier method to keep track of your scribbling / notes and then put it together in a good flowing format. The Literature & Latte, Ltd has a software program titled ‘Scapple‘ which allows you to jot down your thoughts anywhere on a page. Just click anywhere – put down you word or phrase and move on to something else. When you are ready to organize those thoughts you just drag that phrase or words to what you want to connect with. Different concepts can be in numerous colors and fonts to help identify one from another. You can even encircle phrases with different shapes to help tell one portion from another. The program then puts them together. If that is not correct, move to another connection. Change as many times as you want.

Now this program can be super for those who are ready to start putting their family history story together. Putting together dates, hometowns, occupations and names alone can be quite an undertaking. Hopefully using a software program can be of assistance. Once you have organized a certain section that can be exported into any word processing document. Everything is saved, backed up and not scattered in different folders, on tables, in notebooks or in drawers.

Scapple comes in Windows system (XP, Vista, 7 & 8) and Mac OS X, so useable by everyone. They even have set up a ‘free trial’ so you can test it out first. When ready to download a full version, the one time cost is $14.99. You can use it on any number of computers or laptops in the household.

If you need some assistance organizing the family stories, this might help.