Scrintal tools allow me to create whiteboards

In my latest project, I addressed the complexity of creating a book for the first time. Instead of writing yet another book, I took up the challenge of using whiteboards as a way to gather all the information and advice into a graphical format.My first order to business was to find sites that had a whiteboard feature. I looked at quite a few of them including Miro, Lucidspark, Canva and others. All of them had the required whiteboard feature and all of them had a steep learning curve. I also noticed that in all of them, whiteboards were one of many features.

Rather than facing the learning curve, I resorted to Scrintal as my whiteboarding app. Scrintal actually doesn’t have a whiteboard feature. Instead it presents the user with a blank screen that can be filled up any way the user wishes. By using cards, free text and arrows to link stuff, it is easy to develop a whiteboard layout.

One feature I required was the ability to develop table-like structures to separate topics and isolate information on that topic. This image is typical of what I can do with Scrintal.

Another requirement was the ability to link cards to form a graphic conveying information on a specific topic that doesn’t fit into a column structure.

The ability to color code the information is another requirement that Scrintal provides.

While an app like Canva can be used to create whiteboards such as the ones shown, Canva requires that every single element be added individually. Moving an element around the canvas also requires you to move and/or reconnect every connected element. I estimate it would take me a month to create a whiteboard with Canva while it would take me several days using Scrintal.

With Canva for example, to connect two items with an arrow, I’d have to select the arrow from dozens of arrow items and manually adjust it to fit the canvas and connect the two items. After that, I’d have to change to the add text feature, select the type of text and drag it into the arrow and type the required text. With Scrintal, I just click on the label icon and type.

If I move one of the items with Canva, I’d have to drag the arrow to adjust the length and reconnect. With my whiteboards, I need dozens of these arrows. To create an arrow with Scrintal, I just drag from one card to the second card. If I move one of those cards, the arrow adjusts to stay connected.

So, the bottom line is this. I created whiteboards that cover the entire gamut of creating a new book. It took seven individual boards to complete the project.

Here are links to all these whiteboards.

• Wanna Write. Book: a overview of the four phases of creating a book.

https://beta.scrintal.com/b/wanna-write-a-book--cpba3

• Fiction Writing Workshop:?https://beta.scrintal.com/b/fiction-writing-workshop--1taj0
• Author business:?https://beta.scrintal.com/b/publishing-and-marketing-part-2--ekgwx
• Publishing & marketing overview:?https://beta.scrintal.com/b/publishing---marketing--part-1--agmhd
• Publishing:?https://beta.scrintal.com/b/publishing---marketing--part-2--20zaz
• Marketing?https://beta.scrintal.com/b/publishing---marketing--part-3--ejcf9
• Author business concept map: A different approach to an author’s business:?https://beta.scrintal.com/b/book-business--concept-map--1jx2g

These links will open read-only versions. If you double click on a card, it will expand so you read the entire card. If you’re a Scrintal subscriber, you can use these as templates and store information in them. Examples of this are keywords and agent queries.

If you are a writer or an author, are these whiteboards useful to you?

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