Noodlin - a plotting/brainstorming tool

klc · Oct 9, 2012

I made a web app for plotting: http://www.noodl.in.

I love the corkboard that comes with Scrivener, but I kept wanting more features so I ended up writing my own. Noodlin gives you an empty board where you can add/move/delete notes, connect them, link to other boards, and format everything pretty nicely.

I'm just releasing Noodlin today (you guys are the first people I'm telling about it), so please let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions!

Note: it'll probably work best with Chrome or Firefox. I really tried to make it work on IE, but... no promises. No mobile version, yet.

Specval · Oct 9, 2012

Very simple, yet useful! Worked great on the Chrome on my Mac (I know some sites have size issues with Mac).

i'm past the brainstorming process for my WIP, but I'll keep this in mind for my next one.

Lineykins · Oct 9, 2012

Great idea.
How do you draw arrows/lines from one box to another?

sunandshadow · Oct 9, 2012

It would be a nice feature to be able to set the color of cards, or just a border around the card/header of the card. When I use physical notecards I always categorize them by coloring them with markers.

klc · Oct 9, 2012

@Lineykins: when you move your mouse over a note, the border turns blue. If you click on that blue border, it starts a connector. Move your mouse to another note and click to create the connection.

@sunandshadow good idea, I added it to my feature tracker: http://www.noodl.in/k/features

Susan Coffin · Oct 9, 2012

klc said:
I made a web app for plotting: http://www.noodl.in.

I love the corkboard that comes with Scrivener, but I kept wanting more features so I ended up writing my own. Noodlin gives you an empty board where you can add/move/delete notes, connect them, link to other boards, and format everything pretty nicely.

I'm just releasing Noodlin today (you guys are the first people I'm telling about it), so please let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions!

Note: it'll probably work best with Chrome or Firefox. I really tried to make it work on IE, but... no promises. No mobile version, yet.

How fun!

Kewii · Oct 10, 2012

This is really interesting. It's something I would consider using with my students. They're always slacking on the brainstorming. I think something like this would get them more interested and help them organize.

Off to play with it more!

onesecondglance · Oct 10, 2012

Great idea and something I was looking for a while ago!

Connectors don't seem to work for me - I'm on IE8, which I do note you say isn't fully supported (work software policy unfortunately).

klc · Oct 10, 2012

@Kewii: Cool! One feature that might be helpful for using it for assignments: if you're logged in and go to a board that isn't yours, you can copy the board to your own account (there's a little copy button in the upper-left corner next to the title). So, if you have a due date, you can copy all of the students' boards on that date and then they won't be able to modify your copy of them

@onesecondglance: Yeah, sorry! Connectors definitely don't work on IE8. (If you're technical: the connectors are done using canvas, which IE8 doesn't support.)

heza · Oct 10, 2012

I haven't tried it (will soon), but I love the name.... it makes me think that plotting is like blindly sticking your hand in a hole and yanking out whatever bites. I have no idea if that was the inspiration behind the name, or if you were thinking along totally different lines... also, I'm a hayseed... But it gave me a laugh.

Anninyn · Oct 10, 2012

Nice, simple and easy to use. I hope you don't mind, but I shared it with a few writer friends who aren't on here.

I'll have to play with a bit more before I can tell you anything additional I may want.

klc · Oct 10, 2012

Anninyn said:
Nice, simple and easy to use. I hope you don't mind, but I shared it with a few writer friends who aren't on here.

Please do!

onesecondglance · Oct 11, 2012

Can I add something more to your feature request list? How about being able to set an image as the canvas? A lot of writers might like to put a suitably atmospheric image on there to help them get in the mood. You could also use it to make headed grids etc. to arrange your notes. Biggest issue to surmount would be bandwidth, but it would be a cool thing to have (to save staring at blank white space when you start).

LJD · Oct 11, 2012

thanks for sharing!

klc · Oct 12, 2012

@onesecondglance: I would love to do that, it's actually already on my feature list. However, storing lots of images would mean I'd need to buy more disk space, which I don't have the money to do. I'm considering something like up to 10MB of images per user for free, beyond that you have to pay a nominal fee for the storage.

Sage · Oct 12, 2012

Ooh, I can't wait to check this out after work. It sounds fun, and I don't have Scrivenor, so I've been wanting a good brainstorming tool

onesecondglance · Oct 12, 2012

klc said:
@onesecondglance: I would love to do that, it's actually already on my feature list. However, storing lots of images would mean I'd need to buy more disk space, which I don't have the money to do. I'm considering something like up to 10MB of images per user for free, beyond that you have to pay a nominal fee for the storage.

Sounds like a great idea, and gives you a good freemium feature!

Bookewyrme · Oct 12, 2012

Omygosh! This is awesome. I will definitely be playing around with this and sharing, although I am past the brainstorming phase on my current project (I think...)

Tirjasdyn · Oct 13, 2012

Wow nice!

CrastersBabies · Oct 14, 2012

Looks cool, but the first thing that comes to my paranoid "I hate the cloud" mind is how secure is your information? Where is that stored? I don't want every Tom, Joe, and Dirty Harry to see some of my stuff, yo.

klc · Oct 14, 2012

CrastersBabies said:
Looks cool, but the first thing that comes to my paranoid "I hate the cloud" mind is how secure is your information? Where is that stored? I don't want every Tom, Joe, and Dirty Harry to see some of my stuff, yo.

You might want to hold off on using it for a bit, then. At the moment, all boards are public (which I tried to make clear: right below the "Create a new board" heading, it says "All boards are publicly viewable"). Private boards are in the works, but I haven't had time to finish them yet.

On the plus side, usernames and boards aren't listed or linked to anywhere, but that's definitely not a guarantee no one will find it.

Noodlin - a plotting/brainstorming tool

klc

Specval

Lineykins

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal

klc

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is

Kewii

onesecondglance

pretending to be awake

klc

heza

Anninyn

Stealing your twiglets.

klc

onesecondglance

pretending to be awake

LJD

klc

Sage

Supreme Guessinator

onesecondglance

pretending to be awake

Bookewyrme

Imagined half of it.

Tirjasdyn

Outline Maven

CrastersBabies

Burninator!

klc