Mural is a platform designed to improve engagement for teams working on brainstorming, problem-solving, and projects. It’s a collaborative whiteboard where users can add and edit notes, images, or text. As the name suggests, the result is a diverse mural of ideas like a whiteboard.
If Mural is almost the perfect tool for you but just not quite right, an alternative is Scrintal. Rather than focusing on complete flexibility, like being able to draw or change the size and shape of notes, Scrintal is more structured with the same principles. Connections between ideas are key, and the docs can be dismissed or displayed at will with the connections intact.
I’ll use this article to compare Mural and Scrintal, showing the subtle differences between each and allowing you to choose which tool will work best for your needs.
Mural is a platform designed to improve engagement for teams working on brainstorming, problem-solving, and projects. It’s a collaborative whiteboard where users can add and edit notes, images, or text. As the name suggests, the result is a diverse mural of ideas like a whiteboard.
If Mural is almost the perfect tool for you but just not quite right, an alternative is Scrintal. Rather than focusing on complete flexibility, like being able to draw or change the size and shape of notes, Scrintal is more structured with the same principles. Connections between ideas are key, and the docs can be dismissed or displayed at will with the connections intact.
I’ll use this article to compare Mural and Scrintal, showing the subtle differences between each and allowing you to choose which tool will work best for your needs.
Mural is a platform designed to improve engagement for teams working on brainstorming, problem-solving, and projects. It’s a collaborative whiteboard where users can add and edit notes, images, or text. As the name suggests, the result is a diverse mural of ideas like a whiteboard.
If Mural is almost the perfect tool for you but just not quite right, an alternative is Scrintal. Rather than focusing on complete flexibility, like being able to draw or change the size and shape of notes, Scrintal is more structured with the same principles. Connections between ideas are key, and the docs can be dismissed or displayed at will with the connections intact.
I’ll use this article to compare Mural and Scrintal, showing the subtle differences between each and allowing you to choose which tool will work best for your needs.
Mural is a platform designed to improve engagement for teams working on brainstorming, problem-solving, and projects. It’s a collaborative whiteboard where users can add and edit notes, images, or text. As the name suggests, the result is a diverse mural of ideas like a whiteboard.
If Mural is almost the perfect tool for you but just not quite right, an alternative is Scrintal. Rather than focusing on complete flexibility, like being able to draw or change the size and shape of notes, Scrintal is more structured with the same principles. Connections between ideas are key, and the docs can be dismissed or displayed at will with the connections intact.
I’ll use this article to compare Mural and Scrintal, showing the subtle differences between each and allowing you to choose which tool will work best for your needs.
Mural is a platform designed to improve engagement for teams working on brainstorming, problem-solving, and projects. It’s a collaborative whiteboard where users can add and edit notes, images, or text. As the name suggests, the result is a diverse mural of ideas like a whiteboard.
If Mural is almost the perfect tool for you but just not quite right, an alternative is Scrintal. Rather than focusing on complete flexibility, like being able to draw or change the size and shape of notes, Scrintal is more structured with the same principles. Connections between ideas are key, and the docs can be dismissed or displayed at will with the connections intact.
I’ll use this article to compare Mural and Scrintal, showing the subtle differences between each and allowing you to choose which tool will work best for your needs.
Mural Alternative: Scrintal’s Best Features
Personal Knowledge Management
Personal knowledge management involves collecting and organizing information for future use. It is useful because having an evolving knowledge base aids in the development of projects and ideas without losing information over time or repeating work in order to find it again and again. In Scrintal, you can add information as it is learned and create connections between topics. Subject areas for knowledge can be split up into different boards, and even boards can be linked together for easy reference. Like with Mural, the visual display of this information is customizable; but in Scrintal, the simple doc structure makes this information easy to navigate and change.
Scrintal’s spatial canvas is a critically important feature for mind-mapping, but it is far more than flashcards on a corkboard: there is no word limit for any doc, and you can also embed images, videos, tweets, and PDFs to expand the potential for connections and remain within the Scrintal ecosystem. Backlinks to other docs and boards make related information easily accessible. Mural also has a linking system to objects within the same board, but because linking is not an integral feature, the process is more cumbersome and less intuitive than it is within Scrintal. This means that linking may interrupt the flow of ideation within Mural, but not in Scrintal.
Connected Note Taking
Not only can you link notes within Scrintal, but you can edit multiple docs simultaneously, even if they exist on different parts of the same board. In Mural, cards do not open in a tab for editing, so you can only edit cards at the same time if they are on the same part of the board that you are zoomed in to. Furthermore, since Mural is a primarily visual tool with less room for long-form text, if you type a lot of information, the text will be very small and hard to read unless you make the card bigger on the board. In Scrintal, on the other hand, the opening of a doc tab to edit the doc means you can write more information and not worry about it affecting the size of the text when viewing the doc on your board. You choose Compact, Snippet, or Full Doc display options. You can use the folded docs on your Scrintal board for a more holistic view of your map.
Being able to recognize the connections between different ideas inspires further creativity, which makes these features critical. Scrintal and Mural both use visual representations to display the connectedness between notes; but in Mural, connections don’t show up visually, take time to create, and are not meant to be used all the time. Scrintal displays the entirety of a particular map of notes using connections that are linked (showing up as lines on the board), allowing the user to open them while reading for easy reference.
Multimedia Detailed Notes
Mural emphasizes media files as part of your board, so just like in Scrintal, you can upload or embed images, videos, and document files like PDFs. In Scrintal, you can open these media files in a new “floating” tab and drag them around your board, allowing you to read, watch, or listen to them while note-taking. Mural is primarily a visual tool, so images and PDFs appear in their full form on the board and you can draw or write on them. Videos show up like attachments, and must be downloaded to view.
This is also true for backlinks, which in Scrintal take you to a new floating note alongside the previous one. These notes can also be dragged around the page as required, and can be worked on simultaneously.
Intuitive User Experience
Both Mural and Scrintal contain different features for different use cases. Mural is a better whiteboarding tool, with easy and accessible tools for writing and taking quick notes (even on top of documents and images). It can also function as a gallery, with different documents that are meant to be read one at a time available on one screen. Scrintal is a good alternative for those who find the structure limiting or need more room and flexibility to write in longer form; the platform is easily navigable with common shortcuts to avoid interrupting one’s train of thought and a small learning curve. Both platforms use board and cards(docs in Scrintal), but Scrintal docs tend to be linked in a tree to indicate the network of connections between ideas. Mual cards are more visually organized, moveable between sections of a single board and resizable as needed.
Side-by-side comparison and editing of notes in Scrintal means that the flow of ideas does not have to stop in order for the user to scroll and navigate to the proper area of the board. Especially with more complex boards, Scrintal may be easier to navigate because looking around to find the right note on the board is more cumbersome than simply opening two docs (on very different parts of a board) side by side with the floating tabs.
Personal Knowledge Management
Personal knowledge management involves collecting and organizing information for future use. It is useful because having an evolving knowledge base aids in the development of projects and ideas without losing information over time or repeating work in order to find it again and again. In Scrintal, you can add information as it is learned and create connections between topics. Subject areas for knowledge can be split up into different boards, and even boards can be linked together for easy reference. Like with Mural, the visual display of this information is customizable; but in Scrintal, the simple doc structure makes this information easy to navigate and change.
Scrintal’s spatial canvas is a critically important feature for mind-mapping, but it is far more than flashcards on a corkboard: there is no word limit for any doc, and you can also embed images, videos, tweets, and PDFs to expand the potential for connections and remain within the Scrintal ecosystem. Backlinks to other docs and boards make related information easily accessible. Mural also has a linking system to objects within the same board, but because linking is not an integral feature, the process is more cumbersome and less intuitive than it is within Scrintal. This means that linking may interrupt the flow of ideation within Mural, but not in Scrintal.
Connected Note Taking
Not only can you link notes within Scrintal, but you can edit multiple docs simultaneously, even if they exist on different parts of the same board. In Mural, cards do not open in a tab for editing, so you can only edit cards at the same time if they are on the same part of the board that you are zoomed in to. Furthermore, since Mural is a primarily visual tool with less room for long-form text, if you type a lot of information, the text will be very small and hard to read unless you make the card bigger on the board. In Scrintal, on the other hand, the opening of a doc tab to edit the doc means you can write more information and not worry about it affecting the size of the text when viewing the doc on your board. You choose Compact, Snippet, or Full Doc display options. You can use the folded docs on your Scrintal board for a more holistic view of your map.
Being able to recognize the connections between different ideas inspires further creativity, which makes these features critical. Scrintal and Mural both use visual representations to display the connectedness between notes; but in Mural, connections don’t show up visually, take time to create, and are not meant to be used all the time. Scrintal displays the entirety of a particular map of notes using connections that are linked (showing up as lines on the board), allowing the user to open them while reading for easy reference.
Multimedia Detailed Notes
Mural emphasizes media files as part of your board, so just like in Scrintal, you can upload or embed images, videos, and document files like PDFs. In Scrintal, you can open these media files in a new “floating” tab and drag them around your board, allowing you to read, watch, or listen to them while note-taking. Mural is primarily a visual tool, so images and PDFs appear in their full form on the board and you can draw or write on them. Videos show up like attachments, and must be downloaded to view.
This is also true for backlinks, which in Scrintal take you to a new floating note alongside the previous one. These notes can also be dragged around the page as required, and can be worked on simultaneously.
Intuitive User Experience
Both Mural and Scrintal contain different features for different use cases. Mural is a better whiteboarding tool, with easy and accessible tools for writing and taking quick notes (even on top of documents and images). It can also function as a gallery, with different documents that are meant to be read one at a time available on one screen. Scrintal is a good alternative for those who find the structure limiting or need more room and flexibility to write in longer form; the platform is easily navigable with common shortcuts to avoid interrupting one’s train of thought and a small learning curve. Both platforms use board and cards(docs in Scrintal), but Scrintal docs tend to be linked in a tree to indicate the network of connections between ideas. Mual cards are more visually organized, moveable between sections of a single board and resizable as needed.
Side-by-side comparison and editing of notes in Scrintal means that the flow of ideas does not have to stop in order for the user to scroll and navigate to the proper area of the board. Especially with more complex boards, Scrintal may be easier to navigate because looking around to find the right note on the board is more cumbersome than simply opening two docs (on very different parts of a board) side by side with the floating tabs.
Personal Knowledge Management
Personal knowledge management involves collecting and organizing information for future use. It is useful because having an evolving knowledge base aids in the development of projects and ideas without losing information over time or repeating work in order to find it again and again. In Scrintal, you can add information as it is learned and create connections between topics. Subject areas for knowledge can be split up into different boards, and even boards can be linked together for easy reference. Like with Mural, the visual display of this information is customizable; but in Scrintal, the simple doc structure makes this information easy to navigate and change.
Scrintal’s spatial canvas is a critically important feature for mind-mapping, but it is far more than flashcards on a corkboard: there is no word limit for any doc, and you can also embed images, videos, tweets, and PDFs to expand the potential for connections and remain within the Scrintal ecosystem. Backlinks to other docs and boards make related information easily accessible. Mural also has a linking system to objects within the same board, but because linking is not an integral feature, the process is more cumbersome and less intuitive than it is within Scrintal. This means that linking may interrupt the flow of ideation within Mural, but not in Scrintal.
Connected Note Taking
Not only can you link notes within Scrintal, but you can edit multiple docs simultaneously, even if they exist on different parts of the same board. In Mural, cards do not open in a tab for editing, so you can only edit cards at the same time if they are on the same part of the board that you are zoomed in to. Furthermore, since Mural is a primarily visual tool with less room for long-form text, if you type a lot of information, the text will be very small and hard to read unless you make the card bigger on the board. In Scrintal, on the other hand, the opening of a doc tab to edit the doc means you can write more information and not worry about it affecting the size of the text when viewing the doc on your board. You choose Compact, Snippet, or Full Doc display options. You can use the folded docs on your Scrintal board for a more holistic view of your map.
Being able to recognize the connections between different ideas inspires further creativity, which makes these features critical. Scrintal and Mural both use visual representations to display the connectedness between notes; but in Mural, connections don’t show up visually, take time to create, and are not meant to be used all the time. Scrintal displays the entirety of a particular map of notes using connections that are linked (showing up as lines on the board), allowing the user to open them while reading for easy reference.
Multimedia Detailed Notes
Mural emphasizes media files as part of your board, so just like in Scrintal, you can upload or embed images, videos, and document files like PDFs. In Scrintal, you can open these media files in a new “floating” tab and drag them around your board, allowing you to read, watch, or listen to them while note-taking. Mural is primarily a visual tool, so images and PDFs appear in their full form on the board and you can draw or write on them. Videos show up like attachments, and must be downloaded to view.
This is also true for backlinks, which in Scrintal take you to a new floating note alongside the previous one. These notes can also be dragged around the page as required, and can be worked on simultaneously.
Intuitive User Experience
Both Mural and Scrintal contain different features for different use cases. Mural is a better whiteboarding tool, with easy and accessible tools for writing and taking quick notes (even on top of documents and images). It can also function as a gallery, with different documents that are meant to be read one at a time available on one screen. Scrintal is a good alternative for those who find the structure limiting or need more room and flexibility to write in longer form; the platform is easily navigable with common shortcuts to avoid interrupting one’s train of thought and a small learning curve. Both platforms use board and cards(docs in Scrintal), but Scrintal docs tend to be linked in a tree to indicate the network of connections between ideas. Mual cards are more visually organized, moveable between sections of a single board and resizable as needed.
Side-by-side comparison and editing of notes in Scrintal means that the flow of ideas does not have to stop in order for the user to scroll and navigate to the proper area of the board. Especially with more complex boards, Scrintal may be easier to navigate because looking around to find the right note on the board is more cumbersome than simply opening two docs (on very different parts of a board) side by side with the floating tabs.
Personal Knowledge Management
Personal knowledge management involves collecting and organizing information for future use. It is useful because having an evolving knowledge base aids in the development of projects and ideas without losing information over time or repeating work in order to find it again and again. In Scrintal, you can add information as it is learned and create connections between topics. Subject areas for knowledge can be split up into different boards, and even boards can be linked together for easy reference. Like with Mural, the visual display of this information is customizable; but in Scrintal, the simple doc structure makes this information easy to navigate and change.
Scrintal’s spatial canvas is a critically important feature for mind-mapping, but it is far more than flashcards on a corkboard: there is no word limit for any doc, and you can also embed images, videos, tweets, and PDFs to expand the potential for connections and remain within the Scrintal ecosystem. Backlinks to other docs and boards make related information easily accessible. Mural also has a linking system to objects within the same board, but because linking is not an integral feature, the process is more cumbersome and less intuitive than it is within Scrintal. This means that linking may interrupt the flow of ideation within Mural, but not in Scrintal.
Connected Note Taking
Not only can you link notes within Scrintal, but you can edit multiple docs simultaneously, even if they exist on different parts of the same board. In Mural, cards do not open in a tab for editing, so you can only edit cards at the same time if they are on the same part of the board that you are zoomed in to. Furthermore, since Mural is a primarily visual tool with less room for long-form text, if you type a lot of information, the text will be very small and hard to read unless you make the card bigger on the board. In Scrintal, on the other hand, the opening of a doc tab to edit the doc means you can write more information and not worry about it affecting the size of the text when viewing the doc on your board. You choose Compact, Snippet, or Full Doc display options. You can use the folded docs on your Scrintal board for a more holistic view of your map.
Being able to recognize the connections between different ideas inspires further creativity, which makes these features critical. Scrintal and Mural both use visual representations to display the connectedness between notes; but in Mural, connections don’t show up visually, take time to create, and are not meant to be used all the time. Scrintal displays the entirety of a particular map of notes using connections that are linked (showing up as lines on the board), allowing the user to open them while reading for easy reference.
Multimedia Detailed Notes
Mural emphasizes media files as part of your board, so just like in Scrintal, you can upload or embed images, videos, and document files like PDFs. In Scrintal, you can open these media files in a new “floating” tab and drag them around your board, allowing you to read, watch, or listen to them while note-taking. Mural is primarily a visual tool, so images and PDFs appear in their full form on the board and you can draw or write on them. Videos show up like attachments, and must be downloaded to view.
This is also true for backlinks, which in Scrintal take you to a new floating note alongside the previous one. These notes can also be dragged around the page as required, and can be worked on simultaneously.
Intuitive User Experience
Both Mural and Scrintal contain different features for different use cases. Mural is a better whiteboarding tool, with easy and accessible tools for writing and taking quick notes (even on top of documents and images). It can also function as a gallery, with different documents that are meant to be read one at a time available on one screen. Scrintal is a good alternative for those who find the structure limiting or need more room and flexibility to write in longer form; the platform is easily navigable with common shortcuts to avoid interrupting one’s train of thought and a small learning curve. Both platforms use board and cards(docs in Scrintal), but Scrintal docs tend to be linked in a tree to indicate the network of connections between ideas. Mual cards are more visually organized, moveable between sections of a single board and resizable as needed.
Side-by-side comparison and editing of notes in Scrintal means that the flow of ideas does not have to stop in order for the user to scroll and navigate to the proper area of the board. Especially with more complex boards, Scrintal may be easier to navigate because looking around to find the right note on the board is more cumbersome than simply opening two docs (on very different parts of a board) side by side with the floating tabs.
Personal Knowledge Management
Personal knowledge management involves collecting and organizing information for future use. It is useful because having an evolving knowledge base aids in the development of projects and ideas without losing information over time or repeating work in order to find it again and again. In Scrintal, you can add information as it is learned and create connections between topics. Subject areas for knowledge can be split up into different boards, and even boards can be linked together for easy reference. Like with Mural, the visual display of this information is customizable; but in Scrintal, the simple doc structure makes this information easy to navigate and change.
Scrintal’s spatial canvas is a critically important feature for mind-mapping, but it is far more than flashcards on a corkboard: there is no word limit for any doc, and you can also embed images, videos, tweets, and PDFs to expand the potential for connections and remain within the Scrintal ecosystem. Backlinks to other docs and boards make related information easily accessible. Mural also has a linking system to objects within the same board, but because linking is not an integral feature, the process is more cumbersome and less intuitive than it is within Scrintal. This means that linking may interrupt the flow of ideation within Mural, but not in Scrintal.
Connected Note Taking
Not only can you link notes within Scrintal, but you can edit multiple docs simultaneously, even if they exist on different parts of the same board. In Mural, cards do not open in a tab for editing, so you can only edit cards at the same time if they are on the same part of the board that you are zoomed in to. Furthermore, since Mural is a primarily visual tool with less room for long-form text, if you type a lot of information, the text will be very small and hard to read unless you make the card bigger on the board. In Scrintal, on the other hand, the opening of a doc tab to edit the doc means you can write more information and not worry about it affecting the size of the text when viewing the doc on your board. You choose Compact, Snippet, or Full Doc display options. You can use the folded docs on your Scrintal board for a more holistic view of your map.
Being able to recognize the connections between different ideas inspires further creativity, which makes these features critical. Scrintal and Mural both use visual representations to display the connectedness between notes; but in Mural, connections don’t show up visually, take time to create, and are not meant to be used all the time. Scrintal displays the entirety of a particular map of notes using connections that are linked (showing up as lines on the board), allowing the user to open them while reading for easy reference.
Multimedia Detailed Notes
Mural emphasizes media files as part of your board, so just like in Scrintal, you can upload or embed images, videos, and document files like PDFs. In Scrintal, you can open these media files in a new “floating” tab and drag them around your board, allowing you to read, watch, or listen to them while note-taking. Mural is primarily a visual tool, so images and PDFs appear in their full form on the board and you can draw or write on them. Videos show up like attachments, and must be downloaded to view.
This is also true for backlinks, which in Scrintal take you to a new floating note alongside the previous one. These notes can also be dragged around the page as required, and can be worked on simultaneously.
Intuitive User Experience
Both Mural and Scrintal contain different features for different use cases. Mural is a better whiteboarding tool, with easy and accessible tools for writing and taking quick notes (even on top of documents and images). It can also function as a gallery, with different documents that are meant to be read one at a time available on one screen. Scrintal is a good alternative for those who find the structure limiting or need more room and flexibility to write in longer form; the platform is easily navigable with common shortcuts to avoid interrupting one’s train of thought and a small learning curve. Both platforms use board and cards(docs in Scrintal), but Scrintal docs tend to be linked in a tree to indicate the network of connections between ideas. Mual cards are more visually organized, moveable between sections of a single board and resizable as needed.
Side-by-side comparison and editing of notes in Scrintal means that the flow of ideas does not have to stop in order for the user to scroll and navigate to the proper area of the board. Especially with more complex boards, Scrintal may be easier to navigate because looking around to find the right note on the board is more cumbersome than simply opening two docs (on very different parts of a board) side by side with the floating tabs.
Mural Alternative: The Pros and Cons Comparison
Mural Pros
The Mural interface is an attractive combination of a note taking tool and a picture editing tool, which makes sense given its focus on the visual. It has many options to customize your board, especially drawing tools and the ability to organize a combination of images, pictures, documents, and more like a mood board. Mural templates provide a good starting base, but the real power of the tool comes when users utilize the available features to fully customize their boards; these features are all relevant to the user base without being cluttered with features just for the sake of having them.
Cards and media files are easy to move between areas of the board by dragging, and the ability to draw enhances the board and allows users full creative control of their content. Mural is meant for visual ideation rather than text-heavy content (except content that exists in a document file); when working with images and quick ideas, the need to move around the board in order to change it is more intuitive. It also allows for real-time collaboration between multiple users on a single board, and like with a Google Document, you can see who else is editing the board you are working on.
Mural has both desktop and mobile apps, and can be used offline, making it a good tool for storyboarding on the go and adding ideas as they come up right into the platform.
Scrintal Pros
The structure and flow of Scrintal lends itself to an intuitive process from beginning to end: plan, brainstorm, execute, and share. This method of work makes the journey from ideation to presentation smooth and prevents interruptions to the creative thought process due to formatting, organization, or tab switching.
Empowering your first brain
Scrintal’s virtual canvas ensures the steady flow of creativity without interruptions. Connections rise to the surface more easily in a visual format and are not at risk of being forgotten or overlooked. The Scrintal ecosystem can host videos and PDFs on the same screen as an editable note, avoiding the need to scroll up and down or switch back and forth between tabs or windows. Your research and writing can take place in the same environment.
As needed, notes can appear as docs, full-screen text editors (for focusing), or titles only (for a holistic view of the network). This is a tool for the mind to more effectively engage with information and produce new ideas, as well as determine whether any information is missing or lacking.
Networked note taking
Docs can be linked together or tagged, and these are two of Scrintal’s most important features. Our minds work similarly, forming connections between ideas and using these connections to create a knowledge base that not only consists of information, but also a network that inspires innovation and enables problem-solving. Creating a visual representation of this network, whether hierarchical or more flexible, is more efficient than holding it in your mind, where only one connection can be considered at a time and new ideas may be lost or forgotten.
In Mural, the backlinking feature and connections are limited to the cards that exist on a single board (meaning you must have a card on the board to show a connection, even if it is not immediately relevant) and requires moving to the section of the board that the linked card is placed on. So if you link two cards that exist on opposite sides of a complex board, you will have to go back and forth to edit them.
In Scrintal, you can use boards to keep placements of docs consistent and ensure mind maps are organized in whichever way makes sense to you. If you move a doc, the arrow (and link) moves with it; if you dismiss a doc from your board, the link still exists in the vault. So you establish a more permanent connection rather than a temporary one. If you prefer a temporary connection, you can also create one with the connectors tool.
Mural Cons
In Mural, connections are not a key feature the way they are in Scrintal; when used sparingly, they perform their intended purpose, but because they take you to the part of the board where the linked note or file is located, it can be difficult to work on two ideas simultaneously. Since Mural is focused on images and short-form content, this is not an issue; but for anything longer than a sentence or two, it can be challenging to use Mural. Because of this, it’s not the right tool for a complex knowledge base. Rather, it works better for visual projects or early-stage ideation.
YouTube videos linked on your board open in a new YouTube tab, and video files must be downloaded to view; this makes it difficult to work without interrupting the flow of creative thought or take long-form notes without switching between different tabs. Some have also reported that Mural can be difficult to use intuitively due to frequent zooming in and out and moving around the board to view different notes and media.
Scrintal Cons
Scrintal is an early stage product and its team implements community feedback in product updates. It is younger and less tested than Mural, meaning it has more areas for improvement.
For example, the ability to annotate PDFs is a hugely important feature for research and note-taking purposes, and this functionality is not yet available in Scrintal; in Mural, the ability to draw makes it simpler to annotate, especially for short documents. You can collaborate on Scrintal docs and boards, but Mural has more advanced collaboration features that allow other platform users to comment on or notify each other in the app. Integrations with a wide range of other apps like calendars, meeting platforms, and others that are used by knowledge workers on a daily basis are still being developed for Scrintal. A mobile app are in the works in order to provide a competitive and uninterrupted experience.
For now, some users may find they are best served using either Mural or Scrintal depending whether the project is visual- or text-heavy in nature.
Mural Pros
The Mural interface is an attractive combination of a note taking tool and a picture editing tool, which makes sense given its focus on the visual. It has many options to customize your board, especially drawing tools and the ability to organize a combination of images, pictures, documents, and more like a mood board. Mural templates provide a good starting base, but the real power of the tool comes when users utilize the available features to fully customize their boards; these features are all relevant to the user base without being cluttered with features just for the sake of having them.
Cards and media files are easy to move between areas of the board by dragging, and the ability to draw enhances the board and allows users full creative control of their content. Mural is meant for visual ideation rather than text-heavy content (except content that exists in a document file); when working with images and quick ideas, the need to move around the board in order to change it is more intuitive. It also allows for real-time collaboration between multiple users on a single board, and like with a Google Document, you can see who else is editing the board you are working on.
Mural has both desktop and mobile apps, and can be used offline, making it a good tool for storyboarding on the go and adding ideas as they come up right into the platform.
Scrintal Pros
The structure and flow of Scrintal lends itself to an intuitive process from beginning to end: plan, brainstorm, execute, and share. This method of work makes the journey from ideation to presentation smooth and prevents interruptions to the creative thought process due to formatting, organization, or tab switching.
Empowering your first brain
Scrintal’s virtual canvas ensures the steady flow of creativity without interruptions. Connections rise to the surface more easily in a visual format and are not at risk of being forgotten or overlooked. The Scrintal ecosystem can host videos and PDFs on the same screen as an editable note, avoiding the need to scroll up and down or switch back and forth between tabs or windows. Your research and writing can take place in the same environment.
As needed, notes can appear as docs, full-screen text editors (for focusing), or titles only (for a holistic view of the network). This is a tool for the mind to more effectively engage with information and produce new ideas, as well as determine whether any information is missing or lacking.
Networked note taking
Docs can be linked together or tagged, and these are two of Scrintal’s most important features. Our minds work similarly, forming connections between ideas and using these connections to create a knowledge base that not only consists of information, but also a network that inspires innovation and enables problem-solving. Creating a visual representation of this network, whether hierarchical or more flexible, is more efficient than holding it in your mind, where only one connection can be considered at a time and new ideas may be lost or forgotten.
In Mural, the backlinking feature and connections are limited to the cards that exist on a single board (meaning you must have a card on the board to show a connection, even if it is not immediately relevant) and requires moving to the section of the board that the linked card is placed on. So if you link two cards that exist on opposite sides of a complex board, you will have to go back and forth to edit them.
In Scrintal, you can use boards to keep placements of docs consistent and ensure mind maps are organized in whichever way makes sense to you. If you move a doc, the arrow (and link) moves with it; if you dismiss a doc from your board, the link still exists in the vault. So you establish a more permanent connection rather than a temporary one. If you prefer a temporary connection, you can also create one with the connectors tool.
Mural Cons
In Mural, connections are not a key feature the way they are in Scrintal; when used sparingly, they perform their intended purpose, but because they take you to the part of the board where the linked note or file is located, it can be difficult to work on two ideas simultaneously. Since Mural is focused on images and short-form content, this is not an issue; but for anything longer than a sentence or two, it can be challenging to use Mural. Because of this, it’s not the right tool for a complex knowledge base. Rather, it works better for visual projects or early-stage ideation.
YouTube videos linked on your board open in a new YouTube tab, and video files must be downloaded to view; this makes it difficult to work without interrupting the flow of creative thought or take long-form notes without switching between different tabs. Some have also reported that Mural can be difficult to use intuitively due to frequent zooming in and out and moving around the board to view different notes and media.
Scrintal Cons
Scrintal is an early stage product and its team implements community feedback in product updates. It is younger and less tested than Mural, meaning it has more areas for improvement.
For example, the ability to annotate PDFs is a hugely important feature for research and note-taking purposes, and this functionality is not yet available in Scrintal; in Mural, the ability to draw makes it simpler to annotate, especially for short documents. You can collaborate on Scrintal docs and boards, but Mural has more advanced collaboration features that allow other platform users to comment on or notify each other in the app. Integrations with a wide range of other apps like calendars, meeting platforms, and others that are used by knowledge workers on a daily basis are still being developed for Scrintal. A mobile app are in the works in order to provide a competitive and uninterrupted experience.
For now, some users may find they are best served using either Mural or Scrintal depending whether the project is visual- or text-heavy in nature.
Mural Pros
The Mural interface is an attractive combination of a note taking tool and a picture editing tool, which makes sense given its focus on the visual. It has many options to customize your board, especially drawing tools and the ability to organize a combination of images, pictures, documents, and more like a mood board. Mural templates provide a good starting base, but the real power of the tool comes when users utilize the available features to fully customize their boards; these features are all relevant to the user base without being cluttered with features just for the sake of having them.
Cards and media files are easy to move between areas of the board by dragging, and the ability to draw enhances the board and allows users full creative control of their content. Mural is meant for visual ideation rather than text-heavy content (except content that exists in a document file); when working with images and quick ideas, the need to move around the board in order to change it is more intuitive. It also allows for real-time collaboration between multiple users on a single board, and like with a Google Document, you can see who else is editing the board you are working on.
Mural has both desktop and mobile apps, and can be used offline, making it a good tool for storyboarding on the go and adding ideas as they come up right into the platform.
Scrintal Pros
The structure and flow of Scrintal lends itself to an intuitive process from beginning to end: plan, brainstorm, execute, and share. This method of work makes the journey from ideation to presentation smooth and prevents interruptions to the creative thought process due to formatting, organization, or tab switching.
Empowering your first brain
Scrintal’s virtual canvas ensures the steady flow of creativity without interruptions. Connections rise to the surface more easily in a visual format and are not at risk of being forgotten or overlooked. The Scrintal ecosystem can host videos and PDFs on the same screen as an editable note, avoiding the need to scroll up and down or switch back and forth between tabs or windows. Your research and writing can take place in the same environment.
As needed, notes can appear as docs, full-screen text editors (for focusing), or titles only (for a holistic view of the network). This is a tool for the mind to more effectively engage with information and produce new ideas, as well as determine whether any information is missing or lacking.
Networked note taking
Docs can be linked together or tagged, and these are two of Scrintal’s most important features. Our minds work similarly, forming connections between ideas and using these connections to create a knowledge base that not only consists of information, but also a network that inspires innovation and enables problem-solving. Creating a visual representation of this network, whether hierarchical or more flexible, is more efficient than holding it in your mind, where only one connection can be considered at a time and new ideas may be lost or forgotten.
In Mural, the backlinking feature and connections are limited to the cards that exist on a single board (meaning you must have a card on the board to show a connection, even if it is not immediately relevant) and requires moving to the section of the board that the linked card is placed on. So if you link two cards that exist on opposite sides of a complex board, you will have to go back and forth to edit them.
In Scrintal, you can use boards to keep placements of docs consistent and ensure mind maps are organized in whichever way makes sense to you. If you move a doc, the arrow (and link) moves with it; if you dismiss a doc from your board, the link still exists in the vault. So you establish a more permanent connection rather than a temporary one. If you prefer a temporary connection, you can also create one with the connectors tool.
Mural Cons
In Mural, connections are not a key feature the way they are in Scrintal; when used sparingly, they perform their intended purpose, but because they take you to the part of the board where the linked note or file is located, it can be difficult to work on two ideas simultaneously. Since Mural is focused on images and short-form content, this is not an issue; but for anything longer than a sentence or two, it can be challenging to use Mural. Because of this, it’s not the right tool for a complex knowledge base. Rather, it works better for visual projects or early-stage ideation.
YouTube videos linked on your board open in a new YouTube tab, and video files must be downloaded to view; this makes it difficult to work without interrupting the flow of creative thought or take long-form notes without switching between different tabs. Some have also reported that Mural can be difficult to use intuitively due to frequent zooming in and out and moving around the board to view different notes and media.
Scrintal Cons
Scrintal is an early stage product and its team implements community feedback in product updates. It is younger and less tested than Mural, meaning it has more areas for improvement.
For example, the ability to annotate PDFs is a hugely important feature for research and note-taking purposes, and this functionality is not yet available in Scrintal; in Mural, the ability to draw makes it simpler to annotate, especially for short documents. You can collaborate on Scrintal docs and boards, but Mural has more advanced collaboration features that allow other platform users to comment on or notify each other in the app. Integrations with a wide range of other apps like calendars, meeting platforms, and others that are used by knowledge workers on a daily basis are still being developed for Scrintal. A mobile app are in the works in order to provide a competitive and uninterrupted experience.
For now, some users may find they are best served using either Mural or Scrintal depending whether the project is visual- or text-heavy in nature.
Mural Pros
The Mural interface is an attractive combination of a note taking tool and a picture editing tool, which makes sense given its focus on the visual. It has many options to customize your board, especially drawing tools and the ability to organize a combination of images, pictures, documents, and more like a mood board. Mural templates provide a good starting base, but the real power of the tool comes when users utilize the available features to fully customize their boards; these features are all relevant to the user base without being cluttered with features just for the sake of having them.
Cards and media files are easy to move between areas of the board by dragging, and the ability to draw enhances the board and allows users full creative control of their content. Mural is meant for visual ideation rather than text-heavy content (except content that exists in a document file); when working with images and quick ideas, the need to move around the board in order to change it is more intuitive. It also allows for real-time collaboration between multiple users on a single board, and like with a Google Document, you can see who else is editing the board you are working on.
Mural has both desktop and mobile apps, and can be used offline, making it a good tool for storyboarding on the go and adding ideas as they come up right into the platform.
Scrintal Pros
The structure and flow of Scrintal lends itself to an intuitive process from beginning to end: plan, brainstorm, execute, and share. This method of work makes the journey from ideation to presentation smooth and prevents interruptions to the creative thought process due to formatting, organization, or tab switching.
Empowering your first brain
Scrintal’s virtual canvas ensures the steady flow of creativity without interruptions. Connections rise to the surface more easily in a visual format and are not at risk of being forgotten or overlooked. The Scrintal ecosystem can host videos and PDFs on the same screen as an editable note, avoiding the need to scroll up and down or switch back and forth between tabs or windows. Your research and writing can take place in the same environment.
As needed, notes can appear as docs, full-screen text editors (for focusing), or titles only (for a holistic view of the network). This is a tool for the mind to more effectively engage with information and produce new ideas, as well as determine whether any information is missing or lacking.
Networked note taking
Docs can be linked together or tagged, and these are two of Scrintal’s most important features. Our minds work similarly, forming connections between ideas and using these connections to create a knowledge base that not only consists of information, but also a network that inspires innovation and enables problem-solving. Creating a visual representation of this network, whether hierarchical or more flexible, is more efficient than holding it in your mind, where only one connection can be considered at a time and new ideas may be lost or forgotten.
In Mural, the backlinking feature and connections are limited to the cards that exist on a single board (meaning you must have a card on the board to show a connection, even if it is not immediately relevant) and requires moving to the section of the board that the linked card is placed on. So if you link two cards that exist on opposite sides of a complex board, you will have to go back and forth to edit them.
In Scrintal, you can use boards to keep placements of docs consistent and ensure mind maps are organized in whichever way makes sense to you. If you move a doc, the arrow (and link) moves with it; if you dismiss a doc from your board, the link still exists in the vault. So you establish a more permanent connection rather than a temporary one. If you prefer a temporary connection, you can also create one with the connectors tool.
Mural Cons
In Mural, connections are not a key feature the way they are in Scrintal; when used sparingly, they perform their intended purpose, but because they take you to the part of the board where the linked note or file is located, it can be difficult to work on two ideas simultaneously. Since Mural is focused on images and short-form content, this is not an issue; but for anything longer than a sentence or two, it can be challenging to use Mural. Because of this, it’s not the right tool for a complex knowledge base. Rather, it works better for visual projects or early-stage ideation.
YouTube videos linked on your board open in a new YouTube tab, and video files must be downloaded to view; this makes it difficult to work without interrupting the flow of creative thought or take long-form notes without switching between different tabs. Some have also reported that Mural can be difficult to use intuitively due to frequent zooming in and out and moving around the board to view different notes and media.
Scrintal Cons
Scrintal is an early stage product and its team implements community feedback in product updates. It is younger and less tested than Mural, meaning it has more areas for improvement.
For example, the ability to annotate PDFs is a hugely important feature for research and note-taking purposes, and this functionality is not yet available in Scrintal; in Mural, the ability to draw makes it simpler to annotate, especially for short documents. You can collaborate on Scrintal docs and boards, but Mural has more advanced collaboration features that allow other platform users to comment on or notify each other in the app. Integrations with a wide range of other apps like calendars, meeting platforms, and others that are used by knowledge workers on a daily basis are still being developed for Scrintal. A mobile app are in the works in order to provide a competitive and uninterrupted experience.
For now, some users may find they are best served using either Mural or Scrintal depending whether the project is visual- or text-heavy in nature.
Mural Pros
The Mural interface is an attractive combination of a note taking tool and a picture editing tool, which makes sense given its focus on the visual. It has many options to customize your board, especially drawing tools and the ability to organize a combination of images, pictures, documents, and more like a mood board. Mural templates provide a good starting base, but the real power of the tool comes when users utilize the available features to fully customize their boards; these features are all relevant to the user base without being cluttered with features just for the sake of having them.
Cards and media files are easy to move between areas of the board by dragging, and the ability to draw enhances the board and allows users full creative control of their content. Mural is meant for visual ideation rather than text-heavy content (except content that exists in a document file); when working with images and quick ideas, the need to move around the board in order to change it is more intuitive. It also allows for real-time collaboration between multiple users on a single board, and like with a Google Document, you can see who else is editing the board you are working on.
Mural has both desktop and mobile apps, and can be used offline, making it a good tool for storyboarding on the go and adding ideas as they come up right into the platform.
Scrintal Pros
The structure and flow of Scrintal lends itself to an intuitive process from beginning to end: plan, brainstorm, execute, and share. This method of work makes the journey from ideation to presentation smooth and prevents interruptions to the creative thought process due to formatting, organization, or tab switching.
Empowering your first brain
Scrintal’s virtual canvas ensures the steady flow of creativity without interruptions. Connections rise to the surface more easily in a visual format and are not at risk of being forgotten or overlooked. The Scrintal ecosystem can host videos and PDFs on the same screen as an editable note, avoiding the need to scroll up and down or switch back and forth between tabs or windows. Your research and writing can take place in the same environment.
As needed, notes can appear as docs, full-screen text editors (for focusing), or titles only (for a holistic view of the network). This is a tool for the mind to more effectively engage with information and produce new ideas, as well as determine whether any information is missing or lacking.
Networked note taking
Docs can be linked together or tagged, and these are two of Scrintal’s most important features. Our minds work similarly, forming connections between ideas and using these connections to create a knowledge base that not only consists of information, but also a network that inspires innovation and enables problem-solving. Creating a visual representation of this network, whether hierarchical or more flexible, is more efficient than holding it in your mind, where only one connection can be considered at a time and new ideas may be lost or forgotten.
In Mural, the backlinking feature and connections are limited to the cards that exist on a single board (meaning you must have a card on the board to show a connection, even if it is not immediately relevant) and requires moving to the section of the board that the linked card is placed on. So if you link two cards that exist on opposite sides of a complex board, you will have to go back and forth to edit them.
In Scrintal, you can use boards to keep placements of docs consistent and ensure mind maps are organized in whichever way makes sense to you. If you move a doc, the arrow (and link) moves with it; if you dismiss a doc from your board, the link still exists in the vault. So you establish a more permanent connection rather than a temporary one. If you prefer a temporary connection, you can also create one with the connectors tool.
Mural Cons
In Mural, connections are not a key feature the way they are in Scrintal; when used sparingly, they perform their intended purpose, but because they take you to the part of the board where the linked note or file is located, it can be difficult to work on two ideas simultaneously. Since Mural is focused on images and short-form content, this is not an issue; but for anything longer than a sentence or two, it can be challenging to use Mural. Because of this, it’s not the right tool for a complex knowledge base. Rather, it works better for visual projects or early-stage ideation.
YouTube videos linked on your board open in a new YouTube tab, and video files must be downloaded to view; this makes it difficult to work without interrupting the flow of creative thought or take long-form notes without switching between different tabs. Some have also reported that Mural can be difficult to use intuitively due to frequent zooming in and out and moving around the board to view different notes and media.
Scrintal Cons
Scrintal is an early stage product and its team implements community feedback in product updates. It is younger and less tested than Mural, meaning it has more areas for improvement.
For example, the ability to annotate PDFs is a hugely important feature for research and note-taking purposes, and this functionality is not yet available in Scrintal; in Mural, the ability to draw makes it simpler to annotate, especially for short documents. You can collaborate on Scrintal docs and boards, but Mural has more advanced collaboration features that allow other platform users to comment on or notify each other in the app. Integrations with a wide range of other apps like calendars, meeting platforms, and others that are used by knowledge workers on a daily basis are still being developed for Scrintal. A mobile app are in the works in order to provide a competitive and uninterrupted experience.
For now, some users may find they are best served using either Mural or Scrintal depending whether the project is visual- or text-heavy in nature.
Mural Alternative Use Cases
Here’s a few use cases for those who might have used Mural and are struggling with the note taking or PKM elements of the tool.
Business/Startup – present a product or service
Business executives, teams can share a whole thought process and how they arrived at specific conclusions with others. This way teams can run projects and create value for their clients faster with rapid feedback loops from their teams.
Startups can prepare for investor pitches by outlining every possible question/area they need to cover before their meeting or conduct SWOT analysis with detailed information.
Researcher – mind map style research
Anyone who conducts the process of doing research would benefit from not only a high-level overview of a mind map but also from having all the knowledge base in one place. This group includes but is not limited to researchers. An example could be a research on crypto currencies or Web3 in which you can outline the whole research over the infinite canvas, add relevant videos and research papers in PDF under relevant sections.
Student – lecture connected note taking
Students can use the online whiteboard as a timeline that shows the courses, sessions, subjects and so on. Seeing everything at a glance this way helps what to prioritize next. They can even add color codes to manage their work (red: not started/haven’t read; green: done/read).
The same feature can be useful when preparing for exams since students can see a clearer picture of what they need to review and in case there are any materials I haven’t read/watch (compared with the folder-ing system) for file management.
What qualifies Scrintal as a better alternative to Mural in this case is its ability to add so much more information in your knowledge base and study the material on the same platform.
Here’s a few use cases for those who might have used Mural and are struggling with the note taking or PKM elements of the tool.
Business/Startup – present a product or service
Business executives, teams can share a whole thought process and how they arrived at specific conclusions with others. This way teams can run projects and create value for their clients faster with rapid feedback loops from their teams.
Startups can prepare for investor pitches by outlining every possible question/area they need to cover before their meeting or conduct SWOT analysis with detailed information.
Researcher – mind map style research
Anyone who conducts the process of doing research would benefit from not only a high-level overview of a mind map but also from having all the knowledge base in one place. This group includes but is not limited to researchers. An example could be a research on crypto currencies or Web3 in which you can outline the whole research over the infinite canvas, add relevant videos and research papers in PDF under relevant sections.
Student – lecture connected note taking
Students can use the online whiteboard as a timeline that shows the courses, sessions, subjects and so on. Seeing everything at a glance this way helps what to prioritize next. They can even add color codes to manage their work (red: not started/haven’t read; green: done/read).
The same feature can be useful when preparing for exams since students can see a clearer picture of what they need to review and in case there are any materials I haven’t read/watch (compared with the folder-ing system) for file management.
What qualifies Scrintal as a better alternative to Mural in this case is its ability to add so much more information in your knowledge base and study the material on the same platform.
Here’s a few use cases for those who might have used Mural and are struggling with the note taking or PKM elements of the tool.
Business/Startup – present a product or service
Business executives, teams can share a whole thought process and how they arrived at specific conclusions with others. This way teams can run projects and create value for their clients faster with rapid feedback loops from their teams.
Startups can prepare for investor pitches by outlining every possible question/area they need to cover before their meeting or conduct SWOT analysis with detailed information.
Researcher – mind map style research
Anyone who conducts the process of doing research would benefit from not only a high-level overview of a mind map but also from having all the knowledge base in one place. This group includes but is not limited to researchers. An example could be a research on crypto currencies or Web3 in which you can outline the whole research over the infinite canvas, add relevant videos and research papers in PDF under relevant sections.
Student – lecture connected note taking
Students can use the online whiteboard as a timeline that shows the courses, sessions, subjects and so on. Seeing everything at a glance this way helps what to prioritize next. They can even add color codes to manage their work (red: not started/haven’t read; green: done/read).
The same feature can be useful when preparing for exams since students can see a clearer picture of what they need to review and in case there are any materials I haven’t read/watch (compared with the folder-ing system) for file management.
What qualifies Scrintal as a better alternative to Mural in this case is its ability to add so much more information in your knowledge base and study the material on the same platform.
Here’s a few use cases for those who might have used Mural and are struggling with the note taking or PKM elements of the tool.
Business/Startup – present a product or service
Business executives, teams can share a whole thought process and how they arrived at specific conclusions with others. This way teams can run projects and create value for their clients faster with rapid feedback loops from their teams.
Startups can prepare for investor pitches by outlining every possible question/area they need to cover before their meeting or conduct SWOT analysis with detailed information.
Researcher – mind map style research
Anyone who conducts the process of doing research would benefit from not only a high-level overview of a mind map but also from having all the knowledge base in one place. This group includes but is not limited to researchers. An example could be a research on crypto currencies or Web3 in which you can outline the whole research over the infinite canvas, add relevant videos and research papers in PDF under relevant sections.
Student – lecture connected note taking
Students can use the online whiteboard as a timeline that shows the courses, sessions, subjects and so on. Seeing everything at a glance this way helps what to prioritize next. They can even add color codes to manage their work (red: not started/haven’t read; green: done/read).
The same feature can be useful when preparing for exams since students can see a clearer picture of what they need to review and in case there are any materials I haven’t read/watch (compared with the folder-ing system) for file management.
What qualifies Scrintal as a better alternative to Mural in this case is its ability to add so much more information in your knowledge base and study the material on the same platform.
Here’s a few use cases for those who might have used Mural and are struggling with the note taking or PKM elements of the tool.
Business/Startup – present a product or service
Business executives, teams can share a whole thought process and how they arrived at specific conclusions with others. This way teams can run projects and create value for their clients faster with rapid feedback loops from their teams.
Startups can prepare for investor pitches by outlining every possible question/area they need to cover before their meeting or conduct SWOT analysis with detailed information.
Researcher – mind map style research
Anyone who conducts the process of doing research would benefit from not only a high-level overview of a mind map but also from having all the knowledge base in one place. This group includes but is not limited to researchers. An example could be a research on crypto currencies or Web3 in which you can outline the whole research over the infinite canvas, add relevant videos and research papers in PDF under relevant sections.
Student – lecture connected note taking
Students can use the online whiteboard as a timeline that shows the courses, sessions, subjects and so on. Seeing everything at a glance this way helps what to prioritize next. They can even add color codes to manage their work (red: not started/haven’t read; green: done/read).
The same feature can be useful when preparing for exams since students can see a clearer picture of what they need to review and in case there are any materials I haven’t read/watch (compared with the folder-ing system) for file management.
What qualifies Scrintal as a better alternative to Mural in this case is its ability to add so much more information in your knowledge base and study the material on the same platform.
Isha Trivedi
Unlock brilliance
Company
Guides
Comparisons
Unlock brilliance
Company
Guides
Comparisons
Unlock brilliance
Company
Guides
Comparisons