SynCaps downloads
SynCaps V4 runs in your browser and needs nothing installing. SynCaps V3, the Windows application, is still free to download below.
SynCaps V4, online
Run card sorts online and analyse the results in your browser, on Windows, Mac or anything else. SynCaps V4 is the successor to SynCaps V3, covers its analyses, reads studies saved in the SynCaps format, and is free during early access.
SynCaps V3 and V4 compared
SynCaps V4 covers SynCaps V3’s analyses and adds online sorting, browser-based charts and new participant statistics. Results can be exported as Excel spreadsheets, and every chart can be downloaded as SVG or PNG.
| SynCaps V3 | SynCaps V4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on | Windows 8 and later, installed on your PC | Any modern browser, on Windows, Mac or anything else; nothing to install |
| Cost | Free | Free during early access. Setting up studies, basic reports and practice studies stay free; paid studies with advanced reports and longer storage come later, with at least 30 days' notice by email |
| Collecting sorts | Paper sorts: cards printed from Word templates, results typed in or scanned with a bar code reader | Everything V3 supports, plus online open, closed and hybrid sorts. Participants sort by clicking, rate their confidence and can flag cards they don't understand |
| Study files | SynCaps format | Reads the SynCaps format, so V3 studies carry across |
| Charts | Five customisable charts, copied into reports with copy and paste | All the V3 charts, including Items × Groups and item and participant dendrograms, drawn in the browser. Every chart can be downloaded as SVG or PNG for use in reports |
| Group and item names | Group and item names can be merged, as a step before analysis | Merges are made in the analysis pages, by clicking the chart, and SynCaps V4 can recommend merges if you ask. Unimportant groups can be set aside the same way, and merges are saved with the study |
| Participant analysis | Participant cluster analysis and filtering | As V3, plus a significance test of whether participants form clusters that sorted items in materially different ways, and which participants belong to each |
| Nested groups | Yes: participants can build their own hierarchies of groups | Yes, for every type of study. Analysis handles nesting up to 9 levels deep; online sorts let participants nest groups up to 3 levels |
| Further analysis | Spreadsheet (.csv) export files for further analysis in Excel or similar | Results export as an Excel workbook, one sheet per table; study data and merge decisions can also be downloaded. Exports are part of paid studies, and every study has them during early access |
| Where the data is | On your own PC | On the SynCaps V4 website, stored in London |
| Teaching | Practice studies: a pilot can be sent to up to 10 people |
More about SynCaps V4 at syncapsv4.com (opens in a new tab)
SynCaps V3 for Windows
SynCaps V3 is a free Windows application for preparing paper card sorts and analysing the results. Its features include:
- Five customisable charts that can be easily incorporated into reports using copy and paste
- Expert and reference sort comparisons (to show the current information architecture compared with participants' results, for example)
- An extensive set of spreadsheet export files for additional analysis and charting
- Nested groups, which let participants build their own hierarchies of groups
- Participant analysis and filtering, including participant cluster analysis to determine if separate communities are present
All of the features are described in the user guide and release notes included in the download, which also contains the card templates and sample data files. There is nothing more to download.
Download SynCaps V3.5 for Windows
For Windows 8 and later, including Windows 11. SynCaps V3 runs only on Windows; on a Mac, use SynCaps V4 (opens in a new tab) in your browser.
No licence needed: SynCaps V3.5 does not use licence keys. If you have SynCaps V3.4 or earlier installed, please uninstall it and install V3.5 instead.
SynCaps V3 is free for everyone to use. If you find it useful, you can make a donation through PayPal to help us maintain and develop it.
Webinars
Three one-hour webinars cover card sorting with SynCaps: Part 1, Preparing Paper Sorts (all versions of SynCaps); Part 2, Basic Analysis (paper and online sorts, including nested groups in V3); and Part 3, Advanced Analysis (participant analysis and filtering in V3). Watch or download them from the webinars, videos and slide shows page.
Release notes
- V3.5 removes licence management.
- V3.4.2 fixes several important bugs:
- Earlier versions allowed users to start from a .caps3 file, but if they attempted to create new participant filters, the program crashed. Because access is needed to some data structures not present in .caps3 files, SynCaps V3 will now ask if you want to reprocess the original data. Generally, it is best to do research from the original .txt files and use .caps3 files to share results with others.
- Chart images copied to the clipboard were missing a few lines at the bottom. This is now fixed.
- Print and print preview of charts more than one page deep now works correctly.
- V3.4 introduces an Items x Groups spreadsheet (.csv) output file. This shows all items in dendrogram order as rows and all groups as columns. The order of groups is the same as the Items x Groups chart for the default number of item clusters (the average across participants). Cell values are given as percentages.
Release notes for earlier versions are included in the download.