Question

What is Scratchpad?

Answer 1

Hey, I just discovered Scratchpad myself.

Scratchpad is an area where I can compose, edit, and format my answers before posting them to Socratic itself.

I can see just what my answer will look like as I work on it.

I sometimes have to fiddle with the MarkUp language to get the format the way I want it to.

I polish my document until it looks just right, then I cut and paste it into Socratic.

Answer 2

Scratchpad, for me, is like Sandbox mode. It's a blank slate where you can try things out, save things for use later... anything really.

Explanation:

There are two kinds of Scratchpads - public and private. I currently have one of each.

I use the private scratchpad as a place to keep frequently used pieces of answers and also codes and formats I might forget about. For instance, I like answering combination, permutation, and factorial questions (i.e. the number of ways something can be done, like the number of 5-card poker hands someone can be dealt). Instead of having to recreate that work every time it comes up, I simply copy/paste the work in.

I use the public scratchpad as a place to share what I keep in my private scratchpad (my private one is a repository and the public one is... well... public!). Here's a link to it: https://socratic.org/scratchpad/ecee25427bf1767b5ac2

Here's an answer from Stefan V that has more about Scratchpad:

https://socratic.org/questions/how-do-you-view-other-people-s-community-scratchpads