Scrivener ... ?

Discussion in 'Writing Software and Hardware' started by cutecat22, Dec 30, 2014.

  1. cutecat22

    cutecat22 The Strange One Contributor

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    Hmmm - piquing my interest! Will definitely give it a fair go. Thanks, @Wreybies
     
  2. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    Except maybe this.
     
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  3. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    You're terrible, Muriel. :-D

    [​IMG]
     
  4. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    Got to admit, those templates look fantastic. What a big help they would be, if a student was using them! I would probably be sold on Scrivener right here, if I were still a student. Good stuff. Pages has it's own templates as well, but the ones they offer are not quite so student-oriented. Mind you, I've never really explored them either. I've just created my own, which Pages allows. I formatted a letterhead one for my letters, and my novel-writing ones. I store them in my Dock, so I can access them instantly, and just start 'typing.'
     
  5. Jack Asher

    Jack Asher Banned Contributor

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    [​IMG]
     
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  6. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    Ha ha! Sometimes you really do outdo yourself, Mr Asher! Very funny. :rofl:
     
  7. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    My cat and dog woke me at the crack of dawn today so... Here's some more stuff about the templates in Scrivener. :) Important to note that a Scrivener Template is not a pre-formatted page of text like in other word processors. It's a pre-formatted organizational scheme. It might contain pre-formatted pages for your use (many do), but the Template is really the organizational binder. Once you know Scrivener and know the things you'll use and the things you won't, you can create your own templates that best suit your needs. Again, even if you start with the simplest of the templates, every feature is always available to use, it's just a matter of whether or not you incorporate it into your work surface.

    @cutecat22, you mentioned that what you like about MS Word is that you can "just sit down and write". You can do the exact same thing in Scrivener. You can pick the blank template, which is no more tedious than choosing a "new document" in Word, and just sit down and write in a clean environment. You don't have to jump through any hoops. Notice that the binder to the left is nearly empty. There's your draft that currently contains a single file called Untitled. You can use that single file as a continuous document, just like in Word, or can create more than one file if you have a separate idea you want to work out on the side. Or lots of files. Whatever you want. There's a folder to drop research stuff that will hold any kind of file you can throw at it. I use this simplest template when writing a short story. The binder is collapsible so you don't have to look at it when you're writing if you don't want to. You can make it disappear.

    [​IMG]

    This is the standard Fiction Novel template. That first page of text you see there, notice that in the binder it sits above and outside the Manuscript. This first page is just informational for the first time user and is never compiled inside your Manuscript. Notice now that the binder is more complex and offers other things and the hierarchy of levels within the Manuscript has Chapter and Scene. When you compile your output, all these divisions and folders are seamlessly integrated into a single manuscript in standard Shunn style. You can manipulate and alter font, font size, screen color, background image, etc. and none of that affects your end product Shunn style manuscript. If your creative process requires a paisley, tie-dyed, silk headscarf, throw-pillows instead of furniture environment, you can have all that on screen and you still always get the same no-nonsense, all business, toe-the-line manuscript at the end. The colors you see here are my personal preferences. I find them soothing and un-intrusive. You can change them to whatever you want. That bar to the right that's headed Synopsis has a bunch of features that I personally think are best suited to non-fiction writing, but I've left it open so you can see it. I personally collapse it and get it off the page. It's not a thing I use.

    [​IMG]

    This is the Fiction Novel with Parts template. It's not too different from the prior template other than an added tier of hierarchy within the Manuscript. This is the one I use in my novels. The outline style format of the binder can be manipulated just like any outline. You can move items to higher levels within the outline or lower, subordinate levels. You can move anything anywhere and where you have it is where it will be when you compile the manuscript. You can split a scene into two files or join two scenes into a single file with a single click. You can even split the screen view and look at two scenes simultaneously, either one on top of the other or side by side.

    [​IMG]

    This is the Non-Fiction with Sub-Headings template. Never actually used this one myself, but since I know you're looking to do a non-fic next...

    [​IMG]

    And here's the Novel with Parts template after I modified it to my personal needs in my own actual MS. Notice an even higher tier of hierarchy within the Manuscript, that note-taking synopsis bar thingie is not in evidence because it's not part of my process, so away it went.

    [​IMG]
     
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  8. cutecat22

    cutecat22 The Strange One Contributor

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    That's what threw me off at first, when I hear 'template' I automatically think of a page template in that every page will look like that. I did find a template that I could use in the Miscellaneous file which looks like it might be just the kind of organised file that I'm looking for. I haven't gotten very far as I'm still working on a fiction project so I've given myself a deadline for this non-fiction of December 2015 Plus, because of the kind of book it is, I still have loads of hands-on research before I can start putting it together. But I've made a start! :-D

    Screenshot (5).png
     
  9. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Also, you've got the screen-cap and display in-post for images in the forum down solid now. ;) I'm happy to see the Scrivener GUIs for both Mac and PC are remaining in sync. I feel like I'm forever caveating that my images are from a Mac, just in case.
     
  10. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    The Windows version lags a bit behind the Mac version in terms of new features, but it's a solid program and for the most part seems to be the same. Even the linux beta, which I understand is ported by the community and not developed by Literature and Latte, is quite good and has all the most useful features.

    One main reason I am considering the iPad 2 instead of just going with the Galaxy Note Pro is that there is supposed to be an iOS version of Scrivener coming.
     
  11. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    They've been talking about that forevz. They said they would take a whack at the Windows version first, which they did, and from what I have seen, they have done a good job with the port. Windows users who dig the paradigm seem to dig it as much as I do, so it's clearly functioning well in Windows Land. The creators (who are very present at the Lit & Latte forum) had, for a long time, flat out said no to an iPad version.
     
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  12. cutecat22

    cutecat22 The Strange One Contributor

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    Thanks!

    I have a long way to go as I need to somewhere, incorporate a pictures file and then I need to start editing pages together but that's way, way into next year. I'm going to do a little bit at a time and then leave it alone to let things digest. With such a program as scrivener, if I focus too much on it, I will just totally bamboozle myself.
     
  13. cutecat22

    cutecat22 The Strange One Contributor

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    I'm sure there was something on the advertising page that mentioned scrivener on tablet but I'm not sure which or how.
     
  14. 123456789

    123456789 Contributor Contributor

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    Well, that's it. I officially hate Scrivener. I've been using it for years. The first time it failed me was a few months ago when a few text files went magically missing. I overlooked it. Shit happens, right.

    I open my Scriv this morning, and the cursor just freezes. It's the only program not working.
     
  15. Mckk

    Mckk Member Supporter Contributor

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    And what file format do Scrivner files save to? Is it possible to save it as a doc or docx file? Pdf or Html? Just wondering about opening a scrivner file on my phone, for example, where I do not have Scrivner.

    And is it worth the monetary investment when you already have Word on your laptop? (I forget how much it is?)
     
  16. Jack Asher

    Jack Asher Banned Contributor

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    Scrivener is $40 and saves to it's own format .scriv in a nested format. A project folder has about a half dozen different file formats in it.

    You can export to pretty much any format you choose, but working on a project without scrivener is somewhere between difficult and not at all worth it. If you were working on a specific chapter or section, you would have to export that chapter, edit it in another program, and bring it back into scrivener.

    Fortunately the license is not computer specific, and one payment of $40 allows you to put scrivener on as many systems as you want. I have a copy on my desktop and both laptops, with a dropbox folder syncing the files. Presumably when a mobile version is release it will be free with your already license.
     
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  17. Mckk

    Mckk Member Supporter Contributor

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    Thank you! :D So for example, if I emailed a .scriv file to myself and opened it somewhere on a computer without scrivner, would Word automatically be able to read it with all its formatting? I presume no, given you were saying how you'd have to export the chapter and then export it back into scrivner?
     
  18. Jack Asher

    Jack Asher Banned Contributor

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    Word has not chance of reading a .scrivx, and not just because the format is different. The way a scrivener project is set up is entirely different. It's like trying to start a car with a banana.
     
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  19. Mckk

    Mckk Member Supporter Contributor

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    Aha. But you could export it into a word doc? Wouldn't editing in word and then exporting it back to .scriv mess up the formatting if they're set up entirely differently?
     
  20. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    As jack already mentions, no, Word would not open the .scriv file because a .scriv file is a container file. There are lots of little files inside of it, to include you text pages in .rtf file format.

    Yes, you can export to .doc or .docx for Word to look at. The standard settings in the Scrivener app (in most templates) exports a .doc Shunn style manuscript. But if you pull it back into Scrivener in its final form, Scrivener will not break it back out into the folders of the organizational binder, the way it was before you exported. That's kinda the point of the export function. The end product is indistinguishable from something made completely on Word, so it would not carry any formatting or code or whatever that Scrivener would recognize upon returning, but which might hinder someone from opening it in Word.
     
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  21. Jack Asher

    Jack Asher Banned Contributor

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    I'll help with some screenshots.
    [​IMG]
    Everything in the red box is an individual chapter or scene. I can either export them all into one document, or export a single scene. If I were to export the whole thing, I wouldn't be able to edit it and then put it back into each scene. There's no meta data in order to do that.

    I could export that scene and work on it, but the options go out the window if I suddenly want to work on a scene I hadn't exported, or want to split/combine/delete that scene.
     
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  22. Mckk

    Mckk Member Supporter Contributor

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    So given most people still use Word and will often request a word doc if you want them to read your MS, has it ever caused you guys any trouble since you use Scrivner? I guess you wouldn't be sending the MS out if it wasn't ready to be read so perhaps it's a non-issue, and the .scriv file would still be on your computer so even if you exported it and needed to make changes, you'd just hop back into Scrivner to make those changes.

    I guess I'm trying to assess how much trouble it would be to use lol.
     
  23. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    No, it's never caused me any trouble because regardless of what point in a project I happen to be, I can export a .doc copy that will look just like anyone else's unfinished manuscript. You are correct that the Scrivener file remains regardless of how many times you export, so your work would continue to chug along without issue. ;)
     
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  24. Jack Asher

    Jack Asher Banned Contributor

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    I can't speak for anyone else, but when I had someone beta for me, I sent them a .docx. When they sent it back I opened it in Open Office, stuck it on the left monitor, opened up scrivener on the main monitor and looked over all the comments and changes.

    Hardly ideal. But the alternative would be "not working in scrivener" which is really not a good tradeoff for me. I imagine people with fewer then two monitors would find it more difficult, so if that's you you might reconsider. Or not, because scrivener is just so much fun.
     
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  25. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Thank you! The term would not come to me! :-D I had to describe it the super-long way. ;)
     

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