Scrivener [Download]
- Corkboard - In Scrivener, every document is attached to a virtual index card onto which you can jot a synopsis; moving the cards on Scrivener’s corkboard rearranges their associated text in your draft.
- Outliner - View and edit the synopses and meta-data of your documents in Scrivener’s powerful outliner. Organise your ideas using as many or few levels as you want and drag and drop to restructure your work.
- Scrivenings - Scrivener’s innovative “Scrivenings” mode allows you to move smoothly between editing your document one piece at a time or together as a whole.
- Statistics and Targets - A live word and character count of the current section is always in view at the bottom of the screen, and you can set a word or character count target for each section.
- Full-Screen - Because sometimes you want to blank out the rest of the world while you write - or at least the rest of the screen. One click in Scrivener’s toolbar and you can leave the rest of your desktop behind and write distraction free.
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Product details
- Language : English
- Item model number : SCRWINREG
- Date First Available : February 15, 2012
- Manufacturer : Literature & Latte
- ASIN : B0079KJB54
- Customer Reviews:
Product Description
Scrivener is a powerful content-generation tool for writers that allows you to concentrate on composing and structuring long and difficult documents. While it gives you complete control of the formatting, its focus is on helping you get to the end of that awkward first draft.
Writing a novel, research paper, script or any long-form text involves more than hammering away at the keys until you’re done. Collecting research, ordering fragmented ideas, shuffling index cards in search of that elusive structure—most writing software is fired up only after much of the hard work is over. Enter Scrivener: a word processor and project management tool that stays with you from that first, unformed idea all the way through to the final draft. Outline and structure your ideas, take notes, view research alongside your writing and compose the constituent pieces of your text in isolation or in context. Scrivener won't tell you how to write - it just makes all the tools you have scattered around your desk available in one application.
Scrivener puts everything you need for structuring, writing and editing long documents at your fingertips. On the left of the window, the “binder” allows you to navigate between the different parts of your manuscript, your notes, and research materials, with ease. Break your text into pieces as small or large as you want - so you can forget wrestling with one long document. Restructuring your draft is as simple as drag and drop. Select a single document to edit a section of your manuscript in isolation, or use “Scrivenings” mode to work on multiple sections as though they were one: Scrivener makes it easy to switch between focussing on the details and stepping back to get a wider view of your composition.
- Scrivener requires Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8 (32 or 64 bit) with DirectX.
- 1GB RAM - 1ghz processor - 100mb disk space - 1024 x 768 screen
- Internet connection (required for a one-time activation process, prior to registration).
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Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers like the quality, organization, and value of the downloadable software. For example, they mention it's an innovative writing tool, helps organize various elements of a story, and is well worth the price. Customers also like the tools, and benefits. That said, opinions are mixed on ease of use, performance, and ease of downloading.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the software amazing, innovative, and the best way for writers to organize and create long novels. They also say it's the best software out there for authors. They like that the notes appear no matter what page they look at.
"...Its first incarnation was an innovative writing tool. With automatic backups, revisioning and snapshot provision, its second is an indispensable one...." Read more
"...It is interesting, there are other software similar to it out there both free and paid but it's an interesting little tool in it's own right...." Read more
"...this review to reassure any writers out there that this program is definitely worth it and definitely what you are looking for in terms of keeping..." Read more
"This is probably the best way for writers to organize and create long novels, works of non-fiction and other things that are too bulky to mess..." Read more
Customers find the organization of the software great. They say it helps them organize the various elements of their story, research, and chapters. They also appreciate the folder system, which is great for allocation of information. Customers also say the creation of folders and subfolders is perfect. They mention that the software provides a superb framework in which to research and write. They like the drag-and-drop organization, and the many ways to envision blocks of text. They appreciate the way references are put right into their documents. Overall, customers are happy with the layout and how they can manipulate it to suit their needs.
"...Features include a corkboard, the ability to rearrange files by dragging-and-dropping virtual index cards on the corkboard, an outliner, a split..." Read more
"...The organizational ability this gives you is enormously helpful and the instant access to this content is a large part in why I purchased Scrivener...." Read more
"...I have found these to be great supplements to the written tutorial. Take advantage of these, and you will not be sorry...." Read more
"...This is great for saving a search for that one word/phrase/etc that you repeat over and over again and want to seek-and-destroy...." Read more
Customers appreciate the value of the software. They say it's well worth the price and a bargain for how many things it does.
"...The value of this program for such a low cost is impressive...." Read more
"...but now that I've actually used it, I can honestly say its well worth the full $40...." Read more
"...In summary, this software is worth the money...." Read more
"...Hats off to L&L for developing such a platform and for such a great price. It is value, par excellence!..." Read more
Customers find the tools in Scrivener interesting and indispensable. They say the program includes great tools for character sketches and settings, as well as third-party how-to resources. Customers also appreciate the templates for outlining characters and scenes, and the virtual index. They mention that everything they need is in the program, including places to make notes and store research.
"...The Tools...There are a couple tools I find very interesting...." Read more
"...There are templates for outlining characters and scenes if you need them or you can use virtual index cards when you only need brief notes...." Read more
"...First the tools included are great, from the story beard to the full screen editor. You can enlarge the text without changing the font size...." Read more
"...The split screen option is superb, as is the note cards for characters and places...." Read more
Customers find the benefits of the software to be great. They say it helps them organize their thoughts and make them more productive. They also say it has motivational tools that help keep them sane through the selection, organizing, and writing process. Customers also say the software gives them a whole new freedom, both in outlining and writing. They find it to be a wonderful freeing thing that helps remove the chaos from their creativity.
"...all your scenes or article sections laid out before you is a wonderfully freeing thing...." Read more
"...I love this program - it has motivational tools (like project statistics and targets), a cork-board feature to make outlining a breeze, and a..." Read more
"...It truly helps remove the chaos from your creativity. This is your priority software if you are a writer or an aspiring writer...." Read more
"...It gives you a whole new freedom, both in outlining and writing. The program makes it easy to play around with your plot and rearrange it...." Read more
Customers are mixed about the ease of use of the software. Some mention that it's simple and intuitive, making it easy to plan out a novel and reorder your work. They also say that it is super easy to start and has a 1 click compilation tool. However, others say that they had difficulty with the tutorial and that the installation is not intuitive.
"...With automatic backups, revisioning and snapshot provision, its second is an indispensable one.”—Nik Rawlinson, MacUser: Editor’s Choice“..." Read more
"...Another tool I find useful is the ability to take parts of content and put into it's own page or cut up pages into new sections or add into existing..." Read more
"...(2) a user being confused by the product itself and not understanding how to use it. Both are unjustified, and I'll briefly explain why...." Read more
"...You can also rearrange these scenes and chapters in any order you want easily if you decide you don't like where they are - it's drag-and-drop...." Read more
Customers are mixed about the performance of the downloadable software. Some mention that it's amazingly helpful once they get the hang of it, and it does deliver. They say it'll help them become more efficient and organized. However, some customers say that some functions are a little wonky, and the inspector doesn't have as many functions available at such easy access. They also say that the program absolutely sucks and has no special uses.
"...It will help you write better. It will help you become more efficient and organized so you can focus on story problems, not software problems...." Read more
"...I find that I'm still mainly using Word. And because of the woefully insufficient way that Scrivener handles exporting to Microsoft Word..." Read more
"...Amazingly helpful once you get the hang of it. This is not an intuitive process as I thought it might be, but it works once you experiment with it...." Read more
"...Now reading the reviews it looks like the site is just not working and no one's codes are being accepted from Amazon and no one is getting any..." Read more
Customers are mixed about the ease of downloading. Some mention that the download was easy and relatively fast, and the information is organized and easy to get. However, others say that the downloading process was difficult and frustrating.
"...gave this product a 1 star rating because I had difficulty loading this software onto my computer...." Read more
"...its the user, not the program. download was a little difficult but I think that it was my computer not the download itself." Read more
"...ability this gives you is enormously helpful and the instant access to this content is a large part in why I purchased Scrivener...." Read more
"This software download was a bit confusing to get, and I had to call Amazon customer service reps for assistance, but once I got it, I am pleased..." Read more
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That is the question. Sure, we are used to Microsoft Word, but is it really all that great? Let’s take organization. If you halfway know what you’re doing you can create a style with chapter headings. Hell, you might even go down the rabbit hole of Microsoft formatting and set your margins, tabs and all that. Before you know it a half hour has gone by. You flip back and forth between your notes. Maybe you use Evernote or a Moleskine in your pocket. Maybe you use the dreadful Word sticky notes or even the comments. Then you start to write. You can scroll to the chapter or click on the link, but sometimes that doesn’t work as well as you’d like. Maybe you auto-selected the entire chapter and deleted it. Maybe your older PC is still dealing with your aquarium screensaver and decides to give you the blue screen of death. Whatever the situation, chances are you have at least one Word horror story.
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Word was created in 1983 by Charles Simonyi and Richard Brodie, former Xerox programmers hired by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1981. It was designed for Xenix and MS-DOS. It had several versions, none very successful because back then computers were for playing chess and maybe figuring out how to calculate interest payments. There was also program for Macintosh called Microsoft Write and a one-off version for Atari.
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In 1989, it was slightly modified for Windows. It was a colossal success and pretty much cemented Microsoft’s place as the Catholic Church of software companies.
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Neither writers nor designers were consulted. There was no user experience research done at all. They gave us the program and it was up to us to learn to use it.
Most writers back then used a simple method. They wrote in a notebook or on a typewriter. They kept notes and went to the library for research. Sometimes they might spread their various chapters and drafts on the floor to arrange things. They certainly did not work in the linear way dictated by some computer program. But after the demise of Word Perfect, a slightly better program designed to do the same thing, Word was the only game in town. Use it or screw off. Other programs came along, most of them cloning the crappy interface decisions and again repeating the crummy, non-writerly user experience.
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And we still use it. Submit any work anywhere and you will find the default format is .doc or .docx. Microsoft: it’s not that it’s garbage. It’s not that it’s everywhere. It’s that it’s garbage and it’s everywhere.
Enter Scrivener. Originally designed for Mac, it is now available for Windows machines. According to Wikipedia (another staggering innovation for writers)
Features include a corkboard, the ability to rearrange files by dragging-and-dropping virtual index cards on the corkboard, an outliner, a split screen mode that enables users to edit several documents at once, a full-screen mode, and “snapshots” (the ability to save a copy of a particular document prior to any drastic changes). Scrivener allows photos to be dragged into its interface as well. Because of its breadth of interfaces and features, it has positioned itself not only as a word processor, but as a literary “project management tool,” and includes many user-interface features.
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You hear that? A project management tool. That’s right, and the project you’re managing is a writing project. Non fiction? Fiction? Blog? Yep. You want notes? You want a corkboard? You want multiple drafts conveniently located in the same place? How about pictures, audio clips, scanned documents, websites? Yep. All right there, all out of the way until you need them. And don’t worry about the formatting, because that’s a separate operation. As is editing.
Yes, you need to rethink the way you work, but really–when you think about it, you are merely unlearning a crappy workflow dictated to you a couple dorks who are now fat millionaires whiling away their endless idle hours staring at Elliot Bay through their mansion windows while sipping from a bottle of wine that cost more than your last vacation.
This program is fantastic. It will help you write better. It will help you become more efficient and organized so you can focus on story problems, not software problems.
It’s not just me who thinks so.
Our redeemer is Scrivener… software that jibes with the way writers think. As its name makes plain, Scrivener takes our side; it roots for the writer and not for the final product… The happy, broad-minded, process-friendly Scrivener software encourages note-taking and outlining and restructuring and promises all the exhilaration of a productive desk… Scrivener, then, is one of us, at home in the writer’s jumpy emotional and procedural universe.”
—Virginia Hefferman The New York Times
“Scrivener 2 has been a long time in the works, but it proves to have been well worth the wait. Its first incarnation was an innovative writing tool. With automatic backups, revisioning and snapshot provision, its second is an indispensable one.”—Nik Rawlinson, MacUser: Editor’s Choice
“In perhaps the quintessential example of small, independent developers creating best-in-class applications on Mac OS X, today we’re going to look at Literature & Latte’s Scrivener… It might sound like I’m being a little overzealous with my praise, but I really am quite impressed with both the application and the developer.”—Nabil, AppleGeeks
“I have tried nearly every writing tool available for the Mac and finally stumbled upon one that is, basically, brilliant. I love it. It has replaced every other writing tool in my arsenal.”—Ricardo Sanchez, Conform & Obey
and dozens of other raves.
So seriously, writers. Check it out. You won’t go back to the Microsoft nonsense. I promise. The program is available free for thirty days. Then it’s forty bucks, the cost of eight wedding cake lattes at your Barnes & Noble Starbucks.
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I stopped using this product several years ago. I like the idea of it but in practice I find writing in Libreoffice Writer is just easier for me without hassles or bugs.
I replicated the same work flow in Writer that I figured out in Scrivener and it just works and is for me easier in Libre Office. Feature for Feature it is not one to one, though for ease of use and just get stuff done with layout control, bookmarking with multiple versions of documents and many listed features of Scrivener you can do similar in Libre Office.
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Original Review:
If you have seen how magazine publishers use a light board to position and design their layouts, Scrivener allows this type of work flow with your own writing.
This software is primarily a writer's outlining tool which allows you to quickly mockup an outline for whatever type of writing you do. There is no limit to the type or kind of writing you can use this tool for it is designed to work with you in your process whatever that is. It helps you by chunking the process, instead of one long document you sectionize and work in smaller chunks which you can reorganize and position and reposition as you work. It really is a writers tool which makes the process of writing helpful and easier.
In the process you get a finished writing which you export out into a completed PDF, epub, txt format.
I downloaded the trial of Scrivener and at first glance I didn't really get it. I watched some of the tutorials and read through the reviews paying attention to the critics more so than the fan boy's.
I decided to give it a go by actually using it in a real project which is the only way I was going to discover how well this actually works by using it as it is intended to be used.
At first I didn't really understand the layout but after spending sometime poking and prodding I quickly got up to speed as to the purpose of the features and built-in tools. Some of the ways it did certain things I didn't like and wished I could have it go to the opening menu by default when closing projects instead of just exiting the software program. So, I went on a hunt through the features and discovered how to enable that feature among several others that made Scrivener work more natural for me from a Windows user stand point.
Some of the features are OFF by default and common features are hidden away, but you are allowed to customize the menu bars which lets you place buttons for the features you need or want on the top tool bars for instant access. I placed the actual settings buttons on my tool bar so I have instant access in case I want to change something later, no hunting through menus is really nice.
The way I now look at this tool after using it for 3 or 4 days before purchasing, is that it helps you keep track of your thoughts and ideas while helping you fill in the details which then becomes your book, article, blog post, technical sheet or whatever it is you are writing. Once you have setup the work flow the folders, chapters, sections, notes you can save it all into it's own template which will be the basis for your next project whatever that will be. This greatly saves time by giving you an exiting outline designed by you for the way you naturally work.
I have three separate outlines I have put together one is a marketing outline designed for writing sales letters, another is an outline for writing articles or books based on a certain topic. I can create outlines which I convert to a template designed specifically to the exact type of writing or topic of choice. How this comes into play is the ability to save or link outside content directly into the project which you can use for research in your writing. Gather enough research content on certain topics and put them into a project and setup an outline based on that topic or format then save it as a template and presto an instant launching pad to start from. The organizational ability this gives you is enormously helpful and the instant access to this content is a large part in why I purchased Scrivener. Yes, you can do similar in other software like Libre Office, Word but I have found after working with Scrivener the combination of the number of sources to note things and gain access to that information is much faster in Scrivener. Plus you can link content directly to other content and see the connection which when writing is essentially a brain dump of your thoughts and you can instantly see how things are fitting together as you are writing. Now, what if you have to make a change wouldn't it be easier to at a glance see what other areas that change may impact? Good luck doing that in a regular word processor software. Short articles you don't need this, 350 page novel or technical manual would be easier to work with using these type of features.
The Tools...
There are a couple tools I find very interesting. There is a built-in name generator that gives the root meaning and origin of the name generated along with the ability to choose the region or filter out regions to not include in the name generator. I find this tool interesting and for fictional authors this would help with character development.
The other tool I find helpful is the ability to import web pages directly from the web into your project for research. You can save the entire page as an image, text only or an embedded browser which brings up the page live directly in scrivener. This last one is very slow and tends to freeze the application, I wouldn't use it personally. The image and text options work well but for some reason the software hangs on pages that include a lot of javascript or similar. A popup box asking to wait for the page, import what it currently has or cancel the import, appears. Choose Import what it has will bring in the web page no problems, not sure what the problem is but seems to be a bug in the feature. For research this is a useful tool I have been using, instead of having to open my browser go to the site copy then paste into a text document I just click that page in Scrivener's research folder and it appears instantly next to my content. Very useful for checking sources and quotes etc...
I like the ability to see how this research material fits in with my content and be able to move it around and reposition within the outline. Instant feedback of where this research impacts my content and I can move it around to maybe a better place that fits better.
Another tool I find useful is the ability to take parts of content and put into it's own page or cut up pages into new sections or add into existing pages or sections. Amazingly helpful once you get the hang of it. This is not an intuitive process as I thought it might be, but it works once you experiment with it. In Libre Office I would just cut and paste manually but that takes time, this feature doesn't take more than highlighting the section of content and then choosing the right option from the right mouse menu. Takes a little thought before hand.
Windows Vs Mac...
There are differences between Windows and Mac version but not as much as reviews state from mid 2013 and before. I would say it is safe to ignore most of the older reviews. There ARE differences and some of the fancy cork board features shown in the Mac tutorials don't work in Windows. What does work is the ability to drag position of the cork board items but you can't move them around anywhere on the page like in Mac. All of the images shown at the top of the Windows version on Amazon work as shown. If you go to the home website for Scrivener and click on the Windows version and look at the screen shots everything there works as shown. Go to Youtube and watch the Windows ONLY tutorials and you will get a better idea of the difference but there are some tutorial video's that are OLD and out of date mainly the features they say aren't working are now working.
There is a 30 day trial if you go to their website and download it you will see for yourself if it works how you expect.
Additional Notes...
I have Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit and I have ZERO problems with Scrivener, no crashing, no stability issues of any kind. Others report problems I have not experienced any.
The Editor is very basic and some of the common tools are not on the tool bar, you have to go to customization to add those missing buttons. Some just aren't there at all though so if you expect a Word replacement this is not that and is not really what it is meant for from what I can tell after using it for a week or less.
There is an HTML web page export option in Scrivener. Please don't use this and expect it to work for a live website, this is NOT a web page creator. This feature should be removed as it is very very bad formatted code. But it does give the CSS for the page formatting but most of it is inline CSS.
One thing of important note on importing documents into Scrivener from Word or Open/Libre Office is that these proprietary file formats like doc, docx, fodt, odt needs to be saved into RTF file format first then imported into Scrivener. I guess it doesn't do well with non-standard text formats. It works though so...
For more advanced formatting such as anything outside of the standard Bold and Underlining formatting needs to be done in a different software. Scrivener is mainly the tool you use to actually write the content but for formatting and making things look pretty you need to use Word, Open/Libre Office or something else. This is primarily an Outlining, Drafting and Writing tool and even though fancy formatting can be important this usually comes after you have written the content in the first place which is what Scrivener is for.
There is a companion tool that is an optional purchase from the creator's website called Scapple, it is designed to go along with Scrivener and is more of a brain storming, mind mapping sort of tool which connects directly to Scrivener and allows you to import the notes directly from Scapple. It is interesting, there are other software similar to it out there both free and paid but it's an interesting little tool in it's own right. Check it out after Scrivener.