Scrivener - StoryMill - Storyist - WriteItNow 5

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by HappyMartin

Thanks so much Dr D. Up and running and activated. Simple process and a real deal. This is all new to me. Believe it or not I have never really used a WP before. Aside from about 4 hours on pages. Exciting stuff

You're welcome.

Original thanks to AnemicOak for his post in the Deals and Freebies Forum.

[HappyMartin]

No problem activating it on my laptop and my desktop so all sorted.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by HappyMartin

No problem activating it on my laptop and my desktop so all sorted.

Speaking of activation, FYI, gang, I also went nuts and purchased Truby's Blockbuster, with the mystery add-on. I was greatly impressed with his book, so bought this. Let me say, the activation process is a bloody NIGHTMARE. You have to CALL FOR A LIVE PERSON, to give you an activation code. Which wouldn't be the end of the world...but so far, I can't get a live person. In two days. I wonder how much fun this is for people who buy it on CD? (Presumably, from his courses...)

They have Magento, as their website CMS. Which has only about...100?, perfectly viable digital product carts. Can I get this damn software activated? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

STRONGLY recommend not buying this until I can post back and let you know just how long this will take, and how aggravating, this will be.

Spoiler is rant about my instant gratification-itis about this:

Spoiler:

And, yes: I realize that this is "instant gratification-itis" to the nth. But this ain't $20 software. It's $200 software. When you download software, you ought to be able to activate the bloody thing. You have to CALL A LIVE PERSON? REALLY?????

Hitch

[HappyMartin]

Hate that stuff Hitch. No need for it these days.

I have been using Scrivener for about a week now. I have nothing to compare it too other than Pages so this is hardly experienced feed back so take it as such.

Very easy to use. Intuitive I think but we all have different intuition don't we. The tutorial supplied was very helpful. I went through it beginning to end after downloading the software and that was it. I was up to speed.

It has been a very big help with my writing. I have everything in one place and feel for the first time like I have some kind of control over the process.

[gmw]

HappyMartin, the tutorial with Scrivener is a wonderful thing. I don't think I've ever seen its equal. It not only shows you the product features by actually using the product, but by doing that it shows you how the product was intended to be used - an important distinction that can make a huge difference to faster productive use. As a software developer of many years experience I feel that I've learned some important lessons just by sitting through that tutorial. (Of course, it does help that it has a fairly narrow scope, we don't all get that luxury. ) I didn't end up choosing to use Scrivener, but that tutorial embedded in the product still impresses me.

[Penforhire]

FYI for anyone interested, Scrivener it is on sale again for $19.50

https://store.boingboing.net/sales/scrivener-2

It seems to go on sale for a reduced price with some regularity.

[HappyMartin]

I have never come across a tutorial like it either. Not knowing anything about this type of software I was very grateful for it.

It was a leap of faith for me. You don't know what you don't know and I had to believe people when they said this software would be useful. I get it now. If only my typing was a bit faster. I learnt to touch type last month. My speed is better than it was but this has been a very steep learning curve for me.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by HappyMartin

I have never come across a tutorial like it either. Not knowing anything about this type of software I was very grateful for it.

It was a leap of faith for me. You don't know what you don't know and I had to believe people when they said this software would be useful. I get it now. If only my typing was a bit faster. I learnt to touch type last month. My speed is better than it was but this has been a very steep learning curve for me.

It's a nice tutorial for Scrivener, no argument. Wish that BB6 had something REMOTELY as decent. It looks to be a very comprehensive, smart piece of software, but it's obviously crappily maintained. I tried to figure out what was making it glitchy on Win8, and thus tried to see what would pop up in compatibility-mode troubleshooting, and it showed not as Win7 compatible, but WinXP compatible--which means it's closer to 10 years in age, and not upgraded.

It's frustrating as hell. The BB6 software ain't cheap (with the genre add-in, basically, you're looking at $200USD). It has some very ODD software conventions--it purportedly saves constantly, so if you try to save--like you're accustomed to--it closes the damn program when it does. That one is driving me bonkers. It now has some type of weirdo software glitch, and because they don't really have 24/7 support--or even the usual support (no forums, no nuzzing), I'll now have to wait until Monday to try to get an answer.

Vis-a-vis Scrivener--I still find that while it's a perfectly nice program, most of what people really like about it, the outline view on the left, is identical to what you get in Document Pane view in Word. Yes, the other things--tagging, etc.,--are very nice. But at the moment, I'm still leaning toward Power Structure, plus (to a now-lesser-extent) Snowflake Pro (character development portion) to YWriter for the final, actual writing. The tools that I seem to gravitate toward are definitely outlining and structure tools, over what to me seem to be more word-processing tools.

IF BB6 actually works, I'd personally lean more toward it and/or PS, plus a writing tool of some type--whether it's Word, Scrivener or YWriter (or Pages, or Wordperfect, etc.) for the final ms. A nice feature of PS is that you can shift it to "Power Access," which puts a skinny horizontal bar at the top of the screen, while you're working in something else (like Word)...you can navigate around inside Power Structure, to find the scene notes you have for the scene, character stuff, plot points--basically, it's a tiny strip that allows you to access/see everything you've done in PS, as writing prompts or whatever. Now, that's really handy.

STILL liking good old YWriter for the final writing, though. You can't beat what it does for you, scene-by-scene, IMHO.

FWIW.

Hitch

[Dr. Drib]

Scrivener just got an update to 2.7

[orlok]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Scrivener just got an update to 2.7

I presume you are referring to the Mac version? I didn't get an update notification (which it normally does when a new release is available) on my PC when I went into Scrivener just now, but when I did an update check it says there is a version 1.8.6.0 available. So thanks for the heads-up .

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by orlok

I presume you are referring to the Mac version? I didn't get an update notification (which it normally does when a new release is available) on my PC when I went into Scrivener just now, but when I did an update check it says there is a version 1.8.6.0 available. So thanks for the heads-up .

Yes, sorry. I meant the Mac version only.

[HappyMartin]

Downloaded and installed the update on my Mac this morning. About 8mb. Went smoothly, didn't require re entering the key.

Looks a little more modern I suppose and the layout is slightly different. Didn't go through the tutorial again. Some of the icons have been moved.

[Kumabjorn]

Thinking that I should buy Scrivener I went to Literature & Latte and discovered two things. the OS X version was called Scrivener 2 and there is talk about an iOS release as well.
So that was a bit confusing, at least for a confused mind like mine. Does this mean I could purchase the iOS license from App Store and also get a Windows license? Is there a version 2 in the pipeline for Windows? I would want both a Windows and iOS license, so what is the best strategy? Should I wait for version 2 for Windows before making any purchase?

[gmw]

Kumabjorn, I am not a Scrivener user or expert, but - based on what I do know or have read - I make the following observations:

The Windows version of Scrivener has always (and I expect will always) trailed behind the Mac version. Scrivener was originally developed for Mac, the Windows only started when the product became popular so it's been a long time catching up. The Windows development is quite separate to the Mac development - though, apparently, the project files are compatible across platforms.

I imagine you can expect the iOS version to also trail behind the Mac version ... although it turns out that the same person developing the Mac version is doing the iOS version - so it may not be that simple.

I did find this on the L&L blog: "When the iOS version is released, there will be simultaneous updates for both Scrivener for Mac and Windows that provide sync features. So don’t worry, Windows users, we have no plans of leaving you unable to sync!"

You may find it interesting to read some more relevant posts from the blog here.

I would expect the iOS licence to be a separate purchase (just as the Windows licence is separate to the Mac licence) - although they may offer discounts, particularly early on.

I believe the Windows version has every intention of trying to catch up with the Mac version, but unless you've seen promises of a v2 for Windows coming soon, I'd would not hold my breath waiting. These things can take a long time.

[Lemurion]

I've written novels in both yWriter and Scrivener, and I have to agree with Hitch that yWriter is more powerful. I like Scrivener better, but I can get more out of yWriter. The good news is that I just found a way to install yWriter 5 on my Mac with PlayonMac, so I'm going to have to spend some time configuring it to get the most out of it in concert with Scrivener.

Oddly enough, I've been doing most of my writing in Google Docs lately, mainly because I can use it on Android and it syncs to both my Windows laptop and my Mac.