We got a lot of feedback about episode 5 Word Processing and Writing, apparently people just keep looking for better word processors. So, we decided to do another show on a single application, Scrivener. Scrivener is a word processor and project management tool that allows you to research, organize, outline and create documents. The emphasis is not on fancy features or formatting, it’s on writing and writing well.
Note: we apologize the audio quality for this show is not up to our regular standards. We had some difficulty with the Skype recording this time around. The show is still very listenable, and we hope you’ll agree the content is worth a listen. Thanks.
Links of note
Literature and Latte – Scrivener
The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (32.1MB)
iTunes
RSS Feed – Blog
Great podcast! I’ve always thought Scrivener looked interesting, but never really got it until this podcast.
Now I’m considering buying a copy, even though I am forced to do all my writing at work on a PC, so not even sure how much use I would get from it.
But it’s good to see the word processor being ‘re-thought’.
Great show! Thoroughly enjoyed it. Here are a few questions/comments that are floating around for me:
1. What is the best way to import Pages documents? I know they can be exported to Word/RTF, but is there any way to do it from the file level?
2. I understand the point of separating the writing process from the page layout process. I still wish it would be possible to tag paragraphs with styles, even if they don’t show up.
3. I have a couple specific programs that I use for textual study (Accordance and Logos), and there is no way I can think of exporting that data into Scrivener. Is there any way of linking to an external program file so that when you click on it it will open the file?
That’s it for now. Great show. I look forward to more to come!
Todd
Loved the show. Not being a writer, I have no reason to use Scrivener, but I want it in any case. I’ve downloaded it and I plan on finding a use for it, even if I don’t have the obvious reason.
You two do such a terrific job of presenting these topics. Once again thanks for all your hard work!
Thanks for a good review of Scrivener. Keith Blount has made a program that is as much a conceptual leap forward as the Spreadsheet was from the calculator. Traditional wordprocessor do very little to harness the potential of the computer. They are not much of a leap frow the typewriter and manual cutting and pasting. But, Scrivener easily allows for non-linear writing and thinking.
One point though – Kate had mentioned that she was worried about being stuck in a proprietary system. All the files in a scrivener package are RTF. So your work is only stuck if you can’t read RTF.
I’ve bought this program and it does take time to learn all its features. One that I particularly like is the ability to highlight text in various colours and then search for specific highlights. This makes annotating to go back later to address issues very easy.
I will be interested to hear your next podcast which will, I understand, cover Circus Ponies.
Thanks for another great episode, David and Katie. I’m now really tempted to try Scrivener for my next writing project.
MacPromote also just announced a 25% coupon: http://macpromote.com/mac-promo-scrivener-manage-large-writing-proj
Getting it for $30 seems like a no-brainer.
Excellent show. As a dedicated Notebook user, I have never felt the need to use Scrivener. Your show is equally applicable to Notebook and I’m using it in a whole new way now.
Happy Holidays.
Scott
Nice show. Got me thinking about whether I should revisit Scrivener when doing legal research and writing. Unlike David, I don’t use Scrivener in this way. Long post describes why here: http://bit.ly/7ygwdo
I only heard about Scrivener after I got the very similar program Ulysses (http://www.the-soulmen.com/ulysses/), but I’ve heard very little in the way of comparisons between them.
My personal wish is a program that understands LaTeX, not just as export since I write things with lots of equations and other LaTeX features. Plus, syntax colouring is handy for these kinds of things. So, I generally find that I don’t use Ulysses that much, instead I use TextMate.
Nice episode. And your podcast in general is just great. Though you’ve cost me loads of money on great Mac software…
Although I know you mentioned in the Keynote episode (#34) that you’ve had mostly writers on your show and suggested that you can only talk about Scrivener so many times, but permit me suggest another way to talk about writing and Scrivener…
Writing A Novel On Your Mac. Some of your guests have mentioned writing novels in passing, but most of the detailed discussions tend to be about getting blog or journalistic content online. I’m talking about going through the entire (non-online) writer’s workflow end-to-end with a guest who does this… e.g.
* I write my novels and short stories in MultiMarkdown
* for short stories or story/scene ideas I use Notational Velocity and/or WriteRoom
* for novels or more elaborate short stories and essays, I use Scrivener
* I use PlainText + Dropbox (previously used SimpleNote) to get this content to/from my iPhone (I can not wait for Scrivener 2.0 because of the syncing functionality!!!)
* I actually work on my novel on my iPhone as I commute to/from my day job
* I export the novel from Scrivener in MultiMarkdown and then use LaTeX as a means to produce a PDF in manuscript format to send to agents and publishers
* I use TextExpander all over the place… for instance, to add any special MultiMarkdown header information.
* I have a bunch of Automator scripts for moving files to the right locations or messing with the formatting when printing or converting text to audio and sending the audio to iTunes, etc…
* And so on
I realize this novel writing workflow might cater to too small a niche of listeners, so this may not be a viable discussion (though your guests do keep talking about NaNoWriMo. In any case, I bet the growth in Dropbox-friendly apps, along with Scrivener 2.0, will open up some very interesting new workflows…
Thanks again for all the work y’all do! Sorry for the long comment.
My productivity crutch: listening to your episodes too many times
[...] found out about Scrivener through a podcast and blog post from Mac Power Users. It is to them that I was introduced to the concept of Scrivener and had contemplated trying the [...]