Scrivener Windows Beta - makes we want alternatives

Posted by Dr Andus
Dec 23, 2010 at 11:21 PM

>So now I am at the point where
>I see the value of Scrivener, but I want something that actually works—on Windows.
>Any suggestions?

I am happy to recommend Whizfolders Organizer, where you can do some similar things. However, I am also looking forward to a working Windows version of Scrivener. I am also new to it and I only had a couple of occasions to play with it. I did find the outlining features very clunky (as I mentioned it in a previous post), and so if organising topics in a hierarchical structure is similarly important to you, I think Whizfolders is superior on that.

One feature on Scrivener that had emerged as a killer feature for me however is the ability to work on the document in full screen, where you can block out the rest of the desktop and all distractions whatsoever (by making it black). I’ve been dreaming about something like that for years (basically to simulate a typewriter environment, by just having the keyboard and a white piece of paper in front of you, and the words that are on that paper). This feature is absolutely brilliant. I wonder if any other writer’s software can do that. Unfortunately that’s where Whizfolders falls down, as the whole interface is overcrowded with various icons and functions (which are useful but I just wish I could switch to a blank paper at some point).

So if Scrivener could (1) make it easier to manipulate the topic and folder hierarchy (dragging and dropping or indenting/out-denting and moving up and down), (2) could have an EndNote add-on for academic referencing (rather then the current workaround that is needed to do what takes just one click in Word), and (3) work with Dragon Naturallyspeaking (which I haven’t had a chance to try that), then Scrivener would be an absolute winner for me.

If anyone out there is aware of any other software which can do this typewriter simulation (white paper, black background, and absolutely nothing else on the screen), I would be very interested in and grateful to find out about.