Scrivener for Windows available for pre-order

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Posted by Dr Andus
Nov 1, 2011 at 11:27 PM

basilides wrote:
>Greetings. Someone on this forum wrote that the Windows version of this software is
>three years behind the Mac version. Is this an accurate assertion? I was on the verge of
>pre-ordering a Windows version, but a three-year lag in development is making me have
>second thoughts.

Straight from the horse’s mouth:

“Q: Will the Windows version be exactly the same as the Mac version?

A: Not entirely, at least not for a while. The Mac version has been in development for six years and recently reached version 2.0. The Windows version has been in development for only two years and this will be version 1.0. The Windows version will have all of the features that appeared in Scrivener 1.x - that is, all of the features that existing users of Scrivener for the Mac know and love. Scrivener for Windows also has a lot of the interface refinements that Scrivener 2.0 for the Mac introduced. However, the Windows version will not have some of the main new features from Scrivener 2.0, such as collections, page layout and suchlike, for a little while. This is why the Windows version will be slightly cheaper than the Mac version for the time being. Lee, the Windows developer, will be working to catch up with the Mac version over the next year or so. But we thought Windows users would rather have access to everything Scrivener 1.0 provided soon rather than waiting another year or so for Scrivener 2.0’s new features. In fact, the two versions may never be identical, because as Scrivener evolves we don’t want to restrict either version just because of limitations on the other platform - instead, we hope that both Scrivener for the Mac and Scrivener for Windows will develop to take full advantage of whichever platform they are running on.”

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivenerforwindows/

Posted by Dr Andus
Nov 2, 2011 at 02:34 AM

pereh wrote:
>Hello,
> >I have no in-depth knowledge of software for writing books, so I would really
>be thankful for some kind of comparison of Scrivener and Storybook. To me, these look
>very similar.

Scrivener and Storybook aren’t exactly in the same category, as Scrivener is a fully fledged writing software where you can complete your writing from beginning to end, while Storybook is for planning the overall structure and story lines of a novel or a play but it lacks any finer text editing features. As Steve said, Scrivener can be used for any kind of writing (I use it for academic writing) but Storybook is specifically designed for planning out novels and plays.

Having said that the two do complement each other to some extent and I have described in this thread how I combined both as part of an outlining approach:

http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/3283

Posted by Pavi
Nov 2, 2011 at 08:00 AM

Hi, I wanted to chime in as I am a main proponent of Storybook here. Dr. Andus said it perfectly about the quick comparison between the two. One small detail is that other people are using it for other projects than novels/plays even though it was designed for such.

I have found that Storybook fits a big void in all the writing software available since it focuses on helping you set up plot, structure, characters (if fiction), timelines, etc. What it does, it does extremely well and the $27 license fee is really quite reasonable (or $0 if you take it without charting). It absolutely needs a writing environment to complement it. Scrivener looks quite good for this task, as does Liquid Story Binder (more flexible, but more complicated and higher learning curve).

I am using Storybook plus word documents embedded into Ultra Recall for the writing environment. Using word styles, navigation pane and having a new node for each chapter, it is quite flexible. Also I have all my research, be it websites, PDFs and notes within the tree as well as a basic outline I link to. For someone who wants to have all research and writing together, Scrivener looks to also fit quite nicely.

Short version: I agree that these would complement each other very nicely, and for a total of $63 rather affordable for a very powerful set of applications.

Best, /Pavi

Dr Andus wrote:
>pereh wrote:
>>Hello,
>>
>>I have no in-depth knowledge of software for writing
>books, so I would really
>>be thankful for some kind of comparison of Scrivener and
>Storybook. To me, these look
>>very similar.
> >Scrivener and Storybook aren’t
>exactly in the same category, as Scrivener is a fully fledged writing software where
>you can complete your writing from beginning to end, while Storybook is for planning
>the overall structure and story lines of a novel or a play but it lacks any finer text
>editing features. As Steve said, Scrivener can be used for any kind of writing (I use it
>for academic writing) but Storybook is specifically designed for planning out
>novels and plays.
> >Having said that the two do complement each other to some extent
>and I have described in this thread how I combined both as part of an outlining
>approach:
> >http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/3283

Posted by Pavi
Nov 2, 2011 at 09:22 AM

Hi again,

Sorry I forgot to mention that I use a system in Ultra Recall where I flag each chapter based on if it is a draft, needs revisions, etc. using the built in flags (ie. red needs a lot of work, yellow need some work, green is done). Then I setup saved searches for each flag so that I can get a list of all chapters that need revision.

Lastly, using a VBA macro in word, it is easy to merge all the documents. You just have all word documents embedded within an UR node, like “Manuscript”, and export that to a given folder (that export can be saved). Open word and run the macro, and the whole job is done. So it is a two step process, but very fast and keeps the navigation pane for the merged document. The only two considerations are that 1) it seems to take documents in alphabetical order, so I use “A_title” and “Chapter 1”, “Chapter 2” to keep the ordering, and 2) you need to delete the files if you do it again so that there are not duplicates. I plan to do this only very infrequently, but it is good to have.

This method also has the added awesomeness that you can use a citation manager (I use Mendeley) in each individual document, and then at the end have a “References document” that will update after you export. Hence, you can use this to manage chapters of a thesis, for example, which you have a lot of PubMed citations for in Mendeley. I believe that Scrivener lacks Mendeley or Zotero integration.

Here is a link with the VBA instructions: http://www.addictivetips.com/microsoft-office/merge-multiple-word-2010-documents/
Please pay attention to the comments that mention that you need to change the quotes to “” instead of ?? and add \ after the path.

Best, /Pavi

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Nov 3, 2011 at 07:54 PM

Pavi wrote:
> Lastly, using a VBA macro in word, it is easy to merge all the documents.

Thanks this seems really very useful. For reference, I post here the (updated) link to Chapter by Chapter http://sites.google.com/site/sebberthet/chapter-by-chapter a freeware tool which I’ve used successfully in the past for merging Word documents. I do not know its citations performance, but it is easy and convenient to use.

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