Good morning:

I am getting ready to start several big academic writing projects(Grants and journal articles), and I am thinking of moving away from Microsoft Word. Nothing wrong with Word, but it is a bit large and unwieldy for how I do my writing. I generally start with pen and paper(Yes, I am old fashioned that way. Not only is it pen on paper, but it is usually a fountain pen.) I do an outline on paper, then write a first draft on paper following the outline. After the first draft I move to the computer. At this stage things are somewhat organized, but as I write the outline starts to get a little messy.

I got interested in Scrivener some time ago when a colleague suggested it. I bought it, and then recently upgraded to version 2.X. It looks interesting and useful, particularly with regard to entering information then organizing it later, but I am having some trouble getting my head around how it works.

Can someone in the group suggest a good book that goes into the organizing side of the software? I bought Scrivener for Dummies, but it doesn't fill my needs well. Has anyone had experience with the Take Control book about Scrivener? Or Scrivener Superpowers? Any other book suggestions? Any good websites?

Also, I will be exporting anything that I write in Scrivener to Microsoft Word-my collaborators use Word exclusively-are there any tips to keeping things organized in the move from Scrivener to Word? In particular, I want to make sure that headings and sub-heads are maintained.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Jim

The Take Control of Scrivener 2 book is a good overview of Scrivener 2, Scrivener 1 for Windows, and Scrivener or iOS. If you are looking for an end-to-end walk-through of Scrivener, this is the book. If you are looking for in depth, step-by-step instructions this book will not be very satisfying. There are some step-by-steps, but for many major topics (like compilation) the information is high level.

There is a knowledge base that covers specific topics at

https://scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb

L&L has tutorial videos here

https://www.literatureandlatte.com/video.php

and of course the L&L forum is very helpful -- the team there makes sure no question goes un-answered, in depth. It's actually better than a book, IMO.

For compilation to .docx, my experience is it works generally OK as long as there's not a lot of fancy stuff. There is always, for me, a final step in Word to clean up styles and other things. I usually do several test compilations just to make sure the .docx looks generally good, and then do a final version and clean it up in Word. Stick with contemporary versions of Word -- ideally 2016 if you have it, or 2013 otherwise.

When I started my academic writing in Scrivener some time ago, I learnt the basics from 'How to Write Your Thesis with Scrivener for Windows':
https://www.amazon.com/Write-Your-Thesis-Scrivener-Windows-ebook/dp/B00OEXEL2W
The book is definitely for the beginners but appeared enough to get started.
Best,
Wojciech

Hi Jim,

I would appreciate it if you would share your experience In learning Scrivener, especially what written sources you find helpful.

BTW, are you on FPN?

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/

Long ago, even before personal computers became popular, my work involved writing or re-writing tracts of 5,000 words or more about quite complicated subjects, at very short notice, with an emphasis on clarity. To achieve clarity, we often went through many drafts. Re-drafting was accomplished by re-arranging what had - mostly - already been written, and re-arranging was performed on the paper manuscript with scissors, Scotch Tape, staplers or glue sticks.

That was an analogue version of Scrivener before Scrivener had been invented, and minus Scrivener's many bells and whistles. If you keep that model in mind, you won't go far wrong - but I endorse the suggestion of the Take Control book for the details and the how-tos.

I will be happy to post about my experiences. Hopefully the stuff on the web that has already been mentioned, and the helpful suggestions of the other people here along with one or another of the books I have looked at will get me up and going.

I am indeed on FPN, though relatively infrequently these days. My username is Inkyhands.

Jim

An additional thought.

Scrivener comes with two sets of guidance - an interactive tutorial and an instruction manual, both under the Help menu. I don't recommend reading the manual from cover to cover, although some people do: it's well-written but it's several hundred pages long. Better to use it like an encyclopaedia for reference when you have a question about a specific topic. It's reasonably well indexed.

I do strongly recommend focusing on the interactive tutorial, and working through that from start to finish before you write a syllable with the software. The Literature & Latte forum is as Paul Korm says very good, and extremely well-supported by the L&L team, but it's noticeable that a proportion of the questions that regularly come up there could have been easily resolved by users if they'd gone through the tutorial (or spent five minutes trying to find answers to their questions in the Manual).

I would second that. The tutorial is friendly, you can scribble in it/modify it if you want to, but it's easy to restore if you find you've mangled it! And there's nothing like doing something hands-on to learn fast.

I use Scrivener all the time, but mostly for writing fiction. I never looked at the third-party books out there—I just dived in and started trying different things—but here's a couple things that might help. Note that I'm using the Mac version; the Windows version has a little catching-up to do, so some of these features might not be there.

Since you said you start with an outline, you can use the Binder as an outliner. While folders are analogous to chapters, the only real difference between a folder and a text document (scene, in my case) is the icon. You can put text in a folder document, and you can nest text documents under other text documents. There are three different icons in the "Group View" cluster in the ribbon, left to right:

* Scrivenings—this is my personal favorite, it shows the content of the document you selected in the Binder (the outline on the left side of the window) and all its subdocuments. If you want to search & replace across more than one document at a time, you want to be in this view.

* Corkboard—if you prefer a freeform way of viewing and arranging your content, this is the view for you. It shows each document as an index card. If you have any information in the Synopsis for each document, the cards display that information. Personally, I think it works best at the chapter level, or if you don't use chapters (folders) in your projects.

* Outline—this is new, and it's very cool. It shows each document under the selected document (select Manuscript or whatever your top-level document is called to see the whole thing). Each document's synopsis appears in fine print under the document name, and you can update metadata for each document in this view (something I've wanted for a while). I've been using Tines to outline new books, then importing the outline into Scrivener, but I might try this for the next project. There's a little "v" at the right side of the headliner that lets you select what metadata you want to see in this view. Like I said, very cool.


Collections is another feature that you might find useful. A collection lets you select a subset of the documents in your project and arrange them any way you like. You can compile a collection just like you would the entire project, so (for example) if you have reviewers who are interested only in parts of your project, you can send them only the parts they want to look at. This would also be useful for maintaining technical documentation; you could have a "new features" collection for a new release consisting of documents that you pick out of the main project.

Oh, and don't forget to explore the templates (when you create a new project). One or more might be a good start for your own project.