24TH FEB - LEE'S UPDATE - BETA 1.7 IS HERE

[LAP]

Hi Beta Testers,

Today we have launched Scrivener for Windows beta 1.7 (017). This is the first beta that contains the full functionality set that will be available in version 1.0 when it is released either the last week of March or first week of April 2011.

In this post I will firstly list the new functionality that has been added. Second, I will present a high level overview of what, in my subjective opinion, should be the chronological road map for getting Scrivener 1.0 on par with Mac Scrivener 2.0; plus some other ideas. Finally, I will present which bugs have been addressed in this release.

ADDED FUNCTIONALITY
The functionality that has been added to this release is as follows:

1. Removed the layout from the document context and up into the editor context - this was inherent in the framework tool used to build Scrivener. This was hindering development of certain other features that are now available.

2. Added Zoom functionality in both full screen and standard editor. This can be activated by either clicking a pop-up menu or CTRL + mouse scrolling back and forth for zooming in and out.
   

3. Enabled drag and drop of binder elements between different Scrivener projects.

4. Added Reveal in binder menu for when you are working split screen and have lost track of where one of the documents is in the binder.

5. Added typewriter scrolling option for both full screen and normal editor. This enables the cursor to remain at the center of the screen to save one scrolling towards the bottom of the screen. You can turn this on or off.

6. Added padlock to inspector to enable a user to lock the inspector to a particular editor pane - very handy.
   

7. Added audio controls and short cut keys to play/pause etc.

8. Added the additional import formats for html, doc, and docx.

9. Added collections (a big Mac 2.0 feature), this wasn’t really planned. It just kind of happened - well sort of. This is a very powerful feature that enables you to create collections of documents to read and edit related text without affecting its place in the overall draft. You can label and track connected documents or mark what still needs to be done. Whether you like to plan everything in advance, write first and structure later—or do a bit of both—this is just another feature where Scrivener has the capability to support the way you wish to work.
   

   

10. Added ability to save any project search as a collection.

11. Added menus ‘Split at selection’ and ‘Split at selection as Title’.

12. Added ‘Merge’ to the menu as well to enable you to merge multiple document fragments together.

13. Rounded off the rectangles for project search yellow highlight and did the same for Find highlight; with the later we added a small animation as well when you click find and find next, the next selection pulses 5 times just to make it easier to spot.

14. Added cut, paste and copy to the right click for full screen.

15. To the cork board pop up menu we have added to ability to specify the number of cards across you’d like to see displayed. We also added a ‘Size to Editor’ check box which will auto-size the index cards to automatically fit which is rather nice.
    

    

16. We added time to the inspector ‘Created’ and ‘Modified’. Previously only the date display, now both date and time are displayed. We probably need to tidy up the space these controls are using at the moment. I just took a look whilst doing the screen shot. We’ll compress these a little in the next release so they use the limited space a little more sensibly.
    

17. Completely revised the installer so that admin rights are no longer required to install Scrivener for Windows.

18. Added an automatic check for updates in the help menu. This took far longer than expected, but it appears to work well.
    

19. Added a substitutions feature to the Options Auto-Correction tab. This feature now enables you to use pre-defined and your own definitions for replacing text automatically.
    
    
    

    

20. Added ability to drag binder document to editor header to load - useful with split editors.

THE ROAD AHEAD IS GOOD
A road map was something suggested by andygrunt, many of you, myself included, thought it would be a good idea so I’ve put together a high level overview of where I think we’re at and where we’re going. The proposed ordered feature drops for the 6 months after 1.0 launch is subjective. They are my thoughts on what I think most of you want first. I’m most likely wrong and may have missed some things. The idea is to get some sort of consolidated feedback, although I’m not sure how to do that?

In this case a picture is worth a thousand words so I’ll leave you to review the pictorial road map below. Here’s the road map as PDF for easier viewing http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivenerforwindows/WindowsScrivenerProposedRoadmapDRAFT.pdf

BUG FIXES
As I mentioned in posts leading up to this release, adding the remaining features was the focus of this release. In light of this, we didn’t get around to fixing too many bugs, we did however fix some pertinent ones to do with the dictionary and script mode as well as some smaller ones. It’s almost certain, given the large number of features introduced in this release that we’ll have introduced more bugs. The focus over the next three weeks will be purely bug fixing so you should see a large number of those bugs that have been annoying you so much quickly vanish - hang in there we’re almost there now. Please bare with us, things should move swiftly from here on.

Bugs fixed include:

1. The aggressive spell checker underlining has been tamed. Misspelled words are now underlined once a full word has been entered and a space.

2. Completely revised footnote and annotation display, selection and deselection. This is not Mac 2.0 style in the inspector but still inline, it just now works as you’d expect it to.

3. Fixed the small font check box bug for the cork board.

4. Fixed all the previous installer issues with access rights.

5. Multiple selected documents in binder can now be printed without Scrivener crashing.

6. Fixed unequidistant pane split bug - not sure if there’s really such a word?

7. We fixed the Script writing bugs with hit the Tab key as well as text appearing as a line character line down the page.

8. Bottom ruler selection icon now moves as expected and not in two parts.

9. The dictionary bug where learned word where still underlined and not learned until another learned word was learned is now hopefully fixed.

Well, that’s really all for now.

LINKS:
It is highly recommended that you do a complete uninstall of beta 1.6 after you have backed up any files.

You can download the Windows beta 1.7 from http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivenerforwindows/Scrivener-017-installer.exe

The Linux build will be available from the same location on the 25th - tomorrow morning Oz time.

The known bug list will be available early next week once I’ve had time to review posts on the bug forum.

Lee

[Wonder]

WOW! Thank you so much Lee! downloading right now I can’t believe how many new features there are. This is great, thank you!

[LAP]

Neither can I

[Wonder]

Eek, I have a bit of a problem though. I opened it up and for some reason the font size of everything was way smaller than it should’ve been. It’s zoomed in at 100% and I set the correct font size, but the text files and the synopses all look like they are zomed out?

EDIT: Here’s a screenshot:

[altocumulus]

Me too - the zoom setting is at 100%, but the overall size of the font is way smaller that I would have expected …
Increasing the zoom level to 125% corrects the size in the viewer, but leaves the size in the Inspector almost unreadable …
Outline is okay, but the corkboard size is the same as the Editor and Inspector …

It’s workable, just a bit of a shock … (to my old eyes).

Thanks guys

[ghosttie]

The 6-month feature that I want more than the rest is ebook formats

[Spitfire]

I’m having the same zoom issues and the lag between typing words and them showing up on the screen is back but seems to be fixed with a restart of Scrivener. The lag returns very quickly though.

[andygrunt]

Thanks for the new version. I’ve been playing with it and have a few comments.

Merge Bug
Just came across a bug that had two different outcomes including a (non reproducible) crash.

1. Put your cursor into a (unimportant) document at the start of a line some way down
2. Select Documents/Split/Split at Selection
3. Select the two documents in the binder
4. Select Documents/Merge
5. Press Ctrl-Z

The first time I tried this, Scrivener crashed. I’ve tried it three more times and each time, the merged document is cleared of its contents i.e. the text vanishes and can’t be brought back (luckily I wasn’t experimenting with anything important).

Roadmap
Thanks for taking up my suggestion of the roadmap but I must admit I find its present form a little confusing. For example, you’ve got ‘Collections’ and ‘Name Generator’ in an area that suggests they’re not done yet but they are. Pretty sure I’m missing something there. Also, I can’t tell in what order anything is likely to be done. A simple bulleted list would be clearer to me.

As for getting feedback regarding what people want next – the obvious method (to my way of thinking anyway) is via a poll. Does this forum allow that? If not, there must be a website that specialises in that, I’m sure.

Questions
> 11. Added menus ‘Split at selection’ and ‘Split at selection as Title’.

These were in the previous beta – has something new been added?

> 18. Added an automatic check for updates in the help menu. This took far longer than expected, but it appears to work well.

When you say ‘Automatic’, do you mean it checks for updates without me having to manually click on it? Also, does it mean we don’t have to uninstall old versions before installing new versions from now on?

Finding new features
Not being familiar with the Mac version, I usually have trouble locating new features when a new version comes out. In case anyone else is having the same trouble as me, here’re the features I had problems tracking down and where they’re hiding…

> 4. Added Reveal in binder menu for when you are working split screen and have lost track of where one of the documents is in the binder.

After spending time looking for the ‘binder menu’, I discovered this was actually in the View menu.

> 10. Added ability to save any project search as a collection.

My first instinct was to right-click the search results binder as I assumed the option would appear there to save it but the real way to do is: after doing a search, press the magnifying glass icon in the search field and select ‘Save Search…’

Thanks again for the update Lee - nice work.

[garpu]

Am I blind from lack of coffee, or is compile to ODT missing?

[StaceyUK]

@garpu

Am I blind from lack of coffee, or is compile to ODT missing?

I have it in my version of 1.7. It’s between docx and webpage in the drop down menu.

[garpu]

Odd. Here’s what I’ve got…Or rather, what I see.

still not discounting coffee blindness.

[duende]

Unbelievable work Lee! The new full screen mode is wonderful. And zooming is a life saver for those of us who switch between computers of different resolutions quite often.

As some others have reported, some minor problems are that the 100% zoom level isn’t quite 100%, and there’s also some significant lag when typing quickly. To test, just hold down a keystroke to machine gun a letter across the page and you should see things slow to a crawl.

Keep up the great work.

[Lunarclipper]

I love this product so far. I second the “good work Lee” sentiment.

I finished most of the tutorial and decided to start a project, and will let you know if I find any more problems.

I did check one thing before starting my project though: the roll back part of the Snap Shot/Roll Back feature still does not work correctly. It has the same problem I mentioned in my original post for this problem.

I hope my original post helps you out. Let me know if you need any more information.

Thanks for the opportunity to test this product, Lunarclipper.

[Lunarclipper]

@garpu

Odd. Here’s what I’ve got…Or rather, what I see.

still not discounting coffee blindness.

When I run this in Beta 1.7, the ODT option is right bellow “Word Document (.doc)”. It is missing in your screen shot.

Incidentally, when I tried this option for compiling to check for ease of moving back and forth between Scrivener and OpenOffice, I got an error saying I might need to have MS Word installed.

[narrsd]

Lee, all sounds wonderful.

Let me give you a quick installer bug report, in case you want to make a quick fix.

• I carefully uninstalled 1.6, and then renamed the Scrivener directory in Program Files. The 1.6 installer had removed everything except the Aspell dlls - not sure what might have been using those as it was a pretty fresh boot, but could have been my web browsers.

• I made sure I was a Standard User, not Adminstrative, on Windows 7 with very recent Service Pack 1 installed, and all other upgrades current.

• Scrivener 1.7 then balked. It told me the current user didn’t have permissions to write the (new) C:\Program Files\Scrivener directory.

• I set to Adminstrative user, logged out and in, and Scrivener 1.7 then installed with new elegance and on issues.

• my big test project came up right away, and did show the font size reduced everywhere as someone else has mentioned. I presume that might be a one-off change in how formatting is recorded, and if so that’'s fine. I know you’ll handle questions on this separately, anyway.

Lee, thank you.

I’ll be digging in to using this Scrivener, and contribute as appropriate.

Regards,
Clive

[Rithe]

Are there still plans for an Import from .odt files? All my stuff is in .odt, and it would be nice to not have to resave all of it in .doc (or whatever( formats to import).

[rcharbon]

The font size for pre-existing text in my Document Notes field, when opened up in 1.7, it unreadable small.

[michaelxlife]

I, too, am having the small font size issue while zoomed to 100%.

[StaceyUK]

Hello Lee,

I have a question. In Mac 1.54 you had the option to customize the font colour and background colour of the editor and fullscreen. Will these be available in the Windows version at some point? I find it uncomfortable to with black on white for long periods without suffering eyestrain.

[LarryMarshall]

• HP-laptop w/Windows7 here -

I just downloaded 1.7 and have found a couple problems and have a question.

1. I see the same loss of ODT compile and 100% too small as others have reported.

2. If you select multiple files they may or may not display. The “text view” button seems to be acting as a toggle on/off. If the text isn’t displayed, clicking on the text view button will cause it to be displayed. If it is being displayed, clicking the text view button will cause it to disappear.

And my question. Am I the only person who uses Scrivener in something less than a full screen? I ask as I see a lot of additions/clean up going on but no fix for a very basic “problem” if you’re using it in a window that is smaller than full screen. Width is unimportant but if you have Scrivener shrunk at all in the top/bottom dimension (say 3/4 of the screen), the Metadata windows changes the size of the window. Try this:

1. Set Scrivener in a window that is below the top of the screen and above the bottom. You’ll find that you can only do this if the Metadata window is closed.
2. Open the Metadata window. It will slam the bottom of the window to the bottom of the display and, in fact, the bottom of Scrivener will be below the Windows 7 menu/status bar.
3. Close the Metadata window. The window will remain at the bottom of the screen.

That doesn’t seem right to me.

Fantastic program, Lee, and it just keeps getting better.

Cheers — Larry