Assorted questions

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
1

Keith,

Many thanks for a great product; it may be exactly what I need, so I’ve been test-driving it for the past couple of days. But I do have a couple of user questions – I’ve searched the forum for answers, forgive me if they’ve been already been supplied elsewhere and I overlooked them. Some of these may actually be “wishlist” requests; if so, please file them as such, with my apologies.

  • Is there a way to import web pages into the Research binder via drag-and-drop, like I can with the Scrapbook add-on to Firefox? I know I can import via File>Import>Webpage, then copy the URL into the pop-up box, but that’s a lot of steps, a real barrier to usage.

  • Can I collapse individual note cards on the Corkboard (to just a line, say?), or change the size of individual cards?

  • Can I make the Corkboard full-screen?

  • Is there a way to drag-and drop notecards into a free-form array, outside the grid array?

In general, I like how the Corkboard notecards correspond to the actual outline; that’s a real help in creating a working draft. On the other hand, what I also need is a corkboard with deep flexibility. When I’m starting a book project (as I am now), basically I just throw notecards on the wall, shuffle them around, and let them gradually fall into place over a course of weeks. I tried to emulate this on my laptop by throwing Stickies all over it: I can quickly change their size and color and shuffle 'em around to wherever. The results sure are pretty (see attached image) – but I can’t save the thing, and unlike Scrivener, the cards don’t correspond to actual documents. I can do something similar by creating a MS Word doc and opening little text boxes in it, changing their background color etc., but it’s a very finicky approach.

As far as I can tell in Scrivener, though, the corkboard only lists index cards in sequential order; I can’t even create arrays, i.e. rows and columns. Meets a certain need, true, but isn’t very helpful (for me) in trying to creatively visualize a project from scratch. What’d be supercool (he said casually, knowing nothing whatsoever about programming) is if cards could be individually, optionally tethered or untethered to the outline: some cards could be locked into place, but others left to float around the edges until I found the right place for them.

But maybe I’m asking too much. Or (more likely) I’ve missed something–it’s already possible in Scrivener and I haven’t yet figured out how. In either case, I’m deeply impressed with what you’ve created thus far and look forward to incorporating it into my workflow … just as soon as I get around to working…

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2

I haven’t actually used it, but that sure looks like Tinderbox. Have you tried it?

3

I haven’t tried Tinderbox, but I’ll check it out, thanks. What you’re looking at is a new MacBook desktop I opened using YouControl Desktop, turned the background to gray, then added several dozen Stickies. Looks nice, as I said, but now that it’s time to update the firmware, all that work is lost, as it can’t be saved …

4

Also very much worth looking at is Zengobi’s Curio http://www.zengobi.com/products/curio/ - about to metamorphose into Version 4.

I think it’s a pretty wonderful programme for freehand, “throw it at the whiteboard to see what will stick” composition using a multitude of source materials. You could save the equivalent of your Stickies, but with files behind them. When you’ve achieved some kind of shape, Scrivener follows.

It’s expensive, but not as expensive as Tinderbox.

5

thx, hugh! i’ll take a look at curio too. i took a spin through Tinderbox and whooooooa – not much in the way of tutorial help…

6

For a simple but powerful solution, give Mindcad Incubator a try too. It’s so easy to pick up and use, but contains some powerful tools including the ability to link to files, URLs etc. You can link to different canvasses, create notes for each item, outline… the list is comprehensive. Best of all though is the price. Here’s the URL http://www.mindcad.com/

7

In the menu go to View/Layout. From there you can hide almost anything, the Binder, the header, the footer and so on. Don’t forget that you can hide the toolbar by clicking on the little plastic button in the right corner above the inspector button :wink:.

8

Hmm, seems you double-posted these questions (the forum plays up sometimes and does that), but I posted my reply here:

literatureandlatte.com/forum … php?t=2072

Best,
Keith