I’ve had Power Structure (herein PS) for three years. It was a little hard to figure out, and the manual for it truly sucks. It has a lot, some work well, some not so well, and some don’t make sense. But it did what I expected it to do.
I got Scrivener beta version (herein Beta), thanks to Nanowrimo. I decided to try it because I have a PC, and am always looking for new things to help organize writing thoughts. I’m very pleased with it. Still trying to figure things out, but I’ve played with it enough to give a comparison review.
I like the way Beta organizes better, and I give it 2 thumbs up.
The index cards are very easy to manipulate. You can enter text in both programs, but Beta lets you add a title and synopsis for the index card, instead of the entire text of PS. More visually appealing.
The character template is better in PS than in Beta because it’s more detailed. But I can make a Word Template in the Research area of Beta and type in the same questions. Then I just have to create a sheet for each character, and put it in the Character section. So it’s totally workable.
I haven’t tested it yet, but I plan on creating my own template for the Scenes as well. That’s not in PS, very minimal in Beta, but based on what I did with Characters, can see it happening here as well.
I like the area to add research information (even though it’s not totally activated yet) in Beta. PS has nothing like that, that I’ve been able to find anyway. Another plus!
I haven’t quite figured out the details of Inspector in Beta yet, but there’s nothing like that in PS, based on what I’ve determined. But the notes section is a good idea.
I like that you can create “Notes” and “Ideas”. It’s great for putting down stuff you want in the story, but it’s time yet. This way I don’t forget to add it when it’s time. Advantage for status bar. Not in PS.
I won’t be printing for a while, so I can’t rate that point.
Cost is much lower for Beta than PS, based on the estimated price point, and appears to have most of the same features.
Both can have more than one project in it, but it appears to be easier to manage a series in Beta.
IMHO, I would give Beta a higher rating than PS, because the features are better, more visually appealing, easier manipulation, structured creativity allowed, and in general more fun to play with.
All in all, I think Beta is a great program and can’t wait to buy the released version. Thank you!