I just wanted to say hello. I’ve been using Scrivener for Windows since the first public beta about a year ago for NaNoWriMo, and have been lurking in the forums ever since. Nano’s almost here again, so I thought I’d stop lurking and register and try to help with ironing out bugs.
I’ve been very happy with Scrivener and haven’t used anything else for writing since I first installed it. It really does give me a feeling of freedom to write, and I love the flexible organization. I’m about to start plotting/outlining my Nano novel and I think it would be a lot more difficult without Scrivener. In fact it’s something I’ve never successfully done before. So we’ll see how it goes this year!
Thanks to Lee and the whole development team for a such great writing tool!
I first saw that there was such thing as Scrivener during NaNo 2010 (my first). I brushed it off though, because it said it was only available to purchase for Mac, I was out of money, it didn’t look that cool, and I still thought Word was the epitome of coolness. Then I started getting more curious when a writing buddy started using it. She loved it and I thought it might be more interesting than it initially appeared. I mostly forgot about it until I saw something (on the NaNo page?) about 50% codes being extended. So I wandered over to the site and looked at it. However, I was scared silly by the admonishments to back up and hunt down bugs. It took me another week to download it (.27 I think).
I love it. It is so much better than MS Word. Not that I’m denouncing it. I still use Word for formatting and other things. Scrivener makes writing easy to do. No more opening up OneNote, MS Word and trying to toggle between the two. Now I only have Scrivener and it makes everything wonderful. I’m planning my NaNo novel now, editing a paper for a history class and using it to keep track of random story ideas.
Some of my favorite features are:
Split editor: best thing EVER
Easy organization: drag and drop and the Binder are amazing. No more going back and forth through file menus, copying and pasting.
Corkboard
Accessibility of help: when I have problems with Word, I have to look it up online, since I don’t have any free support. Problems with Scrivener, I post in the forums and have an answer within an hour.
All together, Scrivener is amazing. I have already converted one (Mac) friend who says she is buying it after having the trial for a week. I have another thinking about trying the beta.
Wow. That was longer than I expected. What can I say? I like to write.
As I posted above, I first started using Scrivener for Windows nearly a decade ago when it was in beta. After many trials and tribulations (of life, not of Scrivener), I am hoping to get back to writing and have just gotten around to installing Scrivener on my new computer (old Windows 7 machine died in December).
I’ve been reading the forums today looking for info on two subjects: (1) using Scrivener projects over a home network (without cloud), and (2) seeing if it’s possible to tweak the UI because I am one of those people with vision impairment who needs a black background, and some of the Scrivener program elements are light-colored, rendering them both painful and illegible (since I use the Windows high contrast black theme).
I was thrilled to discover that version 3 is now in beta for Windows, and There Are Reports of a Dark Theme. So I downloaded and installed the beta. I’m not actually using the dark theme yet, but am pleased with the integration with the Windows black theme. That fixed 90% of my issues (after importing saved settings from v1.9). I will report more thoroughly in an appropriate thread.
Anyway, just wanted to say that I’m a fan again! Or still, rather, because I’ve always loved this program! I’m so glad y’all are still here!