I’ve recently gone back to using Scrivener, after using ‘minimalist’ markdown writing apps for a few years. I tend to swap writing apps, and try out new ones, so I have quite a bit of experience with different products. Even while I was using other apps, I still had owned Scrivener. The search for the holy grail of writing apps inevitably leads to disappointment, as there is no such thing as the perfect writing app… if you’re lucky you’ll find one that works for you and your way of thinking, and that’s about the best you can get. Every app has compromises and a marketing focus designed to keep a particular audience happy. After using multiple markdown apps, there was always something that bugged me about each app. Some raced to add new features and became annoyingly buggy, which is incredibly frustrating. Others had beautiful interface designs but lacked a critical feature (like being able to change the font). They’re often more suited to short form writing (blog posts, notes, short stories, etc). Another issue is the lack a decent way to structure the document. Scrivener is not perfect, but it does tick most of my critical boxes. It makes it incredibly easy to visualise the structure of your manuscript. But, there is one thing that can be improved, and that’s simplifying the app’s settings. The one thing that markdown apps get right is keeping the app settings simple. You can do all the basic things in one place, including adding simple UI themes with one click. Yes, I’m sure the complicated settings in Scrivener is something that a lot of people have already discussed and is probably a longer term objective of L&L. I’m curious how other people feel? Do you think the settings in Scrivener are too complicated, with somewhat overlapping controls, or is the complexity something that you like?
What’s complicated about the Settings/Appearance tab - which can then be saved? Any less complicated and we’d be losing features.
Agree. My suggestion to @typewritermonkey would be to start with the default compile settings, make no changes, save as a personal template and then just re-use with all projects. Keeps it simple.
That’s what I’ve done. Just interested to hear what other people think. So far, seems like people are happy with the way it is.
I wonder if the forthcoming writing app from L&L is what you seek.
This sort of request has been made often over the years, and it usually founders on the problem that nobody uses all the features of Scrivener, so half the settings seem redundant to everybody – but no-one can agree on which half…
But if you’re looking for a ‘simplified feature/setting’ version, then perhaps you’ll pleased to know there’s a beta in progress for an app which does just that. NB: this isn’t Scrivener 4, but a new app based on a more minimal editing experience, though it retains some core Scrivener features.
You can see the publicly available information about the new app here: Something New - Literature & Latte. The MacOS and iOS betas are closed (though the Windows beta has just been opened).
[Edit: Hah – beaten to it by a whole minute by @SCN…]
That’s relatively easy since they don’t have many to begin with.
The downside of being a Swiss army knife. Many tools, too many for some, and no matter how you arrange them, it will piss off someone.
Yes, I think you might be right. I’m guessing it will be out in 2026… but I can see it being delayed.
Yes, I understand what you mean about people using different feature sets in multiple variations. I’m not suggesting that L&L should change Scrivener drastically… it’s a very successful product. Also, I’m not suggesting that any features should be cut out to simplify the experience, just to rejig the way the settings look / behave to make the experience more logical, especially for new users, or people who don’t want to mess around in the settings panel.
Yup - I think the new app could be for me. But if it takes as long as the Windows version of Scrivener we could be waiting a long time! 
True. Some of them also get that by using bespoke UI customisations… so they will have a lot of fun with macOS 26!
The longer I think about it… If one needs to find an item in the quite populated menus, the solution is to just search for it. Of course that’s a standard feature on macOS, but L&L went the extra mile to build that from scratch for the Windows version.
Now, if you search for something in the settings… You likely end up searching in the manual, which points you back to a specific location. What if there was a search function IN the settings? 
The first thing I do in a new app is open the settings and go through them all page by page and line by line to make any changes that are obvious to me that I’d prefer and to understand what’s in there before I start using the app so I can be mindful of how tinker-able things are when I’m in live use.
A few years ago I was the tda for a system being built from scratch and I had one rule: if you needed a search function or a user manual, you haven’t made the system intuitive enough yet. Better labels and names for things. More logical groupings, layouts and sequencing. More understandable descriptions and options.
Now, I get that this isn’t always possible, especially for powerful software designed for professionals (the above system didn’t fall into that category, and the way you know that is because I was the tda), but its always a great goal to aim for.
Compile aside (there are a few things I have to remind myself of in the manual every time I need to play with them)[1], in my opinion Scrivener does an incredible job of meeting that goal and being sensibly and intuitively set up.
Especially if, like me, you’re the kind of human that reads settings dialogues for fun.
which is unavoidable as they’re fringe/niche things and frankly really well explained in the manual ↩︎
The joy of having to develop for multiple apps! I forgot about Windows. The good thing about the panel is that you can see what’s there so it’s quite discoverable. The problem is that you can’t often see what your tweaks are actually doing. A search system means you have to know what you’re searching for. With search the settings panel would turn into a kind of webpage. I’m not sure if that would help. I think a lot of people probably search Google if there’s something they want to change and follow the instructions from that.
Really? Over the in-app help and the manual?
I think it could be tweaked further. If it was Apple they would put in some pretty icons. The reset buttons are nice to have. I’m wondering if just having a larger settings panel with more descriptive labels might help?
Yes, really. It’s extremely frustrating. We get emails from people saying they’ve looked “everywhere,” by which they mean some combination of Google. ChatGPT, and YouTube. And then the actual answer turns out to be on the first page of the relevant section in the manual.
Probably a shocker but I’ve never used the in-app help!
Ah yes. I had a particularly toxic co-worker once who in a meeting with me and our boss tried the old “I’ve been trying to get hold of you.” trick.
ME: Oh, I’m sorry.
(Opens laptop. Checks screen)
ME: Hmmm. I don’t see an email. Let me check chat.
(Checks screen)
ME: Huh. Maybe you called?
(Gets out phone. Checks screen)
ME: I don’t see any missed calls or texts. Did you swing by my desk because I didn’t see you, or did you only try telepathy because I have to admit… I have been really bad at responding to that lately.
I’ve run some companies over the years. I would take one @pigfender over a dozen bores, any day. It would never be a dull moment, that’s for sure!
That’s pretty normal TBH for most non-tech people, and yes also annoying from a support angle. I have managed to do everything I need to do, but there is a learning curve.