I have discovered Scrivener a week ago and have since then used the Gold version for my work. It’s really great. Today I made the decision to buy the full app, but had to read in this forums that development is halted
So is Scrivener dead for the forseeable future? I was once tempted to buy Ulysses, but I took distance of it, because they rarely release updates.
I really like Scrivener, but as a student, I simply can’t afford spending 30€ for a software which won’t gain new features.
Will development (new features, not just fixes) continue? If yes, when will this happen?
I really like Scrivener, but as the saying goes “A burned child avoids the fire”.
Scrivener is unusual in the software world. Although the developer has talked of updates with additional features, nothing is promised. You’re not buying forward, you’re buying “as is”, at a competitive price. As a user I’m sufficiently impressed to be very happy with this. I’m not alone.
Scrivener is not at all dead - quite the opposite. I am currently working on a 1.12 release. And, in fact, you will find that there have been many releases over the past year. However, I don’t want to keep adding features to Scrivener for the sake of it. There will one day be a 2.0, but not for some time. What I have said is that, given that I wrote Scrivener in the first place so that I could use it myself for my own writing, I am not prepared to continue adding features to Scrivener at the cost of never using it myself. That would only result in a diluted piece of software that has features for their own sake. Scrivener came about because of my own needs as a writer (or would-be writer); it will continue by meeting those same needs (often helped by user suggestions.
Nobody buys MS Word seriously expecting that they will get new features every month - new features only come every three or four years. Likewise, Scrivener now has a core feature set with which I am happy and which do what I intended. Thus, whilst minor new features will be added from time to time, the focus right now is very much on stability rather than on adding whizz-bang features.
I misinterpreted your post as stating that development of Scrivener is halted. Of course the main goal should be stability and usability. So far from what I was able to see by trying the demo, Scrivener is a shining monument for both.
As long as bugs are fixed, everything is fine
My apologies for not reading your about page before. These things usually tend to be quite boring - yours is a notable exception!
So much luck on your novel!
So while I’m at it, I have one question:
I have a quite strange method on marking finished work: I tend to paint a little dot on the pins on my pinboard when a task is finished. Would it be possible to add this to Scrivener as well? So when you click on a pin ón the corkboard, a small black dot would be painted on it. I know it sounds silly, but it helps me greatly So this would be my feature-wish.
“So while I’m at it, I have one question:
I have a quite strange method on marking finished work: I tend to paint a little dot on the pins on my pinboard when a task is finished. Would it be possible to add this to Scrivener as well?”
You can already color the pins. You set the colors in the Label settings, then choose from the Index Cards settings under the View menu. You’ll find all the directions you need under the Help menu, in the Scrivener Help file and in the Tutorial.
Yes, I know I can color them. I’d like to have the ability to paint a little black dot on the already colored pin.
Example: Take one, grab a pen and pait a little dot on it. That’s what I mean.
I know, sounds a bit weird, but that’s the way I like to work. Aren’t we all a little bit wacky?
Have you tried using Status stamps instead? For instance, you could set up a blank (empty) status that would be your default status for most cards, and then one that says “Done” which you apply to finished documents. “Done” would then appear stamped over the cards of finished documents (provided “Show Stamps” was selected, of course). That is what the Status Stamps were intended for, in fact.
All the best,
Keith
