Why does literature and latte only make frequent updates of Scrivener in MacOs? Does that mean that they’ll never update the windows version of Scrivener? Or if they will, why do they do it after years of waiting from the users?
Thanks in advance
P.S: I’m not condemning Literature and Latte for this, as I realize that Scrivener is their app and they’re free to do whatever they please with it. I’m just asking these questions out of curiosity. Nothing more, nothing less.
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Literature and Latte is not a huge corporation, like Microsoft, Apple, or Google. With just a few developers, who are busy working on their three applications, it is not always feasible to meet the target of at least one update per year.
Created and originating from the macOS platform, with the creator working as macOS developer, it’s not strange the mac version gets a head-start, and the Windows developers have to catch up every time.
The goal is to get the two versions on par, so Windows updates will surely follow, but Literature and Latte won’t communicate release dates any more since the original Windows version was delayed.
HTH
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The very minor updates needed come from time to time.
L&L don’t release updates and bloat features just for the sake of it, unlike some others.
Personally, I’m very happy that Scrivener doesn’t need constant updates and works for me as needed. Can’t think of anything specific I’ve spent years ‘waiting for’.
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Yes, the updates that Scrivener for Mac has had over the last few years have mostly been needed to cope with changes that Apple have made to the OS on a yearly basis; anything else has been bug fixes. There is no code shared between the Mac and Windows versions, so those updates on the Mac are not relevant to Windows (programmed in Qt).
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Thanks for your reply. I think I understand the gist of it now.
But what do you mean by the Windows version have been delayed? I didn’t understand that last part.
Anyways, thanks for reaching out. Totally appreciate it
I meant the original Windows version was delayed.
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Windows will probably get an update when Windows 12 drops, otherwise the bi-annual or annual official Windows builds are not as life-changing as the Apple annual updates that come with names of mountain ranges or whatever as an indicator of their significance.
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Honestly, I’m also puzzled why the Windows version isn’t being updated. It has quite a few bugs, which are well-documented on the forum. This is one of the reasons why I stopped using the program. The arguments that L&L is not a big company seem absurd to me, unless they have a single programmer working on all platforms…
And overall, Windows is a more widespread platform than MacOS. Therefore, in my opinion, it probably deserves more focus.
Well, to be honest, the Windows version is far from unusable, even in the slightest measure, and you never specified any shortcoming except to wave a generic hand over “well-documented bugs”. My experience is that an exhaustive number of reported bugs are not bugs at all but user misunderstandings. It makes me wonder if you adopted a reasonable decision to stop using the app based on complaints by others or whether you ran into any specific challenges you’d like to proffer.
So, you are not a particularly diligent user of the program, or you are satisfied with what you have. Moreover, you can at least find my messages… And what’s most interesting, nothing has really changed since then.
Lots of bugs?
I wrote the book Scrivener 3 For Windows, and the updated 2024 version, using Scrivener 3 for Windows.
Yes, it’s still got some rough edges but it is an excellent app, far better than anything else I’ve tried, and I’ve tried almost all.
As for ’ Windows is a more widespread platform than MacOS’, the number of users of a platform is not any indicator of the number of users of a specific app on that platform, Neither you no I know what the Mac/Win mix is, so without that knowledge the statement is meaningless.
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I’ve also written a lot in Scrivener, enough for at least 5-7 books. Since the first version. But that’s not the point. The program needs improvements and bug fixes. It hasn’t been updated for a year. As for the number of users, I think the authors have the statistics.
What specific ‘bugs’ need addressing and what improvements are needed?
Is there anything that stops authors effectively using and producing high quality output?
Of course L&L will have the statistics on how many Win and Mac users they have, but we don’t so any posturing about OS market share is a wasted exercise.
I for one don’t need any app to be updated if it functions perfectly well and I sure do not need added bloat just to satisfy demands for ‘improvements’.
I’ve been in IT and related for 40+ years and I’ve lost count of the number of apps that have been ruined by the mindset that ‘improvements’ and added features must be pushed to market regularly to keep customers happy.
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What bugs? Everything is on the forum. Don’t be lazy to search. You can look at my messages. Functionality? Yes, simply, why not add the ability to annotate PDFs? It would be great for writing… And in general, a lot more could be added…
As others have said, and from my recollection, most ‘bugs’ I’ve seen not he forum have seemed to be user bugs. Sure, there must be some, but you’re telling the story, up to you to point out bugs you claim to exist.
Annotate PDF’s, now you’re getting into Adobe bloat territory (or Preview on Mac).
I don’t want a lot more to be added. It’s a writing app. It does that supremely well for eBooks, Print, Manuscript and screenplay. (That last feature personally I find dedicated apps to be better)
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This is your personal opinion, which may not coincide with the opinions of others. You don’t want it, but I, for example, want the ability to annotate PDFs. That’s why I switched to Word + OneNote. And believe me, this combination allows writing no worse than Scrivener, and in some places even better considering OneNote’s capabilities. I also know those who switched to Obsidian because of its extensions from Scrivener and do not regret it.
Well good for you. If that makes you happy, go to Word and OneDrive and stop blethering here. Yes, I’m a Mac user, and yes Mac and Windows versions are totally different, but unless you come up with specific “bugs”, your arguments don’t cut much ice.
And “annotating pdfs” is a technology way beyond “writing a draft” and there are perfectly good apps dedicated to precisely that—unless of course your real complaint is that you don’t want to pay Adobe’s bloated subscription charges—that are only a mouse-click away in Scrivener.
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I thought that MacOS users didn’t have problems with finding and understanding what was written. But, apparently, I was wrong… Since OneNote from OneDrive is a problem to distinguish…
Once again, I have been with Scrivener 1 for Windows, was in the beta-test of 2.9, reported bugs, even made videos… But some of them are still not fixed since 2.9. For example, inserting a new document when the scrivenings mode is enabled.
So, be happy that Scrivener is better on MacOS. )
Yes
Given I’ve not seen hoards of Win Scrivener users asking for features well beyond what seems to be Keith’s vision for Scrivener, the same could well be said of your demands.
Word plus One-Note does not compare in any way to the functionality of Scrivener. Any WP (and especially that expensive bloat called Word) is a bit of a dog when it comes to long-form writing IMHO (and that of many happy Scrivener users).
We get it, you don’t like Scrivener or Keith’s vision of what is and isn’t part of Scrivener, which is your right, but given your overwhelming preference for Word/One Note, not sure why you’re still pushing for additions to Scrivener that apparently you and the one or two you know who moved to Obsidian wouldn’t use anyway, given your stated preference for those other apps.
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Ahem. The thread is veering into personal attacks, and I’m not interested in taking time out from my holiday to babysit. Please refrain.
We wish all writers success, whether they choose to use Scrivener or not.
Regarding PDF annotations specifically, that feature is also not available in Mac Scrivener. Many excellent PDF annotation tools already exist, you are welcome to use them.
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