I’ve been using the Gold edition to get a feel for this product. Frankly, I think this software has almost single-handedly justified my recent first-ever Mac purchase! I have begun testing the software for a planned genealogical narrative and after importing my existing text, adding text documents for geographical places from Scotland to Texas, I began toying with the Web Page Import function. It is superb! I’ve long worried that key pieces of family history would disappear off the web and forever be lost in the ether. Now I have an offline copy.
But before I get TOO much info set up, will I be able to seamlessly transition my Gold version projects to the full version of Scrivener?
Also, is anyone else using this for Genealogical research? I’m beginning to think it would be a great tool for my research in general, not just for the narrative history I intend to produce…
Yes, no need to fear - Scrivener 1.0 opens and updates Scrivener Gold projects without any problems or loss of data (it also saves a backup copy of the original Gold project just be absolutely safe), so if or when you do decide to upgrade to 1.0 everything should be fine. The only thing of which you really need to be aware is that because annotations are handled differently, you will find that they get dumped at the bottom of your text upon importing, and also, because there is no separate “To do” panel in S1, this list gets imported as a text file and placed at the top of the binder.
Me too am thinking of using Scrivener for genealogical research, just beginning to look at our familly history. A lot of different persons and places, tons of handwritten letters, documents and photos. But I’m just starting, testing different applications for using GEDCOM Data (is this the correct expression?). Meanwhile all the notes and annotations and transcripts and many photos are collected within Scrivener.
I have settled on a web-based application for all of my nuts-and-bolts data (thedixons.net/clan/) - but research is a whole 'nuther animal!
Speaking of Scrivener, I just downloaded the trial version. I attempted to open my Scrivener Gold project and it started the conversion/import process ten minutes ago. Perhaps I have too many documents in there?
[update - it finally opened - about 15 minutes totao]
I do have three PDF files that contain a total of 600-700 pages…I have a feeling that did it. Or maybe it was the pics…several of those as well.
But when it came up - viola! I used the corkboard space to rearrange research files from alphabetical to timeline order, and then tested the split-screen function a bit. I excitedly informed my wife of all of the wonderful features. She gave me one of her “that’s nice, dear” looks.
It was a ‘manager’s special’ sale, so I took what it had in it. I’m cheap by nature, and the purchase price was double what I spent on my previous Dell refurb laptop, so I was hoping to avoid upgrades as long as possible.
However, last night I ran it on battery power whilst connecting it to my 36" HDTV and ran it in dual-screen mode for awhile, and I also fired up Front Row and watched an HDTV MacBreak Weekly podcast. It handled both with no problem. I’ve just been assuming the Mac’s memory usage was efficient. shrug
Given that the Macbook is using regular RAM to run video - I’m surprised it worked that smoothly. But I’m no technician. Keith would be able to tell you how much RAM affects Scrivener; all I know is that Devonthink, for instance, feels like a different app altogether when you boost your ram.
1 gb is a far more useful minimum. If you have a single 512 installed (and not two 256s, the Apple factory default), another 512 is $50 US at most online suppliers. Well worth it, and installation is a snap.
The actual conversion shouldn’t be that heavy - any Intel machine should be able to handle it nicely. On the other hand, as it makes a backup, it may have been the copying that caused the problems. But then, that doesn’t really make sense. Unless the project is a gigabyte or something, I just can’t see why this would take so long. The main thing is that it is working now it is converted, of course, and given the small number of times this is going to be an issue, I think I’ll leave it at that for now.
Best,
Keith
