I am considering going for the scrivener nano trial this year to write my nano. The big thing for me is that I have a lot of free time at college (UK definition), which is where I plan to do a large portion of my writing, so I have a few quick questions.
How does Scrivener react when running off of a memory stick? Can i run the trial on a memory stick with any problems? How would I go about installing it there? I will just have my save file on my emails or the memory stick to move the save file
I will probably be using a netbook for some of my writing. How will Scriv react to that? Is an 11" screen manageable?
On my home laptop, I already have the normal trial. Will that affect an install of the nano trial?
I can’t speak to questions 1 and 3, but I have some experience with 2. I run Scrivener on a 10-inch (1024x600) netbook without any trouble – not as my main writing computer, but it’s great for writing sessions at the library and it fits in my handbag. It helps to hide the Inspector to make more room for words, or just use fullscreen mode. I also have Scrivener installed on an inexpensive 8-inch Windows tablet, but I haven’t really used that for serious writing yet – mostly because my cheap keyboard case isn’t great for typing. I’ve even run the Linux beta on a 7-inch EeePc, but that was kind of slow and annoying because the machine is underpowered and I’m running the OS off an SD card.
I’m a little unsure of #1, but I believe that you have to install it on the computer you’re running it from; it has to make some Windows Registry entries to work properly… I think. Try erasing the trial from your home laptop, reinstalling on a thumb drive, and then try moving that thumb drive to your netbook; I’m guessing it won’t run on the netbook without a full install.
As for saving your files; I don’t even know how one would save a file to email… but you will have to have the project on a fast storage medium. Most thumb drives/USB ports are too slow, but try that first; be sure to have the thumb drive plugged in and recognized by Windows before you start Scrivener, so that it can find the projects.
The NaNoWriMo trial is separate in how it figures the expiration of the trial. The standard trial version only subtracts a day from the 30-day trial if you have Scrivener running at some point on a given day–If you don’t run Scrivener for a week, then no days are subtracted from the 30 during that week. The NaNo trial has a fixed date that it expires (usually a few days into December). Running the NaNo trial version does not subtract from the 30 days allotted to the standard trail, so you can effectively have 60+ days of Scrivener use by using the standard until the NaNo version comes out, and then switching to it until it expires. I have no idea when they plan to release the NaNo trial version, but in the past it’s been a week or two before November 1.
For #1, you CAN install on a thumb drive, with no problems that I’ve noticed so far. It isn’t a closed system, though, as it WILL create registry entries on the computer that you plug the thumb drive into, as well as a Scrivener folder in the (normally hidden) App Data folder. If you’re using a computer with very restricted user access, this might be a problem, but I’ve used Scriv on a thumb drive on university computers where I go to school with no problem at all (and all I have is a standard student login account; I’m guessing you have similar access at your own school).
To install, when the installer says it will install in C:\Project Files (x86)\Scrivener, it gives you the option of choosing your own directory. Click this and select the thumb drive and create a Scrivener folder and say you want to save into this folder - F:\Thumb Drive\Scrivener, etc. (if you don’t create the folder first, the installer will put all the random Scriv program files and folders on the root of the thumb drive). Then you should be able to open the program from the drive and use it to your heart’s content! (Be aware it MIGHT be a bit slower due to data access rates, but you might not even notice)