Scrivener for iPad

Scrivener Wish List
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Scrivener 2.0 will have a feature where you can sync a folder of files on disk with files on in your project (not the structure, just the titles and content). This will work nicely with some programs for the iPad, such as PlainText. The trouble is that it won’t work with Documents To Go, simply because Scrivener’s “sync with folder” feature will only support RTF, TXT and FDX syncing.

Why the madness of not including .doc or .docx, you ask? Well, with reluctance I have had to exclude them because of the severe limitations with Apple’s exporters. It would mean that every time a user synced a document as a .doc or .docx file, they would lose all images, annotations, footnotes and, even worse, all indents and line spacing. (Of course, such things will be lost with TXT syncing, too, but users expect to lose rich text formatting when converting to plain text; they certainly don’t expect to lose formatting when converting to .doc or .docx, but such is the way with Apple’s exporters.)

This is particularly annoying, because I looked at DocsToGo, and had it been possible to support .doc or .docx for this feature, it would have made DocsToGo ideal. It’s a shame there are no programs on the iPad - yet - that can read RTF files.

So, for now, the options in 2.0 will be to use Simplenote or a Dropbox-supporting program that supports RTF or TXT (or FDX if you are a screenwriter). Hog Bay’s PlainText will support TXT, but now that Dropbox have a mobile API out for developers, I bet it won’t be long before you start seeing other iPad programs with support for Dropbox and more formats. (Although beyond Pages, DocsToGo and Office2 HD, I doubt there will be too many programs that support rich text formatting on the iPad until Apple provides a public API for a rich text editor - currently, as I’ve explained elsewhere, they only make it possible for developers to support plain text editing. Pages uses private APIs, and I can only assume that DocsToGo and Office2 HD are such established companies dedicated to mobile office suites that over the years they have somehow produced their own rich text systems allowed by Apple, which most independent developers won’t be able to do.)

Thanks and all the best,
Keith

All the best,
Keith

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Hello KB.
I notice you are from Truro Cornwall.
I am from Wadebridge Cornwall.
I am however just an ordinary Scrivener user. I know nothing about how it works but i love it and have used it for some years. I work on an iMac.
My daughter is thinking of buying an iPad.
Will she be able to write on it and use the Scrivener organising of the writing into project,binder, folder, etc ?
Will she then be able to transfer such writing into Scrivener on her lap top?
Does this make sense?
Thank you.
Robin.

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Probably not in the sense that you are thinking. Both tools will be very content biased, in large part due to limitations of the system (in the case of Simplenote—organisation would be impossible in that program) or undo complexities in a base folder+file situations, like in DropBox. So there will be no way to organise things directly. The focus will be entirely on exporting texts, editing them, and returning those edits to Scrivener. Of course, organisational notes can be made (“move this item over there”) even on paper.

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So very sorry I wrote the earlier post. :unamused:
I admire greatly Scrivener and fully understand and agree with your comments.
I will always write with Scrivener.
If I then want to use that writing elsewhere, I just copy and paste it.
Life is so easy.
Thank you.
Robin. :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

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Oh, no problem! Sorry if I came across as though you shouldn’t have made the comment. It was a valid question. Fact is, 2.0 will make editing and adding Scrivener sections on the iPad quite easy, especially in conjunction with tools that work with DropBox, but with Simplenote, too. It’s “just” the organisational power of Scrivener that will be missing, which is to be expected given that it is other programs accessing the text at that point. :slight_smile:

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Seriously, man ( :slight_smile: ), I hadn’t made up my mind until I used the thing - and I hate it for writing, although I like it for reading websites.

Anyway, to answer your question, yes, you will be able to do this in 2.0, using Simplenote or Hog Bay’s PlainText.

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Plain-text will indeed most likely be the price to pay for working with an iPad instead of a laptop. At least for a while now. Perhaps eventually there will be RTF capabilities available. At the moment, Apple doesn’t provide any, so everyone is stuck with plain-text, or coding their own RTF engine from scratch (which is why it will be a while before stuff pops up—but we are starting to get into the time-range where a company large enough to allocate several programmers to the program could have finished a decent engine and be in the beta stages—if anyone has started yet at all).

That said, Scrivener is going to be pretty smart about how it handles plain-text. Unless you alter things a lot, most of your formatting will be preserved. The workflow will actually be considerably easier than what you were asking for. :slight_smile: Edit the sync files right on DropBox with any tool. Later you can have Scrivener check that output location again for changes and the Binder will be automatically updated. You’ll even be able to check over all of the updated stuff and see exactly what changed. Less useful for one person, but very useful when collaborating this way.

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A forum isn’t the best place to come for quick and easy answers. Folks here like to ruminate, and we’ve been chewing the cud about iPads and writing since March. If you’re really so devoted to the iPad platform, you owe it to yourself to tune in.

Several of us have reviewed various writing apps and also discussed strategies for backup, file synching, outlining, and other topics. Some consensus has arisen that the two best apps are SimpleNote and PlainText, given their ease of input, synching, and also the promised hooks to Scrivener 2.0. The only app that offers Rich Text support is Pages for iPad, but its export of RTF can be flawed.

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Hi Amber.

Isn’t there a “not” too much?
On the other hand: What kind of formatting could be preserved when importing plain text? Plain text = no formatting. Or do I miss something?

That sounds great. Can’t wait … :slight_smile:

Franz

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There is indeed a “not” too much there. You are right of course that plain text has no formatting, but Scrivener checks the newer plain text document against the existing rich text document (assuming you edited an existing document), comparing them paragraph-by-paragraph, so that only paragraphs that have actually been edited will lose their formatting (and snapshots will be taken so you can review the old version too). Paragraphs that haven’t been changed won’t be touched. So yes, a lot of formatting will get lost if you do heavy editing, but Scrivener will try to preserve what it can.

All the best,
Keith

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Thanks, Keith. That sounds even better :slight_smile:

Franz

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Yeah, extra ‘not’ in there. :slight_smile: Fixed it.

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We’ll have more news on this soon, and eventually a video showing how it works (before 2.0 is out), so stay tuned - all will soon be revealed. :slight_smile:

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I can’t wait for it. I have to be sincere, I’ve tried SM because Mariner Software looks more interested in an iPad app, but I feel more confortable with Scrivener (except for timeline…).
So now that I’m on vacation I’m writing my new novel with iPad’s Pages, chapter by chapter, then emailing myself any single chapter in order to copy and past them into Scrivener, when I’m back home. And of course, previously I had to export from Scrivener to iPad’s Pages all the stuff I had already written, and the storyline. It works but…it’s a pain youknowwhere.
So I hope this Simplenote and/or PlainText thing will work, I badly need something I can use my iPad with!
And Keith, I know you hate it, but I feel quite confortabile with the virtual keyboard :wink:

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What’s this “iPad” thing that people keep talking about?

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Well, how could I explain it? Let’s say, it’s just like an iPhone 4, just bigger and it doesn’t drop your calls if you touch its frame :laughing:

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So, really, I am genuinely curious here. How is this as you describe, painful? This seems to me quite convenient and easy to use. It sounds like you are writing productively at the moment, and capturing everything you are writing into a secure system which will provide for an easy way to get your data into a more powerful system once you get back from your trip. What is the big the deal? I hope this doesn’t come across as facetious, I am genuinely curious why you feel the process you have described is so horrible that you feel you’d rather switch to software you freely admit offers an inferior experience, on the mere hint (not actual fact, but a feeling or a vague guess) that they might have something produced (at some point in the foggy indeterminate future) which may (or may not) be better than what you are already doing. It is confusing to me because I’ve done very similar to what you described for over a decade. I email stuff to myself all of the time and move it from one program to another; one machine to another. It’s a great method, easy to use, and even manages to create a bit of a backup in the process. Never once did I feel annoyed about the process, or publicly wish that every single program that I transferred data around like this with, would all go way out of their way to produce alternatives, sacrificing their core vision to do something that a bunch of other technology already does and can be run in parallel.

Granted, I think the stuff coming along for 2.0 will be better, and I can certainly envision more interesting and complex forms of integration. I am not saying that this method is the best imaginable solution, I just fail to see how it is so incredibly painful! It’s really Easy to send e-mail from within Pages, too, just tap a button really. I increasingly feel as though I am missing something that everyone else seems to think is obvious. It seems like everyone wants software to do literally every little conceivable task for them, and that developers are starting to capitulate and in result large segments of the software market are slowing down. Everyone is suddenly having to become an expert in everything and support many different platforms, which means the core programs come to a standstill. At times, I really worry about the shareware community. It seems the only ones that can keep moving are the medium or larger sized businesses, and those that stick to the original vision.