Not long ago windows game platform Steam started to sell software. And not just some “gaming” soft.
So, any chance Scrivener goes Steam or at least Steam Greenlight?
Out of curiosity, are there any particular reasons you want Scriv on Steam? It already has pretty much automatic updates, and I can’t think of all that many other advantages. I’d say cloud services, but given they only give you 100MB, it doesn’t seem like it’d be all that great for the Scriv files.
(Though it should be noted that I spent several hours today arguing with Steam and Steam’s rather terrible tech support because it decided that the game that my copy of Skyrim was not installed, despite it very definitey being so, all the files being in the program directory and being able to launch it and play with an external mod launcher… it just wouldn’t do it from within Steam and kept trying to insist that I download the entire 5gb game. So… currently my response to Scriv on Steam is something like DDDDD: OH GOD NO HIDE THE POOR INNOCENT PROGRAM. I’m willing to admit this is fairly likely born from the frustration.)
Sorry for necroposting, but I feel like this is something important that needs to be discussed, even today.
My biggest gripe with Scrivener (and Scapple) is how restrictive it is with the license. If I want to use it on my PC and my laptop, I need to deactivate it from my PC first before I can use it on my laptop. It’s so annoying! I shouldn’t have to do that when I’m the only one using my PC and laptop, and I certainly don’t want to buy another license just so I don’t have to juggle my existing license back and forth!
Adding Scrivener and Scapple to Steam would solve this. Yeah, cloud saves are nice, but personally, I only care about being able to use your programs in more than just one place. Not only would you expose your products to a whole new crowd of potential new buyers, you’d also have the workshop, which would allow your users to share new templates or neat customization options with each other!
I think adding Scrivener and Scapple to Steam would only benefit you.
I don’t think that’s actually true. The Scrivener license allows for installation on multiple machines using the same OS, as long as you are the owner/primary user of each machine. See here:
Really? That’s strange, I could’ve sworn the last time I tried it, I had to deactivate it on my PC before I could use it on my laptop. Gonna have to try it again before I go on vacation (when I’m back from work 
).
But regardless, having those programs on Steam wouldn’t be such a bad idea, imo.
You have to close your Scrivener projects if you’re sharing them between computers using Dropbox, before you can open them up on another computer that is also trying to open those same projects… but as far back as I’ve been using Scrivener ( about 10 years now), they’ve always had a generous license that allowed installation/use on multiple computers. I think it used to be 5, now I think it’s more. If that’s not the case, then something’s really wrong. Even when you hit the limit, the license server just revokes the license for the oldest registered computer on file (which you can re-register later, if you’re still using it).
Does it matter if I’m not using Dropbox or any other cloud? I keep my files local and usually just move the files myself.
Does it matter? Only when it comes to easy access to the same projects. I read your post as, “I have experienced something with Scrivener that can only happen on one computer at a time,” and there’s only one thing I know of that you can’t do with Scrivener on two computers simultaneously: Open the same project being shared using a cloud sync service. The license doesn’t prevent you from running Scrivener on multiple computers (and it doesn’t matter if Scrivener is or isn’t running concurrently on multiple computers).
So if you experienced something that says, essentially, “you can’t do that with Scrivener on more than one computer at a time,” it has to be something besides using the same license across two computers… or something’s very wrong. Did you buy directly from links on this website? In any case, I’d contact them through their support email so they can look up your license and get this issue straightened out.
Just thinking here… did noClue install scrivener on a USB drive with the projects? That would show up as a license fail since the executable would get a host id mismatch on start up and require re-registering the software over and over and over and…
you get the point.
If I’ve guessed right, the solution is to install the software on the LOCAL drive not the USB. I think that’s the official position of L&L anyway.
Okay, that makes a lot more sense than my hypothesis. 
So I just tried it and… it works. 
I honestly don’t remember what I could’ve done wrong the first time I tried it about a year ago, but it seems like I can use the same licence for both my PC and laptop. I hope it won’t screw me over when I use it in another country. Thanks for the support, guys.
I wonder if I could use it at work as well? Would be very useful.
Conditionally, yes. See here:
scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb … e-computer
Listed under the heading “Some examples:”
Alright, good to know. Thanks!