Right this second, I use another program for the bulk of my writing (because work gives me a Windoze laptop), but I use Scrivener for manuscript assembly, writing when I’m at home, and all the other functions of writing a novel. This request is a prod at any program (Scrivener included) that thinks it’s limited to desktop use. My request is largely for the program when it’s installed on a laptop.
How about a “typewriter mode,” where (while the app is in the foreground), you can select whether or not to turn off ALT, CAPS LOCK, CONTROL or COMMAND.
This may not seem important at first, but imagine you’re in a heated dialogue between two major characters. You are writing on your laptop, the convo is going gangbusters, and right about the 2,500th word you need to begin a sentence with a capital A.
But you accidentally, in your haste, select COMMAND-A…
…and keep typing.
Or, this is a little more common to me: accidentally hit the caps lock. You get 200 words into what you’re typing and realize it’s ALL IN CAPITAL LETTERS AND NEEDS TO BE SENT TO AN EXTERNAL PROGRAM TO CHANGE OR IT ALL HAS TO BE RETYPED.
Look, I’ll keep it simple: typewriters don’t have control, alt or command keys. Caps lock has its own positive-stop, even, so that doesn’t count. I’d like to turn those keys off when I’m in draft mode, typewriter mode, or whatnot.
Alternately to the caps lock issue, it would be acceptable (to me at least), if I could write an Applescript to select the highlighted test and invert the case. A windoze program called TextEdit does this: select the text, click on the option under Edit, and VIOLIN! your text is as if the caps lock was never clicked.
Maybe it’s just me. If it’s a minority issue, give me the ability to run Applescript inside Scrivener and I’ll be perfectly fine. 