Suggestion: Improved Grammar and Style Checker in both Win and Mac Versions

Scrivener Scrivener for Windows
1

Hi, It would be exceptionally useful to have a fuller-featured grammar and style checker. I know that there were other posts on this subject (and that L&L is a small company and cannot cater to every whim of its users), but if there is an opportunity to incorporate a module that would perform this, that would be very much appreciated.

At the least, this module should:

Check comma and other punctuation usage, such as better use of ;
Suggest clarity suggestions (e.g. run on sentences to be split up),
Check word usage correctness (even simple things like then / than or to / two / too

I also understand that this would likely add to the cost. At least speaking for myself, I would be willing to pay for a feature addition like this - e.g. increase in the license cost by [i]X[/i} dollars per license of the version that would include this feature.

Thank you for considering this.

2

I enthusiastically support this suggestion. As it is now, I often copy and paste a Scrivener document into Word or Grammarly (neither of which are all that good), and find too many things that Scrivener didn’t catch.

3

@JHHiatt - actually the new editor in Word works really well for me. It is just annoying to cut / paste back and forth all the time. I guess I am a slow writer, and I need to do a lot of edits (my last short story of 4k words required 8 drafts before I was happy with it.). So, that is a lot of back and forth between Scrivener and Word. And, Word still catches more issues, even after the HunSpell addition to Scrivener. It is also a little kinder on multi-lingual documents (where one mixes English with other languages on the page that need multi-lingual correction).

The perrenial trouble with Word (for me) seems to be its inability to organize large documents effectively (something that Scrivener does exceedingly well).

4

I think that anyone who’s read my posts this year knows how much I want this. :mrgreen:

There is a desktop version of PWA that will open native Scrivener files for editing, but doing that is still an interruption of the workflow. It’s the best current solution for Scrivener users though.

The PWA people have made code available to let programmers include the system within their own editors, but I am not the Scrivener dev team so I cannot say why they haven’t used it.

Ulysses has a built in grammar checker now (hooks into a free online engine) but I didn’t find Ulysses handled novel sized projects well enough. Okay for short stories and blog posts though.

I have been using another piece of software that integrates everything (3 novels in it so far) but the support is not up to snuff, so I’m switching back to my old Scriv-PWA method. Not willing to pay subscriptions for things where the bugs take too long to fix. :neutral_face:

5

Connor,

Thank you for the suggestion of ProWritingAid - that app is actually not bad! You still have to sanity check its suggestions, but it catches basic errors.

Some of the passive voice corrections are funny! So like anything mechanical one has to take it with a grain of salt. but it catches ellipsis, en- and em-dashes, and so on.

On the plus side, Its desktop component opened a Windows S3 project perfectly (and more importantly, since this is S3 29914 Beta, once it saved it, I was able to open it back in Scrivener! ).

Thanks for the suggestion!

6

Just posted another comment on this topic elsewhere – probably should have added it here – see Grammar Apps.

Tried both Grammarly and ProWriter Premium versions, and gave up in disgust; the latter has a cluttered interface and seriously suffers from TMI.

Yes, I’ve tried pasting into Word and it’s laughable – and Word and Grammarly totally disagreed about commas.

As I said in the other post, it wouldn’t take many enhancements to make Scrivener’s own tools more useful – after trying the other two external apps, I’ve come to appreciate how spare and uncluttered it is. Worried about passive voice? Open Linguistic Focus and look for was and being, etc.

Now, given that Grammarly keeps popping up with annoying suggestions while I write this post, perhaps my opinion is not all that welcome at Literature & Latte. I wish they’d turn it off! I’ll risk a few errors to have it get out of the way.

7

We didn’t turn it on. Check your browser extensions to see if Grammarly is running on your system. It’s not running from here.

Katherine

8

Ulysses has tried to woo me, since I pointed out the flaws with its grammar checker on Twitter, but the promise of “we are planning to add repetition and passive voice checks” just means it still doesn’t do it.

I dropped Scrivener and PWA again and went back to the integrated work environment that costs me 15UKP/month and does not deserve me plugging it, so not naming it again. The fact is though, for all its faults, I have written and edited four novels in it in six months and am on a fifth now. Even with my complaints about it, it works for me, and my productivity matters.

I’m a full-time writer, I will use whatever gets the most work out of me.

PWA is clunky and needs to learn to produce a fast, real-time report like this other software can, but still needs to be integrated into Scrivener before it is useful. Ulysses, with the modifications they promised, might come close, but it still highlights everything in blue and you have to step through the sections, or click each underline, to find out what it’s whining about. :mrgreen:

I really wanted to write in Scrivener again. I love the way it works, but my productivity is just so much higher in the other program simply because of the way I work. I write up to a thousand words, cycle back and edit them, then do the next chunk. I finish a novel with almost clean copy, that just needs a couple of hours to run through spelling and grammar/punctuation checks before it’s ready for my alpha readers.

I no longer plot. If a story stalls, I just write lots of questions or ideas into a mind-map app on my iPad, let the muse ruminate overnight, and we’re off again. Three thousand words a day is normal now.

If Scrivener could include the same type of grammar checker that I use now, I’d switch back again. 8)

9

Hi all,

Was looking to refine my workflow for spelling and grammar. I’m dyslexic so it’s pretty integral for me. Thought this might be a good place to seek some advice.

I write 100% screenplays, My projects are normally broken into separate scenes or sequences in Scrivener to make it easy to move around.
I tend to write the bulk in Scrivener then export to Final Draft for formatting and the last pass before using FD to deliver (and reimporting to scrivener for the next draft).

I used to use Grammarly but its lack of integration means it’s a no go at he price (too messy cutting scenes back and forth).

I tried Pro Writing Aid and to be honest I find it quite irritating. The interface has nothing on Grammarly and some of the suggestions are very impractical. And as for it popping up messages over what you’re trying to edit… jesus.

I’m not allergic to spending money on the right solution (Scrivener and Dropbox already have me over a barrel!). I just need it to work as seamlessly and effortlessly as possible.

Any suggestions welcome.

Any chance of sharing the software name? Or is it Grammarly?

Ta

10

I’ll try to send you a PM. Not fair to advertise other software on Scrivener’s forums. :mrgreen:

11

That’s what the Software & Development forum is for, actually…

12

Grammarly is …

arrantpedantry.com/2015/02/2 … ar-advice/

Merx

13

Made a post there about it. People are free to make up their own minds that way. :mrgreen:

14

Ok thanks for sharing.

15

Maybe it could be a chargeable add-on, with L&L licensing an established product to integrate with. I’d pay for that.