Tables in iOS Documentary fomat

Scrivener Scrivener for iOS
1

Just a note to say I’ve picked up Scrivener again after a few years because I have some documentary scripts to write. The three-column table on macOS is perfect, but on iOS the table gets confused: e.g. some rows have a column missing, tabbing removes the table entirely.

Is this something that can be addressed. Is there something about these tables that confound iOS in a way that other mobile word processors avoid?

Apart from that, I’m reminded why I used to use Scrivener all the time: it’s lovely. I wish I could write my documentaries on the go, though.

2

That’s a pity… what if you invest in one of those smaller MacBook Air’s? Avoids using the iPad/iPhone and probably as portable as the iPad to support you “on the go”? If funding an issue, probably can get a reconditioned model at a good price.

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3

Thanks for the suggestion, although that could really be the answer to any iOS issue whatsoever. :grinning:

If there’s a reason tables can’t work on iOS, so be it, but my question is really whether this can be fixed in the iOS Scrivener app which, like my phone, I’ve already bought.

4

Mainly what you are seeing is how the same text engine[1] on two different platforms works. On one, tab stops, tables and lists are supported (to a basic level anyway), and on the other, these things cannot be worked with at all—though it does attempt to display them.

Overall, for any workflow that depends heavily upon any of those tools, the mobile version of Scrivener is not going to be ideal, and should be better thought of as a tool for jotting down notes for later implementation on the Mac/PC.

There are actually ways of doing this, but they would largely require switching to using Markdown to input tables as text, and then using one of Scrivener’s Markdown-based compile options to turn them into “real” tables. This works, because text, spaces and symbols can be typed anywhere without any special elaborate technology being required.

  1. Same, as in Apple makes the text engine Scrivener uses on both platforms, and it has a huge amount of functional overlap, but technically they different, and these are one area in which that is most prominent. ↩︎

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5

Thanks: I’ve been using Markdown in Obsidian, and would be happy to use it in Scrivener too. Great suggestion!

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Thanks for the suggestion. I know the mobile app is designed for draft writing but I do wish it had more features of the desktop app because I write more using my tablet than my desktop PC these days. I only use my desktop when I absolutely have to.