Target to be clock driven.

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
1

I make BIG use of the word target function. It is a terrific help to productivity and to fight writer’s block ever developing.

However there are often times when the computer needs to be shut down during the day, for a plethora of reasons, sometimes more than once. This resets the target and completely upsets things :angry: and I mean REALLY upsets things :cry:

It would be nice if the target was time/clock based … and yes I know there is a midnight option but there are many people like me who are owls and not larks :unamused: and who write through midnight and beyond and for whom midnight is not a very useful threshold.

It would be nice to be able to chose another threshold such as 4am for example. Also perhaps a secondary counter that could be set ‘for the next four hours’ …

2

Couldn’t you just choose never to automatically reset and then punch the button yourself at whatever time you need it?

3

it resets when quit.

4

Sorry, you mean that if you have selected “Never automatically reset session counts” in the session target options for the project, your session count resets after closing and reopening the project? That sounds like a bug. How are your other target options set?

5

I mis-spoke in my reply sorry. I meant to say I would never chose that option because I DO want it to reset. The idea of doing it manually, and therefore completely inconsistently, is something I would not wish. And with the other settings it auto reset.

6

Also as it happens … I remember someone asked for this a few months back and I didn’t appreciate it’s value … if this tweaked version of the Target was available it would be great to then have a record of the last, say, five days numbers.
I don’t think there is value in knowing any longer, but the last five days or so would be a really useful tool in fighting writer’s block or losing focus.

Again this is just me giving feedback from a writer to Scrivener … to be taken or left :mrgreen:

7

I just signed up for an account specifically to ask for this feature.

I occasionally find myself writing over midnight, and it drives me crazy that my session count resets while I’m writing.

I don’t use the other settings because:

  • Reset Session Count on Project Close
  • I work on multiple projects in a day and track my daily words written for each. One project may be opened and closed more than once per day which makes tracking totals more complicated.
  • Reset Session Count on Next Day Opened
  • I typically don’t quite Scrivener since I’m working in it most of the day, and as such I sometimes leave a project open for a couple of days. This means I have to manually reset, and I often forget to do that.
  • Never Automatically Reset Session Counts
  • This means I have to actually remember to reset each session count every day when I open a project again, and I just can’t trust myself to remember that. Lame? Maybe, but it’s better to know your flaws than to pretend they don’t exist.

Having the session count reset at 3 or 4 am would be perfect for me. I’d be able to access the info I want reliably every time.

I can sort of see the logic between tracking word counts after midnight towards the next day’s totals, but without historical data, are we supposed to check the word count at exactly 11:59 to see how our day ended?

This is about the only frustration I encounter regularly when using Scrivener, and I would love to see it modified for late night writers.

8

Well commented. Sometimes people, imho, focus too much on some of the tools of writing as opposed to others. A way of tracking our work through this kind of counter is a massively useful tool. It may not be involved with the actual writing, or the actual research. But it plays a huge part in motivating us to write, and that must be near of the top of valuable tools. So more flexibility in how this tool can be used must merit the focus of our esteemed developers I hope :slight_smile: