The ZEN of Scrivener

Scrivener
1

How do others use Scrivener?

Q: linn

For the benefit of those coming to Scrivener and thinking ‘What do I really need and what can I do without?’

Scrivener is designed to work on the project level. That means that other applications can be employed to feed stuff to Scrivener or take stuff that you want to work on in some other way after developing your ideas in Scrivener.

Here’s a useful list of the best applications that others have found work really well with Scrivener. This list could save you a lot of money on software purchases if you are just starting out and are wondering where best to invest your writing dollars.

Remember, it is not a formal endorsement or disendorsement of other writing software. It is just a list of really useful NEED to have and NICE to have applications that will help you amplify your Scrivener experience.

Maybe the list would have these NEED to have apps in it:

  1. Scrivener (for creating)
  2. Devonthink OR MacJournal OR DevonNote (for notes and storage)
  3. Word OR Mellel OR Nisus OR Mariner Write OR Papyrus (for formatting and publishing)
  4. Screenwriter Pro OR Final Draft (for film and television or theatre formatting)

And maybe some NICE to have apps:

  1. Devon Agent OR Sente (for detailed web searches - mostly literature searches)
  2. Bookends OR Sente OR EndNotes (references and bibliographies)
  3. PowerStructure (for story structuring)
  4. Dramatica Pro (for building a complete story from thin resources)
  5. Storyspace (for Hypertext)
  6. Tinderbox (Ancillary project tracking)
  7. LyX (word processor based on LaTeX)
  8. iFlash (for language study)
  9. VoodooPad (research and note gathering phase)
  10. Nisus Thesaurus (for global referencing)
  11. Typinator OR TypeIt4Me OR Textpander (for abbreviations or shorthand for things)
  12. iClip (for quick storage and moving things between applications)
  13. SnapNDrag (for image capture)
  14. Spell Catcher (for non-native English speakers)
  15. iVerbum (index and search)

Scrivener users have found these to be very compatible with Scrivener, which can be the centrepiece of a suite from this list.

Clearly, and it really does not need saying - but other apps might just be the perfect solution for you.

Contributors: Keith, AmberV, linn, bobm, cruxdestruct, musti, Gaijin de Moscu, alexwein, Lord Lightning, Timotheus

Want more detail? Go here:
[url]https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/the-zen-of-scrivener/410/1]

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Very cool, LL. And cool to that you are so conscientious about adding to the Tips and Tricks thread!

Alexandria

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Make that “cool too…” please. :slight_smile:

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One brief remark: for formatting and publishing, instead of Mariner Write I would recommend Papyrus. Mariner Write is now essentially what it was three years ago; I don’t think this application has a bright future. Papyrus presently is clearly more complete than Mellel and Nisus; and like Mellel, it is particularly suited for working with long documents: in other words, for formatting and publishing novels and the like. Papyrus might be the most underestimated wordprocessor for the Mac.

5

Thank you for reminding me about Papyrus. I keep meaning to check it out. I love the name, too. Taking it back to the roots. :slight_smile:

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A tool with a series of features not offered by any of the hitherto mentioned applications, and which some of us might find useful, is the index and search program iVerbum: see iverbum.com .

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For my system-wide spelling, thesaurus and shorthands I use Spell Catcher.

It can be annoying with its endless pop-ups, depending on your configuration, but for me as a non-native English speaker it offers great functionality.

And it is perfectly compatible with Scrivener both in normal editing mode and full screen – better than with Some Other Word Processors Out There.

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It looks like a useful application. I had not heard of it previously. Thanks for the link.

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… they make an application called “Pages” which is actually quite nice.

-ddog