Am a Newbie here and wanted to say that I am excited and honored to be in on the same forum as all of you. I recently purchased Scrivener and am exploring the various options available. Whew!
Years back, I purchased a license of IBM ViaVoice for dictating and stopped using it after a couple of versions of newer OS.
For the last two days though, I’ve been Voice Typing (WindowsButton + H) on Windows 11. This is mind blowing. I reach my targets faster and this has added value to my plots and writing as I avoid context switching.
Sure, many of you would already be using this. I was overawed by this feature. I guess this is what technology should be used for!
Please share the features on Scrivener that "Oh!"d you. TIA.
I’ve been using Scrivener a long time, and my use of its features has grown over the years.
The core items that I’ve leaned on the most are revision mode and the ability to use a font that’s comfortable for writing without caring what the output file will look like. I really love that I can use different fonts and colors while writing and editing but also tell Scrivener to produce an industry-standard manuscript without reformatting my original text.
I like being able to review edits by color and not lose the historical writing process of when certain changes were made.
Three tools that it literally took me years to get around to using:
Project search (§11.1 in the Scrivener manual)
Keywords (§10.4)
Collections built off of my project searches/keywords (§10.2)
Now that I use them more, I wonder how I wrote anything without them.
Lately I probably use Quick Reference panels more than I use Scrivener’s main editors. It is very handy to have more than two Quick Ref panels open and bounce around them as necessary.
Similarly, I use the Quick Search feature, as well as the Outliners, more than I use Scrivener’s Binder to find and open documents.
Collections are awesome. I use them for project management, by grouping “items I need to work on together” into collections and then sequencing the collections in priority order.
Best,
Jim
ETA: I changed the category from “Literature & Writing / NaNo Materials” to “Scrivener / Feedback / Usage-tips”, as that seemed most appropriate.
Not that I expect or seek troubleshooting of an issue that is purely OS related on this here unrelated forum, but, out of curiosity, @SaraAcharya, I could never get voice typing to work more than a few seconds (or not at all) under Windows 10.
Would you say Win11 is better? Did you have issues, prior, using Win10?
. . . . . . .
Now, to participate properly : By far, as a novelist, the feature that got me into Scrivener a good couple of years ago was, and without any doubt, the binder. The ability to cut, splice, move, reorder documents at will.
Still today.
For me, everything else is an extra.
[I thought I had been using Scrivener for 10+ years. I just checked my Scrivener1 receipt: roughly 8 years, it’s been. (For once life is cutting me some slack.) I still enjoy the software as much as when I first “Oh shit!” came face to face with how much creative potential it allows to roam free.]
I was able to go through the sections mentioned in the manual. I learnt the Search to be powerful. I have uses for “Search To Collections” and “Keywords” and intend on using it frequently. Thanks once again!
Yes, I did initially find this to be the case initially.
Being slow with my keyword I have now found a way to dictate continuously with the right (Right for me, I guess ) cadence.
Also reading continuously from my (pen on paper) notes onto my laptop. (Not much thinking here)
Recording into my phone continuously and then converting the audio to text. (Yet to try this → But suggestion is here (Audio To Text)
Binder (Yes!) and the speed within the editor to get your thoughts into it is a joy in Scrivener. It’s so smooth. Search, Keywords and Collections are powerful as well.
Thanks JimRac! Composition mode is awesome for #MyFocusOnWriting .
I plan to use Quick Refence when I need to juxtapose 2/3 windows and to be able to type into a 3rd window (When I use this with “Snap Layouts” in Windows Maximize Button).
Thanks for your response and also taking the time to correct me with category change.
: By far, as a novelist, the feature that got me into Scrivener a good couple of years ago was, and without any doubt, the binder. The ability to cut, splice, move, reorder documents at will.
) cadence.