I work for a not-for-profit as a volunteer and am updating their (virtually non-existent) policy manual. I have started in Word but the process is messy and the document difficult to navigate and reorganise, even using styles and outline view.
I suddenly remembered I had Scrivener, though I’ve hardly used it, and wondered whether it would do the job of getting it organised and started as it is able to export to Word. I also note it has Markdown support, which may make the formatting easier in the beginning.
Can users give pros and cons for this? I have tried searching for a Scrivener template, in case one existed, but haven’t found one. So if that is around, that would be good too.
As long as your formatting needs are relatively simple, the MultiMarkdown method is not too shabby for working with Word. It’s probably not quite as good as just using Scrivener like an RTF editor, but it will work. That method really does shine more when you are working with structurally aware formats, like HTML and LaTeX. I don’t generally recommend MMD to individuals who work primarily in the word processor end of things, merely because its export methods to RTF are just quite simplistic. They are good for those who do generally not use regular word processors, but also interface with those that do, and so can use MMD’s RTF exporter to send proofs and such.
If you want to give it a shot, I would try some simple Markdown—some lists and maybe an image or two and other basic formatting, and then compile that with titles turned on to MultiMarkdown->RTF, open that in Word, and make sure it will work for what you need.