Hi All,
Interested in Scrivener but I need to know if it can match my writing routine - which is to work on my laptop at times and PC at others. Currently I use Open Office and just shift files between the two manually, which takes a minute at most.
My question is - does anyone do this already, and if so does it cause any problems? Also - does that mean I’d need two licenses?
Thanks…
Yep, nope, and nope.
There’s no issue with transferring projects between computers with scrivener, so long as you’re able to keep versions straight in your mind. (That is, it’s possible for human error to mix up different versions of files, but that’s why there’s things like revision control.)
I have Scrivener installed to both my desktop and my laptop. I transfer files via dropbox, gmail (zipping it up and mailing it to myself) or scp/ftp’ing the file over to that computer. (usually scp…I don’t think ftp is even installed anymore.) Just make sure you get the entire scriv folder, which is your project, and not just project.scrivx. (It can be confusing if you’re coming from the Mac end of things, since the Scrivener project file doesn’t look like a folder.) I usually rename the file that gets transferred (copied, of course) as something else, so I know which is the original and which is the checked-out one. (taking a hint from revision control.) I’ll then make the old original a backup, and rename the transferred one what the original was. (So I’m never overwriting my original.)
So I’ll have
foo.scriv (original)
foo_travel.scriv (the one that goes to the laptop, usually copied or an extracted backup of foo.scriv)
Then at the end of the day foo.scriv becomes foo.backup.scriv (and old backup gets renamed or deleted–I’m good about backups, but if you’re paranoid, rename your old backup), and foo_travel.scriv becomes the new foo.scriv.
As to license, you get something like 5 copies for computers in your household. My fiance (of 12 years) and I have something like 8 computers between the two of us, and we’ve never run into a problem. (Although a couple of those are macs, but we had to get a mac license.)
Thanks - I’ve played around with it and found it worked fine as a one off, but great to hear that it’s generally reliable. Loving it already and have moved my latest novel over. Definitely going to buy, especially as the license covers both computers.
I’m pretty strict with my numbering anyway (every time I’ve made a change on the doc I increase the version number) so I’ll keep doing that but with the whole folder.
So glad I stumbled on Scrivener in someone’s blog. I was considering splitting my doc into three but this is so much better.
Simon
Yeah, so long as you don’t mix up files, it’ll work fine. It seems like it’s very easy to mistake an older file for another, then wonder where all your changes went. (Or worse, overwrite the new file with the old one.) Better safe than sorry, and Scrivener projects aren’t so huge as to be unwieldy on hard drives and thumb drives these days.
It’s a very nifty program, but not everyone’s cup of tea. Once you get the hang of it, it’s wonderful to be able to split the document in a bazillion different pieces. 
Another option for data transfer is to use a tool like FreeFileSync. Just make sure you sync every time you switch computers, because Scrivener modifies a lot of files. Depending on your situation, this could be preferable to solutions like DropBox and SugarSync.
Yup, the format is just files and folders, so it’s really no different than dragging a copy of a folder with a bunch files in it from one computer to another. What I’ve always preferred to do myself, just to keep things from getting confusing, is to use the File/Back Up/Back Up To... command and use a central spot that both computers can get to. External disk, file server, something like Dropbox and the like. Then I just always remember to save a copy to that central location with a datestamp so it doesn’t overwrite anything. When I sit down the next day, I don’t even have to remember what computer I was using last, I just drag the top one off of the stack back down “local”, replacing the old one and start work.
Some people like putting the project itself in a central spot and accessing it from both computers. That’s fine, too, you just have to be especially careful if that spot isn’t “live” and is bouncing back around between computers and the Internet. Stuff like Dropbox, SpiderOak, and Google Drive all work this way. Just always be wary of the little status indicator in these programs and make sure it stops spinning before you open the project or shut down the computer. Also make sure it never gets opened twice, but the software should warn you if you try doing that. I prefer the repository method above because it’s a bit less risky and I’m always losing track of where I am and what I did last.
I actually keep my working Scrivener directory as a subdirectory in my Dropbox folder. That way it always syncs to Dropbox, and if I have need to open up the WIP on the laptop (which I don’t do so much anymore because I’ve discovered that I like having screen real estate, especially with a pretty program like Scrivener), I just point the laptop’s Scrivener to the Dropbox folder.
I run Scrivener for both Windows and Linux. So far, I have not switched the same file between Win and Linux, but I’ve switched between two Windows computers and it’s done okay.
There should not be too many issues between Linux and Windows (Linux cannot view any PDFs you’ve added with Windows, that is all). The code is virtually identical between those two platforms. Where you run into more inconsistency is the Mac and Windows versions, which have completely different code from the ground up, using two entirely different frameworks. For most things, it is fine, but the UI settings (window size, visible outliner columns and so forth) will differ between the two and compile settings will not be shared.
For what it’s worth, I use the same preference settings for both linux and Windows/WINE. So there are no issues bouncing between Linux and Windows versions of Scrivener. The PDF thing is an issue, although it doesn’t work under Windows/WINE anymore, either. (Since they switched to quickpdf.)
Where you run into more inconsistency is the Mac and Windows versions, which have completely different code from the ground up, using two entirely different frameworks. For most things, it is fine, but the UI settings (window size, visible outliner columns and so forth) will differ between the two and compile settings will not be shared.<<
This is something I am wondering about. I have Scrivener on a desktop Mac, and have recently purchased a PC Windows laptop. I realize I have to purchase a separate license, but I’m wondering what I should look out for in terms of working on a PC, then getting home, and transferring my stuff to the Mac desktop, or vice versa. How easily would changes/additions I made on the Windows version, transfer over to the Mac version?
Thanks
I also use it with Drobox, which is free unless you use a LOT of data.
You can consider it one folder that’s identical on all of your PCs. Just don’t try to open the same file on two PCs at once. There are file locks in place to prevent that, but considering how many files Scrivner uses, it’s possible Dropbox might miss a few. Also, when turning on your laptop after using Scrivenr on your desktop, be sure to wait a few minutes for the files to sync. When they do a little balloon will pop up telling you “X files synced.”
It’s actually not that bad at all. The details have been published in this article. What I would suggest to you is don’t worry about setting up compile and all of that on the PC. Even though they do not share settings in regards to UI and compile, they both save their settings into the same project. So you can develop your working environment independently. I’d leave compiling to the Mac for now, so you can just ignore that part entirely.
Hi there,
my two cents worth of insight are the following, although I should preempt, that afaik this only works in a “pure” Windows environment. No chance for me to test it in Mac or Linux as I don’t use either. In theory similar solutions should work there too.
I am in a similar position as you, I have a work-horse PC at home and I am using my laptop when I am travelling (and I do that a lot). As I do not trust the cloud (yep, I do have a backup system installed at my home-office), synching files through the web is not an option for me. So here is what I do:
I have created a primary partition on my trusted Lenovo X200 Laptop’s harddrive of 25GB with a specific drive letter assigned to it. This is where I keep all my live data, Scrivener projects, Dragon user profiles, Word documents, User templates, spreadsheets and the like. 25GB is plenty for that.
When I am at home and I want to use the workhorse PC (i7, 16 Megs Ram… pretty fast) I have created a network-map to my laptop (which sits in a networked docking station the minute my feet hit the doormap), mapping the networked drive to that same drive letter as is assingned on my laptop. Logic and my lifestyle dictates, that wherever I am that’s where my laptop goes, the most current data must be on the laptop hard-drive. So when I use Scrivener on my PC, all I need to do is open the files in that mapped network drive. Problem solved.
Through an automated backup that actually detects if my laptop is in my home-office network environment, all my data from that drive is backed-up automatically to a NAS-device on my local network and from there to a cloud based vault (which uses password encrypted files for privacy) as well as once a month automatically to an external drive… (That’s what the cloud is really useful for!)
My data is safe, I always have the latest version of my live files with me and I don’t need to trust ye ole cloud for messing with my live files and data when synching between machines (and trust me, that can be a major nightmare!).
As the Scrivener licence allows for a dual install as long as you stay in the same OS-environment that works wonders form me. The minute I unplug my laptop and go offline (I do that a lot when I am actually writing in order not to be disturbed by email or just the urge to surf for a couple of minutes) I always have the current version of my files with me, no hassle with syncing files, up- or download files through a cloud service… And as the Scrivener files a very small files (numerous but small), you don’t even notice the slight network lag on a 1Gigabit-LAN when it autosaves. It sure beats those darn cloud services speed-wise.
NOTA: Edited on march 28th for grammar and spelling 
I work on desktop and laptop, probably about a 50% split. I work of an SD card, simply swapping it between computers. I have an automatic backup running to the desktop to prevent disaster.
I’ve never had any issues. Saving etc. probably runs a bit sluggish due to working off a card instead of a HDD, but for me it works great. The only down side I have is that the actual Scrivener program files are of course separate so custom spellings entered into one computer don’t carry over.