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Introduction
What is Scrivener? Scrivener is a new piece of software for the Mac aimed at writers who want to manage and organise projects large or small. It follows in the tradition of such excellent applications as Z-Write, Ulysses, CopyWrite, Avenir, Jer's Novel Writer, DevonThink and others. Which is to say that it won't try to tell you how to write (as some writing software does); rather, it provides a space in which to gather your thoughts and just write. I developed this program because, as great as these other programs are, none of them worked in the way I wanted. Writing is an individual thing, and people write in different ways - so likewise, if Scrivener doesn't work for you, maybe one of those other programs will. In particular, on top of all the features I found in the writing programs I tested, I wanted an application that would offer the following:
How much will it cost? Scrivener is less than 50 dollars. Scrivener Gold, on the other hand, is completely free. What is Scrivener Gold? Scrivener Gold is a freeware release of an early beta version of Scrivener. It is fully functional, although it is missing some niceties such as state-saving. Scrivener Gold was originally just Scrivener 0.2b, which was first released as a closed beta to the good folks who do National Novel Writing Month so that they could put it through its paces and give me feedback. And they very kindly did just that. After working on various bug-fixes and reading through various requests, and of course, using Scrivener myself, I came to the conclusion that I could do a lot to improve it. The feature set was solid (and unique), but the way you accessed these features - that is to say, the interface - left a lot to be desired. So I started in on a rewrite. And because the rewrite will take a while, I decided to release the current beta as freeware, as a thank you to all of those people who helped support its development, and to maybe get the interest of a few other writers. I offer it completely as-is: there will be no bug-fixes or updates to Scrivener Gold, as all development efforts are instead being geared towards Scrivener 1.0, which has a much improved interface that integrates outlining, storyboarding and draft editing in a more intuitive manner and has big enhancements to almost every aspect of the program (for instance, you can now edit index cards directly in Storyboard mode). Hopefully Scrivener Gold will give you some idea of the potential of Scrivener, though, and your work will always remain usable, as Scrivener 1.0 will be able to import Scrivener Gold projects. What are the system requirements? Because Scrivener Gold takes advantage of the latest OS X technologies, you will require a Mac running OS X 10.4 (Tiger) to run it. Scrivener Gold has four view modes: binder, compose, draft and storyboard. The screenshots below show each of these modes along with other features. 1. Creating a New Project 
The assistant guides you through creating a new project. 2. Binder View Mode 
Upon creating a new project, you are presented with the binder view showing a blank document. Text documents comprise three parts: the main text itself, a synopsis (represented by an index card), and notes (the grey text box). 
You can import files into the project either through the menu or by dragging from the Finder. You can import text files (.doc, .rtfd, .rtf, .txt), image files, media files, PDF documents and web pages or archives. 
As well as importing files, you can, of course, create new text files and folders in which to organise your files and ideas. You can create a synopsis for each text document, which is very useful for outlining in Draft and Storyboard modes (see below). At the top of the Binder view is a table showing all the files selected in the outline view on the left. The table is also used to display search results. Also note the "Draft" folder at the top of the outline view. Only text files and folders can be placed inside this folder. The contents of this folder are what get displayed in Draft view mode (see below). 3. Compose View Mode 
Whereas the Binder view mode is the best place for importing and initially organising your work, the Compose view mode is where you can view two different documents at the same time (or you can view two different parts of the same document). This screenshot shows how you might place a picture in the top pane as the basis for a description you want to write in the bottom pane. 
You can change the orientation of the split view to best fit the documents you wish to view. Here it has a vertical orientation to better fit a PDF document. 
You can also view movies. A drawer is available in Compose view that displays the synopsis and notes of selected text documents. 4. Draft View Mode 
The Draft view allows you to see all the individual documents you have created in or imported into the Draft folder as one long document. This way, you can see how all the text you have written fits together. It works a little like Jer's Novel Writer or the outline mode in Mellel. The buttons at the bottom allow you to show the notes of the currently selected document and optionally to show the synopsis, label or status fields in the outline view. 
You can change the orientation of the split view in Draft mode so that it is horizontal rather than vertical. This can make it easier to view all the columns in the outline view, and offers a more OmniOutliner-style view, which is nice for dealing with outlines. 5. Storyboard View Mode 
Storyboard mode provides an alternative method of outlining. Here you can shuffle around all those index cards on which you wrote synopses in an iMovie-like interface. As each index card corresponds to a document, this is just another way of reorganising your project. 6. Separate Editor 
Double-clicking on any document in one of the four main views will launch that document in its own separate window. If it is a text document, it will be launched in a TextEdit-esque editor. 
The editor features a drawer that can be used to display the synopsis and notes of text documents. 
A very useful feature of Scrivener's text system is the ability to annotate text. By highlighting a selection and choosing "Annotate" from the toolbar, menu or contextual menu, you can associate a note with a range of text, which is highlighted. Annotations are shown in a tool tip when the mouse hovers above associated text. 7. Full Screen 
I think it was Ulysses that started the superb trend of a full screen mode for writing programs. And if it's a good trend, why buck it? 8. Export 
Using the "Export Draft" option, Scrivener can export the draft to one long document in RTFD, RTF, TXT or HTML formats. You can choose which documents get exported, whether they should have a page break after them or not, and whether to include any annotations.
NB: The image used in the Scrivener sample project in these screenshots is a piece of art by Mark Lupo, from http://www.btinternet.com/~Mark.Lupo/.. |
