Literature and Latte

Writing a book, short story or research paper is about more than hammering away at the keys until it's done. Research, scrawling fragmentary ideas that don't seem to fit anywhere yet, collecting faded photos from old newspapers, shuffling index cards to find that elusive structure - most writing software is only fired up after much of the hard work is already done. Enter Scrivener: writing software that stays with you from that first, unformed idea all the way through to the first - or even final - draft. Outline and structure your ideas. Take notes. Storyboard your masterpiece using a powerful virtual corkboard. View research while you write. Track themes using keywords. Dynamically combine multiple scenes into a single text just to see how they fit. Scrivener has already been enthusiastically adopted by best-selling novelists and novices alike - whatever you write, grow your ideas in style.

What is it?
Scrivener is a word processor and project management tool created specifically for writers of long texts such as novels and research papers. It won't try to tell you how to write - it just makes all the tools you have scattered around your desk available in one application.

Focus on Writing
Scrivener provides access to the full power of the OS X text system: add tables, bullet points and images and format your text however you want. Define ranges of text as footnotes and they become footnotes when you export or print. And because the way you view your text onscreen may not always be how you want to see it in print, Scrivener makes it easy to format the printed or exported text completely differently from what is onscreen - leaving you free to focus on the actual writing.

Refer to Research
No more switching between multiple applications to refer to research files: keep all of your research - image files, PDF documents, movies, sound files and web pages - right inside Scrivener. And unlike in other programs that only let you see one document in a window at a time, in Scrivener you can view a research document in one pane and compose your text in another right alongside it. Transcribe an interview, make notes about a picture, or just refer back to another chapter, all from within the same program.

Corkboard
The cork notice-board is one of the writer's most familiar tools. Before Scrivener, though, the index cards were not connected to anything (other than ideas, of course); any changes to the order on the corkboard would have to be replicated manually in the draft. In Scrivener, every document is attached to a virtual index card onto which you can jot a synopsis. Use the corkboard to shuffle these index cards around - which is instantly reflected in the structure of your draft.

Outline
The outliner is another way of viewing the synopses and meta-data of the documents in your project. Restructure your work easily; get an overview of the project so far and what still needs to be done; check how many scenes have Jack as the point-of-view character; read and edit an overview of a scene, a chapter or of the whole draft.

Draft the Next Blockbuster
Whilst Scrivener is not dedicated screenplay software such as Final Draft or Montage, its familiar scriptwriting features make the basics of formatting a script easy. So you can draft your script inside Scrivener and then export it to your favourite dedicated scriptwriting program (or word processor) for the final touches. And because you can mix up script formatting with normal text, it makes it easier than ever to write treatments.

Smile - You Have Snapshots
Never be afraid to make mistakes. Scrivener's "snapshot" feature makes it easy to return to an earlier version of your text. Before starting a major edit on a document, just take a snapshot, which stores the old version safely away. You can then call up old snapshots for reference, or restore an older version of the text if you decide you prefer it to the most recent revision.

Full Screen - Evolved
Because sometimes you want to blank out the rest of the world while you write - or at least the rest of the screen. Scrivener boasts the most advanced full screen editing mode out there. Fade the background in and out, choose the width of the "paper" and get writing. Prefer an old-school green-text-on-black look? No problem. Flexible preferences mean you can set up the full screen mode however you want. Change documents, refer to your notes, apply keywords - or just write - in one of the most beautiful distraction-free modes available.

Compile for Export or Print
Finished your masterpiece? Now it's time to get it "out there" by compiling your draft into a single document: print a novel using standard manuscript formatting; export to Microsoft Word; save as HTML; export as plain text and import a screenplay into Final Draft. Whatever your requirements, Scrivener's export feature is powerful enough that you need do little formatting until you come to export and publish. And for those who want to typeset their own work, Scrivener even supports the MultiMarkdown markup language, which gives those who have more exacting requirements all the power of exporting to LaTeX and XHTML.

Is Scrivener the right tool for you?
Scrivener is designed for managing large writing projects. It is particularly suited to writers who don't always think in a linear fashion - who don't always start at the beginning and end at the end. It also suits those who like outlining, or who don't necessarily like outlining but like to be able to see the structure of their work as it grows and to be able to reorganise that structure easily. Because Scrivener is about shaping chunks of text into a final typescript, Scrivener knows nothing of pages until it comes to exporting or printing and therefore does not have the page layout viewing features of modern word processor applications. So if you are just looking for an alternative to Word you might want to try Nisus Writer or Mellel. If you are drawn by Scrivener's full screen mode but aren't bothered about its large writing project management tools, try WriteRoom. If you came to this page because you have struggled with traditional word processors in trying to manage or finish a large writing project, try Scrivener by downloading the 30-day trial. And if after 30 days you decide that Scrivener isn't the tool for you, be sure to check out the Links page for a list of alternative writing tools.