Buying ProWritingAid? Read this first.

[GrumpyMusketeer]

ProWritingAid (PWA) is reasonably priced (compared to Grammarly), does a good enough job, and works with Scrivener files. At least, in theory. If it worked seamlessly, copy-pasting your work in a grammar checker and copying it back again in Scrivener could be avoided. But there's a few problems I've come across while using it with Scrivener:
1. Paragraphing/indent displays incorrectly.
2. PWA does not properly identify smart and curly quotes.
3. PWA sometimes mistakes apostrophes for unclosed single quotes.

Small, annoying issues like these mean you end up editing your work in both programs. The main problem with PWA is that their error-reporting/customer service is virtually non-existent and unhelpful. It seems that fixing such issues is not a priority for them. I have posted the aforementioned issues in Scrivener's beta forum and they've informed me that all such issues are on PWA's side, not Scrivener's.

Long story short, if you are thinking of spending your hard-earned money on PWA because it claims to work seamlessly with Scrivener, please be aware that it doesn't work as smoothly as it claims. Maybe they'll fix the issues with a stable Windows build of Scrivener. Having lost quite a bit of my hair and sanity, I advise people thinking of buying PWA to wait until the stable release of Scrivener.

[kewms]

Topic moved to more appropriate forum. -- Katherine

[Bradley310]

I have PWA and it works well, BUT I gave up trying to use it in Scrivener. When I feel I'm done and ready for final edits, one by one I compile each chapter into a Word document and do all my edits from there. Then, I copy and post my edited chapter back into Scrivener.

I wish I didn't have to, but I haven't found the editing tools in Scrivener to be robust enough to do it another way.

[theswede]

1. Paragraphing/indent displays incorrectly.
2. PWA does not properly identify smart and curly quotes.
3. PWA sometimes mistakes apostrophes for unclosed single quotes.

1. I have not found this. How do you indent?
2. This one is a bit of a bother, when those are needed, yes. I use "simple" quotes while writing and convert them in export to work around.
3. Might depend on what character you use as an apostrophe? I haven't encountered this.

[lmariam]

I've got ProWritingAid myself and find it cumbersome to work with when compared against Grammarly. I'd suggest that more people write to Grammarly and suggest that they support Scrivener. The squeaky wheel always gets the grease.

[UK3D]

I have been working with Scrivener and ProWritingAid for a year or so and have found the two to work well together. I do my planning and writing in Scrivener then use PWA to run reports and catch all the corrections I need to make. It may be that the formatting looks different in PWA but for me at least the formatting is retained when I move back into Scrivener. I do all of my editing in PWA.
As to Grammerly I was tempted by the slick interface and ease of use but feel PWA is the better option for longer manuscripts, Plus I don't like the monthly/annual subscription model and will always seek a non-sub alternative where possible.

[GrumpyMusketeer]

UK3D, my workflow is same as yours. The reason for buying a lifetime subscription of PWA is also the same.

So I'd very much appreciate any information about how PWA works without errors with Scrivener beta. The main problem for me is that if I create a new paragraph in PWA and open the file in Scrivener, the indenting/paragraphing is off (paragraph break appears as a line break). Could you please describe the settings in your Scrivener's editor?

[IanE]

I've only recently bought PWA. I found it difficult to import Scrivener - or indeed any document into it. What I do is copy & paste a Scrivener chapter in PWA & run them both at the same time. That way I don't lose any indents etc.

[Nailseauk]

I find ProWriting Aid works well with Scrivener. Yes, it needs tuning and has a few quirks, but on the whole I find it does the job it's designed to do. The fact I can open the document files directly in ProWriting Aid is a real help. I write in Scrivener, tidy the text up in ProWriting Aid and then read it through again in Scrivener.

I tried Grammerly first and hated it, I was then plagued for months with advertising for it through Google.

[timothy]

The main problem for me is that if I create a new paragraph in PWA and open the file in Scrivener, the indenting/paragraphing is off (paragraph break appears as a line break). Could you please describe the settings in your Scrivener's editor?

Hitting return in ProWritingAid inserts "\line" into the RTF file. It's a hidden character in Scrivener, but when I compile MMD->Web (HTML) it shows up as a glyph. Painful, because the only way to see the issue is to compile. Is there a way to make this work correctly withing Scrivener?

[lmariam]

I have PWA but actually find it easier to use with Grammarly. I just open a blank document in Word then copy and paste the chapter from Scrivener to Word. After checking it with Grammarly, I copy and paste it back into Scrivener.

The only issue I've seen is to delete the Scrivener document before pasting the edited copy back into Scrivener as sometimes it seems to not copy over the revised document.

[DownUnderDabbler]

I think it is the copying and pasting that is the problem.

Close Scrivener and open the file in PWA. Save when you are done editing and close PWA. Open your file again in
Scrivener and your formatting should be unchanged.

See https://help.prowritingaid.com/article/ ... writingaid