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Scrivener is a writing program, allowing you to keep ALL of our (WIP/MS) Work In Progress/Manuscript in one place, where you can access
it at the click of a mouse. Think of it like a 3-ring binder holding all the pieces of your story. Organize it with color and icons.
View it as a notebook, or cork board with note cards or in an outline.
I discovered Scrivener in 2012, by a friend raving about it. At the time I had been struggling for several years on a 400+ page opus. I, like the
majority of folks, in those days, were using Word. My research for the beast, was all over my hard drive. I’d spend an hour trying to find the correct
file. :(
Since all 400+ pages were in one Word document, locating the spot I wanted to edit, took a while to pinpoint. I had left so many breadcrumbs in my
WIP, that I ran out of words to use for searching.
Scrivener enabled me to take my monster and divide it into the eighty chapters it had become and view all of them at one glance. I then color
coordinated them by plot and character, allowing me to see the holes in the story. Not to mention ALL of my research material was right there,
in the same folder, labeled and easy to find. I don’t think its too much to say that Scrivener improved my writing.
A staunch Windows user, sneering at those lesser people that used a Mac. In 2013 I’d had enough of wasting multiple hours every week to an update by
Microsuck. I switched to Mac, yes I moved to the dark side and became one of the lesser people. A decisions I don't regret.
Now a seasoned Scrivener fanatic, all the extra goodies I got with my Mac version made me a happy writer. :)
I’ve been using this program for the past three years on both PC & Mac, all of my writing projects, novels, blogs, tech tips, are all done with
Scrivener. I wanted to show people some of the features it offers.
Table of Contents
crivener Tid-Bit
August 10, 2015
Moving Files into Scrivener
Now that Nano is over and we’ve all taken a well deserved break, its time to get back to writing.
How to get your files into Scrivener is one of the most frequently asked questions. There are at least three different ways to do it.
Import Files
1. Open Scrivener
2. Begin a new project (File/New project)
3. Import files (File/Import)
crivener Tid-BitJuly 19, 2015
Nanowrimo Compile
Camp Nano, We are smack dab in the middle of it!
Since tomorrow marks the first day you can verify your word count, I wanted to show you a nice little trick that Scrivener has for that.
Some people worry that their work will be pinched, and want it to be coded, this will do that, without changing your word count.
Nano Compile
1. File/Compile
2. Click ‘All Options’ at the top of the window
3. Click on 'Format As:'
4. Click on 'Manage Compile Format Presets'
5. Click on 'Nanowrimo (Obfuscated)'
6. Compile
Nano Compile
(Sorry but you have more steps, as usual)
1. You will need Nanowrimo Novel (Obfuscated).ini file which you can get here
1A. The file is a zip file and will need to be unzipped in order to access the file.
2. File/Compile
3. Click ‘Load Preset’
3A. Click ‘Up Arrow’ at the end of the ‘Format As:’ If you can’t see ‘Load Preset’
4. ‘Import’
5. Click ‘Cancel’ on the window
6. Click ‘Format As’
7. Choose under My Formats - ‘Nanowrimo Novel (Obfuscated)’
8. Compile
crivener Tid-BitJuly 14, 2015
Changing positions in Binder
Camp Nano, We are smack dab in the middle of it!
I know this may seem like a no brainer for folks to figure out, but for some people this is a tough concept.
Changing the order of folders and text files in the Binder is really easy to do, but getting them to be deposited where you want them sometimes doesn’t work the way you want them to.
Once you get the hang of it, it will be easy.
Changing positions in Binder
1. Highlight folder/text file you want to move
2. Click and Move
3. Subfolder: Move the highlighted item until a colored rectangle forms around the item you WANT to position it under
4. Change Hierarchy: Move the highlighted item until a colored line forms above or below the item you WANT to position it above or below
Win:
1. Highlight folder/text file you want to move
2. Right Click
3. Click ‘Move To’
4. Use the direction arrows at the bottom of the window to position where you want.
crivener Tid-BitJune 30, 2015
Annotate
Camp Nano, Starts tonight at midnight!
A handy way to make notes to yourself or others in your WIP. Ever find yourself needing to research something,
in the middle of writing? But you know if you stop, you'll get pulled away and waste the time for writing.
Now you can put something in the piece to remind you of what you need to look up and then annotate it. Now you can do a search for
the annotations [later].
Annotate
1. Highlight the area of your WIP (work in progress)
2. Click on 'Format'
3. Click on 'Inline Annotation'
* Do you see a colored box around the highlighted area?
Changing the Color:
1. Click inside the annotation.
2. Click on 'Format'
3. Click on 'Font'
4. Click on 'Show Colors'
5. Choose a color
* Do you see the new color?
Don't need the annotation:
1. Highlight annotation
2. Click 'Format'
3. Click 'Inline Annotation'
crivener Tid-BitJune 27, 2015
Snapshot
Camp Nano, is in 4 days!
This is one of the many ways you can save your work in Scrivener. If you are working on a section, making edits, you can first take a Snapshot. If later you find you
had a great piece of dialogue in the first draft that you deleted, no worries, you can go back to the Snapshot and pull it out.
Snapshot
1. Click on the ‘Camera’ icon in the bottom of Inspector
2. Click the ‘+’ sign at the top of Inspector/Snapshot
*Did you hear the sound of a camera shutter releasing?
MAC:
3. Highlight the Snapshot you just took
4. Hit ‘Enter’
5. Type in a name
WIN:
3. Highlight the Snapshot you just took
4. Double Click on it
5. Type in a name
If you decide you no longer need a Snapshot:
1. Highlight the Snapshot you want to remove
2. Click the ‘-‘ button at the top of Snapshot
3. Snapshot removed.
crivener Tid-BitJune 25, 2015
Duplicate Words
Camp Nano, is less than a week away!
We all do it, have specific words we use all the time, or use a word right after we’ve just used it.
Here is a way you can check on duplicate word usage.
Word Duplicates
1. Click on 'Project'
2. Click 'Text Project'
3. Click on triangle in front of 'words'
4. See list of words and their frequency of use.
crivener Tid-BitJune 21, 2015
Here’s another fun thing that allows you to customize how the statistics of your project are reported to you. This is very useful for
Camp Nano, as it allows you to set up a deadline
(30 days of writing) and when the word count gets cleared out for the next day. The Win version is not as robust as the Mac, but you still have some items to customize.
MAC-
Click on ‘Project’ tab
Click on ‘Show Project Targets’
Click on ‘Options’
*Let’s take these one at a time:
Draft Target-
Count Documents included in the compile group only
*If you only wanted files that will be in your compile
Target applies to current compile group only
*If you have a project and maybe you are working on some sub files in the project. You make sure that these are the only marked for compile.
Deadline
* This is great for Nano, or anything else you need a deadline for.
Session Target
Reset session count at midnight
*Again this is great for Nano, it resets your target number back to zero starting at midnight.
Count test written anywhere in the project
*This allows if you have forgotten to check something to be compiled, and includes your research area
Allows negatives
*If you have torn out a huge section of your writing which brings your count into the negative.
Automatically calculate from draft deadline, writing days Sun to Sat
Allow writing on day of deadline
*This allows the program to tell you how many days you have left in your deadline (Nano). It gives you the opportunity to tell the program which days you won’t be writing, and if the deadline day is to be counted.
Show target notifications
*When you reach your goal for the day or project you will receive a pop-up notification and tone announcing you have reached your goal. :)
Show twitter button
*Self explanatory.
Win-
Click on ‘Project’ tab
Click on ‘Project Statistics’
*Give it a second to compile the information
*Tabs at the top ‘Statistics’
*Self explanatory
Count all documents
*If you’ve got research or front/back matter you want included in the stats
Count only documents marked for inclusion
*To only have the parts relative to the story
Count only documents not marked for inclusion
*Maybe you want to see how many pages not part of the story
Exclude comments and annotations
*A way to clean up your word count
Exclude footnotes
*Self explanatory
Count all sub-doucuments
*If you want to add this into the stats
Calculate pages using:
*This give you the option of using either words or characters
Words per page
*Self explanatory
crivener Tid-Bit June 12, 2015
Word Count #4
Continuing with the theme of word count, getting you ready for Camp Nano next month.
Scrivener allows for at least three different ways to do this.
#4 Outline
If you are using the Outline view, that makes you very organized, you too can keep track of your Word Count. :)
1. In Outliner Click ‘View’
2. Click ‘Outliner Columns’
3. Click ‘Word Count’
4. Click on a Folder/Section
*This will show you the word counts in all of the files that are listed under the folder/chapters
crivener Tid-Bit June 10, 2015
Word Count #3
Continuing with the theme of word count, getting you ready for Camp Nano
next month.
Scrivener allows for at least three different ways to do this.
#3 Per Project
1.Click on ‘Project’ tab
2.Click on ‘Show Project Targets’
MAC
3.Click ‘Edit’
4.Type in the number of words you want to shoot for.
5.Click ‘Apply’
PC
3.Under the heading ‘Manuscript Target’ Click in the ‘field’ with the 0
4.Type the number of your target
5.Click on the ’Triangle’ next to ‘Words’
*You can either choose words or characters
6.You will see ‘Session Target’ listed below
7.Again type your target number in it.
8.The ‘Triangles’ next to both Session and Manuscript Target will collapse that section.
crivener Tid-Bit June 5, 2015
Word Count #2
Continuing with the theme of word count, getting you ready for Camp Nano next month.
Scrivener allows for at least three different ways to do this.
#2 Word Count Per Document
Bottom center of the Editor (page you do all your work in) notice the numbers while you type? Word and character count, easy to view.
If you set a Target (see previous post) next to the word count there would be a slash and the Target number.
crivener Tid-Bit June 3, 2015
Word Count #1
Thought I would try something new this month. I love Scrivener, and wanted to offer tips to folks that are using it.
With Nano Camp next month, being able to follow
your word count can keep you motivated and focused on your writing. Scrivener allows for at least three different ways to do this.
#1 Word Count Per Document
1.Bottom right of the editor (Page you do all your work in) small round button. 
2.Click it.
3.Enter your ‘target’ word count for this document in the popup window.
4.Check the box marked ‘show target notifications.’
Back at the bottom of the editor, you will notice that a rectangular bar/graph has appeared next to the round button.
As you type, watch it change color as you get closer to your target.
When you reach your target it will be green and you will get a popup notification.
