Scrivener For Dummies

I have been a fan of Scrivener for a number of years now. It was recommended as a favorite Mac writing program and I took a look and then adopted it. To learn it then I spent time with the tutorials and knew then that I barely scratched the surface.

Still it was a much better solution then Word, and when Pages came along, Scrivener was still much better to write in. We each have the way we like to configure our space, but the research folder on the left of the main pane became a place to hold so many wikipedia pages that were relevant to my writing, or maps, or place names, and the right side where I could have long lists of places, people and things listed made the software invaluable.

Yet as I mentioned, there was more depth here.

So the show more Scrivener community embraced Gwens' book and for a new person it probably has much more detail that is useful than I found. That everything is in one book is handy. What is not is the transition of a Dummie guide where some steps are outlined with a great deal of slowness and formatting, yet assumptions are made about options in this, and not enough screenshots are given.

As I remember in the tutorials of the program, an example takes you from start to finish so you can see the use of the program. Gwen needed to do that with two or three different types of writing and as we tackled new aspects of the program in her guide, she could have shown how it all related. Instead she did the disservice of writing that you could use an element without showing how to use that element in such a way. This was clearly a time when screenshots of show don't tell would have been valuable.

It will sit close on my shelf when I need to compile, or look up how to keep track of revisions, but it could have been much better. show less