Scrivener 2 – my first impressions

Next week, after months of teasing, Literature and Latte will be making Scrivener 2 available for purchase. But to wet our appetites – and to give all those eager NanoWriMo folks a glimpse before its dropped on them the same day they’re supposed to begin writing – L&L has put up a pre-release copy with a trial license. Its missing a few features still, or at least some of the pre-made templates, but all in all its the complete product.

So, in the few hours of free time I’ve had this week (and they have been few and far between, and I can’t believe I’m wasting one of them right now, but hey, this blogs needs some loving), I took a quick skim through the interface, loading up my existing scrivener project as a test case.

Folks, I’m here to tell you, the wait is over. This release of Scrivener is *it*. I’ve tried a lot of writing software over the years (because what better way to delay writing than to look at tools to do said writing?). Scrivener 1.x met most of my needs, but there was always a feature here, a feature there, that were sadly missing in Scrivener. Nothing grand, mostly silly little things that make the art of writing a little easier. Highlighting your current line like WriteRoom does; being able to work on your story in one continues streamline (even if it is stored in separate files) like Storyist (I think it was Storyist?) does it.

Scrivener 2 has all that, and so much more. They’ve taken their cork board index cards to the next level, making organizing them more organic (you have to see it to know what I mean). The interface is just damned simple to figure out – I played with the commenting feature this morning, which if it existed in the last release I never saw it. I can easily see making second drafts a heck of a lot easier to work with. Highlight the text in question, hit the comment marker, and type your comment. The content of your document hasn’t changed, you can still export/print it as is, but the inspector now has a comments block you can access to see what notes you made. Scrivener 2 is literally like a second draft of what was already a well regarded writing tool.

And the nice part is, you can try it if you use a Mac or Windows (I don’t think Linux is supported – sorry penguins! But you have to understand, or at least be used to this by now). That’s right, Scrivener 2 is going to be available for Windows in January, and both the Mac and Windows version are available for trial right now.  So head over to Literature and Latte and give it a whirl if you fancy yourself a writer tired in need of a good tool to help you work on your fiction without being hassled by the interface. Tell them I sent you. They’ll give you a blank stare, but if enough of you do, maybe they’ll say to themselves, hey, who is this kodermike guy that sent us all these potential, budding writers???

6 thoughts on “Scrivener 2 – my first impressions”

  1. I’m also loving Scrivener 2. I use it every day to manage work projects and writing projects. The one feature I’m really digging is the new compile manager. Scriv 1 had a compile feature, but the rev 2 version is more polished and provides way more options. Want to export to Kindle? Ok. Want to export to epub? Ok. Want to have special meta data options for each? Ok.

    Best comment evar: “Scrivener 2 is literally like a second draft of what was already a well regarded writing tool.”

  2. We know who you are Mike! And we’re grateful to you – thanks for the kind words. (I should point out though that the Windows version coming in January won’t have all of Scrivener 2.0 for the Mac’s new features.)

    Glad you like it (Jamie too – I’m pleased you like the new Compile interface because that took me ages and several iterations 🙂 ).

    Right, back to those templates!
    All the best,
    Keith

  3. It’s “whet”your appetites; and three (at least) incorrect “its” in first paragraph: each one meaning “it is” should be “it’s”. One “continuous” streamline. Don’t know what “if you fancy yourself a writer tired in need of a good tool” means.

    Just sayin’.

    1. Bah 🙂 My appetite is all about salivating, not sharpening! Corrections/updates coming, although for the last one – maybe that was my subconscious interfering (I was tired, but there’s no context to it in that sentence that I can see, and I wrote the damned thing).

      Gah, on second thought, I’m not updating this one since as I read that last paragraph again, its practically a new blog post to correct it to the point that its sensible. Sorry :/

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