Cool Tool

Well, after using it for about a month I have to say that I really like using Scrivener for writing. It really doesn't do anything special but it works in a way that really fits how I work, and that makes all the difference.

It is really geared to someone writing a book which is not something I am doing. I can see why it would work well for that though. They also recommend doing final formatting in another application but I haven't bothered with that so far. It is good enough for me as is.

I think the best way to think about it is as a 3-ring binder with subject dividers. Anything you would organize that way would probably work great with Scrivener. Right now I am working on my summer sermon series. So inside my binder I have one folder for each week. Inside each week I have one file each for my scripture, order of service, announcements, kid's sermon, big's sermon, and research. (I do use a separate research file in the binder for general research that is not week specific.)

All of this is easily done with any word processing software and file system. The thing I like about Scrivener is how easy it is to switch back and forth between ALL the documents in the binder. That may not seem like that big of a deal but it just makes a huge difference to me. Like I said at the beginning, it just fits how I work. It feels right, comfortable, and it makes me smile, which isn't something software does very often.

There are a lot of other cool little features that it has, including some they make a big deal about that I think are cool but don't really use too much. And there are a few annoying quirks that leave me scratching my head. But for anything that would fit in a binder that you would use text on, rather than numerals, it is simple elegance.