Scrivener provides an environment with four primary tools.ġ. Except sometimes a text editor, a command line and a compiler are all you need. It is a writers IDE (Integrated Development Environment), like Visual Studio in the programmer's world, where all the tools needed for programming a new windows application, including the UI, is at your finger tips. Scrivener is an ambitious attempt to pull all the primary tools of a writers studio into one complex software application. You may not come to the same conclusions but I will try to provide enough for you to determine if you would agree or not. Keep n mind I am one writer with a particular work flow.
I will say up front that I will continue to use Scrivener in my tool box but that I will not depend on it for everything and why. I will share what I think is good about Scrivener, what I think falls short, and what alternatives I have and still use and why. All of this will be based on the beta of Version 3 for Windows, which I do think is an improvement and frankly, until it is officially released, you can use it for free. YMMV, but I thought I would share my findings for others. So, especially with the lock down, I have returned to re-evaluating Scrivener and it is faring much better, but still is falling a little short.
I have consolidated all my writing into a single dedicated laptop, which will be also my portable platform if I ever return to writing remotely. However, since retiring and the pandemic, this has changed. ) In the past, part of it was not being a n Apple guy and needing portability which meant having access to my writing tools on multiple platforms- Windows, Android, Linux. As if not loving Scrivener means I'm not a real writer.