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5 Best Features of Scrivener for Writers

Updated on February 21, 2018
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Ceres Schwarz is a technology enthusiast who loves writing tutorials, guides, reviews, and information about the latest gadgets & software.

Scrivener is a word processor program created and produced by Literature & Latte. It is available for both Windows and Mac users.

Actually, Scrivener is similar to Microsoft Word and the other word processors out there.

However, there is so much more to Scrivener than just being a mere word processor wherein you can type words for an article, a story or for whatever it is that you're writing about.

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Scrivener for Windows.Scrivener for Mac.
Scrivener for Windows.
Scrivener for Windows.
Scrivener for Mac.
Scrivener for Mac. | Source

Scrivener for Writers

Scrivener has actually been designed for the use of writers to help them throughout the entirety of the writing process. But of course, Scrivener can be used by anyone even if you are not writing a book.

Scrivener is actually very useful to have especially if you are planning to write stories. This program has many different features that are available for its users, especially for those who want to write stories.

Scrivener for Windows:

Scrivener [Download]
Scrivener [Download]
Is this the best tool for writers? You can find more information about Scrivener below.
 

Scrivener and its many, many features

Scrivener has so many different features that some might not even know all of these features.

Or perhaps they're just not interested in knowing these features, at least not until they have need of these features.

Some, like me, prefer to just know the basic features of Scrivener including the ones that will be most often used.

For instance, if you're still in the process of writing your story, there is no need to know how to publish this story in Scrivener yet.

There will be time for that later on when you've finally finished your story and you're ready to compile it all together.

With all of the many features of Scrivener, here are the top 5 features that I consider to be the best. These are all certainly very useful as well.

What do you think about Scrivener?

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The 5 "best" features of Scrivener

1. The binder

In Scrivener, you can have as many documents as you want and be able to keep them all in one single project file.

You can easily break down your story into any way you want to such as by scene or by chapter.

This negates the need to scroll through a massively-sized word document with hundreds of pages just to locate a particular block of text you're searching for.

With the Scrivener binder, you can clearly see all the files that you have in one single Scrivener document. You can also move around the files in this binder such as interchanging text documents and folders.
With the Scrivener binder, you can clearly see all the files that you have in one single Scrivener document. You can also move around the files in this binder such as interchanging text documents and folders.

The binder is a part of Scrivener that allows you to see a list of all the documents that you have in your project file.

You can easily select a document that you want to view via the binder. You can also easily move around these documents within the binder.

You can put anything you want in these documents and title them any way you want to. So you can have your research and your story organized and compiled in one file. It’s up to you how you want to arrange the documents in your binder.

Another useful thing about the binder is that it allows you to see the contents of your entire project with no trouble at all. It’s like looking at a book’s table of contents. In this case, you can select a document from the binder and then be able to read the contents of that document.

Scrivener's cork board view

Scrivener's cork board view is very useful as it allows you to see your entire project in a visual way. It looks just like a real cork board. Feel free to move the index cards around in whichever way you like by simply dragging and dropping them.
Scrivener's cork board view is very useful as it allows you to see your entire project in a visual way. It looks just like a real cork board. Feel free to move the index cards around in whichever way you like by simply dragging and dropping them.

2. The cork board view

Scrivener has a virtual cork board that allows you to view the entirety of your project file in a more visual way.

In this view, you can see a multitude of index cards that corresponds to the number of documents that you have in your binder. These index cards have the same title as the documents in your binder.

Writing with Scrivener using a pink-colored keyboard, perhaps?
Writing with Scrivener using a pink-colored keyboard, perhaps?

In the body of these index cards, you can put a short summary or synopsis of what each document contains.

You can then refer to these index cards when you're wondering what a document contains without having to open the document and re-familiarizing yourself with its contents.

You can even rearrange these index cards in any way that you please, moving them around any which way just like with a real cork board.

3. The split-view mode

This handy feature of Scrivener allows you to view two documents in a single Scrivener project file side-by-side either horizontally or vertically.

Scrivener's split-view mode can either be horizontal or vertical. With this mode, you can easily refer to other files while working on the other without much hassle.
Scrivener's split-view mode can either be horizontal or vertical. With this mode, you can easily refer to other files while working on the other without much hassle.

This makes it easier for you to work on two documents at once. You can type in one document while using the other document beside it as a reference for more information.

You can easily compare and contrast documents or add and transfer blocks of text from one document to another. With the split-view mode, you don't need to minimize one document just to refer to another document.

4. The full screen mode

Scrivener can be switched into what is called the full screen mode where the only thing that you can see is the document you're currently writing on along with your choice of a background color.

The full screen mode is very useful especially to those who are prone to distractions. The default background color is black but you can change this to whatever color you like. You can also set just how faded you want your background to be.
The full screen mode is very useful especially to those who are prone to distractions. The default background color is black but you can change this to whatever color you like. You can also set just how faded you want your background to be.

For all intents and purposes, it’s just you and the document you're working on. This is especially useful for those that might get easily distracted when writing.

Seeing just the paper you're working on allows you to focus and actually write something instead of doing other things. Since the only thing you can see is your paper, you won’t be tempted to minimize the Scrivener file and check out other things like search the Internet.

5. The Scrivenings mode

This feature allows you to temporarily combine your entire project file so you can view all its contents as if they were a single file without having to click all the documents that you have.

The Scrivenings mode is just like viewing an entire story in one single document.
The Scrivenings mode is just like viewing an entire story in one single document.

You can then read the entire file without having to switch from one document to another. With this, you can easily see how your entire story flows and how it reads.

Conclusion

These five features show a lot of what Scrivener can do. But there are many more features that Scrivener has to offer its users and they are all useful in their own ways.

Another great thing about Scrivener is that you don't need to know all of its features to be able to make use of it.

Do you use Scrivener?

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You can dictate just how much or how little of its features you want to use. If, for instance, you never want to use the full screen mode or the Scrivenings mode, then you don't have to.

By all means, feel free to ignore those buttons. You can tinker around with the Scrivener options and preferences if you want to such as changing background colors and the like. Otherwise, you can just go with the default settings and immediately start writing.

Image Sources:

  • All Scrivener images are printscreen by Ceres Schwarz unless stated otherwise
  • The pink keyboard image is by Adikos, CC-BY, via flickr
  • The rest of the pics are enlarged product images from Amazon

© 2013 Ceres Schwarz

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