Kirk McElhearn - Take Control of Scrivener 3

Kirk McElhearn

Welcome to Take Control of Scrivener 3, version 1.1, published in March 2021 by alt concepts inc. This book was written by Kirk McElhearn and edited by Joe Kissell.

Literature & Lattes Scrivener is an innovative app for writing fiction, non-fiction, screenplays, and other long-form texts. This book helps you start writing your masterpiece with Scrivener by showing you how to get the most out of the apps basic concepts and features.

Copyright 2021, Eyes of the World Limited. All rights reserved.

Thanks to Keith Blount at Literature & Latte for making this such an enjoyable project.

You can access extras related to this ebook on the web (use the link in , near the end; its available only to purchasers). On the ebooks Take Control Extras page, you can:

• Download any available new version of the ebook for free, or buy any subsequent edition at a discount.

• Download various formats, including PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket. (Learn about reading on mobile devices on our Device Advice page.)

• Read the ebooks blog. You may find new tips or information, as well as a link to an author interview.

If you bought this ebook from the Take Control website, it has been added to your account, where you can download it in other formats and access any future updates.

This version of the book was updated and released to coincide with the release of Scrivener 3 for Windows, the first version of the app that has feature parity with the Mac version. In previous versions of this book, I highlighted features that were not available in the Windows app, but in this version, there are only a few such differences. Most of them are due to differences in the operating system.

I have also made small updates throughout the book to discuss new or changed features in Scrivener 3 for Mac, and I have added Windows keyboard shortcuts and menu item names whenever I mention controlling the app from the keyboard or from the menus.

Other changes in this edition include:

• Scrivener now has themes, which are groups of settings that change the way the interface displays. I discuss this in .

• A Focus Mode has been added to Scrivener, which allows you to fade out everything except the current line, sentence or paragraph as you write. I discuss this in .

• Scrivener now supports Dark Mode in macOS, and offers settings allowing you to automatically change the Scrivener interface if your Mac switches to Dark Mode according to the time of day. There are also settings for using Scrivener in dark or light mode regardless of what macOS is using, and there are individual interface settings for both dark and light mode. See for more on this.

• There are some changes to the way Scrivener handles and displays project statistics. I cover this in . The latest version of Scrivener has also removed the option to tweet your writing progress on a Mac.

• Scrivener includes extensive support for using the Touch Bar, an interface element available on some MacBook Pro models, which provides virtual, contextual buttons that can help make your work easier. Ive added a sidebar discussing this: see .

• There are lots of small changes to Scriveners Compile feature, which are not specifically mentioned in the book, but which you can see on the Literature & Latte website in the detailed Scrivener release notes.

Most of the word processors and text editors available todaytheres a staggeringly long list of themwere designed for linear writing, where you start at the beginning and write until you reach the end. Scrivener was created with the assumption that many writers of long-form worksnovels, non-fiction books, theses, screenplays, and so ondo best with a different approach. (Of course, you can still write in a linear fashion with Scrivener if you want.)

Scrivener provides a unique environment that frees you from the constraints of beginning, middle, and end. If you like, you can start at the end of your work, then write the beginning, and then fill out the middle. As you write, you can easily move scenes, sections, and chapters, until your work is exactly as you want.

In addition, Scrivener provides an easy way to store items such as research material, character sketches, and setting information in the same project file as your writing, giving you instant access to this material, such as photos, videos, webpages, audio files, and text files.

As you become comfortable with Scriveners unique and powerful features, and its incredible flexibility, you may find that it becomes essential to your writing workflow.

In this book, I look at Scrivener from the point of view of a writer about to embark on a project. This project could be fiction or non-fiction; it could be a screenplay or a collection of short stories. I show you how to easily start working with Scrivener, leverage its powerful organizational and text management features, move ahead as you write, and then forget that youre using the app so that you can focus on your text.

In order to present a realistic project in the examples used in this book, I have chosen Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick, the classic novel of obsession and the quest for redemption.

This book discusses Scrivener 3 on Mac and Windows, along with a chapter about Scrivener for iOS and iPadOS. At the time this version of the book was published, Scrivener for Mac was at version 3.2, and the Windows version 3 had just been released. The apps are nearly identical, but Ill highlight any differences in notes throughout the book.

When presenting keyboard shortcuts, Ill show you both the Mac and Windows shortcuts, in that order. For example, to copy some text, Ill instruct you to press -C/Ctrl+C, or -C on a Mac, and Ctrl+C on Windows. Some Windows shortcuts use the Windows key, which is the key with the Windows logo located between the Ctrl and Alt keys on a Windows keyboard. I abbreviate that key as Win in shortcuts; for example, to access project keywords, press Win+Shift+K.

And when I tell you to choose a menu item (such as File > Compile), Ill only mention specific Mac and Windows terms if they differ. In most cases, the terms used are the same. One key difference occurs when discussing preferences and settings for Scrivener. On a Mac, you choose Scrivener > Preferences to access these settings; on Windows you choose File > Options.

Note: You can view the Scrivener manual from within the app by choosing Help > Scrivener Manual. Since the Scrivener manual is constantly being updated as Scrivener evolves, and chapter and section numbers may change, all references to the manual in this book include chapter names, in the format Chapter > Section > Sub-Section (if any). Check the manuals table of contents for the specific sections I refer to.