Forum: Author Hangout

Great - thanks for that pointer. I must have missed the announcement regarding support for docx files. I'll try posting the next chapter directly from the docx file. However, I assume I would need to change my chapter heading from a heading level 1 to heading level 3, and sections from h2 to h4?

Otherwise, since everything I do is Style Based, writing in Scrivener is a non-starter for me, as adding styles for each revision change is a LOT of unnecessary, extraneous work!

You'll have to explain about your usage of styles.

Scrivener has styles.

Scrivener has styles.

And not just styles, but all kinds of layout and formatting that is applied at 'compile' time, not at writing time. It's very, very flexible.

You'll have to explain about your usage of styles.

Scrivener has styles.

I know, that's why I'm reluctant to use ANY of the 'simplified' writing apps. Simply stated, much as Michael has, Styles are a way of applying formatting to an entire document, rather than merely 'in-line' formatting like < I> or < b>.

If I wrote in Scrivener, I'd waste a massive amount of time every revision (change) adding in my default styles that html & ePubs require to format my books.

Though, in truth, after you've been at it for awhile, you generally whittle down the number of styles that you employ to a few essential ones, greatly simplifying the entire process.

I know, that's why I'm reluctant to use ANY of the 'simplified' writing apps. Simply stated, much as Michael has, Styles are a way of applying formatting to an entire document, rather than merely 'in-line' formatting like < I> or < b>.

I know what styles are.

If I wrote in Scrivener, I'd waste a massive amount of time every revision (change) adding in my default styles that html & ePubs require to format my books.

Since Scrivener has styles, how does whatever you use to write now differ and make your process easier? How is Scrivener deficient in comparison?

Since Scrivener has styles, how does whatever you use to write now differ and make your process easier? How is Scrivener deficient in comparison?

As far as I can tell, Scrivener doesn't use Style Definitions, but instead uses flags (ex: "#h1Story Title"). For those of us who use styles to indent passages, modify spacing or limit the duplication of code for every single use of italics or bolded text, or indented text, there's no way to do that via Scrivener other than to copy the entire book text from WORD, save it as a separate revision, format and copy it back, and then reformat the ENTIRE book by hand. I'm sorry, but that's a hell of a lot of work for a simple revision control utility.

Scrivener is a SIMPLIFIED means of writing, but that's essentially because it STRIPS authors of the ability to format and manage how their stories are encoded in a document. If you don't understand what your documents do, that's fine, but for those of us who live and breathe these documents every day, it's incredibly frustrating.

By the way, does anyone have a reasonable revision manager for Macs that doesn't require stripping all the code for formatting?

As it is, I've got books dating back 15 years with no idea what revision it is, no history of past versions and nothing but the most recent version (not that there's really any reason to go back to earlier uncorrected versions anyway).

By the way, does anyone have a reasonable revision manager for Macs that doesn't require stripping all the code for formatting?

CW, I've two ways to manage revisions:

1st is a version date on the copyright page, and the second is to save the older files with a date and editor code added to the end of the file name. That way all of the old versions list in order. However, the same can be achieved simply by adding V001 V002 etc to the file name as you save them.

By the way, does anyone have a reasonable revision manager for Macs that doesn't require stripping all the code for formatting?

Write in pure text the way I do and use git.😈

It is awesome. I used Excel before that and scrivener is 100 times better for organizing a story.

Alas, I'm reluctant to fork over $35 for something with limited functionality on the hope that it'll meet all my needs and NOT screw up my books. From what I've seen of Scrivener, it's primarily aimed at those with no experience if book design or formatting, and for those others who 'can't be bothered' learning their craft. :(

Before you spend your money on Scrivener you should check out Manuskript:

https://www.theologeek.ch/manuskript/

Free, open source, for Linux or Windows, can be made to work on Mac.

Yeah, I looked at the Mac options and Catalina played havoc with it. If you want to try it, you need some decent technical expertise. Hopefully they can get it sorted.