Well, I finally got around to watching the Scrivener introductory tutorial videos and test driving both Scrivener and Ulysses to evaluate them for my own purposes.
I'm glad you found the app that works for you, it isn't an easy.
While I hope they will refine and modernize the UI in the next version and I'll like the result when they do, I can live with UI as it is. I did not find the wealth of features overwhelming given the way things are laid out in the app.
I can't get Ulysses out of the back of mind because it is indeed a very slick and modern app. I'm a little annoyed with L&L because although they have promised a Yosemite-style update with or right after the iOS release, they have been silent on what to expect. I would appreciate some "in-progress" screenshots of both the iPad and the new Mac application or something.
Ideally, Scrivener's update would make it slick like Ulysses and the iPad sync would make Ulysses unnecessary for me, so I don't want to spend money on it. One negative is that the Soulmen say that an iPhone app is in the works; I don't think you'll ever see scrivener on the iPhone, but it would be nice to be able to read or make quick edits.
I felt a lot more comfortable with how Scrivener works overall and for me, I like having the wealth of features there available to me but as was mentioned earlier by Traverse, not in my face all the time. It offers me the ability to make it more my own than I felt Ulysses could. A big one for me too was I do not like at all the idea of burying everything all together in one file. In fact, I hate that. I'm also not a big fan of iCloud which needs a lot of work before it can be considered anywhere near on par with Dropbox. I do use it for various Apple Apps (what other option is there for those anyway?) but I will probably spend for Dropbox even though I do need nearly the amount of storage their one-size-fits-all plan offers. I really wish they would break that up into less costly storage tiers. Still, given the alternatives I find it superior to other solutions I have looked at and tried.
It is hard to explain but I felt at home in Scrivener rapidly. I wasn't overwhelmed at all not that there isn't a learning curve and I have not ascended it yet either. Still, just to get started I did not find it at all difficult to understand and use. Ulysses just didn't feel right to me and I am really not enthused about learning or using markdown. I guess if at some point some valid reason for me to want to bother arises I will cross that bridge then but for now I see no benefit to me personally.
Well said. Most apps require you to learn the entire app or try to wrap your head around many things all at once to start using the software. Scrivener is very different. I just started using its basic functions (files in the Binder, text in the editor). I gradually began utilizing more features, not because they were there, but because I genuinely wanted to use them. This really makes a big difference in how software feels and, like you said, you felt right at home with it. And I too don't really love the idea of storing all my stuff in iCloud, even if there is automatic backups. All the professional reviews back in March (initially launch) and even current App Stores reviews mention some syncing issues. I believe this is iCloud's wacky handling more so than a developer issue. iCloud just isn't ready to compete with Dropbox for me. Apple changes how it works every few years. It lacks consistency, reliability, and trust.
I am trying to write Markdown even in Scrivener, because it really is a universal text language. I wish Scrivener supported syntax highlighting like Ulysses (so when I make something **bold** in markdown I don't have to bold it manually), but Scrivener is not built as a markdown editor. I'm using Marked 2 from the app store which can open .scriv files and provide a live markdown preview of what you're writing in Scrivener in real time! I'm thinking of backing off of markdown though. Scrivener has a really nice feature that will convert all of your bold and italics into markdown syntax for you and then you can export the text. This allows you to write like a traditional word processor and keep the very basics of markdown available and I can manually add one "#" for each title. Most of my writing will never leave Scrivener (at least my Journal won't), so why not write with WYSIWYG with actual bolds and paragraph alignments and make it aesthetically pleasing
to me, since I'm the only one who will see it. Ulysses seems to be more geared toward putting your writing in and exporting it out; more of a middleman. To me, Scrivener seems better suited to be an end-location for all your text (with the option to export it if you want). For instance, Scrivener allows you to create inter-file hyperlinks. I can be writing in one sheet and create a link to another sheet within that project. This will let me create my own dynamic, offline..um...book/site? (not the best word, but you get the idea) I can insert images and view them in the text with Scrivener whereas Ulysses hides them under an tag until you double click them. Again, Ulysses is more streamlined to dump your text and export out, but Scrivener is more geared towards styling it like you want to see it. I do find that Ulysses seems a little more friendly to just "start writing" than Scrivener, but it just takes some discipline.
One of the best things about Ulysses, is also it's weakness, in my opinion. Ulysses adds many more dynamic features in their proprietary "Markdown XL." It can handle comments, images, etc. very easily and in an aesthetically pleasing manner, but that kind of defeats the entire purpose of markdown, as does their hidden one library approach. Markdown was made to be a universal plaintext language that allowed for human-readable formats and easy transfer between different markdown apps and platforms. Ulysses makes you use markdown, but then locks you in anyway. Meh. Scrivener is even worse about proprietary formats, but when you use Scrivener you don't really have an expectation of universality or compatibility. That expectation works against Ulysses, IMO.
Sorry, long-winded again.
I've been using Day One for a daily journal/diary and it is a nice simple little app for that but I'll move the journal over to Scrivener at some point. I tend to write long entries at times and Day One has a very annoying inability to handle anything more than small amounts of text gracefully and I do mean small as in you get beyond a couple pages and the page display starts becoming jumpy at which point I generally start another entry for the same day. That is unacceptable for such an app in my opinion. I am surprised it is so well reviewed in light of that but for light duty diary keeping I guess many like it just fine.
I
just bought Day One for Mac today for $4.99. I know I want to start a daily journal for when I'm older, but I've been too lazy and I got caught up in deciding what apps to use for what purpose (I obsessed way too much on that). I got Day One for iOS free through a promotion a while back, but never used it. I don't think it was meant for long writing, I thought it was meant for multiple quick entires? I am debating between Scrivener as a daily diary or Day One. Day One is slick and handles location and weather data very well. It can insert images on the fly and sync with you, but Scrivener seems like it will handle complexities better. I am considering using Day One throughout the day and then copying that information over into my "real" dairy in Scrivener at night. That seems like a lot of work though.
I read about someone who used Scrivener as a diary a while back. They made a new project for each year, a folder for each month, and then sheets for each day. Scrivener's lack of an iPhone and iPad app hurt it here though because you can't add on the fly. Still, I'm not comfortable with dumping
everything in Day One and having it stored in Dropbox. I would like to keep some writing offline in Scrivener.
Apple's new notes app looks nice. I may just make a folder in that for quick photos and notes/thoughts throughout the day and move those into Scrivener at night (instead of using Day One for this). That eliminates a third party app. I don't know.
