Scrivener for school and work questions?

[rhett7660]

Hello all,

I figured I would try here first since there seems to be a lot of folks here who use Scrivener and I wanted to see if it right for me prior to diving into the product.

Just a little info about my current work flow for both school and work since I pretty much use the same approach for both.

For my research collection, especially websites that I site and or book titles etc, I keep those in Evernote and write my documents or research papers within MS Word. So I am going back and forth between the two programs currently. While this works, it isn't the best for me, hence the reason for searching out another way of gathering my information that is needed to write.

Would using Scrivener eliminate the need to go back and forth between the two products? I don't mind capturing things within Evernote and then transferring them over to the documents I am currently working on once and having them reside in my working document.

Would I use Scrivener to write, put together, finalize and then export with all of my formatting to say a PDF file or MS Word file? I am a little confused at how the final product is put together.

Also does Scrivener have a bibliography tab that I can use to enter in all the information about the work that I am currently citing in the document or research paper? Sort of how MS Word 2011 has?

I might have a few more questions based on the answers I receive.

Thanks again.

 

[Cougarcat]

1. Yes, you can use Scrivener to store web pages, PDFs, etc––whatever for research. A scrivener project has a "research" section where you can make any number of documents, folders, etc. that won't become part of your final document. And you can split the window handily, so you can have your writing in one pane and your research in the other. I do take notes in it, but depending on how you use Evernote (I've never used it) you may find it limiting.
2. Yes, that's the idea. Scrivener isn't really a page layout program (although it does have a "pages" view). It's designed to let you focus on the writing, move snippets of writing (called "scrivenings") around, then when you are done, compile and export it to Word or anything else.
3. No, I don't think so. It has basic integration with standalone bibliography apps, but I've never tried it.

You can probably get better answers at their forums, but I recommend just downloading the free demo. Best and only way to find out if it'll work for you. But it's a great and highly flexible app.

 

[rhett7660]

Thanks for your response. It is greatly appreciated. That is kind of what I thought it was about, but I wasn't sure.

Thanks again.

 

[MacBH928]

I have never used Scrivener but as far as I know its a tool for writing literature and reports, not research.

If you are looking for a tool to do research try OneNote by Microsoft. I find it better than evernote, easier to use, you can store anything you want in there and its free AFAIK.

 

[jojoba]

I'm a researcher and I've used Scrivener a lot. It's great for writing research papers when you want to view literature notes or data side by side with your draft text. I also keep literature notes in evernote, but import the ones I need for specific writing projects into Scrivener. I use unformatted EndNote references in my Scrivener doc, and then I format them after I have exported the near finished document to Word. In short, the answers to all your questions is yes.
I believe literatureandlatte has a free trial version of Scrivener, why don't you try it out and see for yourself if this is something you'd like to work with?

 

[talmy]

Scrivener is great for writing anything of size but I find it clumsy for notes and general research (research not targeted for a single document). On a Windows computer I was introduced to OneNote which is a great product for note taking, but the Mac version has reduced functionality and isn't compatible. For years now on the Mac I've used Circus Ponies Notebook. I've got thousands of pages of notes in dozens of notebooks -- it works great for me. Unfortunately I can only recommend it with reservations -- it's user interface is very non-standard so it requires a learning curve and support is seriously lacking.

 

[rhett7660]

I'm a researcher and I've used Scrivener a lot. It's great for writing research papers when you want to view literature notes or data side by side with your draft text. I also keep literature notes in evernote, but import the ones I need for specific writing projects into Scrivener. I use unformatted EndNote references in my Scrivener doc, and then I format them after I have exported the near finished document to Word. In short, the answers to all your questions is yes.
I believe literatureandlatte has a free trial version of Scrivener, why don't you try it out and see for yourself if this is something you'd like to work with?

That is what I plan on doing. In fact I am downloading it now.

Scrivener is great for writing anything of size but I find it clumsy for notes and general research (research not targeted for a single document). On a Windows computer I was introduced to OneNote which is a great product for note taking, but the Mac version has reduced functionality and isn't compatible. For years now on the Mac I've used Circus Ponies Notebook. I've got thousands of pages of notes in dozens of notebooks -- it works great for me. Unfortunately I can only recommend it with reservations -- it's user interface is very non-standard so it requires a learning curve and support is seriously lacking.

I use OneNote on the windows side all the time and I also use Outline on the Mac. However, I found that evernote is more than enough for me when it comes to research and work. I tried OneNote when it first came to the Mac. I didn't like it, so maybe I should try it again.

Thanks again to all who have responded. I am going to start working in Scrivener before my next semester of school to see if it something that will help/aide/assist me in doing my class work and work projects.