Posted on august 26, 2009 88 comments i have already recommended scrivener in the references of organizing creativity, but writing my dissertation thesis with it has led me to recommend it once more: it is simply an awesome, awesome, really awesome program. note: its now available as version 2.x and still the best tool i know for writing and the posting is still up to date. No kidding i wrote organizing creativity with it, which was over 400 pages long, had 138.105 words and 785.500 characters, and it was still very easy to find the thread or specific spots where i wanted to change something. Now my dissertation thesis has 45.531 words and 288.429 characters and still isnt finished and i just cannot cope with the love for this program. Granted, without circus ponies notebook i would not have been able to write my dissertation, it helped me so much organizing all the material, all the literature, and all the countless results and statistical analysis, but when it comes to actual writing, scrivener is just the reigning and undefeated champion. First, lets give a quick overview of what scrivener looks like: the typical interface of scrivener.

With scriveners usual layout you have the binder on the left side which shows your document structure, the index card for the synopsis, the status information, and the document or project notes on the right side, and the space to write the actual text in the middle. While it may sound strange to divide the document into these tiny parts, it actually makes sense. Got an idea for the theoretical background of question three? you can quickly add it because you can easily jump to that part. You can also easily collapse and expand parts of your document, depending on where your focus is. Nice help to structure larger projects if you do not have circus ponies notebook for this.

document notes and project notes

technically it isnt much, but the ability to make notes to the small parts of the document is invaluable. Got an idea what you have to mention in the discussion section for question 2? write it in the document notes of that part. Sure, you could simply write it in the text itself, marked as a note, but it gets confusing fast. Got something that you want to have available everywhere in the document? write it in the project notes visible if you click on document notes and change the view to project notes you can access it anywhere in the document. You are going to do a major revision of the paragraph you are working on or just delete that special sentence that might be useful once again.

Critical Essay Structure Intermediate 2

Instead of creating a new version of the document and wondering in which version the golden sentence is days later , you can simply create a snapshot of the part you are working on. Snapshots are like versions in a wiki and they come in two well, versions: untitled and with a title you can enter. Use the title version, for example, changed the baseline of the results to the visitors who actually used the device, and you know what changed between the versions you have save. If you want to roll back to a previous version or simply get that golden sentence later you can do so easily. Much, much better than the version control of any other writing program scrivener lets you quickly create backups of your texts.

Great for rewriting you can always seen and compare what you had written here previously. Scrivener can so too, and offers horizontal and vertical view of the parts of the document. Since the document is subdivided into smaller parts you can easily compare a part of the introduction with a part of the discussion. Scrivener offers to give a status to different parts of the scrivener file, so i routinely give the corresponding status to the parts i have finished: to do, first draft, revised draft, final draft, done you might even create your own names.

While it might sound strange to use this feature, you can get a quick overview over your file with the outline view and quickly see where you are with the document and it is just a good feeling to assign a first draft to a part you struggled with for hours and hours. This view lets you see the status of the different parts of your writing project. Just where are you with your document? word offers word count scrivener offers project statistics, text statistics, and project targets. Project statistics gives you the amount of words, characters, and the amount of pages the text takes according to your specified characteristics. Project targets lets you set the number of words or characters you want to write and shows you how far you are from reaching that goal. You can also set session goals for the amount of words or characters you want to write today. i thought that using the right software would keep my phd productivity high.

I started trying so many alternatives for project management, file synchronisation or handling my literature. If you want to move fast in science, figuring out the best software for your tasks is a waste of time. One of his secondary process what enables the primary process is to clean his bakery. A clean bakery allows him to get a quality certification that guarantees the hygiene in his business. If the baker spends most of his time on his secondary process, cleaning, he won’t have much time left for making good bread. as a phd student your primary process is to do science. software is a secondary process, it enables you to do science. You have to spend as much time and mental capacity on your primary process, doing good science and as little as possible on your secondary processes.

I want to help you to discover the best software without having to wast time finding it. Being efficient at secondary process tasks like trying new software is a waste of time. Do you see the difference between efficient and effective? when you are effective at doing science your phd productivity goes through the roof.