Scrivener For Dummies

Foolish Assumptions

We all know what assumptions do, but in order to write this book, I had to make a few anyway. For starters, I assumed that you have some fundamental skills with your computer, such as turning it on, starting a program, using a mouse, and accessing and saving files.

In addition, I assumed you’ve at least used a word processor before — whether Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, Apple Pages, or something else — so you have some familiarity with selecting text, basic formatting (such as font, font size, justification, and spacing), and keyboard use.

Not only that, but because this book is about a piece of writing software, I figured you write something. I know, dangerous, right? Really, I don’t care if it’s a 1,000-page futuristic mystery about flying snakes or weekly letters to your grandmother. It’s all writing. Academic papers, news articles, recipes, and diaries count, too.

Finally, I reasoned that you actually want to find out Scrivener’s secrets. Whether you’ve been playing with it for years without digging into what it can really do, or you just heard from a friend that Scrivener was the best thing to happen to writers since the ballpoint pen and you want to know what all of the fuss is about, there’s a reason you picked up this book.

When I use the word Scrivener, I’m referring to Scrivener 2 for Mac — and specifically for Mac OS X Lion — but much of the information I provide applies to the Windows version, as well. And if it doesn’t now, it will eventually. ...