Scrivener is coming to iPad (sometime)

I’m excited about the upcoming Scrivener iPad app. The primary reason I got my iPad was so I could write at lunch, and I actually prefer it to my netbook, virtual keyboard and all.

But syncing with Scrivener has been a problem. When I first started using it, I’d copy my notes for a chapter or two into Word and write the draft in that, using Docs to Go on the iPad. When it was done I’d copy it back into Scrivener. It worked all right, except when I wanted to refer to something that was still on the computer, and it ran the risk of forgetting which version of a chapter was currently the canonical one.

Now I’ve got a better workflow. Scrivener syncs my draft as plain text files to a folder in my Dropbox folder. Then the PlainText app grabs them from Dropbox. Everything happens automatically, so as long as I remember to open PlainText before I leave the house or when I come home, I always have the freshest version of the file.

But that only syncs the text of the files. One of the things I love about Scrivener is that every scene (or whatever unit of book) has its own associated collection of notes and metadata. So if I’m, say, revising a novel, I keep a list of changes for each scene in there. If I want to revise at lunch, I have to copy the notes into the actual text of the scene. If I forget, I have to find something else to work on during that lunch break. I’m looking forward to having my notes magically appear. Also the color-coding for labels (green = some changes needed, red = need to figure some stuff out, black = my crit group will kill me if I make them read this).

And my dream feature? That they’d include their own keyboard with a Dvorak setting. But I’m not holding my breath on that.

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