scientist wish list

[axiom]

I am a scientist who is attempting to use Scrivener for the sorts of writing that I do as part of my job as an academic--scientific papers, grant applications, chapters for scientific monographs/books, popular science articles, and books about science for the general public. I have only been using Scrivener for a few days but so far it seems excellent for all these purposes, even though it was designed for writing novels and stories. The vast majority of my colleagues (biologists, psychologists, geographers, life scientists) use MSWord for all of their writing and I am sure that many (most) of them would find Scrivener a much better alternative. Here are a few things I would like to see added/changed that would make it an even better application for my writing needs:
1. creating many text docs at once. I can see using one doc for each paragraph in a paper, using the storyboards to tell me about the subject of each chapter and the notes to put all of the details that I want to cover. This is my usual way of planning and writing a paper (following O’Connor, Writing Scientific Papers in English) and I can do all of this with ease in Scrivener. I would set up a group for each text section of a paper: intro (5 paragraphs/docs), methods (10), results (10), discussion (15), refs (1), Fig captions (1) and and tables (3) and put each paragraph into one doc
2. auto number/name each new text doc within a folder
3. allow empty, formatted drafts to be saved as an untitled template
4. change names of text docs just by clicking on them in the binder
5. add new text docs below the last one in each folder, or at least have the option to do so
6. allow bulleted or numbered lists in notes
7. have both local (doc specific) and global notes. I realize that a separate text doc could be used for global notes but this would mean leaving the current doc
8. notes visible in full screen mode
9. highlighting without annotation
10. export of all text docs into separate files, at once, into a separate named folder
11. links to instead of importing external docs; I would use Scrivener as a central organizer for all my docs related to a project (data, analysis, weblinks, pdf versions of papers/reprints, correspondence, emails, drafts of manuscripts, etc) and I would like to have Scrivener just take me to a document to open it in its default app rather than opening in Scrivener (thus I would like to also be able to add new enclosing folders (with their own custom icons to the binder)


I am using Scrivener for the next couple of weeks to write two chapters for a book so will likely have more suggestions by the time I’m done.

[KB]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll address each in turn:

1. creating many text docs at once.

Interesting idea. I've added it to the "to do" list, and will think about how best to implement this. It will be a little while before it makes it in, though.

2. auto number/name each new text doc within a folder

This sort of already happens. If you create a document, it is named "Untitled"; the second one is "Untitled1", etc (standard behaviour). I could link this to your first suggestion, though, so that if you opened up Add New Text Document(s) to create 10 new files with the root name "MyFile", they would get named "MyFile1" through to "MyFile2"...

3. allow empty, formatted drafts to be saved as an untitled template

Another nice idea. I've added it to the "to do" list, but again, it won't make it in for a while, and it's not guaranteed for the release version.

4. change names of text docs just by clicking on them in the binder

This wouldn't work. Text documents are renamed by alt-clicking. Single-click is used for selection - it would be very annoying if you went to select a file and it automatically went into the edit state. Double-clicking is reserved for opening files in a new window (except in Draft View, where it does what you want). Once you get used to alt-clicking, it's fine.

5. add new text docs below the last one in each folder, or at least have the option to do so

This one's already on the "to do" list.

6. allow bulleted or numbered lists in notes

Again, on the "to do" list. Rulers will be allowed for notes views, which will automatically give access to lists.

7. have both local (doc specific) and global notes. I realize that a separate text doc could be used for global notes but this would mean leaving the current doc

I think this would be overkill. I thought about it, but decided against it precisely because you can use another text document. In Compose mode, you can have the global notes file open while editing another document.

8. notes visible in full screen mode

I've put this on the "to do" list. It's something I've been meaning to think about anyway. Not sure how it will be implemented, though. The only thing that comes to mind is having a "Show Notes" button in the control panel which opens up a floating utility window with the notes inside.

9. highlighting without annotation

Again, on the list, though it may not be obvious on there. Once I've overhauled the text and annotations system (something I hope to do over Christmas), the "Annotate" icon will be replaced by something different, and I will reuse the highlighter pen part of the icon for a "highlight" feature, whereby text will just get highlighted.

10. export of all text docs into separate files, at once, into a separate named folder

Not sure how useful this one would be to most people. You can already export any files you want, either via File > Export Files or by dragging them from the binder into Finder. I also intend to add another export option that will allow you to export the whole project as folders and files with the structure intact.

11. links to instead of importing external docs

I like this one. It's another one I've pondered, because I don't necessarily like the idea of importing a massive QuickTime file if I'm only going to refer to it once or twice - but I've only just come up with a solution. I will add another folder to the binder entitled "Linked Files" (or some such). Anything dragged into this folder will not be imported but just linked. You could create folders inside this group, but not text files. It will be a little complicated to implement, so it will be a few betas down the line.

Thanks,
Keith

[axiom]

Some comments on your responses:
2. when I create a new doc, it comes up with a blank in the title, not 'Untitled'. Am I missing something gere

4. Nice. I didn't know about the opt-click but I did notice that you can also just change the title on the storyboard by clicking on it

8. I like the button idea but a hotkey would be nice too.

Even though this is an (early?) beta release, I am finding it very stable and extrememly useful. I have been writing with Scrivener about 10 h a day for the past few days and can't imagine working without it now.

[KB]

2. when I create a new doc, it comes up with a blank in the title, not 'Untitled'. Am I missing something gere

Oops, my mistake. I was thinking of adding groups, and getting confused with an earlier version of Scrivener (pre-beta) that had documents working the same as groups.

Glad you are enjoying using Scrivener. There will be an update before Christmas.