Writing While Mobile
More and more, I find myself mobile and away from my desk. Sometimes it is by choice and other times, like this morning, when I was waiting for my wife to get her hair done! But now with Scrivener for iOS I can write anywhere, any time! If I think I grab back a few minutes from my busy day, I bring my iPad, my keyboard and my lap desk and I write productively using Scrivener for iOS.
This morning, I spent the hour reviewing and re-writing eight lectures for my upcoming training course, Scriptwriting with Scrivener. Before Scrivener for iOS, I might have spent a few minutes jotting down notes in Evernote or just checking Facebook or playing Sudoku to pass the time. However, now using Scrivener for iOS, I have reclaimed several hours a week when mobile and that has greatly improved my ability to launch new books and training courses more quickly. And that is dollars in your pocket, my friend!
Scrivener for Writing While Mobile
I do 90% of my writing with Scrivener for iOS now, regardless if I am at home or mobile. And with the external keyboard and lap desk, I am as productive as I am in the office.
If you are looking for the best writing app when mobile, you should definitely consider Scrivener for iOS. And to learn how to use it in a matter of a few hours, you should definitely take this Scrivener for iOS course.
So don’t waste time when you can put it to productive use, writing when mobile with Scrivener for iOS.
Steve Shipley, author and trainer
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shipleyaust@yahoo.com.au on February 26, 2017 at 5:00 pm said:
Jim,
That is a good question and I will do my best to answer it. I have both the iPad and the iPhone (and I have a 6S+ with a bit more real estate), so have used the iPhone for (1) editing, and (2) outlining my initial work in the Binder. I do my drafting of each chapter or section on my iPad. The main difference is that the iPAd screen layout has botht eh Binder side-bar and the Editor on the screen at the same time (when in horizontal position), while the iPhone only fits either the Binder or the Editor on the screen at once and you need to toggle back-and-fort. This should not be a problem if you are comfortable with your structure and what you are doing. I think the iPhone (large size) can work for all, but given I have both I prefer using the iPad. I used to have an iPad mini which was great for content consumption, but a year ago went to the iPad PRo 9.7 to get a larger screen. However, given the great resolution of the current mini, it should wrk well for writing with Scrivener. With my mini though, I used a case / keyboard combination which was undersized as far as the keyboard went. What I use for my iPHone and iPad now is a separate Logitech K480 keyboard which is a full-sized keyboard. This has really helped when typing for either device. I do not carry the full-sized keyboard around with me, and use the device keyboard for editing when I am out and about, but if you are at home or can bring the K480 or similar device with you, you should be fairly effective working on Scrivener on the iPhone. For me, the full-sized external keyboard though is a must. I hope that helps.
Scrivener will run on iOS 9 or higher, so it works well even on an old iPad 2. BTW, the coupon expires end of February, so either need to use it very soon (once you sign up for the course, you have lifetime access with Udemy; I have bought a number of courses I know I am not going to take for a year or two, but wanted to take advantage of a special deal). However, if you do not get around to it, reach out to me later and I will see what I can do with a future promotion for you to use. Thanks for the inquiry!
shipleyaust@yahoo.com.au on February 28, 2017 at 5:38 pm said:
Jim,
My course is about 80% iPad and 20% iPhone where the iPhone is different. For the 80% iPad screen shots, the majority of features / function is identical with the iPhone, and where it is different (the remaining 20%), I have presented how to do it differently with the iPhone. Opening a project is the same, but slightly different, syncing is the same, but slightly different, and switching between the Binder and Editor is different. The differences for opening a file and syncing are only the location of the buttons to do so, given teh smaller real estate. If you only plan to use the iPhone, my course is just as useful as if you were using an iPad or both, but a majority of the screen shots (the 80% I mentioned) are of iPad, but could just have easily been the iPhone. I use the keyboard with both BTW.
I have seen some people in the Facebook Scrivener Users community who only use the iPhone exclusively. Since you mentioned it, I have been thinking about it and it is certainly useable in my mind. It just may require more scrolling of the binder for more complex project structures and a little bit more switching between the binder and the editor. But this is with my 6S+ and I have not tried it on a smaller iPhone.
Regarding syncing, there should be no issues whatsoever. Dropbox is very strong and the Scrivener people have added a very strong layer of conflict resolution on top of that. I have never had a problem since they launched Scrivener for iOS. In very early beta testing and when trying to intentionally break it, I did encounter a few issues, but this was when I was intentionally keeping multiple devices open at once and also not letting it finish syncing on one machine while syncing on another. And even then it is self-correcting. If there is a problem, it is caused by Dropbox, not Scrivener, and all you need to do is close and re-open Dropbox to reset pointers and it will complete syncing. Scrivener is so strong in terms of background saving on all platforms, creating back-up versions automatically, and with syncing, that I have never had an issue with ever losing any work. The few times I have seen people mention something like they lost work, it has almost invariably been because they moved something into a Folder they were unaware of, or did not actually sync at all, before moving to another devices to use Scrivener. Scrivener’s syncing capability is excellent and not a worry. One of my lectures has details on syncing plus helpful tips and Literature and Latte have a detailed post on how to sync properly also.
BTW, you are asking all the right questions and thinking about the right issues! Well done.
shipleyaust@yahoo.com.au on March 2, 2017 at 5:22 am said:
Thanks Jim! Please share your experiences on iPhone as you continue to use it.
Steve Shipley on April 12, 2019 at 11:40 am said:
Thanks Tim. A lot is personal choice. The issues I had with using my iPad were more around the keyboard size and also dependent on your eyesight. For example, when I was using the iPad mini 2, it was with a Logica case and keyboard and the keyboard was not standard size, but compressed to fit the case size for the iPad mini. I now use a separate keyboard for whatever iOS device I use. I used to use the Logica K480 which is good value, but now use a standard Apple blue-tooth keyboard which I can use for any iOS device and also my Mac mini. This is a good full-size keyboard. I found the iPad Pro 9.3 to be sufficient until the iOS 11 came out with capabilities to use Files and drag photos, etc. into Scrivener and then I wanted to do more side-by-side work with another app open when Scrivener was open. Therefore, I would have now considered the newer and larger 12+ inch iPad Pro. However, that is very expensive. And I also got a new Surface Book 2 laptop which is a 2-1 full Windows laptop and tablet, so I am much more using Scrivener for Windows and not using the iPad any more. Since I have the Surface and just got an iPhone Xs Max with 6.5 diagonal screen display, I have eliminated the need for the iPad in the middle. So I do most work on the Surface with Scrivener and use the iPhone for editing, and structuring / outlining my Binder.
But if you have a Windows desktop or larger laptop that is not as portable (like my previous Lenova Y50), then the iPad 9.7 worked great. And from what I have seen of my wife’s new iPad mini 5 (which just came out, that would work very well also. So if it is mainly Scrivener you are using an iPad for, I think either the small iPad Pro or the new mini would be sufficient and a lot less expensive than the larger iPad Pro. The key for me was having the external full-sized keyboard as (1) using the iPad pop-up keyboard takes up far too much screen space on the iPhone and also the iPad mini, but was more usable on the Pro. But I do not like the keyboard taking up any space on any device, so use an external keyboard.
Hope that helps.
Steve Shipley on April 13, 2019 at 12:14 pm said:
A pleasure. With new iPads just released on March 25, you may be able to get a good second-hand one from someone who just upgraded.
Steve Shipley on April 13, 2019 at 12:20 pm said:
Unless you are inserting 100s of photos and constantly changing them (therefore syncing the changes to Dropbox), the iPad has plenty of power for Scrivener. Each project is just a collection of .txt files. A good practice is to not insert images in projects, just the image link and resolve it at Compile time. I actually insert my images once I load the Compiled .doc file into InDesign as I like complete and exact control over my final published document.