I have wondered whether mediocrity in corporate communication is sometimes caused by the tools used to write it. The most common writing tools by far are Word and PowerPoint, and I can't imagine more incongruous instruments of expression.
I don't like the headlock that Microsoft puts writers in, but I never knew what was missing--until now. Tipped by an article in the New York Times, I evaluated a shareware application called Scrivener. It is ingenious: not just better, but wonderfully different as well.
Scrivener is a breakthrough technology for developers and managers of content--for the classroom, computer, television, headphones, or printed page. And like most epochal breakthroughs (Google, iPod), it couldn't be simpler or more obvious once you're there.
Scrivener earns this accolade by avoiding word processing and page layout altogether. These are the only two functions that writers have been granted since the keyboard and mouse replaced the typewriter. They are now out the window.
Even Windows is out the window, because Scrivener runs only on Mac OSX 10.4 or later.
Word processing and page layout do not help writers create meaning (the sacred obligation of learning pros). Instead they focus most attention on the packaging of content. Developing meaning and expressive language are not what they're for.
By contrast Scrivener, is only about expressing meaning through language. Scrivener is based on the metaphor of a writer's carrel with all the essentials:
ring-binder
for loosely holding the many parts of your emerging composition, not as "doc" or "ppt" files but as pure flows of narrative
scrapbook
for collecting, arranging, viewing or just poking around in your raw content (text, imagery, motion footage, sounds)
corkboard
for tacking notes to the wall where you can easily spot and grab them
outliner
for sequencing the portions of your narrative, and attaching metadata to each one, so that you can manage even massive content flexibly
text editor
for doing the ultimate thing you should be doing as a writer: writing (this may be the hardest thing to get used to, if you are not really a writer after all)
coffee
Yep, even the necessary brew is here, in the form of a community called Latte and Literature hosted by Scrivener's creator. He's the guy in the next carrel who cares as much about the perfect sentence as you do.
Scrivener is a peerless environment for working with multimedia assets, and for writing lengthy or complex scripts and storyboards. Eventually you may dump your finished narratives into a word processor, slide presenter or publishing program. But by then your writing will be done, your thinking will be clear, and you'll have earned the right to focus on packaging.
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