Scrivener

As a writer/budding author, we know how useful Scrivener is for keeping our projects in order and structuring our work.  It’s available for Mac OSX and, in a slightly less feature-rich version, for Windows.  It might even be possible to run it on Linux.

The perennial bugbear of Scrivener (and, indeed, most desktop software) is that you need to be at your computer.  Want Scrivener on you iPad?  Sorry, no.  On your iPod Touch?  Again, no.  On your Android tablet?  Android phone?  Windows phone?  No, no, and thrice no.

As much as Scrivener frees up your thought processes and lets you focus on the writing, so it chains you to the desk – nevermore to roam to that coffee shop, or the park.  You may one day be able to run Scrivener on iOS, sometime in the future, but there’s little hope for those that don’t, for whatever reason, live in Apple’s camp.

So, is all hope lost for those wishing to take Scrivener mobile?  Hey, this is 2014.  We have the technology … to rebuild him … he’ll be better, stronger, faster … oops, wrong TV show.

Mobile Scrivener

Here, in the photos of this blog, is Scrivener “mobile” on an 8″ tablet.  I’d like to say that this is some fantastic new version that the Scrivener guys have sprung upon us without warning, but it isn’t.

Sometimes the craziest ideas have the simplest of answers.  This is no Apple iPad/iPhone/iPod/iPad mini.  This is no Android tablet/Samsung phone.  This is no Windows phone.

It’s a tablet running full Windows 8.1.  Barely costing much more than a fairly decent affordable Android tablet (and much cheaper than many), and costing less than an iPad Mini, this tablet runs full Windows 8.1 – the same OS that’s on your desktop, or your laptop.  Forget lugging your cumbersome laptop around with you.  No more do you need to compromise by using other software that you’ll convert/transfer when you get back home to your desktop.  The whole thing is there, in the palm of your hand.

Tablets are not known for being powerhouses, and traditionally require specially-written/compromised “apps” to run on them at optimal speed.  And it is true that you won’t be experiencing the blistering speeds of that desktop you’ve just severed your chain from, but it works.

Bluetooth keyboard option

Seven years ago we had the netbook, a 9″ mini-laptop running full Windows XP so that we didn’t have to compromise on our software of choice.  It was criticised as being too slow but it was the ideal tool for the writer-on-the-go.  Netbooks were squeezed out of the market by tablets, but tablets wouldn’t let you run your software of choice.  With tablets, you have to hope that the software creator has the time and resources to rewrite their code into the optimised version required for the tablet.  But no longer.

Last year, Acer released the Iconia W3 – effectively a modern day “netbook”, only without the keyboard.  It was criticised for its woeful screen (something that’s rather important on a tablet device).  For all of the derision heaped upon it, Acer’s Iconia W3 prepared the way for the affordable mobile full-Windows experience.  Today, mid-2014, there are several such tablets.  Microsoft is optimising Windows 8.1 so that it’ll run on lower-spec tablets to further reduce costs.  No-brand tablets running full Windows 8.1 can already be had for under £120.

I know what you’re thinking.  What’s it like to work on?  Is a mobile device with a dinky 8″ touchscreen and no physical keyboard really going to have you bashing out the words?  In a word – no.  What?  I’ve just sold you on the idea of mobile Scrivener and now I’m putting it down?  Let’s be realistic.  Is any tablet really that good for thumping out words?  If you say “yes”, then you’ll find it just the same on these devices.  Most sane people, however, would prefer to use a keyboard.  So long as your tablet comes with bluetooth, you may just as well get yourself a small bluetooth keyboard and make it easy on yourself.  It’ll still be portable.  If you only want to read & edit your work, then leave the keyboard at home.  The on-screen keyboard will do just fine for your editing.

Keyboard & Mouse option

Okay, while I’ve removed my rose-tinted spectacles, I should also point out the glaringly obvious.  Software like Scrivener wasn’t designed to run on an 8″ touchscreen.  Scrivener has so many options, text boxes, scrollbars, grab-points, etc, that you’d need fingers as thin as the bony hand of the Discworld character “Death” if you don’t want to be pulling your hair out while using all the functions of Scrivener.  With that in mind, it’s worth remembering that there’s an easier way.  Use a mouse.

This is full Windows after all, with all the support for USB that you need.  Either get a bluetooth mouse, or plug in the 2.4GHz dongle from your desktop keyboard & mouse, and you’ll be clicking and dragging those scrollbars with the best of them.

Okay, I’m not that silly, this final option has pretty much turned the tablet into a laptop of separate components, but the point of all this is that we have the option now.  Off for a bit of light-editing?  Take the tablet solo.  Need to bash the words?  Grab the keyboard.  Doing extensive work?  Grab the mouse, too.

Cutting aside all the words and waffle, we’re left with one irrefutable fact.  Scrivener (or whatever software you chose to use) is now mobile – and we didn’t need to wait for the software creator to support some bizarre mobile operating system or device.  It’s just your regular software on regular Windows.  The only difference is that it’s now in your, cargo-pants size, pocket.