Scrivener

Well I forgot I had a separate blog whoops.  This isn't gaming related, so doing it here.  May migrate Reviews for Noob back to wrestling with rpgs if people don't seem to care to come here or I forget about it again.


So in my adventure with NaNoWrMo, got some coupons for a few things, one being Scrivener.   You can find it on numerous aggregates;  my "coupon" provided me with a copy that wasn't all that discounted compared to many sites, but I will be getting a physical copy so there's that.    My purchase was frankly a spontaneous one.   So honestly it was probably a stupid purchase for me.  

Hey I can make flashcards and drag them around right?
WRONG

So I thought it was going to be some sort publishing program with easier layout for column/pic/table shuffling.  Maybe a mind-mapping function and the like.   Even some of the online pics for it look really cool.   

Sadly  the interface is something from 10 years ago, and not overly intuitive.  Had to alter my computer's Resolution just to barely see some of the icons at all.  On normal hi res on my full size monitor some buttons are virtually invisible.   Hi Res font sizes is a different rant for different day...maybe... NOT: I hate tiny type like this, stupid hi-res; why is this a thing.  Not everyone is going to have 50+ inches or feet of screen.  if I need a magnifier and put my face on the screen to see something, its too small.  Command tools and text for game and programs is NOT legal text for drug, car or banking  commercials.  

I kind of wanted this if I'm doing organization for a story

My first instinct was to just play with it, which is more or less the way I learned to use PowerPoint.   That was a mistake.  The learning curve on this program is high in my opinion.  It has a lot of little parts you can spend hours customizing, which could be great, but much too busy for my liking.   This is definitely designed for fine tuning masters of control, and not a "write by the seat of your pants" guy like me.   When I was writing my novel, the most planning I did was to do a mind map on sheet of paper that took me a few minutes to talk out with my pal and long time collaborator (psst he's from HERE of course).    

No actually, this is what I wanted!
Oh to be old and missing things that
would no longer measure up.

Looking at  Scrivener and going through its pretty terrible tutorial, that few minutes writing out a mind map on paper would become hours of fin tuning.  Wasted time that could be used to write.  so for a novel I don't think its a good choice.  Though I could seeing it side by side word tracking a super complex plot I guess.   I could see Scrivener could be used by folks with a mind for micro minutia, or even for a game system.  Keeping track of rules would actually work pretty good with it.    I plan to watch some training vids from my YOUTUBE search  in hopes of softening the impact of it.    

Value $$
>_<    Not liking it all that much.