I’ve been using this program a couple of years and managed to hook a couple of writer friends on it too. I’ve been using it long enough and like it enough, that at this point I would be terribly annoyed to have to do without it.
Pros: I love how it gives me the ability to organize my work to the extent that it does. It makes it easy to reorganize scenes, and have multiple windows open in front of me at a time.
Cons: The program has a bit of a learning curve – things aren’t in really intuitive places, and there’s so many things it can do, it’s hard to get as much out of it as you can right away. I can deal with that though.
Having been working with it for a while, I’m finding two huge cons. First, you’re limited to three windows at a time of the same type (if you open a fourth, the first window closes automatically.)
And second, there are issues with exporting documents. If I export it the wrong way, I lose formatting. Or I get an error when I’m trying to convert it into an e-pub. Or it creates a document that’s the entire thing written on top of itself on the first line, in pale grey coloured font. Or it strips all the quotation marks out. That last one’s the most annoying – I don’t always notice it right away.
And it’s hard to remember which way to do it, for which purpose. I’ve hit the point where it’s just safer to build the manuscript, and then copy and paste from there rather than actually exporting it.
I’ve loved this program a long time, but I’m sad to say that now, with a finished manuscript, the exporting issues are annoying enough to make me start seriously thinking of looking for an alternative. As much as I’d prefer not to give apple more money than it needs, I’m considering trying out scrivener, at least for the trial period.
Lindsay Kitson - Author and Pilot 
So did you go to Scrivener? I’ve used to for a few years and love it. But my PC looks so sad while I’m using the Mac..
I’ve been using scrivener for a few months now, and I do really like it. The learning curve is much gentler, and the economy of screen space is much more efficient. Plus, even more potential for parts within parts, rather than just chapters – more versatility for organization.
You guys know that there’s a Windows version of Scrivener, right? You don’t need to throw any money at Apple or make your PC sad. 🙂
Thanks for the tip! I’ll be grabbing the Windows version tonight!
I’ve been using the windows version, yeah.
I was going to download the LSB tonight. I’m wondering if that’s a mistake now. How hard was it to copy and paste the novel into a wordprocessing program? I’m hooked on the look of LSB. Color and design are very inspiring to me.
LSB, like I said, a bit of a learning curve to find the option to import and export and toggle the options to have it all look nice when it’s done. I’m finding Scrivener to me a fair bit easier to work with, honestly.
Thank you so much. I joined a LSB Yahoo group since this comment and hear that the author of the software has ‘disappeared’. I drove an hour to download the program, but at least I haven’t given a credit card. I’m going to make another trip and give Scrivener a try, I guess. The cool look had me hooked, but I’m changing my mind.
Thank you so much. I joined a LSB Yahoo group since this comment and hear that the author of the software has ‘disappeared’. I drove an hour to download the program, but at least I haven’t given a credit card. I’m going to make another trip and give Scrivener a try, I guess. The cool look had me hooked, but I’m changing my mind.