stuartforsyth

A brief Twitter exchange with Scott Sigler (@scottsigler) made me think of some of the problems faced by authors using tools like Scrivener toward the end of their revise and compile cycles. Once your drafts reach a certain point they need to be compiled and sent off for checking and editing. Invariably you’re exporting to DOC or RTF and then the edits are made by 3rd parties straight into those compiles. Problem is that’s where an authors’ workflow is forced to diverge; where they have to leave their primary editor and begin a clunky, problematic, journey in another tool like MS Word. There is just no way to bring those revisions back into Scrivener easily.

Version 2 of Scrivener brought us folder export and sync. I use this from time to time when I want to edit and revise my stories on the iPad. I export to a Dropbox sync folder, make my changes on the iPad, and then pull all the changes back into my main project when I’m done.

Could this same technology be used to allow synchronisation of content from RTF compile documents? Authors like Scott could then export to a document, send that document to their editor, and pull any changes or revisions directly back into their main project. Now that would be an exciting development for version 3.