getting the most from Scrivener - the scratch pad

My apologies for being a day late with this week's blog of writing tips. We returned yesterday from a beautiful stay in New York. A week of family fun, the laptop tucked safely away. Today, back on the West Coast, I'm wide awake at 6AM and ready to write!

While scrolling through emails, ads, junkmail and trolling favorite Twitter accounts, I discovered something I'd forgotten about - the Scrivener Scratch Pad. If you use the writing app, you may or may not know all about this awesome feature. If you don't have Scrivener yet, but you're considering it, this may help you make that decision.

As you know, I'm a huge Scrivener fan. The app has organized my writing life, leaving me more time and energy to create.

What you need to know about the Scrivener Scratch Pad (on a Mac):

1. The pad is a great place to make lists of websites or links to articles and research that will help you with your story. Keeping the pad open means you can easily add a link or idea even when you aren't working on your project. You can keep the pad open at all times - no matter if you are working on Scrivener or not. Simply right click the Scriv icon on your dock.


2. You must open your projects then hide them so they can be available for the Scratch Pad feature. 

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3. The Scratch Pad will float in front of all other open windows. This enables you to type notes on the pad while viewing those sites in the background.

4. You can add multiple notes in the pad. Simply click the + sign to add a new note. If you are working on several projects, you can choose which one this note belongs to. Click SEND TO, and a variety of pathways will lead you to the location you want to drop in your note.

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5. Click the x or OK to HIDE your pad when you're done. When you return to your project, you can open Scratch Pad in Window. This opens all your notes on the pad, so you can easily see what you've added. No need to remember, Scriv does that for you!

Scrivener won't write your story, but its organizational and time-saving features will enable you to devote your creative energies to what you do best.

What are your favorite Scrivener features? Share them in the comments below.
Write on!

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