Scrivener 3
The go-to app for writers
Only for Mac
$59.99
Typewriter. Corkboard. Scrapbook. Scrivener combines all the writing tools you need to craft your first draft, from nascent notion to final full stop.
“The biggest software advance for writers since the word processor.”
- Best-selling novelist Michael Marshall Smith
GROW YOUR MANUSCRIPT YOUR WAY
Tailor-made for creating long manuscripts, Scrivener lets you break up your writing into sections as small or large as you like. At its heart is a simple ring-binder metaphor—gather material and switch between writing, notes and research with ease. Got a great idea but don’t know where it fits? Compose your text in any order you want—write when inspiration strikes and find its place later.
SEE THE FOREST *OR* THE TREES
Whether you plan or plunge, Scrivener works your way: hammer out every last detail before typing a word, or carve out a draft and restructure later. Or do a bit of both. All text sections in Scrivener are integrated with an easy-to-use project outline, so working with an overview of your manuscript is only ever a click away, and turning Chapter Four into Chapter One is as simple as drag and drop.
RESEARCH WITHIN REACH
Need to refer to research? In Scrivener, your background material is always at hand, and you can open it right alongside what you’re working on. Write a description based on a photograph. Transcribe an interview. Or check for consistency against an earlier chapter.
GETTING IT OUT THERE
Once you’re ready to share your work with the world, turn your manuscript into a beautiful ebook or PDF, export to Word, or simply print it out. You can even share using different formatting, so that you can write in your favorite font and still keep your editor happy.
Scrivener’s users include best-selling novelists, screenwriters, students, academics, lawyers, journalists and translators. It won’t tell you how to write—it just provides everything you need to start writing and keep writing.
FEATURES
Get Started
• Project templates for novels, scripts, essays and more
• Import many different types of file
• Easily split imported text into separate sections
Get Writing
• Familiar writing and formatting tools
• Easily switch between working on small sections, chapters and the whole manuscript
• Styles support
• Distraction-free full-screen mode
• Scriptwriting mode for screenplays, stage plays, comic scripts and more
• Live word count
• Mark up text with comments
• Footnote support
• Keep “snapshots” of older versions of your writing
• Name generator
• MathType support
• Set writing targets
• Track your writing history
• Automatic backups
Find Your Structure
• Write in any order and reorganize later
• Assign a synopsis to any section, then work with an overview of your manuscript in the outliner
• Plot your ideas using the corkboard
• Track different threads using labels
• Fast project-wide search
• Apply custom icons to your sections
• Use document templates for new sections (e.g. character sheets in novels)
Refer to Research
• Import research—images, web pages, PDF files and more
• View research files or other sections alongside your writing
• Transcribe audio files
Get it Out There
• Compile to a single document for sharing or printing
• Export to Word
• Print or create PDF files
• Create Epub and Kindle files
• Export to Final Draft
• Supports MultiMarkdown and LaTeX export
• Convert rich text to Markdown
Write Anywhere
• Sync with our iOS version (available separately)
Introduction and Tutorial Videos:
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/learn-and-support/video-tutorials?os=macOS
TESTIMONIALS
We have a whole heap of testimonials from published authors—see our testimonials page at http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/testimonials to read what they have to say.
SUPPORT
Email: mac.support@literatureandlatte.com
Forums: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/forum
Twitter: @scrivenerapp
more I've been using Scrivener for several years for class papers, research papers, diaries, and creative writing. I upgraded from Scrivener 2 to 3 after installing Mojave. So far I've noticed the UI is much refined, the program is more responsive (no rainbow wheeling), and compilation and file conversion (especially .doc/.docx) much improved. The program's versatility is what I find really incredible—it's great for the smallest to largest projects. For a small project like a single poem or short story, use 'composition mode', which is basically a distraction-free mode like you get with IA or Ulysses. If you want, keep all your short pieces stored in a single library. I've archived all my diaries this way. If you're writing a class paper, you can write in split-pane with your outline right next to your prose. And if you're writing a research paper, import any number of PDF's, images, etc. and quickly switch between them and your prose or, again, use split-pane. Footnotes and comments are intuitive and export seamlessly to other formats. Separate your writing into different documents for each section or chapter if you like, then export them all together into one document, with custom formatting options. I can't even touch all the features in a review, nor do I use them all. The features are there if I ever do need them, but they don't get in the way when I don't.
I've been using Scrivener for several years for class papers, research papers, diaries, and creative writing. I upgraded from Scrivener 2 to 3 after installing Mojave. So far I've noticed the UI is much refined, the program is more responsive (no rainbow wheeling), and compilation and file conversion (especially .doc/.docx) much improved. The program's versatility is what I find really incredible—it's great for the smallest to largest projects. For a small project like a single poem or short story, use 'composition mode', which is basically a distraction-free mode like you get with IA or Ulysses. If you want, keep all your short pieces stored in a single library. I've archived all my diaries this way. If you're writing a class paper, you can write in split-pane with your outline right next to your prose. And if you're writing a research paper, import any number of PDF's, images, etc. and quickly switch between them and your prose or, again, use split-pane. Footnotes and comments are intuitive and export seamlessly to other formats. Separate your writing into different documents for each section or chapter if you like, then export them all together into one document, with custom formatting options. I can't even touch all the features in a review, nor do I use them all. The features are there if I ever do need them, but they don't get in the way when I don't.
I’ve been using Scrivener now for a long time. Started using it on my iPhone/iPad, and then I bought a Mac (finally) and purchased V3. I’ve been using this now on my Mac for over a year and I have zero issues with any of my many projects syncing between devices. They give instructions on their website how best to set up the save option so nothing can become corrupt. I currently have fifteen projects in varying stages and zero issues with any of them. Keith is very responsive as well. I’ve written to him about a glitch, he responded very quickly, and in the next version release, it was corrected. This is an invaluable tool for me and I’ve used SO many other writing programs that I can say, for me, this is hands down THE best product I have ever used. Dropbox sync works great. Syncing between my phone and pad work great. I know they are working on dark mode, it is in BETA release right now and will be implemented in 3.1 (it’s on their website). Honestly, I don’t know what woud have become of my writing had I not found this product when I did. Can’t wait to see what future releases have in store!
I’ve been using Scrivener now for a long time. Started using it on my iPhone/iPad, and then I bought a Mac (finally) and purchased V3. I’ve been using this now on my Mac for over a year and I have zero issues with any of my many projects syncing between devices. They give instructions on their website how best to set up the save option so nothing can become corrupt. I currently have fifteen projects in varying stages and zero issues with any of them. Keith is very responsive as well. I’ve written to him about a glitch, he responded very quickly, and in the next version release, it was corrected. This is an invaluable tool for me and I’ve used SO many other writing programs that I can say, for me, this is hands down THE best product I have ever used. Dropbox sync works great. Syncing between my phone and pad work great. I know they are working on dark mode, it is in BETA release right now and will be implemented in 3.1 (it’s on their website). Honestly, I don’t know what woud have become of my writing had I not found this product when I did. Can’t wait to see what future releases have in store!
I love this app, and I use it daily for my different projects and series that I work on. I mean the potential with this thing is limitless really. You can crete endless scens under one possible chapter, and put little synopsis on the side if you want to come back to it later just so you dont lose the idea you had for that particular spot. You can create whole studys for your characters under each project so you can really keep track of your individuals and the things that make each one seperate. I suppose what it boils down to is that I have a tool for every idea and have a space to put it at that will not get lost. I have a way to organize said ideas so that I can lay them out in what order i want everything to flow, they can be easily manipulated and moved around if this changes later down the line. And its conducive to my creative flow to have everything so readily laid out before me in this way. So like I said I love this app and all its endless and amny features.
I love this app, and I use it daily for my different projects and series that I work on. I mean the potential with this thing is limitless really. You can crete endless scens under one possible chapter, and put little synopsis on the side if you want to come back to it later just so you dont lose the idea you had for that particular spot. You can create whole studys for your characters under each project so you can really keep track of your individuals and the things that make each one seperate. I suppose what it boils down to is that I have a tool for every idea and have a space to put it at that will not get lost. I have a way to organize said ideas so that I can lay them out in what order i want everything to flow, they can be easily manipulated and moved around if this changes later down the line. And its conducive to my creative flow to have everything so readily laid out before me in this way. So like I said I love this app and all its endless and amny features.
I have been using Scrivener for a couple years now, and love the way I can organize things within the app. I like to use one file for each set of related stories, and it easily lets me both write my novels and look up any notes. Importing my version 2 file into version 3 was easy, and I haven't seen any problems using it on my mac.I love the bookmark features in version 3, but wish there was a setting to always “open in other editor” from the drop down menu. It would make things faster for those of us with poorer eyesight as the window provided is just too small to read most things. Great idea, but I need to either keep resizing the right panel or use the drop down menu instead of just clicking on it. Still a great improvement over version 2. As someone who manages many files within Scrivener, this makes finding the file I want much easier. This feature was my reason for updating as Scrivener 2 was working just fine for me.
I have been using Scrivener for a couple years now, and love the way I can organize things within the app. I like to use one file for each set of related stories, and it easily lets me both write my novels and look up any notes. Importing my version 2 file into version 3 was easy, and I haven't seen any problems using it on my mac.I love the bookmark features in version 3, but wish there was a setting to always “open in other editor” from the drop down menu. It would make things faster for those of us with poorer eyesight as the window provided is just too small to read most things. Great idea, but I need to either keep resizing the right panel or use the drop down menu instead of just clicking on it. Still a great improvement over version 2. As someone who manages many files within Scrivener, this makes finding the file I want much easier. This feature was my reason for updating as Scrivener 2 was working just fine for me.
• Worked around a bug that causes the outline and page view footer bars to be covered by a white strip whenever a horizontal scroller is visible.
• Fixed bug whereby Insert Bibliography/Citations… was available in the main menu even when no citations manager was set in Settings, resulting in a nonsensical warning message when you tried to use it.
• Fixed issue whereby Writing Tools no longer appeared in the editor contextual menu on macOS 26.
• Fixed bug whereby font choosing buttons would draw the font name outside of the button for large fonts.
3.5.2 12/19/2025
Scrivener 3.5.1 is a bug fix and refinement release for 3.5, containing the following changes:
• Updated app icon to be more like the older icon but using Liquid Glass.
• Fixed bug whereby split view dividers could be drawn in the wrong place in some circumstances.
• Fixed issue with headers and footers drawing inverted in the print preview panel.
• Fixed appearance of progress bars in the toolbar search field on macOS 26.
• Fixed bug whereby Quick Reference panels weren’t seen by the find panel, linguistic focus or image tools.
• Fixed bug whereby upon reloading a project, paragraphs with no style could take on the style from the paragraph above.
• Worked around a macOS 26 bug whereby a translucent bar covers up the top of the outline and snapshots list in full screen mode. The workaround for this also restores legibility to outline headers when e.g. a dark background is set for the outliner in light mode.
• Fixed bug whereby closing a split containing a comment that was being edited in the inspector would cause the text of the comment to stay visible in the inspector, and yet the comment change wouldn’t be saved.
• Fixed drawing bug where text could seem to disappear below the line being edited in page view.
• Fixed bug whereby UI validation would stop working in windows that were closed and reopened, such as the Settings panel.
• UI validation is now paused entirely during live scrolling to make trackpad scrolling more responsive.
3.5.1 11/05/2025
Scrivener 3.5 adds full support for macOS 26 Tahoe and contains dozens of refinements and bug fixes.
READY FOR MACOS 26 TAHOE
• Updated for macOS 26 Tahoe, with many subtle changes to the UI.
• Scrivener now has a new, Liquid Glass application icon.
STABILITY
• Interface validation code has been rewritten to alleviate a trackpad scrolling lag experienced by some users.
TEXT SYSTEM
• Several issues with lists getting corrupted or taking on the wrong formatting have been fixed.
• Several drawing bugs have been addressed, including ones affecting the text cursor and adding or deleting lines of text.
SCRIPTWRITING
• On macOS 26, there is now a slightly longer delay for the auto-complete suggestions list appearing during typing when “Show suggestions list while typing” is turned on in Settings. This is to avoid choppy typing caused by a new animation being used whenever the suggestions list appears. You can turn on “Reduce motion” in macOS’s Accessibility settings to remove this animation and restore the older, shorter delay.
• Parentheticals are no longer auto-capitalised.
COMPILE AND EXPORT
• Support for the Kindle .mobi format has been removed, since Amazon no longer supports the .mobi format for book submissions, now requiring .epub instead. Existing Compile formats that were set to use .mobi are automatically switched to use .epub.
• Various internal improvements to Word, ePub and MultiMarkdown export.
OTHER
• Updated the APA project template for APA 7.
• Fixed bugs with card placement on the freeform corkboard.
Plus many more minor refinements and bug fixes for stability and usability.
3.5 10/01/2025
Scrivener 3.4 improves support for Writing Tools and contains dozens of refinements and bug fixes.
WRITING TOOLS
• On macOS 15.1 in regions where Apple's new Writing Tools feature is available, a new “Writing Tools” menu appears in the Edit and contextual menus, which provides options for proofreading, summarisation, and rewrite suggestions.
• Writing Tools suggestions appear in a panel.
• To avoid confusion with this new macOS feature, Scrivener’s own erstwhile “Writing Tools” menu has been renamed “Reference Tools”, and “Linguistic Focus” has been moved into “Spelling and Grammar”.
COMPILE AND EXPORT
• Improved right-to-left text support in ebooks.
• Updates to MultiMarkdown and Pandoc export.
• Multiple improvements to exporting ebook, DOCX, RTF and PDF files.
MISCELLANEOUS
• The “Superscript ordinals” setting now works for French as well as English. The option is hidden for other languages, where superscript ordinals are either not used or not available.
• Writing History is now saved more regularly.
• Thumbnail generation code for .scriv projects has been updated to work on macOS 15.
Plus many more minor refinements and bug fixes for stability and usability.
3.4 12/11/2024
• Fixed a 3.3.5 bug whereby only the first footnote on each page was included when printing or exporting to PDF.
• Reinstated the Auto-Completion settings from 3.3.3 and earlier. These had been temporarily removed to work around a crash on Sonoma.
• Fixed a bug whereby “Style to” in the script settings may not work correctly when tabbing after typing was set to insert only a tab.
• Restored the PDF/X-1a option for PDF export, having addressed the crash this was causing on Intel machines running Big Sur.
• Other minor bug fixes.
3.3.6 10/16/2023
Scrivener 3.3.5 fixes a bug, caused by one of the changes in 3.3.4, whereby lines of text would be cut off when printing or exporting to PDF with end-of-page footnotes or widow and orphan control enabled. It also fixes some minor drawing issues caused by changes in Sonoma.
3.3.4 changes:
• Fixed a bug on Intel machines whereby the effects of the centre and right options in scriptwriting settings were swapped.
• Fixed a crash in page view mode when zoomed on macOS 14.
• Fixed a crash on macOS 14 triggered while typing with auto-completions turned on (especially prevalent in scriptwriting mode). This was caused by a conflict between auto-completions and Sonoma’s new inline predictions. Scrivener’s auto-completion Settings have been updated to accommodate this.
• Fixed a bug that would cause page view to take a long time to lay out, and which could also cause a crash during layout.
• Fixed a crash that could be triggered after closing a project if composition mode had been used.
• Fixed an issue where labels without titles would draw incorrectly in footer bars.
• Adjusted the way line positions are calculated in synopsis areas, which for some users was causing a crash upon entering composition mode.
• Changed the way projects monitor Settings changes to try to work around a rare crash.
• Modernised the way UI translations are stored and handled, which will make improving translations easier in the future.
3.3.5 10/13/2023
Scrivener 3.3.4 improves overall stability, addressing the following issues:
• Fixed a bug on Intel machines whereby the effects of the centre and right options in scriptwriting settings were swapped.
• Fixed a crash in page view mode when zoomed on macOS 14.
• Fixed a crash on macOS 14 triggered while typing with auto-completions turned on (especially prevalent in scriptwriting mode). This was caused by a conflict between auto-completions and Sonoma’s new inline predictions. Scrivener’s auto-completion Settings have been updated to accommodate this.
• Fixed a bug that would cause page view to take a long time to lay out, and which could also cause a crash during layout.
• Fixed a crash that could be triggered after closing a project if composition mode had been used.
• Fixed an issue where labels without titles would draw incorrectly in footer bars.
• Adjusted the way line positions are calculated in synopsis areas, which for some users was causing a crash upon entering composition mode.
• Changed the way projects monitor Settings changes to try to work around a rare crash.
• Modernised the way UI translations are stored and handled, which will make improving translations easier in the future.
3.3.4 10/10/2023
Scrivener 3.3.3 is an update to 3.3.2 that addresses the following issues:
• Fixed bug on Sonoma whereby if the ruler was shown in dark mode, the editor would appear blank.
• Fixed crash on M1 machines running Big Sur.
• Fixed bug with non-English UI files not being updated for 3.3.2.
• Fixed some issues with the size of the new text cursor on Sonoma.
• Removed nonfunctional options from the PDF view contextual menu and ensured that pop-up notes in PDF documents appear as read-only.
Scrivener 3.3.2 release notes:
READY FOR MACOS 14 SONOMA
• Updated for macOS 14 Sonoma.
• On macOS 14, Scrivener uses Apple’s new system-wide, iOS-like text cursor. Because there is no way of making the new cursor wider, the options in Scrivener’s “Editing” settings to change the width of the cursor have been removed on Sonoma.
CHANGES
• Because the version of the MultiMarkdown converter built into Scrivener only supports macOS 10.14 onwards, MultiMarkdown formats that require the converter are no longer available on macOS 10.13 unless an external version of MultiMarkdown is installed.
• To avoid inconsistencies in the UI, styles shortcuts are no longer remapped for international keyboards, but always use keys 1-9.
BUG FIXES
• Numerous bug fixes related to Word document import and export.
• Fixed bug with importing styles from other projects.
• Miscellaneous other minor bug fixes and enhancements.
3.3.3 09/28/2023
Scrivener 3.3.2 is ready for macOS 14, includes numerous refinements, and improves overall stability.
READY FOR MACOS 14 SONOMA
• Updated for macOS 14 Sonoma.
• On macOS 14, Scrivener uses Apple’s new system-wide, iOS-like text cursor. Because there is no way of making the new cursor wider, the options in Scrivener’s “Editing” settings to change the width of the cursor have been removed on Sonoma.
CHANGES
• Because the version of the MultiMarkdown converter built into Scrivener only supports macOS 10.14 onwards, MultiMarkdown formats that require the converter are no longer available on macOS 10.13 unless an external version of MultiMarkdown is installed.
• To avoid inconsistencies in the UI, styles shortcuts are no longer remapped for international keyboards, but always use keys 1-9.
BUG FIXES
• Numerous bug fixes related to Word document import and export.
• Fixed bug with importing styles from other projects.
• Miscellaneous other minor bug fixes and enhancements.
3.3.2 09/25/2023
Scrivener 3.3.1 fixes a bug in version 3.3 that caused a crash when trying to access the colour popovers via the formatting bar.
Scrivener 3.3 improves overall stability and contains nearly a hundred bug fixes and refinements, including:
COMPILE
• Compile now supports generating PDF files in the PDF/X-1a format (required by certain self-publishing services).
• Miscellaneous improvements to exporting ebook, DOCX and Markdown files.
IMPORTING FILES
• Comment chains in DOCX and RTF files are now imported into a single comment (previously only the first comment in a chain was imported).
UI
• Fixed bug whereby the snapshot comparison feature failed to work on macOS Ventura.
• Composition mode now leaves space at the top of the screen for the “notch” on modern MacBooks.
• Improved conversion of colours when converting between inline and inspector comments using the Transformations menu.
Plus many, many other minor refinements and bug fixes.
3.3.1 04/04/2023
Scrivener 3.3 improves overall stability and contains nearly a hundred bug fixes and refinements, including:
COMPILE
• Compile now supports generating PDF files in the PDF/X-1a format (required by certain self-publishing services).
• Miscellaneous improvements to exporting ebook, DOCX and Markdown files.
IMPORTING FILES
• Comment chains in DOCX and RTF files are now imported into a single comment (previously only the first comment in a chain was imported).
UI
• Fixed bug whereby the snapshot comparison feature failed to work on macOS Ventura.
• Composition mode now leaves space at the top of the screen for the “notch” on modern MacBooks.
• Improved conversion of colours when converting between inline and inspector comments using the Transformations menu.
Plus many, many other minor refinements and bug fixes.
3.3 03/30/2023
• Updated for macOS 12 Monterey.
• Added an “Update NaNoWriMo Word Count” feature to the Project menu for those taking part in National Novel Writing Month. The feature is available when using the special NaNoWriMo project template available from our site, or for any project with a target of 50,000 words and a deadline of 30th November.
• Miscellaneous bug fixes.
3.2.3 10/25/2021
Numerous minor bug fixes and stability improvements.
- Fixed a crashing bug related to editing text in page view.
- Fixed bug with headers and footers on older systems.
- Fixed bug whereby “Exactly” and “At most” options in the line spacing panel would throw an error.
- Improved .docx and .rtf import and export.
- Miscellaneous other minor fixes and enhancements.
3.2.2 12/15/2020
• Scrivener 3.2 provides compatibility for both macOS 11 Big Sur and Apple Silicon, along with more than a hundred bug fixes and tweaks.
• Scrivener 3.2.1 fixes several stability issues that crept in to 3.2, including an issue with Compile not working.
BIG SUR
• UI and icons updated to match the new look of macOS 11 Big Sur.
• Default Preferences have been updated so that the colours work well on Big Sur. (If you’re using custom colours, you will need to reset the Preferences to the Defaults to see the updated Big Sur theme.)
• Header bars now use the system tint colour to indicate focussed status, and turn dark grey (instead of pink) to indicate locked status (a lock icon is also displayed).
• Added an option on Big Sur to use a monochrome toolbar (in Appearance preferences; also available by Ctrl-clicking on the toolbar).
APPLE SILICON
Scrivener is now a Universal app, running natively on both Silicon and Intel machines.
COMPILE
• Scrivener’s Compile sheet no longer recommends installing kindlegen for generating mobi files, but Kindle Previewer instead.
• Numerous under-the-hood ebook export improvements.
• Improved FDX and Fountain converters.
DOCX, ODT AND DOC
Scrivener is no longer bundled with a built-in Java Runtime Environment, which was previously used for improved conversion when importing and exporting .docx, .doc and .odt formats. Scrivener now has its own native .docx importer/exporter, so there is no need to include Java. (Users who rely on .doc or .odt formats and cannot use .docx as an alternative can optionally install Java themselves; if Java is installed, Scrivener will use the same converters it used previously for these formats.)
CONTACTS DEPENDENCY REMOVED
Scrivener no longer uses Contacts or AddressBook to fill out address information in manuscripts - this information can now be added to “Author Information” in the General pane of the Preferences, or can be entered into the manuscript manually.
SCRATCHPAD
The scratchpad no longer actively monitors the external scratchpad folder for changes, which was resulting in esoteric crashes for some users. Instead, the scratchpad now refreshes its content whenever the window is brought to the front, and you can force it to refresh its content using a new “reload” button.
BUG FIXES AND TWEAKS
Scrivener 3.2 contains over one hundred bug fixes and refinements.
3.2.1 11/20/2020
Scrivener 3.2 provides compatibility for both macOS 11 Big Sur and Apple Silicon, along with more than a hundred refinements and bug fixes.
BIG SUR
• UI and icons updated to match the new look of macOS 11 Big Sur.
• Default Preferences have been updated so that the colours work well on Big Sur. (If you’re using custom colours, you will need to reset the Preferences to the Defaults to see the updated Big Sur theme.)
• Header bars now use the system tint colour to indicate focussed state, and turn dark grey (instead of pink) to indicate locked state (a lock icon is also displayed).
• Added an option on Big Sur to use a monochrome toolbar (in Appearance preferences; also available by Ctrl-clicking on the toolbar).
APPLE SILICON
Scrivener is now a Universal app, running natively on both Silicon and Intel machines.
COMPILE
• Scrivener’s Compile sheet no longer recommends installing kindlegen for generating mobi files, but Kindle Previewer instead.
• Numerous under-the-hood ebook export improvements.
• Improved FDX and Fountain converters.
DOCX, ODT AND DOC
Scrivener is no longer bundled with a built-in Java Runtime Environment, which was previously used for improved conversion when importing and exporting .docx, .doc and .odt formats. Scrivener now has its own native .docx importer/exporter, so has no need to use Java. (Users who rely on .doc or .odt formats and cannot use .docx as an alternative can optionally install Java themselves; if Java is available, Scrivener will use the same converters it used previously for these formats.)
CONTACTS DEPENDENCY REMOVED
Scrivener no longer uses Contacts or AddressBook to fill out address information in manuscripts - this information can now be added to “Author Information” in the General pane of the Preferences, or can be entered into the manuscript manually.
SCRATCHPAD
The scratchpad no longer actively monitors the external scratchpad folder for changes, which was resulting in esoteric crashes for some users. Instead, the scratchpad now refreshes its content whenever the window is brought to the front, and you can force it to refresh its content using a new “reload” button.
BUG FIXES AND TWEAKS
Scrivener 3.2 contains over one hundred bug fixes and tweaks.
3.2 11/18/2020
• The built-in Courier Prime font now supports Cyrillic variants.
• Improved the position of headers and footers in Compile's page layout preview.
• Miscellaneous bug fixes.
3.1.5 12/12/2019
• Updated for macOS 10.15 Catalina compatibility.
• "Find by Formatting" can now search in the URLs of links.
• "Update Document Links to Use Target Titles" in Edit > Text Tidying now also removes links to documents that no longer exist.
• Miscellaneous bug fixes and minor refinements.
3.1.4 10/13/2019
• Added a new “Matching Texts” feature to the Bookmarks area of the Inspector. This lists all documents that share a paragraph or sentence with the current document. Double-clicking a result selects matching text in the main editor.
• Added a new corkboard preference, “Compress threads when arranged by label”. This is turned on by default, and interleaves cards on the board so that they take up less space when “Arrange by Label” is turned on.
• Improvements to MultiMarkdown copy and export.
• Improvements to scriptwriting pagination.
• Compiling dual dialogue for scripts now works with more formats than just screenplays.
• Many other enhancements and bug fixes.
3.1.3 07/03/2019
COMPILE
• Added options to reduce exported file sizes by resampling and resizing images.
• A new “Add printer marks” option for PDF causes trim marks to be drawn. Bleed settings are now available for the cover image.
• Ebook tables are now more flexible.
• You can now assign Keep with Next to Section Layout prefixes and suffixes.
COPY TO PROJECT
• Added “Copy to Project” to the “Documents” menu as well as to the binder, corkboard and outliner contextual menus. This makes it easier to copy documents to another project without having to drag and drop.
• “Copy to ‘project.scriv’ Again” also appears in these menus if you have copied any documents to another project during the session, and uses the keyboard shortcut Shift-Opt-Cmd-C. (Note that this shortcut was previously used by “Copy without Comments and Footnotes”.)
FIND DUPLICATES
• A new “Find Duplicates” option has been added to Project Search. When ticked, the search results show only documents whose text (or whichever part of the content is marked for search) appears more than once in the project.
• Many other enhancements and bug fixes.
3.1.2 02/26/2019
Note: 3.1.1 is a patch for 3.1. It fixes a bug that could cause a 10.14 crash on startup for existing users who had customised their appearance preferences.
DARK MODE
• Full support for dark mode on macOS 10.14.
• Scrivener’s “Appearance” preferences allow you to take full control over colours and UI in each mode.
• Switch between dark and light mode independently of the system settings using the Scrivener > Appearance menu.
• Set up different colour themes for each mode via the Preferences, and switch between them using the Scrivener > Themes menu.
SCRIPTWRITING
• Support for “MORE” and “CONT’D” when compiling for PDF and printing. (See new settings in the “Text Layout” area of the Compile format editor.)
• Support for not splitting sentences across pages in scripts.
• Dual dialogue support for print and PDF.
COMPILE
• You can now include a cover image when compiling to PDF.
• Enhanced options for compiling for print-on demand services, including an option for PDF files to use the PDF/X-3 format.
• Epub 3 and Kindle KF8 formats now allow for direct formatting. With these changes, the older ePub 2 and Kindle Mobi formats have been removed, and will only be available for Compile formats created in older versions that rely on them.
• Epub export now supports inline MathML equations generated by MathType.
• It is now much easier to edit section layouts: a pencil icon appears when you move the mouse over a section layout in the main Compile window. Simply click on it (or double-click the layout) to begin editing.
• Unused section types are now hidden by default in Compile’s “Assign Section Types”.
• Section Layouts in the Compile format editor are now displayed in bold if they are used in the project, making it easier to identify the layouts you are most interested in.
• Improvements have been made to footnotes in print and PDF, including several new options for how they are laid out.
Many, many other enhancements to Compile.
FOCUS MODE
• A new “focus mode” is available via View > Text Editing > Focus. This allows you to fade out everything except the current line, sentence or paragraph as you write. The mode can be set independently for the main window and Compose.
WIDOWS AND ORPHANS
• Widow and orphan control now supported in Scrivener’s page view. (Off by default - use the “Editing” Preferences to turn it on.)
• Widow and orphan control now supported when compiling to PDF or for printing.
• Keep with Next has also been improved, and you can now determine whether the KWN paragraph itself can be split across pages or not.
3.1.1 11/27/2018
DARK MODE
• Full support for dark mode on macOS 10.14. Every single icon and UI element has been redesigned or tweaked for dark mode.
• Scrivener’s “Appearance” preferences allow you to take full control over colours and UI in each mode.
• Switch between dark and light mode independently of the system settings using the Scrivener > Appearance menu.
• Set up different colour themes for each mode via the Preferences, and switch between them using the Scrivener > Themes menu.
SCRIPTWRITING
• Support for “MORE” and “CONT’D” when compiling for PDF and printing. (See new settings in the “Text Layout” area of the Compile format editor.)
• Support for not splitting sentences across pages in scripts.
• Dual dialogue support for print and PDF.
COMPILE
• You can now include a cover image when compiling to PDF.
• Enhanced options for compiling for print-on demand services, including an option for PDF files to use the PDF/X-3 format.
• Epub 3 and Kindle KF8 formats now allow for direct formatting. With these changes, the older ePub 2 and Kindle Mobi formats have been removed, and will only be available for Compile formats created in older versions that rely on them.
• Epub export now supports inline MathML equations generated by MathType.
• It is now much easier to edit section layouts: a pencil icon appears when you move the mouse over a section layout in the main Compile window. Simply click on it (or double-click the layout) to begin editing.
• Unused section types are now hidden by default in Compile’s “Assign Section Types”.
• Section Layouts in the Compile format editor are now displayed in bold if they are used in the project, making it easier to identify the layouts you are most interested in.
• Improvements have been made to footnotes in print and PDF, including several new options for how they are laid out.
Many, many other enhancements to Compile.
FOCUS MODE
• A new “focus mode” is available via View > Text Editing > Focus. This allows you to fade out everything except the current line, sentence or paragraph as you write. The mode can be set independently for the main window and Compose.
WIDOWS AND ORPHANS
• Widow and orphan control now supported in Scrivener’s page view. (Off by default - use the “Editing” Preferences to turn it on.)
• Widow and orphan control now supported when compiling to PDF or for printing.
• Keep with Next has also been improved, and you can now determine whether the KWN paragraph itself can be split across pages or not.
3.1 11/08/2018
COMPILE
• Added a “Vellum Export” Compile format for use with .docx. This makes it easy to export a Word document that is formatted ready for import into Vellum, the self-publishing app for macOS.
• Tweaked HTML5 export for ePub and Kindle formats to work around an issue whereby Kindle Previewer and Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature could scramble certain characters.
• ePub now supports the “Book begins after front matter” option.
• Added an “Optimize for Kindle conversion” checkbox for ePub 3 export for submitting to self-publishing services that require ePub files even for Amazon publication.
• Scrivener’s MultiMarkdown support has been updated to version 6.
• New MultiMarkdown and LaTeX project templates and Compile formats added.
• The $include placeholder tag now works in title prefixes and suffixes and Section Layout prefixes and suffixes.
• The $date, $createdDate and $modifiedDate placeholders now allow for custom date formats (e.g. by using $date:HH:ss:mm).
• Added options for controlling the header and footer margins for print and PDF.
• Added an option to override style names during Compile, which can be useful for meeting specific formatting requirements.
• When compiling a subgroup, if “Treat compile group as complete manuscript” is ticked, Scrivener now looks inside the front and back matter folders for a subfolder that matches the compile group name, and if one is found, uses that for the front or back matter instead of the entire folder. This makes it much easier for users writing multiple books inside a single project to switch between different books when compiling.
OTHER
• Added “Apply Keywords to Selected Documents” and “Remove Keywords from Selected Documents” to the Keywords panel contextual menu, making it easier to add and remove keywords to and from multiple documents.
• Improved dotted underline drawing in the editor as well as for printing and PDF export.
• Improved “Select Similar Formatting” to work better with styles.
• You can now insert media time stamps into the Inspector and Copyholders as well as the main editor.
• Improvements made to highlights in PDF files.
• It is now possible to disable smart quotes separately from hyphens and ellipses for script mode in the “Corrections” Preferences.
• You can now copy the link in the footer below an imported web page using the contextual menu.
• “Sort” options moved from Edit > Move to a dedicated Edit > Sort menu.
• Sorting is now supported in bookmarks.
• The size of comment popovers now takes into consideration the text scale.
• Worked around a bug in macOS whereby images in the editor could become faded after a save and reload.
• Many, many more refinements and bug fixes.
3.0.3 06/21/2018
COMPILE
• Added ability to preserve centering and indents on a Section Layout basis.
• Added a new $pageGroupParentTitle placeholder which can be used in headers and footers to show the name of the part containing the current chapter.
• Fixed bug whereby Kindle ebook validation would fail because of a table of contents problem.
EDITOR
• Text completions and emojis can now be added to Scrivener’s editor Touch Bar.
• “Heading” and “Title” paragraph styles now use Keep-with-Next by default in new projects.
• Added “Reload from Original Image” option to contextual menu for images linked in text.
• Collapsed footnotes and comments in the Inspector now use an icon rather than text to indicate their type, allowing more room for a preview of the content.
MEDIA AND WEB
• When viewing audio files, the playback controls no longer fade out but remain visible.
• Added ability to insert the time stamp of a media file (Insert > Media Time Stamp - note that you must have a media file in the other editor to use this). You can set the format used for this stamp in the Behaviors > Playback Preferences.
• Added “Allow limited navigation in web pages” option to “Navigation” Preferences. When ticked, you can navigate around imported web pages to some extent. When this option is off, you can hold down Option when clicking in a web page to force the link to open inside Scrivener’s browser.
• When resolving alias files, Scrivener no longer tries to mount external volumes, which could cause slowdown.
SCRIPTWRITING
• Added “Paste Plain Text as Screenplay” to the “Edit” menu (only available when editing a script document). This makes it easier to paste into Scrivener from Final Draft and Movie Magic Screenwriter.
• Added 1.2 line spacing as an option to Script Settings.
• It is now possible to set script mode to insert text at the start of a line when hitting tab (under the Tab/Return area of Script Settings).
• Added a new $mediaPlaybackTime placeholder that can only be used inside the tab “Insert” fields of Script Settings. This can be used to automatically insert the current playback time of a video or sound file in the other editor by simply hitting tab.
• Added a new “Transcript” script format that takes advantage of the new time stamp placeholder, intended for use while working with a video or sound file in the other editor.
STATISTICS
• Project Statistics now show the average, longest and shortest document lengths.
• Added “Show allowance in progress bar” option to document target settings. When ticked, the overflow allowance is shown in the right side of the bar.
OTHER
• Added an option to the “Behaviors” Preferences to turn off 3.0’s new behaviour of deleting text dragged out of the editor to other areas of the project.
• Added an option to exclude the screenshot when tweeting Project Targets (“Include screenshot when using Twitter service in Project Targets”, available in the General > Services area of Preferences).
• Many, many refinements and bug fixes.
3.0.2 03/06/2018
• Numerous minor enhancements and bug fixes to Compile.
• ePub 3 and KF8 formats now support underlines without needing to use styles.
• ePub 3 and KF8 now support the “Transformations” options pane in Compile for converting italics to underlines (and vice versa) and converting smart punctuation to dumb punctuation.
• You can now set images inserted using the $img tag to use a percentage size in ebooks using the new “ebook” placeholder tag (see Help > List of All Placeholders… for details).
• Tabbed windows are now restored when Scrivener is reopened (and Quick Reference panels remember their tabbed states per-project).
• When loading a Copyholder by Option-dropping, if you hold down Option at the start of the drag in the binder, the Copyholder will now get the focus. (Only hold down Option on drop to leave the focus as it was.)
• Either Option or Command can now be used to open comments in a popover instead of the Inspector (since Option-clicks do not work on all systems).
• Added option to turn off border to current line highlight.
• If any Preferences Themes are saved, a “Themes” submenu now appears in the “Scrivener” menu, allowing you to switch between themes more easily.
• There are now more options available when saving a Preferences theme. It is now possible, for instance, to save a theme that only affects Composition mode colours, or a theme that affects everything else except Composition mode colours.
• Full width labels in the binder no longer span the entire width of the binder, but are indented and more like the Scrivener 2 labels.
• When Ctrl-clicking on the Trash folder in the binder, a minimal menu is now shown that includes “Empty Trash…”.
• When opening the tutorial project, Scrivener will now prompt you to update it if there is a newer version of the tutorial available. (This will take effect for future tutorial updates.)
• Added a “Convert Markdown” option to Import & Split, which converts all Markdown to rich text for the imported documents.
• When a group higher up in the hierarchy determines the “Structure-Based” Section Type via its “Default Subdocument Type” setting, this is now indicated in brackets after “Structure-Based” in the menu.
• It is now possible to make the main window narrower when there is no vertical split.
• Many, many refinements and bug fixes.
3.0.1 12/22/2017
• Worked around a bug that causes the outline and page view footer bars to be covered by a white strip whenever a horizontal scroller is visible.
• Fixed bug whereby Insert Bibliography/Citations… was available in the main menu even when no citations manager was set in Settings, resulting in a nonsensical warning message when you tried to use it.
• Fixed issue whereby Writing Tools no longer appeared in the editor contextual menu on macOS 26.
• Fixed bug whereby font choosing buttons would draw the font name outside of the button for large fonts.
more Version 3.5.2 12/19/2025
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