Conventions, Assumptions, Software Versions, and Other Important Stuff

Back to: Scrivener 1 for Windows: The Basics and Beyond

Software Versions

This course was created using Scrivener for Windows 1.9.0 on a PC running Windows 10. If you're using different versions, you may see some differences in appearance or functionality between the course material and your own system.

If you don't know which version of Scrivener you're running, go to Help—>About Scrivener. The version number is at the bottom of the window that pops up.

Conventions

Clicking

You need to know how to click, double-click, and right-click with your mouse or trackpad. Right-clicking opens up a whole new world of contextual menus that apply to whatever you’re working on.

Drag and drop

Moving an item by dragging is accomplished by clicking an object and holding the mouse button down while moving the pointer on the screen. You drop by letting go of the mouse button.

Text Conventions Used in the Lessons

• A keyboard shortcut is represented like this: Ctrl+V. This text means that you press and hold the Ctrl key and type the letter V, then release both keys.
  NOTE: Some keyboard shortcuts are combinations of more than two keys, such as Ctrl+Shift+S. For this one, press and hold Ctrl and Shift, and then type the letter S. Then release all three keys.
• Menu commands are written like Project—>New Text, which tells you to point to or click Project the Project menu and choose New Text from that menu. Within a lesson, it might be written: Go to View—>Corkboard.
• When I’m directing you to type specific text, it appears in bold. For example, you might see: Type Bob didn’t know what to do next.
• When you see text in angle brackets (e.g. <filename>), that means you don't type the actual text (or the angle brackets), but rather what's represented by that text. So if I you saw <your name> in the procedures, and your name is Marilyn, you'd type Marilyn instead of <your name>.

Assumptions

In order to create this course, I had to make a few assumptions (scary as that is). I assumed that you have some fundamental skills with your computer, such as turning it on, starting a program, using a mouse, and accessing and saving files (if you're weak on file management, see Working with Files on Your PC below).

In addition, I assumed you’ve at least used a word processor before, so you have some familiarity with selecting text, basic formatting (such as font, font size, justification, and spacing), and keyboard use.

Working with Files on Your PC

If you’re not very comfortable working with files on Windows, I recommend browsing one of the following links. You will need a basic understanding of File Explorer (called Windows Explorer in Windows 7 and older) for this course.