Anyone using Scrivener for Sermons?

I don't know these forums well enough to know where to put this one, but I was just curious if anyone is using Scrivener (whether in conjunction with Logos or not) for sermon prep? I saw this older post/thread here.

I just started using it and love it. It's already simplified and streamlined my sermon writing process. Curious if others use, what your best practices are, how you integrate it with Logos, etc.

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JT (alabama24)

I haven't used it yet, but I just picked it up on sale in the Mac App Store.

Abram K-J

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/610413#Comment_610413

Ah, yes, it was just (still is) 50% off. Good decision!

Eager to hear others' thoughts (and yours, alabama24, once you start using it). I know I have a tendency to geek out over good software (maybe more than is necessary), but this feels like everything a writing program should be. I'm wishing I had known about it sooner!

Whyndell Grizzard

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/610413#Comment_610413

I use the UBS4; GNT; and Lexham resources in Greek- can't speak to Scrievner- but when dealing with textual issues its best to address all the text- use of skills is important- keep notes and keep records through notes in Logos or whatever program you use to track your learning- remember the Bible is God's revelation not our interpretation- its work and prayer , consulting the Author, not our personal preference.

Kent

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/610419#Comment_610419

I use Scrivener in research and writing. Linking urls from your Logos resources is helpful. Also, connecting a mind map program has been useful to see the thought process.

Kent

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/610509#Comment_610509

In addition, Scrivener would be perfect for creating PBs. Though I have not done it, Scrivener allows you to lay out the individual chapters and headings as well as converts to doc files.

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/610537#Comment_610537

In addition, Scrivener would be perfect for creating PBs. Though I have not done it, Scrivener allows you to lay out the individual chapters and headings as well as converts to doc files.

it would need to convert to .docx files, not .doc!

David Paul

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/610419#Comment_610419

I use the UBS4; GNT; and Lexham resources in Greek- can't speak to Scrievner- but when dealing with textual issues its best to address all the text- use of skills is important- keep notes and keep records through notes in Logos or whatever program you use to track your learning- remember the Bible is God's revelation not our interpretation- its work and prayer , consulting the Author, not our personal preference.

I think you may be confusing this stuff with this.

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/610551#Comment_610551

I think you may be confusing this stuff with this.

Good catch. [Y]

Charles

Scrivener is a writer's word processor and as has been pointed out, it's currently on sale in the Mac App Store. However, I like and use Word for writing my sermons since it has the ability through its services menu to pull in Scripture direct from Logos. For me that's fast and convenient whenever I need to quote Scripture. I'm not sure if Scrivener has that capability.

In Christ,

Charles

Abram K-J

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/610583#Comment_610583

Kent, thanks for writing. Charles, I don't use automation enough to know, but I'm fairly sure Scrivener would be able to hand that.

Tony Thomas

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/610584#Comment_610584

Scrivener is a brilliant tool for outlining, writing and even publishing documents. Think of it as a document coder and compiler. I love it!

Abram K-J

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/610745#Comment_610745

+1 to that. Literally just turned in a paper within the last hour--which I had organized and outlined and written in Scrivener.

Keith Larson

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/610747#Comment_610747

I noticed that it has a "household" license and you can download both the Windows and Mac versions if you had a "mixed" household.

Question: Is it possible to purchase an App at the App store even if you do not own a Mac and then use the license to install it on Windows? This would save almost $18!

Abram K-J

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/610762#Comment_610762

Yes, I think the App Store only gets you a Mac license, but it's possible they have some sort of option to accommodate you--if I were you, I'd contact them and ask directly, to see what they can do.

Joseph Grigoletti(Faithlife)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/610779#Comment_610779

I love Scrivener. I use it for personal writing as well as my French Logos Blog (fr.logos.com). It is amazing. I especially how it handles footnotes with Logos. My only critique is that they have been working on an iOS app for sometime and I can't move to it from iWork, Office, or Evernote because they do not sync very well.

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/610762#Comment_610762

Is it possible to purchase an App at the App store even if you do not own a Mac and then use the license to install it on Windows? This would save almost $18!

...OR, you could view that as saving $18 towards purchasing YOUR VERY FIRST MAC!!! W00T! (I jest) [:D]

Duane & Lavinia Manuel

I just tried developing a message in Scrivener for the first time and thoroughly liked it. I decided to use Scrivener for a number of reasons:

I noticed that most of my messages have a general format (Similar style of intro, conclusion etc). I wanted turn this into a template. For this last message I specifically chose to deliver a deductive message to keep things simple.
Since I was writing a deductive message it can get very boring without illustrations. So I wanted to layout a high percentage for illustrations and mini applications throughout the message.
I wanted to be able to track the word counts for each point. I struggle with my messages being front-heavy and my last point is very short.
I wanted set word count limits on each section so I could fit my messages in my church's 35 minute time slot.
As I am developing a better rhythm for preaching I wanted to stagger my work so that 6-week's out I would work on sketching out the big picture, 3 weeks out work on the exposition, 2 weeks out the illustrations, 1 week out finalizing the transitions and small stuff. I was able to set markers using the meta-data.
I wanted to generate a preaching outline based on my synopsis that mirrored my manuscript.
There were other reasons too.

I was able to accomplish what I wanted. I feel like I developed a message that was faithful to the text and received well by the audience.

The only cautions that I have is that it will take a while to get the formatting correct. What makes Scrivener powerful is what will slow you down in the beginning. It is designed more for writing long manuscripts, books, dissertations etc. Making a good "compile" setting so you can print it will take a while. I spent as much time fiddling around with Scrivener as I did writing my sermon. So I would work on this as a side project to distant sermon and not this Sunday's message.

However in the end I am really pleased with the template and compile settings one for a manuscript and one for an outline.

Mike Childs

I bought it to see if it would help in working on Logos Personal Books. So far I like Word better. But that is not a final judgment.

Jim Erwin

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/622321#Comment_622321

Apple Pages 5.2.2. won't let me copy and paste footnotes. Does Scrivener do a better job of this?

Jim Erwin

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/610843#Comment_610843

How does it handle footnotes with Logos?

I have used Apple Pages until the latest update, which prevented me from copying and pasting footnotes. Could you elaborate on how you use it?

Joseph Grigoletti(Faithlife)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/625708#Comment_625708

Scriver and Logos 5 footnotes on Mac OSX : For a previous discussion about Pages, see this thread.

Scrivener is a great Desktop client and they are working on an iPad app, but I wish they would add the ability to share projects and collaborate/comment with other people.

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/625708#Comment_625708

Could you elaborate on how you use it?

I purchased it when it was on sale, but haven't had a chance to learn how to use it yet... Experienced users can correct me if I am wrong, but it seems that its niche could be described as "non-linear" writing. Both Word and Pages are really designed to start writing at the top of the page and work down, page after page. Scrivener is designed to be able to move things around... Kind of like if you were to write on 3x5 cards and then decided to shuffle the order.

Abram K-J

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/625753#Comment_625753

+1 to all that Lavinia said!

As for the usage question, here's how I used it for seminary paper. (Too long to post here, hence the external hyperlink.)

Kent

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/625798#Comment_625798

Excellent write up Abram.[Y]

Abram K-J

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/625818#Comment_625818

Thanks! I'll post at some point about how I've been using it for sermon prep. There's a ton in Scrivener that I've hardly begun to utilize.

Tim Latham

I've been using scrivener for all my Christian writing including the book on Revelation. I use the hyperlinks extensively in my exegetical research before writing the book itself and the chapters. Because I'm dealing with the word of God accuracy and being in the Spirit is extremely important coupled with Logos and Scrivener its an unbeatable team to assist in that. The note taking module for Logos is unpredictable some features work others don't depending on the recent updates. Programmers can't find all the problems, since logos is quite complex in what its doing. Scrivener is easy in copying and pasting original text Greek or Hebrew is easy between the two programs.

I use a lot outside resources, text, rtf, word, pdf, jpg as well as videos and am able to pull those into scrivener create a hyperlink just click on the link when I want to display the text. When I'm done exegeting the passage with all of its research then I write the chapter, which then can be compiled to a book or even a script. My research notes are not part of the compile but available at anytime in the source document.

Where I find the problem mostly is going from scrivener or Online Bible with my notes of the last 40 some years. Logos is not very flexible in regards to that area, its gotten better but they haven't done much work in importing routines for other systems. After three years of using Logos with a very extensive library I still can't hyperlink in the note area successfully.

I could if I was doing sermons use scrivener as overheads with the hyperliinks with popups while teaching. Just to summarize I would use Logos for the research, utilizing the documents, guides, and tools while using scrivener to document all the research and the final product. Logos is a wonderful research tool but it has a way to go on the final output products, its notes and personal books. I'm still trying to import 500 theology doctrines I've researched in the last forty years into Logos its very time consuming. Hope this helps. The two program are excellent when combined together!

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/628883#Comment_628883

Thanks for sharing Tim. [:)]

Tim Latham

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/625753#Comment_625753

Just got a few minutes here so I've done a quick snapshot of my scrivener screen, just to demonstrate what it looks like. The left column is my binder with the outline, there is a total of eight books in this series. using common resources. Each chapter has a two parts the, the chapter of the book and second is the research for the book plus its resources. The resource modules has documents from the web, logos, and any other sources. Hope this comes out ok. Your right about the 3X5 cards approach but its much more than just that. When I start a new project I drag my resource folder (several hundred docs) over to the new project and my templates and start afresh.

Next I'll show the scrivener with logos desktop:

This is the best screen for what I do, which is multimedia bible study books not perfect but it works. It's flexible and can be outputted to several different formats. Logos does a fine job of copy with citations into scrivener. The only problem I've experience is importing scriveners export into Logos note panel although it does a fine job in the Logos Personal books.

Tim Latham

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/625753#Comment_625753

Next I'll show the scrivener with logos desktop:

Juanita

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/629313#Comment_629313

Tim,

It would be great to see what you are doing....but neither example is showing up. I do have Scrivener but haven't used it much. Thanks.

Ryan Johnson

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/622280#Comment_622280

Do you have a template you'd be willing to share?

Alan Macgregor

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/687210#Comment_687210

I am using Scrivener for writing longish reports (c. 6000 words) of academic conferences, where I do a lot of editing and précising of notes, abstracts and scanned handouts. It's quite good for that.

However, for writing academic papers I use Mellel which is brilliant for multi-lingual sentences, especially in Hebrew or Aramaic.

For preaching I use a mind-mapping program, MindNode Pro.

I use Pages 4.9 for orders of service and general word-processing.

Every blessing

Alan

James Hiddle

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/687215#Comment_687215

Thanks for bumping this up Ryan. Scrivener looks like a nice piece of software. God Bless you always!

James

Kevin Maples

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/687230#Comment_687230

Scrivener looks like a nice piece of software.

It is outstanding! I wrote my doctoral thesis with this software. I know this is a Logos forum, but this product is in no way in competition with Logos, so I would recommend anyone that does serious writing of any type to check out this software. It is really powerful and affordable.

Dr. Joel Madasu

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/687236#Comment_687236

I loved it, and still do. Its a great program. It is a writing studio! I had to stop using it because it didn't work well with Hebrew text - a big part of my dissertation. So I moved to another one. BUT, I am sure I will get back to it some day!

Kevin Maples

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/687241#Comment_687241

I had to stop using it because it didn't work well with Hebrew text

That is a flaw. Doesn't work well with Greek either.

So I moved to another one.

What did you move to?

Dr. Joel Madasu

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/687244#Comment_687244

Yes, it is! I had to stop using it after three chapters I wish it worked well with Hebrew and I wish I used it to finish my dissertation, but I got tired of editing all Hebrew Text. I really like the Research tab, where we can pull all the resources we want to work with!

Scrivener used have some issue with exporting, may be its fixed now. Somehow, this program runs on Java. I had issues exporting it, especially to Word - why? Because, my committee likes Word

I moved to Mellel. It is a great program; it never crashed; a bit complicated set up, but it works perfect with ancient languages!

Kevin Maples

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/687250#Comment_687250

I moved to Mellel.

From the website it looks like this program is only available for Mac. I'm a PC guy.

Dr. Joel Madasu

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/687254#Comment_687254

ah.. ok

Yes, it is for Mac. But there are other programs that I kind of played around with, but only liked LibreOffice. It works great with Hebrew!

M G Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/687260#Comment_687260

I have found that the work-around suggested for Mac users having trouble pasting links to Logos resources also works with Scrivener (in my case, for Windows). See Bradley's post here:

https://community.logos.com/forums/t/66752.aspx

[In Windows] Ctrl+Alt+C in Logos to copy the location to the clipboard and then in Scrivener [for Windows] select Link ... from the Edit menu. A box pops up with http:// already entered and a place to paste the link from Logos. It is easy enough to add ref.ly/ to the beginning and then change the colon (:) after logosres to a forward slash (/). When the link is clicked within Scrivener the relevant resource opens in Logos, with the slight nuisance value of a web page opening (to make this work) and then needing to be closed. I use Firefox.

Larry Edison

I have used Scrivener for years. It is powerful, and so easy. So, what's my motivation (instead of simply "Pages" or "Word?" The answer is easy. it is an all in one.

I can hold all my research, all my ideas for slides, all my writing, and my outlines - all in one page. On the side, in the "Binder" I can deposit all those items in their proper bin/folder. I can quickly jot down a thought and store it - and can easily return to what I was previously writing (before the idea popped into my head). There's a way to jot down comments and footnotes without them getting into the body of the text I am writing.

It keeps me organized, and I can/could lay out plans and ideas for the series. I keep each point in a separate card, so I can rearrange as I desire. When I used a word processor, I was always cutting, moving, and pasting - and never sure where to place a particular idea. In Scrivener I can shuffle the cards (or the outline) as I desire.

Where did I place ideas, or sermon examples, or research (books, quotes, internet links) before Scrivener . . . I was using several different apps/programs before I found Scrivener.

Now they even have (in a few days) an iOS version that is apparently spectacular. Works super well with ur favorite Bible program/app, of course

Larry Edison

Abram K-J

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/832760#Comment_832760

Scrivener for iOS releases this Wednesday, and it looks and works great. Most important, it syncs (via Dropbox) with either the Mac or Windows version of the app.

Sean McIntyre

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/832903#Comment_832903

Scrivener for iOS releases this Wednesday, and it looks and works great. Most important, it syncs (via Dropbox) with either the Mac or Windows version of the app.

Scrivener is now my favourite tool for prep and sermon delivery. Logos is great as a research tool but for notes and prep I need something a little different. With IOS I can work up to the last minute and export to a PDF to goodreader just before going to the lectern.

James Paet

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/852094#Comment_852094

I think the version 3.1.4 could handle the Hebrew and Greek letters.

Juan A. Cardona

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/622280#Comment_622280

Que buena noticia hermano!

Yo tambien uso scrivener, pero ahora solo comienzo. Podrias compartirme tu plantilla?

Ole W. Jakobsen

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1102888#Comment_1102888

Unfortunatley it dosn't work in Windows. Another question: How do you get footnotes from Logos into the inspektorbox?

Ole W. Jakobsen

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1102888#Comment_1102888

Unfortunatley it dosn't work in Windows. Another question: How do you get footnotes from Logos into the inspektorbox?

Sean McIntyre

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1179420#Comment_1179420

Unfortunatley it dosn't work in Windows. Another question: How do you get footnotes from Logos into the inspektorbox?

If you copy and paste from logos it just pulls the footnotes in