How to Use Scrivener as a Professional Writer: Tutorials for Journalists, Technical Writers, and Copywriters

Project

Scrivener .scriv files are all-encompassing Projects. 

Each Project holds whatever folders; text documents; imported images, pdfs, and audio; embedded web and device links; and any organization of all these media types you put into your Project.

Binder

The Binder is the wide bar on the length of the left side of Scrivener.

Here you add folders and documents then name, drag-and-drop, and nest under each other to create the perfect organization of your Project. It is always visible, so you can also reference it as a table of contents.

Editor

The Editor is in the middle of the screen where you type and view files. 

While typing, it has most of the word processing features you know from Microsoft Word and Google Docs, the main exception being graphical features like drawing shapes or tables with custom padding.

Inspector

The Inspector is the wide bar on the length of the right side of Scrivener. 

Here you use advanced features like synopses, annotations, embedding links, and assigning labels and statuses.

Template

In Scrivener, templates are pre-made settings for folder and file names, the organization in the Binder, output settings such as for publication, fonts and formats, and metadata in the Inspector.

Professional Writer

To streamline who this guide is for, I will refer to all of the types of professional writers in or related to the writers in The Basics section as “professional writers”.