Scrivener

Simplifies editing: Scrivener simplifies editing. It provides tools to help you edit more efficiently, whether correcting simple errors or restructuring entire sections and chapters.

Enhances outlines: Scrivener enhances outlines. An outline helps you clarify your ideas and plan your manuscript. Scrivener’s system of folders and subfolders helps you arrange and rearrange the various parts of your writing project.

Formatting for screenwriters: Scrivener provides formatting for screenwriters. It lets you easily format your screenplay so you can focus on the essential elements - characters, dialogue, and action.

Features for academic and nonfiction writers: Scrivener has features for academic and nonfiction writers. It provides templates for writing in styles such as APA and MLA so you can focus on your writing and ensure you have features such as footnotes, references, and a bibliography correctly formatted.

Helps you set goals and track progress: Scrivener helps you set goals and track your progress. Time is always a factor for writers. Scrivener helps you set goals and track your progress every step of the way.

Tools for exporting and publishing: Scrivener provides tools for exporting and publishing. Scrivener integrates with many formats so you can export to Microsoft Word, Open Office, RTF Final Draft (for screenplays), PDF, and more.

Speech Feature: Speech Feature (so far only for Mac) - One of the challenges of writing is that you don't always know how dialogue and other passages sound. With the speech feature, you can literally hear how your writing sounds. This helps you catch errors as well as clunky sentences.

Track Word Frequency: Track Word Frequency - When you write long documents, it's easy to lose track of the words you use. The Text Statistics feature shows you how often words appear in your manuscript. If you catch yourself overusing certain words, you can make substitutes.

Color Coding: Color Coding - Color coding lets you label characters, points of view, topics, or anything that you need. You can color code icons such as flags or other labels to identify important features. For example, you might use different colors for different characters in a novel or screenplay.

Split Screen: Split Screen - One important task you can't perform with software such as Word is viewing your work in a split-screen format. Scrivener lets you choose between vertical or horizontal screen split and switch screens around as you wish. Why would you want to do this? Suppose you're writing a complex novel with many characters that jumps back and forth in time. You can use a split-screen to view an earlier chapter dealing with a certain character/setting/time period while writing a current one to remind you of what was going on. Similarly, you can do this with nonfiction if you refer back to a topic from an earlier section.

Bookmarks: Bookmarks, which replaces the old Project Notes and References & Favorites to give users easy access to frequently used documents. You have the ability to bookmark items anywhere on your computer or online, not only those you’ve saved in Scrivener.

Tracking: Tracking - New progress bars for drafts and sessions make it easier to track your progress. There’s also Writing Statistics, which lets you find out if you’re meeting your daily or hourly word count. You can also track other metrics, such as paragraph length and word frequency.

Updated Compile Tool: Updated Compile Tool - This feature lets you combine multiple sections into a single document. This has many uses, such as combining the best sections of several drafts. You can also use it to compile different scenes in a novel or screenplay. The new Compiler is both more flexible and easier to use.

Easier Formatting: Easier Formatting - Using Styles, you can more quickly change features such as fonts, headings, block text, and titles.

Metadata: Metadata - This feature lets you add dates, lists, checkboxes, and other data to help you keep track of important issues. If you're writing a section for a report, for example, you might add a checkbox such as "Add Footnotes" or "Explain this character's backstory" for your novel.

EPub Compatibility: EPub Compatibility - Simplifies self-publishing as you can export documents into Kindle EPub3 format.

Compiling: Compiling combines different parts of your manuscript that may be formatted differently, such as the title page, preface, table of contents, and chapters of a book.

Collections: Collections allows you to reorder material in your manuscript by dropping and dragging folders into a new Collection.

Corkboard: Corkboard lets you see all of your documents as notes or index cards to provide a broad perspective on your document.