Avenir - 2.3.7

Avenir is no more and has been reborn as StoryMill, from Mariner Software (the makers of MacJournal, Montage and Mariner Write). It’s the same app, but with a few tweaks and a whole new timeline feature. There’s a small update fee for Avenir users. See http://www.marinersoftware.com/sitepage.php?page=127.

Avenir is one of a much needed generation of applications. Try Jer's Novel Writer for an alternative approach to the same problem. Both apps deliver on their pro?mise — to be a writer's tool, rather than a nagging proof-reader who keeps on looking over your shoulder while you are still doing the creative work.

Avenir and its ilk offer a variety of writer-specific tools such as databases and annotations, and these are very welcome. However, its real power and importance is the ability to handle very long documents.

This is where Microsoft Word proves to be entirely unsuitable. Not that I'm knocking Word — it satisfies a very large number of wordprocessing requirements, and writing novels is probably not one of the most frequently demanded. However, if you want to write creatively, you need Avenir, or Jer's Novel Writer, or Ulysses, or something like them.

That's it really. App works well, is stable, gets updated reasonably frequently. What more can you ask for?

Humbug ! Just another organiser for computer people. Unless you like to write in a little box try Manuscript for prose, (this one actually is familiar to a writer). For scripts its still worth forking out for Final Draft.

I have not yet purchased this app. It seems like a very well thought out piece of software for writers. I have a dual monitor setup, using OSX Tiger. When I place the Chapter window on a separate monito in Full Screen mode, click back on the Main window on the other monitor, then go back to the Chapter, the text zooms up. Do it again, it zooms again. Four clicks, and I have text that is so large, it barely fits one sentence on the screen (the text rewraps to accomodate). ten clicks, I have a billboard. Of course, if I exit Full Screen, everything goes back to normal...until I repeat the procedure. I have dual monitors for a reason...I like to work that way. So, if that is a problem, it is a deal breaker for me. There doesn't seem to be any way around this (other than to stay out of Full Screen mode, which I happen to like).

In the "Scene" part of Avenir, when I put in copy and then try to make part of it bold or italic, ALL of the copy is affected and not just the part that is high-lighted. This bug needs a fix.