Here’s a quick synopsis of my experience.

After doing my usual university-credential login, I went to download a pdf and was greeted with a message to install missing plugins.

Initially, I tried skipping over the plugin-install prompt (figuring it was to install Adobe Reader which I already had), but ran into a dead end. So even though I have the full Adobe CS Suite, I went ahead and complied on the second go-round and clicked the button to install the plugin. I was hoping my plugin acquiescence would solve the problem, but that was not to be the case as I was then greeted with this sad output:

Feeling it was time to take it to the next level, I shot off a quick email query to my university library and got a very prompt and helpful reply explaining that the problem was with ProQuest, and they were aware of it, but didn’t have a timeline for fixing it.

So what’s a Mac-research-geek to do? Start a support group? (Marginalized Macs?) I thought that with all the massive popularity of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad that this compatibility problem would disappear. But apparently not. Up until now, I’ve had no problem with ProQuest whatsoever. I understand that these things take time, but it would be nice if they at least gave us Mac users the option of using an older, more compatible version. They could even spice it up with a clever little marketing tagline: Old School.

I may write more about other features in future posts, but I thought I’d point to a couple of real standouts.

First, I really like how it accommodates modularity and makes it very easy to move and arrange chunks (e.g., sections and chapters) of a major writing project; you just click and drag whatever you want to move.

Another feature that immediately caught my eye was Snapshots. All too often on past writing projects, I’ve deleted a sentence or paragraph that, at the time didn’t seem very important or relevant, but then later realized it would have been better to keep. Instead of trying to reconstruct that specific passage from memory or use some kind of kludgy software hack, Scrivener’s Snapshots allows you to quickly capture that text in a separate holding place that can then be recaptured with a simple keyboard command (CMD+5) or via a pull-down menu option.

The more I’ve used Scrivener, the more I’ve realized that the maker, Literature & Latte, genuinely understands what it’s like to tackle a major writing project. If you’re a Mac user and find Word too Windows-like and Pages not quite robust enough for your big projects, I recommend giving Scrivener a whirl. They offer a free, 30-day trial, but in my trial run with it, I think it took all of a week or so to realize that the $39.95 price tag was more than worth it. L&L also offers an educational price of 34.99.

Maybe I’m too accustomed to the Mac Mail interface, but it seems like the Drafts folder would be the better place to store unsent messages, rather than the Outbox. I wonder what testing would reveal? Would more users first check the Drafts or the Outbox? Let the testing begin …