How to Use ProWritingAid's Desktop App to Edit Scrivener Files

Scrivener is a powerful word processor that many successful writers use to plan, organize, and write their work. In this article, we break down how to use Scrivener with ProWritingAid's Desktop App to improve your writing.

How to Use ProWritingAid with Scrivener

While Scrivener offers some fantastic tools for making the editing process easier, combining Scrivener and ProWritingAid can upgrade your editing even further.

Here's how to use the two tools together.

First, you’ll want to make sure you’ve downloaded and installed ProWritingAid’s desktop app. You need to have a Premium ProWritingAid license to use the Desktop app. If you don't have a Premium license, you can always upgrade.

After logging in to your ProWritingAid account, you’ll see this screen:

Since you’ve already created your project in Scrivener, click Open. Then, select your Scrivener project from your computer and click to open.

Important: Make sure your project is closed in Scrivener when you open it in ProWritingAid. Otherwise, your changes won't save.

Once you've selected your file, it will open in the Desktop app. Don't worry if you don't see your formatting—it will be preserved when you reopen the saved file in Scrivener after editing.

On the left-hand side of the ProWritingAid app, you’ll see a navigation pane very similar to Scrivener’s binder. This navigation pane works the same way as Scrivener’s binder: you can collapse and expand folders to view and open your different texts.

Navigate down to the scene you want to edit and click to open.

From there, the ProWritingAid window on the right-hand pane will display your text. You can pull up the reports and tools we all know and love, like:

• Style
• Grammar
• Overused words and phrases
• Cliches
• Sticky words
• Diction
• Repeats
• Sentence Length
• Pronouns
• Alliteration
• Homonyms
• Transitions
• Thesaurus
• House Style check
• Plagiarism report

Statistics will appear in the left pane after choosing a specific report. You can return to the folder navigator for your Scrivener project at any time by selecting the “X” in the upper right corner of the pane.

While in the ProWritingAid app, you can run through all the changes you need to improve your writing.

Once you've completed all the edits you want to make, go to the ProWritingAid menu and click "Save" to save the changes in your document.

Any changes saved within the ProWritingAid Desktop App will show up when you open the same project file again in Scrivener. No need to import or copy-and-paste.

Looking for quick tips to get started with Scrivener and ProWritingAid? Watch this video overview of the process:

The best way to find out how much ProWritingAid can do is to try it yourself!