If you’re looking into Scrivener, one of you questions you may have is, does scrivener check grammar? After all, polishing your prose is essential to your livelihood as a writer.
Does Scrivener Check Grammar?
Scrivener includes a built-in grammar and spellcheck feature. You can check a single file for spelling and grammar mistakes. You can also choose to check multiple files or your entire document. Scrivener is compatible with ProWritingaid but is not compatible with Grammarly or the Hemmingway App.
In this article, we’ll explore everything you need to know about, “Does Scrivener check grammar?”
How Does Scrivener Check Grammar?
Scrivener describes itself as, “Typewriter. Ringbinder. Scrapbook. Scrivener combines all the tools you need to craft your first draft, from nascent notion to final full stop.”
The process depends on how you set up your documents inside Scrivener.
The good news is that there are workarounds no matter how you set things up inside the system. You can always rearrange your files, combine or separate files, or temporarily create a new folder with specific files.
I’m a full-time freelance writer, author, and blogger. Finding and using tools to streamline my writing process is critical to making more money in the long term. Scrivener is great software, but does it help with grammar?
Let’s dig into it.
4 Easy Ways To Check Your Spelling and Grammar With Scrivener
It’s usually not enough to know the answer to the question, “Does Scrivener check grammar?” You need to know how to use Scrivener to check your spelling and grammar.
Let’s look at a few scenarios, starting from the easiest and moving to the more complex. Don’t worry, I’ll keep it super simple. One of the great things about Scrivener is how flexible and versatile the program is for your particular writing needs.
For example, when selecting text through the Edit “button” in the navigational bar, you have the choice to select:
- The entire document
- A word
- A sentence
- A paragraph
- Paragraphs with similar formatting
With that said, let’s quickly go through how to check your spelling and grammar with Scrivener.
Don’t want to read?
No problem. I made a short video walking you through how to check your grammar and spelling in Scrivener.
Watch it here:
Automatically spellcheck your Scrivener document
The easiest way to edit your Scrivener document is to turn on automatic grammar and spellcheck.
Here’s how you do it:
- Select the file tab from the navigation bar at the top of the screen.
- Select “Options”.
- Select the “Corrections” tab.
- Check the box next to “Check spelling as you type.”
- Check the box next to “Fix spelling errors as you type.”
Manually spellcheck a snippet of text
Sometimes you want to spellcheck a small portion of text within a single file.
Thankfully, Scrivener makes spellchecking very intuitive. The process is very much like using Word or Google Documents so you may already be familiar with the steps.
You have two options:
- Manually select the text you want to edit, click “edit” in the navigation bar at the top of the screen, then select “Spelling.”
- Manually select the text you want to edit, right-click on your mouse, and then select “Spelling.”
Manually spellcheck an entire file
If you want Scrivener to check your entire document or file for spelling and grammar errors, the process is virtually the same.
You highlight the entire text, then either choose Edit and Spelling from the navigation bar or right-click to select spellcheck.
To highlight the entire document, you also have options. You can manually click, drag and highlight the text with your cursor. Or, to select the entire text automatically, you can use the Windows keyboard shortcut, Ctrl + A. On a Mac computer, the shortcut is Cmd + A.
When you use the shortcut, Scrivener automatically highlights the entire text.
Then you simply choose spellcheck.
Manually spellcheck an entire project
In Scrivener, each document is saved as a separate file.
If you write a novel, each chapter may exist as an individual file. I recommend that you save each file for a project in a single file folder. It makes spellchecking, merging, and rearranging the files much easier.
If want to check all the files in a folder, you can follow these easy steps:
- Select the folder with all of the files.
- Run spellcheck on the entire folder.
It doesn’t get much easier than that!
Does Scrivener Correct Grammar?
Scrivener can automatically correct some grammar and spelling mistakes. You can choose whether or not you want Scrivener to automatically check and correct spelling errors while you type. However, the software does not highlight all potential errors or suggest all solutions.
Scrivener grammar and spellcheck work much like spellcheck in Word and Google Documents.
No matter what software you use, nothing can replace human editing.
Diligent reading and focus will help you edit your Scrivener documents so that they shine. The software definitely helps you edit with many features not included with Word or Google Docs. We’ll look at those bonus features in just a moment.
Does Scrivener Work With Grammarly?
Many people want to know if Scrivener works with Grammarly.
Grammarly is a popular and sophisticated grammar checker. Personally, I use it when writing on my website, Medium, and emails.
Does Scrivener work with Grammarly?
Scrivener does not automatically work with Grammarly. To use Grammarly with documents created in Scrivener, you can copy the documents and paste them into an online platform such as Google Documents. You can also paste the text into an unpublished draft on WordPress, Medium, or other blogging platforms. Grammarly will then help you edit the text.
Obviously, this means extra steps in your writing and editing process.
Some writers don’t mind the few seconds it takes to switch from Scrivener to other platforms. However, other writers complain that the extra steps eat away at their productivity.
It would be nice if Grammarly synced with Scrivener. However, the copy-and-paste method doesn’t bother me personally.
Before we move on, I want to share another option.
I’ve left it for last in this section because it’s somewhat more technical. Also, because I’ve never personally tried this method. However, I wanted to let you know about the option.
Apparently, you can use Scrivener with Grammarly through an “External Sync” function.
It’s probably better if I don’t try to explain it, but Tall Tech Tales wrote a detailed article about how to do it, if you’re interested.
Does Scrivener Work With ProWritingAid?
ProWritingAid does integrate with Scrivener.
ProWritingAid says:
ProWritingAid’s Desktop App allows you to open, edit and save your Scrivener projects without losing formatting.
Keep in mind that you need the premium version of the desktop app to combine Scrivener and ProWriting Aid. You also want to close your file in Scrivener before you open it in ProWritingAid (or your changes might not save correctly).
You open your document in ProWritingAid, run the grammar and spellcheck, make the changes, and save the changes. Then you close down ProWritingAid and open your freshly edited document in Scrivener. The document should reflect all of your changes.
Does Scrivener Work With the Hemmingway App?
No, Scrivener does not integrate with the Hemmingway App. Like with most of the other grammar checkers, you can copy and paste the text from a Scrivener document into the Hemmingway App.
Otherwise, there is no direct integration.
Many authors really like the Hemmingway App and use it for all of their projects. It comes down to whether or not it bothers you to take those extra steps to move your text from one program to another.
There is no right answer, but it is something to consider.
Best Grammar Add-On for Scrivener
The best grammar add-on for Scrivener is ProWritingAid. It works most seamlessly with Scrivener. You can open, edit, and save Scrivener documents in ProWritingAid, then continue working on them in Scrivener. No other grammar and spelling checker integrates with Scrivener.
However, you can only integrate with Scrivener using the premium version of ProWritingAid in the desktop app.
If you don’t mind copying and pasting from Scrivener to other locations, you can use the free version of Grammarly. You might need to break up your document into smaller pieces to edit within the character limitations, but if you are on a budget, this might be the perfect option for you.
How Does Scrivener Help You Edit?
Besides checking your grammar and spelling, Scrivener includes several other cool editing features.
Editing features in Scrivener:
- Replace multiple spaces with single spaces
- Remove empty lines between paragraphs
- Automatically capitalize
- Automatically remove capitalization
- Look up definitions, synonyms, and quotes
- Built-in name generator (by gender, culture, and possible alliteration)
There are even more, but I wanted to highlight these as they seem most relevant to writing and editing.
Is Scrivener Better Than Word?
If you are writing a story, then Scrivener is a better writing and editing software than Word.
Scrivener has all the built-in features we’ve already mentioned while helping you structure and organize your short story, novel, or screenplay. Many academic writers also prefer Scrivener.
Again, let’s turn to Scrivener to describe itself:
At its heart is a simple ring-binder metaphor that allows you to gather your material and flick between different parts of your manuscript, notes, and references with ease. Break your text into manageable sections of any size and leave Scrivener to stitch them together. Integrated outlining tools let you plan everything first or restructure later. And as your project grows, you’ll find that Scrivener grows with it.
A few interesting ways you can use Scrivener:
- Split each scene or chapter into individual files
- Create a virtual “corkboard” to plan your story
- Outline your novel
- Write scripts with the scriptwriting feature
- Use the Collections feature to make lists of related information (such as research citations, characters, etc.)
- Take snapshots of sections so that you can return to previous versions of the section even after multiple revisions
There’s a lot more to Scrivener. Suffice it to say that, for novelists and even nonfiction writers, the software is better than Word.
Best Scrivener Add-Ons?
While most apps don’t integrate easily with Scrivener, you can still use other apps as part of your collection of writing software. Once you finish the document in Scrivener, you can migrate the information into other apps.
Popular Scrivener addons:
- Grammarly
- ProWritingAid
- Hemmingway Editor
- Zotero (for academic research)
- Papers (for research and citations)
- Bookends (reference management
- Antidote (for French speakers)
- Pandoc (document converter)
Final Thoughts: Does Scrivener Check Grammar?
I hope this article has helped answer your question, “Does Scrivener check grammar?”
I also hope that I’ve helped you come up with several more sophisticated grammar and spellcheck options using other software. Since Scrivener is designed as a writing and workflow program (and not an editing program), you may need to perform a few creative workarounds to polish your documents.
No matter what you do, I wish you the best in your writing!
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