Replacing Scrivener with Emacs and Vim

Here’s a video showing how I replaced Scrivener and Evernote using Emacs with the EVIL Vim emulator package.

This will appeal to a few types of people:

1. Programmers who are looking for a really nice writing environment.
2. Writers with a technological bent.
3. Writers who don’t mind having to google things quite a lot while learning how Emacs works.

Emacs and all packages that I demonstrate here are open source and free. Give it a try and you might end up liking it as much as I do!

The sample configuration zip file I’ve provided below will get you started with minimal hassle.

Installation Instructions

Download the Scrivener like Emacs config with Vim bindings HERE.

Windows:

1. Download Emacs at http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/. The file that you want is called emacs-24.5-bin-i686-mingw32.zip.
2. Create a new folder called "Emacs" on your C: Drive and extract emacs-24.5-bin-i686-mingw32.zip to it. No install necessary.
3. Type "%appdata%" in the windows explorer bar.
4. If there is an ".emacs.d" folder, delete it.
5. Extract the contents of the Scrivener Emacs config zip above to the ".emacs.d" folder in this folder. The folder location will be something like "C:\Users\bob\AppData\Roaming.emacs.d", where your name replaces bob.
6. Run Emacs with C:\Emacs\bin\Runemacs.exe. Create shortcuts as desired.

Mac OS X

1. Install emacs 24.5 from https://emacsformacosx.com/builds
2. Delete ~/.emacs or ~/.emacs.d folders if they exist.
3. Extract the contents of the Scrivener Emacs config zip above to ~/.emacs.d
4. Run Emacs

Linux

1. Install Emacs 24.5 from your package manager
2. Delete ~/.emacs or ~/.emacs.d folders if they exist.
3. Extract the contents of the Scrivener emacs config zip above to ~/.emacs.d
4. Run Emacs

Note: Emacs 25 will also work and you’re welcome to use that version. I recommend Emacs 24.5 here because it is faster and we’re not using anything from Emacs 25.

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