Plottr Reviews

Summary: There are so many things I want to say… This may be long so buckle down! I have found Plottr is perfect for me, even though I wish I could use it on other platforms.

I have found I prefer the PC application more(form and function). The devs focus on this and it clearly shows. It works better and is not buggy. The attention and features that have been added over time make sense and don’t impede use flexibility to the end user. Computer Resource Usage is low. When my computer cries, it’s from my internet tabs…

Updates are not forced, you can easily tell what they entail with the straightforward videos that are posted to YouTube. Updating is fast, has never bricked the program or lost any of my data. (I make backups anyway… Prior programs have taught me to be paranoid as you will soon learn!)

I have found that even though I miss the IPad’s flexibility in work location it is the only thing I miss. PC works better for workflow in every way, every time. They are right to focus on it.

I don’t know if Plottr would work if installed on a portable ARM PC like a Microsoft Surface X; But if it did (and if a Surface worked as well as an iPad), I would buy one immediately and it would become my Primary Portable Plottr PC.

I am paranoid about big companies and China mining and stealing my baby from the cloud. I spend a lot of time and mental energy researching, rearranging, and refining my work. Connection to the cloud is convenient, but easily lost/manipulated/stolen, therefore I don’t use it. Therefore, I greatly appreciate local storage in this day and age to keep creative control over my work until it is ready. I write as a serious hobby and seek to grow with my work.

It is easy to make backups(duplicates) and place them anywhere. This works quickly and effortlessly, negating any remaining need for cloud.

Exporting to word is a godsend for assuaging the paranoia in me, as I have seen apps rise and fall with proprietary file types that nothing can open. That said, It would be nice to have more Word-like abilities and weird fonts when writing descriptions. Keyboard shortcuts never hurt either. I prefer using Plottr over Word because I can keep things in context with the timelines/books.

I think I’m done…

No I’m not: I don’t often feel reviews are worth my time as I agonize over what to say/include. I apologize for the length of this review as I am inexperienced writing reviews. Plottr earned my good review. 10/10 Would agonize again.

Now I’m done!

Positive: > Straightforward, yet flexible visual interface.
> Lifetime buy/access available
> Local Storage
> Sensible and flexible export options
> Templates available, yet not in the way. They are explained well and include context.
> Updates make sense and are not forced upon you.

Negative: iPad app is the most convenient interface, but most buggy… Though I have found I now prefer how interacting/integrating with Plottr with the PC app. I will note my findings below for Devs if they decide they want to keep the iPad app.

— Dragging/rearranging items on (IPad) timeline causes the thing to disappear, showing up on the timeline of a preceding book and losing data.

— Logging in (IPad) sometimes buggy but can be fixed by logging into the website first then opening the app.

—Storing file from PC in OneDrive and opening it on iPad causes issues Ipad side. Certain features are not implemented on iPad so the data appears lost until you reopen on PC. Nothing is lost you just can’t see it.

— Program will sometimes “forget” that you have formatted words a certain way (italics, bolds, etc…) Makes it difficult to distinguish regular dialogue from an eldritch’s abominable utterances

— Reviews on the iPad app are quite cruel and unfair. They are definitely not helpful, but I understand the frustration. Trying to pigeon-hole an app this powerful/flexible into the Mac ecosystem would be an exercise in futility, killing the things that make it great.

Summary: Plottr's relational foundation coupled with its ease of use and ability to create and/or import custom templates makes this a necessary tool in my creative arsenal.

Positive: What drew me initially to Plottr was its visual design and functionality. I"d spent so much time trying to create a useful, visual-based outline for my manuscripts, even going so far as to custom-code a solution. But then Plottr had already done it for me. Its Tag feature, specifically, and the ability to create filtered views of your scenes has been key in creating more consistency when checking for theme, voice, and plot elements. I've also utilized Plottr in my day job, creating wireframes and workflow diagrams on the fly.

Negative: My con is no longer a con because Plottr solved it. I wanted more more robust structuring capabilities to create a true Act / Chapter / Scene structure. With its new Act feature, and nesting/tab views, Plottr gave me exactly what I wanted.

Summary: There are too many templates being added which is overwhelming at first.
Plottr provides a strong visual tool for developing story structure and developing words on the page. Other tools like Scrivener are very competitive, however, exchanging files is not satisfactory.
Cut and paste from other applications need enhancement.

Positive: I like having access to a visual representation of the story outline and the ability to rearrange this with simple changes to the Plottr outline. There is so much detail in outlining a story that the visual graphics give a digestible outline.

Negative: Passing files between Plottr and Scrivener does not work smoothly. At the draft stage this interchange of structure would be very useful. Currently, exchanging files between Scrivener and Plottr is clunky and work intensive. Could a Scrivener template be developed to minimize this exchange process? A detailed analysis of the Plottr outline for a well known novel, as an exemplar, would be informative.

Summary: Really great program. I've never come across another that can do all this one does. It's great to use.

Positive: The program is smooth and intuitive with very regular updates. I love the way the team are constantly adding new features and thinking ahead.

Customer service is also excellent and they really get stuck in if you have a problem.
Everything meshes really well and it adapts to many different views and ways of working, so however you like to plan, this software is up to the task.

Also links seamlessly with Scrivener, which is always a great bonus.

Negative: In the scene cards it would be nice to be able to see the scene's description and attributes sections on the same screen. Other than that I think it great.

Summary: I was about to give up writing a sequel to my book. It became too overwhelming as I tried keeping my story straight, and organized. This product has helped me tremendously. I am extremely pleased to say, "Thanks to Plottr, I have begun writing again!"

Positive: Great support and lots of helpful tutorials.
Has a vast array of options to fit any of your writing needs.
The company is open to suggestions for the wants and needs of its customers.

Negative: N/A.
I am a new customer. I am still learning how to use Plottr.

Summary: Hands down one of the best writing apps you can have in your writers tool box! I also love the fact that it integrates seamlessly with Scrivener which is a perfect companion to Plottr.

Positive: I simply love this program as it helps, an amateur, like myself, plot and get a story structure to the point where it should be and it makes sense. The character profiles, setting profiles, tons of plot structure templates and so much more. The developers are endlessly making Plottr better and better each release. My go to writing app.

Negative: There is nothing about the app I dislike however, the website could use some tweaking on the navigation. The site isn't very intuitive but oh well, its the app you want anyway!

Summary: Plottr is a fantastic tool for authors. As an author who prefers to plot her stories, this tool makes it easy to organize and keep everything I need to outline my stories in an easy-to-read format. I believe that even those writers who do not prefer to plot out their stories ahead of time will find this helpful tool a perfect addition to their toolbox.

Positive: I love the layout options, the large variety of templates available to use. I also like the color choices. When I needed assistance, I got it the same day which is great.

Negative: There is a small amount of a learning curve, but the tutorial videos truly help in that arena.

Summary: I've been spinning my wheels for a while, trying to finish my work in progress. The cast of characters has grown, the themes and concepts have expanded greatly, and it's just become a mess to keep track of everything. Plottr quickly proved useful in organizing all that. Being able to take a visual inventory of POV changes, scene breakdowns, and a bigger picture series overview has allowed me to take a huge step forward in my writing.

Positive: First and foremost is flexibility. I consider myself an intuitive plotter. My mind has never played well with rigid structure systems. So I wasn't sure Plottr would even be of any use to me when I installed the trial version. But it's been very simple to adjust the functionality of the timelines, character library, and series overview features in a way that feels natural to my thought process.

I also think it looks nice. It has a minimalist aesthetic, while still not feeling cold and robotic.

Negative: Being a newer user, I haven't had time to dig into any major (to me) shortcomings. I would like it if the cards in the Character section were collapsable by their tags, though.

I have a lot of characters in my WIP. I created six categories to sort them. It works fine, but I do find myself having to scroll a bit, as my supporting and minor character cast grows and grows. If those could be collapsed into a stack eventually, it'd be a welcome ease of use feature.

Summary: Truly helpful in starting a new fiction project. It will be a part of my process from now on, for sure.

Positive: Dining room tables should be for family dinners, not rows upon rows of index cards laying out the plot of your latest novel. Plottr solves that issue with easily moveable digital index cards. But even better than that are the template options — 10 + craft books boiled down to a choice of templates to get you started on structuring your book.

Negative: There’s a time and place for physically manipulating your plot points and scenes. For everything else, there’s Plottr.

Summary: As someone who works with words and pictures together, the visual impact I get with Plottr is, literally, eye-opening. I can 'see' what I can't see in my mile-long Scrivener list of chapters and scenes. I purchased a lifetime Plottr with updates because it is in a continuous phase of innovation and enhancement. [Note: I scored 4 on Ease and Features only because I'm certain there is so much more to come; so, Good, but Excellent, too.]

Positive: I came to Plottr primarily for the Timeline, after test-driving two lesser options. I'm editing my 120,000-word literary memoir (in which I had to write 'everything' to find the 'something'), and being able to see its 500 scenes on the timeline is incredible. I superimposed my manuscript on the six-stage plot structure and was thrilled to discover a very close match. Thanks to Plottr, I've realized what my 'crisis/climax' point is and is not. And viewing the timeline is 100% helping me spot which scenes to delete, combine, shorten, etc. And, oh, the colours! And there's so much more I'm learning from the videos, which I'll be using on future projects (perhaps as a plotter!). And, of course, the help response is exceptional. My timeline setup is a bit different from the 'norm,' but Plottr allows such flexibility.

Negative: There isn't anything I don't like. There are features I'd like to see in the future, the odd glitch here and there to be fixed, etc. But, sorry, no cons, cuz Plottr is visually beautiful and functionally dynamic.

Summary: I used it for story purposes but manly for research purposes.
It does the job better that any other software that I know.

Positive: It is easy to use.
It is fast.
It is very visual.
It has a lots of features (tags, categories, notes) that are flexible and adaptable to each project.

Negative: I can't figure out how to work efficiently online with other members of the team.
When the timeline has a lot of information sometimes it slows down (Im a Mac user) and maybe it.

Summary: I know I'm not yet using this product to anything near its full capacity, but I'm enjoying using the features I'm familiar with and looking forward to learning more.

Positive: Easy and intuitive. Love being able to use the story template of my choice and upload images and info for characters and settings. Being able to edit cards or move them around helps me to stay loose while setting things up without worrying over making a mistake. Tutorials are clear and simple, and there are many of them.

Negative: You do need to remember to save as you go. I have lost work before because I forgot to do this, but that was my mistake.

Summary: So far, I have used Plottr for a number of different projects - to help outline a short story, to structure my personal and professional goals, to produce a high level work breakdown structure for a development project - and it has excelled at all of these.

The reason is because it focuses on doing the fundamentals really well, and avoids letting the noise of too many bloated features getting in the way. This is perfect, because there are other tools which can provide the next level of detail in your workflow, and Plottr exports really well to those.

The concept is simple, implementation is clean, and I couldn't recommend it enough if you are a fan of outlining or if you are looking for a tool to help you get there.

Positive: I really like the simplicity of Plottr. It brings structure and clarity to outlining in an easy way. Software can have a tendency to become bloated in the quest for being feature-rich. Plottr focuses on exactly one role, and then excels at just that.

The layout is easy to understand and it brings the feel of working with post-it notes or a whiteboard but on your desktop. Exporting to other applications is really easy when you are ready to dive into the detail.

Negative: There are some bugs - for example, in the new structure layout, making changes to some parameters makes the rendering break. But this is a small thing. It's difficult to pick out any cons beyond this because the feature set is actually quite light and, for once, it feels like a good thing.

Summary: Provides an elevated HCI plotting experience that banishes writers block for authors who enjoy concentrating creativity to the plotting stage and offers a comprehensive 'world hub' to keep the details together for authors who prefer to follow the muse along the way and organize after the writing task.

Positive: Visual layout.
Customizable plotting components.
Syncs well across devices.
Great support.
Sharing and educational community.
Founders invested and involved in literary scene.
Usable for organizing any type of creative projects:
Currently using for --- screenplay projects, fiction, and YouTube video story management.

Negative: Updates cause hiccups sometimes on the Windows computer.

Summary: Using Plottr changed my writing, which means it changed my career and how I work -- that's a major influence and impact on my life!

Positive: There is literally no software out there like Plottr. The true usefulness is that Plottr doesn't just provide the most streamlined tool for outlining, but also templates--many of which thoroughly explain HOW to outline. The guides didn't just help with structure, they helped me brainstorm new ideas. I needed that hand-holding for my first few outlines, and then I was ready to take off on my own, making this software useful for beginners and seasoned plotters alike. This truly changed the game for me; overhauling the entire way that I write.

Negative: The biggest reason this is a 4.5 star and not a 5 for me is the needed improvements in accessibility for the visually disabled. The font on the cards is too small for my eyesight, making the software difficult for me to use. I've given this feedback in an email, but didn't hear back, so I'm uncertain whether this will be improved.

On a smaller note, it's still a newer software. One bug was when I transferred timelines to a different project and nothing happened.