This one isn’t reproducible every time, but I notice that when I drag and drop out of the Binder or a collection, and into a document, holding the Alt key to create a link, I get inconsistent behavior.
It always adds the text (in my current format for the document) of the dragged document, and creates a Scrivener Link to it.
Sometimes it also navigates the editor pane to the document I dragged in. I end up having to just go back, which is of course frustrating. Also, since it just navigated me unnecessarily, I lose the previously-existing forward history of documents for that editor pane.
I haven’t determined the exact rhyme or reason of this behavior. I thought for a bit I had a lead on it, but it seems to come and go.
Be sure to press the Alt key before beginning the drag. Dragging and dropping without that registered will drop the text of the item rather than create a Scrivener link with the title.
Dragging and dropping a document that is already selected in the binder (which may not be the document currently loaded in the editor) does usually switch documents in the editor when dropping it. I have that down in the bug list, but I believe it’s to do with how and when the mouse clicks are registered in Qt, the framework Scrivener uses, so the down-press to begin the drag triggers the switch to happen on drop.
You may want to try locking the editor before doing a drag and drop. That will prevent the document changing in a mis-drag or if things are just being finicky. I got in the habit of locking the editor regularly on my Mac back when I was having some trackpad trouble. Ctrl+Shift+L will toggle the lock per-editor.
Yep, my experience as well. Alt-dragging a link opens the link in the destination editor pane as it successfully inserts the link into the intended doc. Happens regularly, yet I’ve never been able to reproduce it consciously.
The problem may very well live at the framework level. For example, some non-exclusionary condition under which a mouse gesture in progress is recognized simultaneously as a click and a drag.
Dragging a document from the Binder to an editor or the Inspector will switch documents if the document being dragged is one already selected and highlighted. An unselected document will yield a clean drag and drop.
Just wanted to clarify that this happens regardless of whether I have depressed Alt before beginning the drag. I’ve been very careful to press Alt first, and it still happens frequently.
Are you dragging a single document or multiple selection? There is a known bug where dragging and dropping a multiple selection will load it in the editor.
It’s always a single document I drag. I’m just trying to create Scrivener links to cross-reference things in some of my documents and notes, and Alt-drag is a lot more convenient for me most of the time than using the right-click menu.
Hm. And the document you’re dragging from the binder isn’t already selected there? Are you dragging and dropping into the main editor or somewhere else?
No, I never drag the same document to itself; that would just link back to itself.
I always work with two editors, split top/bottom. View->Binder Affects->Current Editor is set. Often what I do is this:
Go to the bottom editor.
Navigate to a page that I will use for as a link target. This may be by virtue of using the Binder, or Search Results. Or sometimes I have this already in my editor history, so by scrolling through the history I reach it.
Ctrl-Shift-8 to reveal the bottom editor in the Binder.
Switch to the top editor.
Back to the binder, where the bottom editor’s page is conveniently visible: move the mouse over the doc in the Binder and press and hold Alt.
Drag over to the desired location in the top editor (or alternatively, in its Notes).
Release the mouse.
The Scrivener link is always inserted, but sometimes, the top editor is navigated to the document from the dragged item. I think this happens more for the Notes display, but it is common enough with both the Notes and the editor.
Hmmm…as I look over this more and fiddle with it more, I think the key to this is that I want to put a link in the bottom editor to the document in the top editor, and when I Alt-drag and drop this document out of the Binder into the bottom editor, it switches the bottom editor to also have the same document as the top editor. If I drag some other document (including a sub-document of what’s in the top editor), the bottom editor doesn’t also navigate to it.
Does that make this reproducible? So far it seems reproducible to me now.
Okay, that’s what I meant. If you’ve used “Reveal in Binder” for the document in the bottom editor, that document is already selected in the binder when you Alt+click to drag it. This is part of the bug previously mentioned, so it’s already on the list. Thanks for the clarification!