Hi! I made this request in the Scrivener for Windows forum several months ago and never got a response. Now the wishlist has moved here, so perhaps there will be some answer this time?
There are some folders in my projects that I always want to view a certain way. For example, my main Draft folder I always like to look at in the Outliner mode when writing, while chapter or smaller section folders I like to view in Scrivenings mode. Since Scrivener works instead by always presenting me with the last view mode selected for any folder I open, rather than the mode the folder had previously been selected in, I have to click between view modes to fix this rather often. I was wondering if it would be possible to create a lock of some kind, perhaps by right-clicking on the outliner/corkboard/scrivenings button, that would allow you to lock whatever you’re currently viewing into your view mode of choice. Scrivener could go on remembering the last-clicked view for all your other folders, but if you had one or two exceptions, it wouldn’t interrupt your workflow.
I think this would end up too confusing. Once you had selected all folders in the project at some stage, all of them would have a remembered mode, and so selecting them would seem entirely random in which view you were presented with. I think the extra click or key-stroke is worth it for the sake of predictability or consistency which would be sacrificed with the view-mode-per-folder model.
Those are my initial thoughts, at least; let me think about it more, though, as I don’t want to dismiss this idea out of hand as there are certainly pros and cons here.
I’m not actually suggesting that the Scrivener be recoded so that each folder remembers the view it was last in. I’m just suggesting that if there is a single folder that you only want to view in a particular mode, such as the corkboard, that the option be available to lock it that way. Everything else can stick with the current method of remembering the last view mode selected for anything in the project. Does that make sense?
It does make sense, and I’m looking into it. In fact, I’m having an icon created for the header bar that can be used for this, so I intend to implement it. Once implemented in the Mac version (which I work on), please note that it will take a little while for it to trickle into the Windows version, though.
In Windows Scrivener v3, this feature is called Lock Group View Mode, and it’s accessed by right-clicking the folder’s icon in the editor header bar.
If that doesn’t help you find it in Mac Scrivener, perhaps try searching the Mac user manual.
Actually I am running into a problem though. When I select the folder in question and try to set this mode the menu item for “Lock Group View Mode” is grayed out and not selectable. Any ideas why?
To answer my own question, the item in question was not considered a folder so I did “convert to folder” and then was able to use this feature. Thank you.
If you would like file groups to be treated more like folders (including respecting this setting), set Treat all documents with subdocuments as folders, in the Behaviors: Folders & Files preference pane.
