I like to keep recipes in a Scrivener project.
I have approximately a million sourdough recipes, scattered through this.
I’ve now made a ‘Sourdough’ folder.
Is there any way to search for all the recipes with the world ‘sourdough’ in them, and add them to this folder? I can’t seem to add from the search results, or from the ‘Reveal all in binder’ results.
Well, your question made me curious. cannot find a way to do this sort of search followed by action (move items) in Scrivener. Maybe there, but i don’t see.
It just feels like Scrivener is not the tool needed for this sort of file storage and reference. Yes, if these files form the basis of new content that you are writing (to facilitate gathering, copy/pasting/first-draft), etc.
I would and do use DEVONthink for storing all my files. When a writing project emerges, I look through my files using DEVONthink’s capabilities and then copy them across to the Scrivener project. When I’m done with the project, I copy all the new and changed reference documents back to DEVONthink (if not already put there as part of the writing project). This of course not a new idea, but the thought occurred to me anyway, so I replied.
One way to do this is to create a Collection from the search results. You can then open the Collection, select all the items, and then drag them on to the Binder label, which will open the Binder itself, allowing you to drop the items into a pre-existing folder.
Nice.
How does one create a collection, please? (And what’s the normal purpose for doing so?)
Found this video about using Collections.
youtube.com/watch?v=JcUh8_yK3PI
But how do I add a collection, once made, to a folder?
To create a Collection, in this context, do a regular search – for sourdough, for example – then click Save Search as Collection… from the search dropdown.
A Collections is just a set of references to files – they are non-destructive. You can use them for any number of reasons. Best to read the docs for more info.
fwiw, instead of arranging recipes in a hierarchy, as you seem to be doing, I’d use (search) Collections. Another way would be to use keywords. But it all depends on need and personal preferences.
Collections are a great idea for a book; for a collection of recipes not so much. I’d prefer to be able to scoot down through folders: dinners, bread, salads. Much easier to find what I’m looking for then.
@maeldun back to the first recommendation. What you want could be done relarivy easily in DEVONthink.
Mm. Pity Scrivener doesn’t have an equivalent of the Finder’s “New folder with selection”.
Try:
Create a New Folder to be used as a target location in Draft.
Do a Project Search for good stuff.
From the search results, select the good stuff items you wish to move.
In the Scrivener menu bar choose > Documents > Move To > Draft > New Folder.
What’s your ultimate goal? Are you writing a cookbook, or maintaining a recipe database? Scrivener is not really designed to be a general purpose data repository.
Scshrugged’s suggestion, using the Move To → Folder command, is probably the best you’re going to be able to do in Scrivener.
Katherine
The Move To command is also in the context menu, so this is actually quite easy–run the project search for the term, limiting it to a specific field if desired (e.g. only items with “sourdough” in the title), Cmd-A to select all in the search results, Ctrl-click, and choose Move To > the Sourdough folder you created. That’s it.
I keep a recipe collection in Scrivener, too. Maybe if I hit a million items, it’d be time to reconsider, but I appreciate a number of Scrivener’s features for organising and annotating the recipes, and I’ve been happy with it for years.
The Select All/Move To option kind of worked; I now have 14 items in my Sourdough folder, though there were 23 results in the search. Well, it’s an improvement…
Yeah, if I find a recipe I like I sling it into a Recipes project. I’m a bad person.
OK, done; a million random recipes sorted into 17 folders. Thanks very much, MimeticMouton and Sschrugged, that worked well.