Advice on Binder/Collection/Other and structuring for Compile?

Scrivener
,
2

…no way to recreate the binder structure if I do screw up.

You could “back up” the current binder order fairly simply:

  1. Select the Draft folder and use Edit ▸ Select ▸ Select with Subdocuments.
  2. Ctrl+click on Draft to remove it from the selection and use Edit ▸ Copy Special ▸ Copy Documents as Structured Link List.
  3. Paste that into a new empty document that will serve as your binder order back up. This will give you an indented list of linked titles.

Alternatively, what I do when I embark on a major structural shift is create a genuine backup via File ▸ Back Up ▸ Back Up To..., to save a zipped copy with a name that clearly states its purpose. That way you always have a copy of how things were that stays outside of the normal backup rotation.

If I need a reference of where things were it is a simple matter to extract a copy of the old project out of the backup and view it alongside the ongoing WIP, trashing it when I’m done and leaving only the .zip.

To turn to the main question though: undeniably the purpose of the Draft folder is to store the text in narrative order. The whole program is wrapped around that concept, and so while could defy that and use the draft as a kind of non-linear source by which a Collection defines the true narrative order—it’s never going to be as graceful working that way in my opinion.

So what I would so is, after forming the full-draft selection and running the copy command, above, is then move over to the Documents ▸ Add to Collection ▸ New Collection menu command and create your definitive chronological order list. To my mind anyway, a flat list is more conducive to that anyway, whereas a structured list is going to be better for, well the sort of document structure you’re likely to want (chapters, sections, etc.).

Now you are free to start getting the draft folder into narrative shape. If you need to reference chronological order, pop open a split, right-click on the header bar icon, and select your collection to view it there (rather than replacing the binder sidebar).

That’s how I would do it anyway.

1 Like