I have a really dumb, basic question. How do you make sure which copy of your document you have open? In a document like Word that has a single file, I simply go to the file location I want to open, double click on it, and then it’s open. But it doesn’t seem like Scrivener with the multi-file system has an option like that.
Scrivener automatically opens the document I was using last. I have back-ups on my USB drive and my Dropbox. How do I know which copy Scrivener has automatically opened? Does anyone have a suggestion for keeping this organized and easy?
In a sense you can think of it as being “one thing” even though in reality it is more. While it is true there are many files in a project, they all must be working together—so that is really more a technical statement than a usage statement. As far as usage goes, you only “interface” with one file, the scrivx file. Load that, and the rest comes along with it. Each project has its own folder with a “.sciv” on the end of it. That’s your cue for it being a project. So you can organise these “.scriv” folders however you please, and mentally consider them to be like one file.
If you find the feature that opens the last one to be too confusing, you can always turn that off in the General option tab, and load files manually off of the disk, or by using the recent projects menu.
But still, whether the .scriv file loads automatically or from the Recent Projects list, how can you tell exactly which source it’s loading from – your hard drive, disc drive or Dropbox account?
If you keep multiple versions of the same project, with the same exact name, on multiple devices then it would be best to not rely upon the recent projects menu. That would just lead to all sorts of confusion. I find it to be generally easier to only have one active .scriv for the project that I’m working on. Everything else is backups or temporary transfers that I do not open directly. I use them to replace the active copy on whatever machine I’m working on.