I’ve just started using this wonderful program, and it’s great in so many ways that I feel like I just must be missing an easier way to do this. There is a function called scrivener link where you can put a link that links internally to something else in your binder. The only way I can find to make this kind of link is to either go to edit or right click on an area of text.
Well, I have a lot of things to choose from, and a set of pop out menus appear that constantly disappear before you can get the right target. If I could just drag the document from the binder directly onto the text where I want it or something like that it would be a lot more convenient.
At the moment, the Edit menu and the context menu are the only ways to add a Scrivener link, but we have plans for several other methods, including dragging from the binder as you suggest. So it will be coming, it’s just not in there yet.
I’m not sure how you’re using the links, but you might want to try using the document references in the inspector for some cases, as you can just drag items from the binder into that area to add them. (References is the second tab from the left in the inspector footer.) It may be helpful also to lock the editor before dragging the documents out to help prevent accidentally loading the document you’re just trying to drag. To do that, you can use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+L or select Lock in Place from the icon menu in the editor header or from View > Editor.
I’m not sure I see the inspector footer, maybe I’m looking in the wrong place. Just checking that we’re talking about the windows version.
Also, I’m oddly working on a roleplaying game I’m running for my first scrivener project and it’s insanely well suited for it. If I could edit PDFs (like use text fields) from within the program it would be about perfect for that. As it is, the scrivener link allows me to link from within a narrative section to sheets for the NPCs referenced, should I need to remember some detail on the fly. Being able to use the links more easily would let me never reference a character without having the ability to pull up their information always at my fingertips.
For all of us waiting patiently for an easier way to accomplish an internal Scrivener link, here’s a possibly tolerable workaround. Let’s say the link you wish to add can be found via Search.
One Time:
Create a new Collection with suggested name: Project References Alt .
Create a new document at top or second level with suggested name: See Document &References .
Each Time:
Lock your document in place, typically Ctrl-Shift-L
Run the search.
Right click on the desired search result, and add it to the Collection: Project References Alt.
Click to that Collection in the Binder pane.
Drag the desired entry into your locked document’s Document References.
Select the desired entry in Project References Alt, hit F2 and Ctrl-C to copy its name.
Paste the name into your locked document.
8 ) Highlight that name, and make a dummy link to the document named “See Document &References”. If that document is top level, you’ll likely be able to do this via key sequence: Alt-E V R.
Explanation:
With thousands of notes imported from another system and deeply yet imprecisely nested, I find it’s a nuisance to hunt for one note and link to it via the jumpy and finicky cascading menus, particularly if that note is already visible in the Binder or has been located via a search. Unfortunately, we cannot yet drag a search result item into the document as a link, nor into the Inspector’s tabbed Document References or Project References. But we can add search results into a Collection. (Grouping project references as a Collection has several advantages over relying on the Inspector version; copying a link from Search Results is one of them.)
Once in a Collection, our link can be easily dragged into Document References. But we’ll still need some means within the linking document to contextualize the link, and remind us where it can be found. Hence the quick dummy link and easy-to-reach generic landing page.
This method is truly a kludge, but I’m finding it beats all known approaches thus far.
Suggestion to developers: a direct drag into the document from the Binder or from Search Results or from Document References would be ideal. But a self-link context menu option from the target document, i.e. Copy to Clipboard as Link, would be a worthy improvement in the interim.
(Grouping project references as a Collection has several advantages over relying on the Inspector version; copying a link from Search Results is one of them.)