Can I include but not import a Word Docx file into the binder?

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
1

Hi.

I have to include some nasty tables that will also be edited quite a bit in drafting stage. My idea was to do them in Word for Mac 2016 and simply have them included like an Research PDF in the binder in my Scrivener3 project. Is this possible somehow?

Whatever I try I always end up with an imported text…

Cheers,
Christian

PS: I’d prefer if the file lived in the Scrivener project folder as I work on different machines so this should sync, too…

2

I’ve linked (File ▸ Edit ▸ Research Files as Aliases…) excel files in the binder, and quicklook works very well to view them (including tabbed sheets!) in the editor and they can be opened to work on them, that would be the best way to do this I think. You would keep the excel files in the same folder as the .scriv project file. By default Scrivener doesn’t let you link an excel file (for reasons I don’t remember), so you have to create an alias then link the alias if I remember correctly.

Because quicklook works so well for excel files I really wish Scrivener would just add it as an accepted link file format (haven’t tested in V3, maybe it works now)…

EDIT: YAY, Scrivener 3 can now link Excel files directly!!!

3

Thanks! The alias trick works for Word doc files! However, I do have to create an Alias in Finder and drop it into Scrivener. The File > Import > Research Files as Alias option does not let me grab Word files (grayed out).

4

We do make that an “advanced feature” on purpose. It might be a little confusing to make an official way of importing text documents into a text editor that you can’t edit. :wink:

5

I see. This is somewhat problematic then if one were to use Scrivener as a research and writing tool in which some of the collected research materials are in Word (as I do).

This is also problematic for those of us working in both Windows and macOS environments. While the alias I create in Macs works for the Mac environment, it doesn’t work when I switch to Scrivener Windows version.

I hope a future dot version update will allow importing of Word docs with the option of NOT converting them to RTF and let it be Word docs.

6

It seems to be working fine for me, what sort of problems are you running into? I’ve tested it all again since we’re now on 3.x, and I can link to RTF, ODT etc. from the binder.

Indeed, that’s a problem with linking in general. Aliases and shortcuts aren’t cross-platform compatible. The only linking system that theoretically is, the symbolic link, is no good for this purpose anyway because it relies upon static text pointing to a path. E:\Path\to\image.jpeg isn’t going to work when you plug the drive into a Mac and get file:///Volumes/Drive Name/Path/to/image.jpeg. That’s already an issue for Bookmarks and References, but at least there you don’t get holes in the binder.