Can you access the actual RTF filename inside scrivener?
Want to edit my files on another device and need to know if inside scrivener you can find the RTF file name so I can make a chapter cheat sheet.
Not to my knowledge, though there actually was a clever way to do this prior to v 1.9.
It’s safer to use export and import to make doc changes away from Scrivener. But it’s your data and your choice, so here’s a possible approach, user to user.
If you open the Files/Docs folder associated with the project, you’ll see the RTFs with their numeric filenames. In Windows Explorer, you can sort these files by Date Modified, and view them in a preview pane. If you happen to modify a doc in Scrivener, and save it, the sort should force it to the top of the list in Explorer. You can then, if you like, drag the file into that doc’s Document References in Scrivener, creating a name record and a link. If you then paste the filename out into a Custom Meta Data field, you’ll be able to see the filenames and doc titles listed in Outliner View, from which they’ll be easier to print out to the cheat sheet.
Good Luck – Jerome
Note that directly editing the RTF files using any tool other than Scrivener is not supported and is quite likely to corrupt your project.
If you do go this route, please be sure to keep good backups.
Katherine
If its not safe to swap back and forth to different RTF editors, like word, then Scrivener needs to be more of a full fledged editor. It desperately needs a full fledged thesaurus similar to Word. Also you cant run Grammarly or other similar programs under Scrivener.
It is about 10x easier for me to use Scrivener up to a point where the rough draft is finished then use Word 2016 for all the editing, but I do go back to Scrivener for global changes.
These two really need to be integrated because Scrivener is missing many features available in Word, and Word is missing a lot of what Scrivener has.
I have been flip flopping between Scrivener and Word 2016 for probably 4 months in editing with no issues, but when switching to Word you must close Scrivener first and visa versa.
And I back up all the time to two separate hard drives.
My question above was only to find the name of the RTF file, which would be a nice feature.
IE start scrivener and click on a chapter, then in the top box somewhere it should state the file, IE 43.rtf etc.
That is needed especially since the file names are so scrambled and don’t reflect any rhyme or reason. I do understand why Scrivener ends up with scattered names.
Consider as well the opposite case, where access to documents via their filenames enables us to update safely, by correcting document issues within Scrivener after we’ve discovered them by some other means. Dead links via a grep, for instance, which will yield a set of filenames, but no obvious way to open them in Scrivener. Especially as the document’s title does not natively reside within the RTF.
Rgds – Jerome
I don’t understand why you would want a special built-in Thesaurus. I use the look-up function which is built into OS X, and have added some more dictionaries into it. It definitely beats the theasurus in Word. Surely there is some similar function in Windows?
Sometimes I keep Google translate open in Safari, and just Alt-tab between apps when I try to find the exact word I’m looking for.
About editing… I’ve realized that the best way for me to get an uncluttered reading of my manuscript is to export it in epub format and read it on my iPad. That way I’m not tempted to start editing when I find something I will want to change. I just mark it in the reader, and go on reading.
Just to point out that this is, in fact, pretty much the way Scrivener is intended to be used, as I understand it.
No, there is no thesaurus function built into Windows, which would be why some would like it. Personally, I use the free utility WordWeb, which works pretty well.
Its the ease of using Word 2016 thesaurus that makes it so nice. On the word you want to look up, hit shift/F7 and the sticky opens or if already open switches to synonyms for that word, click the down arrow beside the synonym you want to use and it replaces the word. It is very quick compared to anything else I have found for windows.
WordWeb works pretty much the same way.
Thanks, will try it.
Interesting - using it only for a few minutes, it seems to misspell the captured word often.
You can import/export files to/from the Scrivener project to your heart’s content. But no, directly editing the contents of the project is not supported.
Katherine
Wordweb can be opened with a hotkey while you are inside Scrivener, but you have to retype what you want to look up in its input window, and and then copy the result back into Scrivener by hand. Still better than nothing.
I am not a Windows user, so please excuse me if I suggest investigating something that is impractical…
But it is my understanding that Windows Scrivener, starting with the 1.9.5 version, has the Sync with External Folder capability. Set up properly (on Mac at least) it provides a perfectly safe way to edit RTF files with an external editor, with the file names exposed. It need not be used with a cloud service if you don’t want; just set up a folder on your hard drive so you can use Word on your RTFs at will 
.
Hoping this helps,
Sandra