Copying my project to use as a 'live' backup/reference

Scrivener Scrivener for Windows
1

This is kind of embarrassing, but… :unamused:

I am the world’s most disorganised person. I mean, like, I lose my house keys every single day. Imagine my writing process…
Even with the stellar brilliance that is Scrivener, my files are an absolute mess. I’ve recently made major changes to the plot line of my book, and I am getting myself incredibly confused. Trying to make the changes in the live version of the project doesn’t work for me. I need an old file that will never change so that I can refer to it and make sure I have made all of the changes properly and tied up all the loose ends. My book covers 800 years of interstellar exploration by two different agencies, so there’s a lot to keep straight.

What I’d like to do is make a copy of the entire file as-is, and rename it so that I can make major changes (delete entire sections, etc, ) to the new version and keep the old one as reference/backup. How do I do this? I did it a few years ago with another project, but I don’t remember how.

Thanks for your help, folks.

t

2

From the top toolbar:

File>Save As>ProjectNameArchived

Or some similar project name where ProjectName is the name of your project now. There will now be two exact duplicates of ProjectName, just with different names. You can have both of them open at the same time. Be sure it is saving to a location where you can find it. Scrivener should default to the last used location, which would put the duplicate in the same place as the original. Do not mix the two within a .scriv folder, those folders are for Scrivener alone to use.

If you want to be really confident that you have a backup, save another version like ProjectNameArchived2 and put that in a safe location where you are unlikely to over-write it.

3

Thank you so much, Tom!

I didn’t think it would be that easy. :blush:

Cheers

t