I am new to Scrivener but I am at loss to explain how one scene or text from my story got deleted (I think).
I was exploring (trying to figure out how to colour code my text titles), and started a “New Collection” to see what would happen. The selected text went to the New Collection and was removed from the Binder. Fine (I think). But then I deleted, intentionally, the text that was placed in the collection. It showed up in the Trash. Fine.
But then I dragged it from the trash back to the spot it originally occupied in the Binder (and my story), and it just vanished. Can’t find it anywhere. I even did a search for a few words from that text, and there were no matches.
Is it really gone? Why? And can I get it back? I do a weekly backup but I don’t think this new section was saved. Help!
Collections are more like labels in Gmail, than folders. If you assign an e-mail to a label, it doesn’t vanish from the archive or from other labels, it merely starts showing up when you view that label. Collections are the same way, they are lists of items you can create, and give you the ability to view and edit those items together, even if they may be miles apart in the Binder—but they are not removed from the Binder. That would not be possible, because a Collection, like a label, can only list items that are in the project, and everything in the project is in the Binder.
I can’t think of what might have happened there, sometimes people will drag things into other things accidentally, nesting them beneath that item without realising it—and thus thinking it is “gone” because it is no longer right in front of them. However in your case a search couldn’t find it, so I’m not sure. You could check your search parameters and make sure none of the settings are unintentionally excluding it (for example you can search in just the index card synopses—so looking for a word from the main text would not return the item).
You may have an automatic backup that is more recent than your weeklies, though. Scrivener automatically backs up your project whenever you close it (shutting down the computer while leaving it open qualifies). Please refer to §7.8.4, Restoring from Backups, starting on pg. 67 of the user manual, for more information. In your case, I think the method described in the last paragraph on pg. 68 is best. Find the most recent backup and open it alongside your WIP project, you can just drag and drop the missing piece from the backup binder to the current binder.