Can you tell me specifically what the difference is between these two and what their different functions are.
Thank you
I wouldn’t expect anyone to be especially definite about the purposes of these. They are what you want to use them for.
But in as much as there are practical differences between them, document notes (for me) are additional notes that are not part of the text of the document I’m working on, but which will always be kept with that text. So, in fiction, say, an editing comment: “This scene needs re-writing”.
The scratchpad is a floating notepad that you can use even when an application other than Scrivener is the front window on your screen. So perhaps you’re updating your calendar in iCal when an idea strikes you for the chapter you’re working on in Scrivener. The idea can go into the Scratchpad.
The Scrivener Manual (Help >) is clear on the practical differences between these two.
Different people work in different ways, so it’s partly personal preference.
However, I see Document Notes as notes specifically about a particular document, containing notes for revision, notes about continuity, that sort of thing. I see the Scratchpad as more of an extended clipboard: a place to put notes of any kind while I figure out what their final destination should be. That might be a note about continuity, but it might also be my grocery list. Like its paper analog, Scratchpad is a handy place to scribble transient notes.
This difference is reflected on the technical level as well. Document notes are part of the meta-data for a specific document in a specific project. If you copy a project to another machine, the document notes will go too.
In contrast, the Scratchpad is project-independent. If you move the project to another machine, the Scratchpad will be left behind. Furthermore, if you have to recover your files, the Scratchpad is stored in a different location and is not part of the project-specific backups.
Hope this helps,
Katherine
If you are looking for something like the scratch pad that is in fact tied to the project, you can use Project Notes for that. You can access them in the same place as Document Notes (click on the header name above the note pad to switch). These will be accessible this way from any place in the outline—whereas documents notes are only visible when you have selected the thing they are attached to.
Project Notes can also be accessed in a window like scratchpad, via the Project/Project Notes... menu. There you can make multiple tabs if you wish, which will be added to the sidebar note menu when switching.