Scope: This topic is about “linking research materials”—which means adding a shortcut inside the binder that points to a file external to the project (section 9.2 in the Scrivener manual; or the menu command File ▸ Import ▸ Research Files as Aliases…,).
Suggested features:
- An ability to search for all linked files within a Scrivener project.
- An ability to convert the selected link(s) in the binder or the search results into embedded file
Use cases:
While working on the project, I added links to several external PDF files that are my research materials. Some of these files are shared in multiple projects that I work on, and I can read and annotate them. The features I proposed above will make the following use cases possible:
1. Hand over the library to collaborators: I could make a copy of the Scrivener library, embed all linked files, and hand it over to a collaborator to continue working on. They will have access to the latest version of the linked files.
2. Archival: After I finish working on a project, I want to archive the project together with every file that was used (in the exact version at the time of working).