Hi, I use Scrivener for keeping PDFs organized chronologically and in structured outlines, and it would be useful for me to be able to compile a list of the PDFs in my research binder with the titles and synopses I have assigned in Scrivener. But it appears that the compiler only works on text files. Am I missing something? If there is not a way to do this currently, this is a feature that would be very helpful to me.
That is correct, the compiler would not be the right tool for the job here. Compile is for turning many bits of text into a document (of some type), whereas PDFs are already completed documents. What will work better for you is to print from your Outliner, with the PDFs in view. You can then save as PDF from the print dialogue box. Or if you need the list as editable text, then just select the PDF’s as index cards on the Corkboard and copy and paste them into a plain-text editor (or back into Scrivener with Edit/Paste and Match Style).
Thanks, AmberV, the methods you suggest do provide partial work-arounds that are helpful, but they don’t get me all the way there. You are right that I want editable text, which makes printing to PDF an incomplete solution. Also, I would like to be able to use the compiler’s structured outline function to create file numbering (1, 1.1, 1.1.1, etc.). Copying from the index card view is useful when all of the PDFs I want are on the same outline level, but it does not work when I have cards nested in sub-levels, and, again, I miss the structured outline feature of the compiler.
So, I still think this would be a really good addition for people like me who like to organize PDFs into structured outlines in Scrivener. I am a lawyer, and I think a lot of lawyers would find this useful. For academic researchers also, it might be nice to be able to create a neat structured outline of research notes to share with colleagues.
Sure, but I still think the right answer here is to use more appropriate tools for the job. Making it possible to add PDFs and movie files and whatnot to the compiler would just make things very confusing. People would expect that capability to insert content into the compiled document, and in many cases that wouldn’t even be possible (PDF among them). This is why such files are deliberately filtered out of the compile Contents list (in cases where Contents is being pulled from sources external to Draft). This is a deliberate decision, not an oversight or mistake.
But, if you are overall looking for something a bit more powerful than a simple printout or copy and paste, then consider CSV or OPML outputs form the File/Export/ sub-menu. Now you can do everything that a dedicated outliner or spreadsheet can do.
Amber, yes, the OPML export is useful when I am at home and have my Mac with Omni Outliner, which can assign the outline numbers. But I have never found a good Windows OMPL editor (if you know of one, please share!). So when I am at work, all I have is the CSV file, which does not preserve the outline structure, and thus is not helpful unless all my PDFs are on the same level.
And even when I do have my Mac, it would be much simpler to be able to produce the document I want to share with my colleagues in one step from Scrivener rather than having to export to OPML, format in Omni Outliner, then export again as Word, PDF, etc. I understand this is a bit different from the way you envision people normally using Scrivener, but for me (and, I expect, a lot of lawyers) it would be really handy.
Another idea, if you don’t like the idea of this function being part of the compiler, is to add options to include structured outline numbering and synopses to the “Table of Contents” feature. From there, I could copy and paste it into Word or Evernote to share with others.
That is more the direction I was thinking of, in going through the options. Essentially, the concept of “printing an outline” is, I believe, the best approach to take for creating an index of resources. The main problem with it right now is that this always goes to the print engine (and thus PDF), rather than the capability to produce an editable RTF file or something. This feature is already fairly flexible (the options for output are in the File/Page Setup… dialogue, under “Scrivener” settings, then the Options button, and finally the Outline tab). You’ll find you can append status, label, keywords, custom meta-data and a number of other things—including numbering (though not the type you would prefer, unfortunately).
Your idea of coupling it with the Edit/Copy Special/Copy Documents as ToC (at least I think that is what you are referring to) is an interesting approach as well. I’ll mark down both of these ideas in our notes for future consideration.