Filename extensions for imports into research folder

[philjaq]

Can anybody tell me if there is a way to show the extensions for files imported into the Research folder of the Binder?

I have copied my image directory into the binder so I can insert thumbnails where needed in the relevant documents. Sadly, I cannot tell which are jpgs, pngs or svg files. The extensions all got lost in the import. Why would Scrivener do that? Is there some setting in the options that I’ve missed?

[drmajorbob]

@philjaq

Can anybody tell me if there is a way to show the extensions for files imported into the Research folder of the Binder?

I have copied my image directory into the binder so I can insert thumbnails where needed in the relevant documents. Sadly, I cannot tell which are jpgs, pngs or svg files. The extensions all got lost in the import. Why would Scrivener do that? Is there some setting in the options that I’ve missed?

You can export images (or begin to do so) and you’ll see the extension in the export dialog … or maybe not if you don’t have “show extensions” enabled in the OS, but why wouldn’t you?

Personally, I keep all images external to the project and refer to them as <$img:pathname> where needed. It saves space, and you’ll know what & where they are. I’d put all of them in the same place, if you do this.

[philjaq]

@drmajorbob

You can export images (or begin to do so) and you’ll see the extension in the export dialog … or maybe not if you don’t have “show extensions” enabled in the OS, but why wouldn’t you?

I’m afraid the only place I see export is File > export > files and I don’t see any file type extension in the dialogue box. The ‘save as’ prompt just shows the image filename as Scrivener imported it, without extension.

I see the promise to export all non-text files in their original format and that works ok. And I do have all OS settings to show extensions.

[drmajorbob]

@philjaq

@drmajorbob

You can export images (or begin to do so) and you’ll see the extension in the export dialog … or maybe not if you don’t have “show extensions” enabled in the OS, but why wouldn’t you?

I’m afraid the only place I see export is File > export > files and I don’t see any file type extension in the dialogue box. The ‘save as’ prompt just shows the image filename as Scrivener imported it, without extension.

I see the promise to export all non-text files in their original format and that works ok. And I do have all OS settings to show extensions.

Does File>Export>Files… do the same thing as shown in my video at the link?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/do2c9pmxwzxz2e9/file%20extensions.mp4?dl=0

There is ONE other explanation I don’t mention in the video: that you’re using the beta and it has a bug in this area. I’d test it myself, but I lost the ability (temporarily) to run Windows when I bought a new silicon Mac.

[MimeticMouton]

The file Save As dialog on Windows isn’t quite the same as on macOS and it doesn’t show the extension for the file. However, imported images can be opened in an external editor, and if you have the file extensions shown on the system, they’ll be visible there, as e.g. “content.png”.

An easy way to do this is to click the right-pointing arrow button in the editor footer when the image loaded, the second from the right (the other, circular arrow is a reload button, in case you were to make changes to the images in the external editor). The Open in External Editor command is also available via the right-click context menu in the binder (under Open) and from the Navigate > Open > submenu. With the new shortcut scheme, the default keyboard shortcut is Win-Alt-Shift-O, but you could change that in Options.

That said, given your needs, importing all the images into the binder doesn’t seem like it may be the best option. Image placeholders are one alternative, as mentioned above, but you could also use Insert > Image Linked to File… to add the images to your document so that the image is visible and scalable, like an embedded image, yet stored outside the project. The path to the image–and thus its extension–is visible in the dialog to scale the image and in the hover text when mousing over the image. The linked images are also treated like embedded images when using Find by Formatting, so they’re just as easy to search for within your project. Linked images are discussed in §15.6.3 of the user manual.

[drmajorbob]

@MimeticMouton

That said, given your needs, importing all the images into the binder doesn’t seem like it may be the best option. Image placeholders are one alternative, as mentioned above, but you could also use Insert > Image Linked to File… to add the images to your document so that the image is visible and scalable, like an embedded image, yet stored outside the project. The path to the image–and thus its extension–is visible in the dialog to scale the image and in the hover text when mousing over the image. The linked images are also treated like embedded images when using Find by Formatting, so they’re just as easy to search for within your project. Linked images are discussed in §15.6.3 of the user manual.

Does that require Scrivener to open those images at program start, then? They remain closed until Compile time if I use $img placeholders.

[philjaq]

Thanks MimeticMouton for those hints. I tried the linking to a file in a different application and I see what you mean about seeing the filename extension as part of the path if I hover over the image.

But bulk importing all my images doesn’t slow the pc down noticeably and the project file size is only some 400kb. I have worked this way because my illustrations are all prepared on a different machine and the two pc’s are not networked together.

I was reminded of this problem yesterday when I had to check through a load of images to make a few changes. With some 270 images, a mixture of pngs and jpgs, I really missed having the extensions readily visible in the binder. I find it strange that Scrivener drops the file extensions from display in the binder. After all, the files are imported with their extensions intact so why not display the whole name?

I did find that I had accidently imported a few svg images and curiously enough, they were easy to spot because scrivener displays them very fuzzy and out of focus compared with the jpgs and pngs. The vector svg images are the source for the pngs and jpgs and are supposed to scale very well. Does anybody know why they might display poorly in Scrivener?

[drmajorbob]

@philjaq

Thanks MimeticMouton for those hints. I tried the linking to a file in a different application and I see what you mean about seeing the filename extension as part of the path if I hover over the image.

But bulk importing all my images doesn’t slow the pc down noticeably and the project file size is only some 400kb. I have worked this way because my illustrations are all prepared on a different machine and the two pc’s are not networked together.

I was reminded of this problem yesterday when I had to check through a load of images to make a few changes. With some 270 images, a mixture of pngs and jpgs, I really missed having the extensions readily visible in the binder. I find it strange that Scrivener drops the file extensions from display in the binder. After all, the files are imported with their extensions intact so why not display the whole name?

I did find that I had accidently imported a few svg images and curiously enough, they were easy to spot because scrivener displays them very fuzzy and out of focus compared with the jpgs and pngs. The vector svg images are the source for the pngs and jpgs and are supposed to scale very well. Does anybody know why they might display poorly in Scrivener?

You could add the extension to the filename so that

image.jpg

becomes

imageJPG.jpg

Then the Binder would tell you what you want to know.