How I got here: I’m not sure it’s relevant, but let’s assume multiple drafts and back-ups across several laptops, Time Machine and external drives. In short, I’m not really sure.
The folder icons contain two images: one is of a blue folder, the other is of what looks like a page of text:
The editor does not display the text inside this hybrid folder, but tells me that there are no sub-documents. There doesn’t appear to be any way to edit the text:
Kind of. If the folder itself contains no text, it will show up as “empty” in document mode (not sure if that’s really the proper name). In Scrivenings mode however, the editor shows all sub-documents.
The only thing I don’t understand is this “contains no subdocuments” message, because my Scrivener version doesn’t show anything in this case.
The folder + text icon indicates that the folder document itself contains text. Whether this text is displayed in Scrivenings mode is configurable: Scrivener → Settings → Behaviors → Folders & Files.
The “No subdocuments” message means what it says. If you click the triangle next to the folder icon, it will expand that part of the Binder.
Doesn’t it make more sense to differentiate between folders and documents? Or is this one of these Plan 9-type innovations where everything is a file–or in this case, folders?
Some people use the folder-document to store information “about” the folder: extended synopsis, notes from an editor, submission/publishing history, or other material that isn’t part of the manuscript itself.
Some people write directly in the folder-document, only creating sub-documents as needed.
The distinction between files and folders is indeed somewhat arbitrary. A Scrivener “folder” does not correspond to a folder structure on your computer’s disk. These conceptual folders are useful for some people and some projects, less useful for others.
Folders get page-breaks by default, files do not, and the icons are different. Other than those fairly useful distinctions, they’re the same thing. Any file or folder can include text that isn’t compiled, etc, and both are “documents”.
There is no such thing as a “hybrid folder”. There are only documents, some of which have a different icon. So the question then becomes: “How does one delete text from a document to make it empty”, and then the answer is probably easier to deduce.
This is covered in the Interactive Tutorial, “Composition Mode”, which at the very end of that section, explains how you will be selecting a folder with text content, and how to view it.
It is also covered in Scrivener user manual in a few places, but most notably in §7.3, Folders are Files are Folders.
Could you let me know which step you got to in the indicated user manual section that does not explain this well enough? I’m looking at this and having a hard time seeing where it would be confusing, so I must have a blind spot.
In all my years of using Scrivener, I had never seen this type of folder before.
In the manual, the term “folder” has 315 references. The term “hybrid folder” has none (actually, there is one page where the word “hybrid” appears as does “folder,” but not together).
BTW, is 5x7 or 6x9 version of the manual available anywhere? The baked in version is letter-size and I’ like to print a smaller size.
Again, they are not “special” or “hybrid” folders. They are documents, which contain text, and for which Scrivener has been told to use the “folder” icon.
One way to produce this result would be to deliberately or accidentally type directly into the top level “folder” document. That might happen, for instance, if you were in single document mode, rather than Scrivenings mode, when you selected the folder.
With existing text, you might do it by merging the folder with one or more of its sub-documents.
As for the text “disappearing,” that would happen if you had the “show folder text in Scrivenings mode” option disabled. I don’t remember whether that’s the default setting.
