I don’t know if its already possible to do this, so I’ve placed this post in technical support. Perhaps it should be a feature request.
Sometimes, a series of documents will need to refer to the same notes, references and so on. Currently I can choose between Project Notes and Document Notes. Would it be an eccentric idea to have a mid-level thing called Folder Notes. Thus, if a series of documents need to refer to the same Notes, they would be available to all of the contained documents.
As it is, I begin working on a part of a project by specifying the sources that I will be using (documents in Devonthink), and then begin to develop the smaller structure of that part or section by outlining the subsections, each as a separate document. But when I move to those documents, the notes and references are no longer available.
Is there a way around this, or is this indeed a feature request?
Can’t you use the Quick Reference panel for this? Select the folder and click on the Quick Reference icon (the grey one with the diagonal arrows), or View > Quick Reference and navigate to the folder.
When the panel comes up, choose Notes from the drop down box at the bottom right. You can also access the Keywords, References and so on using the same method. The panel stays on the selected document even if you navigate away from it in the binder. You can have QR panels open for more than one document at once.
Also, to a degree Scrivener already has this feature. Anything in the binder can be a “note” document, practically speaking. The “Include in Compile” checkbox is one such way of establishing whether something is a Note or a part of the draft. So some people like to create special note files at the top of the folder list. Another approach is procedural in nature, and that is to categorically state that no folders shall export their text contents when compiling: hence all folders are in practice, note containers as well as child-item containers.
Then one would click on the Folder, switch off the corkboard by clicking the icon in the toolbar, and adding the folder notes—or the notes for that section—directly to the folder’s text editor. See, folders in Scrivener are actually text documents. Where you would say that no folders should print their text content is in the Formatting compile option pane. There is a checkbox in the “Text” column which can be disabled for the Folder row(s).
One advantage of this method is that sectional notes can be printed in your Scrivenings sessions, which means they are also easily available in Composition mode. And, since they are their own document, this technique can also be used with the Quick Reference tip that Brookter brought up. That works in Composition mode as well, if your Quick Reference panels are set to float.
Another advantage is that you can just as easily print out a copy of just your notes, as you can when using Document Notes (or in addition to!). With the latter, you can switch off Text for everything in the Formatting pane, and leave “Notes” on. If you use the folder text method for sectional notes, you can get a compiled document of them all by switching folder Text on and switching other stuff off as you wish. So you might have Document Notes on for text items, and folder text on as well, to combine both note methods and get a full notation dump.
Yes, I think the method that AmberV has suggested will do the job nicely enough. I can split the screen and keep those notes available, as needed.
Simple, really.
Thanks,