Something I’d love to do, but can’t get my mind around how to (although I’m sure there’s a way):
I layed out a story by writing short summaries (avoiding the plural of synopsis here) onto cards in the corkboard and arranging them in the way I’d like them to be. Every card represents a chapter. Then I dig in and open the first document in full screen view. I write the chapter and, when finished, would love to carry on writing in full screen view in the next chapter. I. E. I’d love to jump to the next-in-line text document without leaving full screen view. I can, of course, create a new document (cmd + n) in full screen, but I’d like to write into the document I’ve layed out before (is that comprehensible?). Is there a shortcut to jump into the next document in the binder? Menu - documents - move to doesn’t seem to work in full screen.
Two ways to go about this. The first requires forethought. Before you go into full screen mode, select all of the documents that you know you will be editing, in the Binder. Now press Cmd-Opt-F to enter full screen. The last document selected will be visible. You can use the history shortcut keys to jump between documents Cmd-[ and ].
The second method can be done whenever you wish, but is a little more cumbersome. Move your mouse up to the top of the screen, and after a second you should see the Scrivener menu bar. In the View menu, under Editor, is a “Go To…” option, which has the entire contents of the Binder in it.
Note that use of the Go To function when you have pre-loaded as per step A, will wipe out the history. Also note that this menu changes sometimes. If you are doing a full screen Edit Scrivenings session, for instance, it functions as a table of contents for all documents currently in the session.
And that leads to the third method. Select all documents as in the first suggestion, Edit Scrivenings (Cmd-Opt-4) and enter full screen. All of them will be arranged one after the other. There are no titles though. Unless you keep the note inspector open, you’ll have to use the aforementioned Go To menu to know where you are. This gets easier once you have more content, but it can be a little confusing with a dozen empty documents.
Thanks a lot for the helpful answer that leaves no questions open! This is excellent. I love option three (edit srcivennigs), the paper colour changes as it does in the editor, so I know where a new document starts. One little thing though: in the hovering inspector-window I get in full screen, I can’t see the synopsis I’ve written on the note card before. Is there a way to make it appear? If not, I will just cut&paste the synopsis into the notes section, no problem at all.
You are right, there is no way to view the synopsis in full screen. This is by design. The assumption is, when you are in full screen you are focussed on the document and the synopsis is meant to be the visible portion of the document from outside of the document, such as on the corkboard, in outliner views, and hovering over items in the binder.
If you do use the synopsis as a sort of scratch space prior to actually writing in full screen, you’ll either want to paste the contents into the document Notes, as you already surmised—or just use the Notes in the first place, for things of that nature. Leaving the Inspector open while you craft layout will make it easier to approach the dual layers of Scrivener. Of course, this is all up to each writer. They can use the provided tools however they like. Some people do a lot of brainstorming in the cards. I personally, find it easier to use notes for this purpose, since notes are much more visible from within the context of the document, and synopsis is MUCH more visible from outside of the document.
I do actually think that the synopsis should be available in full screen somehow to facilitate those who like to outline first, and who want to refer to the synopsis to see what they are writing about. The question is, how should it appear? I don’t really want to implement a full inspector in full screen, nor to replicate the whole interface in full screen - well, maybe in 2.0, but not right now. I almost think the synopsis should be read-only in full screen, but nah, I don’t like read-only.
Another HUD with just the synopsis in it? Perhaps…
Probably it’s best to keep Full Screen editing as simple as possible. Pasting your synopsis in the notes section works fine for those who need it. An alternative would be to have the synopsis within an edit scrivenings session at the beginning of every text document – e. g. greyed out and italic so you know it’s not actual text but the synopsis. Then you wouldn’t need another window at all. Just a thought …
Keith,
actually, that would be perfect for me. I don’t have to look at the synopsis all the time, but it would be nice to be able to access it in full screen. I usually update the synopsis to reflect what I already wrote. Therefore, quite frequently the synopsis becomes very important at a later stage when I’m rewriting a chapter; in this stage I use the synopsis to get a better sense of the flow of the argument. Being able to work in full screen at that stage would be very useful. At that point, I really want to concentrate on the text, but summarizing the gist of each paragraph (and perhaps its problems) is part of that. If there was a synopsis HUD, I could bring that up when I need to by a quick keystroke, but would not have to look at it all the time.
Sure, I can use the notes section for that and then paste to the card, but that’s another step (many times for a whole book) that it would be nice to be able to avoid. would it be possible to create another selection in the inspector HUD that would display the synopsis and keywords as a third option?
Right now, though I really love the serenity of working in full screen, I just don’t do it as much as I would like to because of the missing access to the synopsis.
Thank you Keith, in general, for being so responsive to suggestions. I realize that not everything is easy – and even desirable for you – to implement, and, of course, the program is great as it is.
FYI: In Scrivener 1.10 (i.e. 1.1 - I’ve had to call it 1.10 for automatic update reasons), you will be able to select to view the synopsis as an alternative to the document notes or project notes in the full screen inspector. It means you can’t view notes and synopsis at the same time in full screen, but I feel this is in keeping with the less cluttered nature of full screen mode.
Barring any major problems, I’m hoping to get 1.10 out this evening. (But I have been saying that for months…)
All the best,
Keith
