Sorry if this sounds incredibly dumb, but I can’t find the ‘open project’ button on a new (old, 2nd hand) iPad I just got for Xmas.
I already use Scrivener on my Mac Pro (and on a MacBook) and have bought it for the iPad and installed it - but I can’t seem to open any existing files I already have on Dropbox on it.
PLEASE HELP!???
Have you done the tutorial on the iPad. iOS Scrivener is very different from OS X Scrivener in some ways, and this is one. It’s an iOS app so there is no File -> Open command.
You need to put the projects you want to be able to open on the iPad in a separate folder in your Dropbox folder and then tell the iPad Scrivener where to look (Edit - Gear wheel at the bottom - Dropbox settings - Other (unless you have your projects in Dropbox/apps/scrivener.
Scrivener will download all your projects to the iPad and you will then see them in the Projects list.
Hi lunk,
No, I hadn’t looked at the tutorial specifically for the iPad. But what you say makes sense! (Though I don’t know why it couldn’t be simply an’open’ file command???
I have copies of all my scripts on my Dropbox accounts - but all under various titles and in files relative to each script. It is annoying that I need to set up a specific iPAD/Scrivener file to access them as I will have to duplicate them (which I can see will get confusing as to which was the last device I worked on/latest version) or change how I file things.
Argghh! At least I can get working on it this way (hopefully) whilst I work out which method is going to be best for me.
Cheers for your help though. 
This is because iOS is not a full-fledged computer operating system. Apps don’t share a commonly accessible storage space (like your computer’s hard drive), but instead (have to?) store their own copy of (in this case) a dropbox sub-folder–plus all its contents–and sync with that sub-folder. I don’t think Scrivener gets access to the Dropbox app’s copies of your projects. (I’m not sure about this, but I think the iOS Dropbox app just downloads individual files on demand, rather than syncing everything when you open it to save time & space on your device. And that would be a disaster for Scrivener,as it expects all of your binder’s contents to be present before it tries to open any given file.
(Note that I’m piecing much of this together, and may very well have the details wrong, so if you’re interested in the technical details, I won’t be able to confirm/verify/or expand on anything related to dropbox + iOS.)
As for how to prevent having duplicates everywhere… you might try moving the projects you want to sync with iOS Scriv to the special dropbox folder set up for that purpose, and then create a shortcut to the project from its old location to its new location.
If you’re technically savvy, creating symbolic links in the Terminal works well too, though symbolic links are interpreted as separate copies when syncing to another mac, so be careful there.
Thank you rdale for taking time to reply with all that. Much appreciated.
Yes, I think your suggestion of filing makes the best sense.
Cheers again.