I have Scrivener on my desktop and laptop. How can I keep the two synced?
I see Scrivener makes a .zip backup file. If I copy that .zip file to the other computer, how do I get my Scrivener on the other computer to load it in?
Unzip it. Zip files are just compressed “archives”, which means all of the constituent files of the project are glued together into one long file, and then the unnecessary duplication is stripped out to save space. It’s a good format for sending lots of small files over a network, or just to reduce drive usage. Simply double-click the .zip file in Windows, drag the “My Project Name.scriv” folder out to your other computer’s working area, and proceed normally.
So after I unzip it, how do I tell Scrivener "Hey, this is my project over here, ‘Become the Project’ "?
Well, projects are just folders on your drive. They are cohesive folders; they all need to be together the way they are made in order to work right, but you can store them wherever you like and open them freely—much like you would open a JPG or DOC file that is just sitting around. You can either double-click on the .scrivx file inside the main folder, or use the File/Open command (Open Existing if you are on the new project screen).
The .scrivx file, that’s the ticket.
This can be the most tedious way to keep things synced; if you do use backups (File->Backup to… menu is best for this). Also, don’t ever try to copy over the old folder; you can end up with a project within a project, or you might get documents that you deleted previously reappearing along with it’s notes and synopsis.
The easiest way to sync between multiple computers is to read the “Scrivener Everywhere” section of the manual (the pdf found under Help), and then get yourself a free Dropbox account and install it on all of your computers where Scrivener is used.
You can also point your automatic backup folder to Dropbox so that all of your backups are automatically (a) shared between computers so that you can easily switch machines and always have the latest copy and (b) shared between computers so that if one breaks/gets stolen/shot at you’ll always have at least one copy backed up somewhere else (at the very least, with Dropbox, though I would never recommend relying upon that as a true “backup”).
I am using Dropbox to sync my project between computers and it will do the job well if you are working alone and not with a partner.
Download and install Dropbox on all the computers you want to sync and then move the most current version to the Dropbox folder. Each time you close out your project in Scrivener it will save to the Dropbox folder which will then update your project on the Dropbox servers. Once that is done you will always have the most current version on any computer you are using.
There is an article on how to install and use Dropbox at FreelanceWritingHacks.com if you are interested. Links to downloading a copy of Dropbox and instructions for how to install and use are included.
Hope that helps!
FreelanceHacker
Opps — I guess I could have just said: ‘or what Amber wrote works too.’