I wonder if it’s possible to sort items alphabetically inside a folder? I’d like to keep characters ordered by their name. Any suggestions and tips are welcome!
Yes, you can permanently sort items by their name using the Documents/Sort/ sub-menu. To use this, select the container you wish to sort and then select the desired sort type from the menu. If you just wish to sort visually, or by something other than name, then you can do so in the Outliner. Add the column you are interested in and then sort by clicking on the column header (click until the header is no longer highlighted to remove the sort).
Thank you very much! Looking from the Document menu wasn’t obvious to me (as I’m trying to sort a folder). I searched through the View menu and the context menu. I think it should be in the context menu to be easily available.
I haven’t yet adopted many of the Outliner features, keeping it simple.
Ah, one thing to know about Scrivener is that folders are documents, which is why you will find functions relating to folders in the Documents menu. You can type into a folder just as you would a text file, and meanwhile you can indent items into files as though there were folders. You can even convert a file to a folder and vice versa. There are some distinctions (beyond the obvious: having a different icon to serve as an anchor for the eye) in how the program reacts when you click on folders vs. files, as well as the ability to treat files, folders and file stacks differently during compilation.
Interesting. Currently this goes a bit beyond my scope of perception and understanding, but as with Scrivener in general, I adopt things only as I actually start missing them. The range of features is pretty overwhelming.
Yes, that is the best approach in my opinion. As with most things in the software, it’s nothing to worry too much about unless you need it, but knowing that Scrivener is a pure outliner, as opposed to a more rigid file manager, can help explain what is going on when odd things happen (like nesting a PDF beneath another PDF, something a file manager would never let you do, but Scrivener asks, why not?).
I like to think of Scrivener folders as analogous to manilla folders; you can write all over the surface of a manilla folder, not just the tab. You can write an inspirational quote, a haiku, a note to yourself, vignettes from a framing story… whatever you like, except with a computer, the manilla folder’s surface can hold as many words (or even pictures) as you want.
The folders will also hold documents and separate those documents (scenes/sections/text clippings) from documents in other folders, just as you’d expect. But it’s helpful to remember that computer folder icons are just metaphors; their meaning can be a bit fluid, especially from one program to another.