I am revising my novel in Scrivener. I have multiple docx’s with comments and edits from my book coach for edits and comments. I would like export these docx into my scrivener files and include her edits and comments?
I have searched the forum for how to copy / paste etc. and so far not found a way to include the edits and comments when transfer from .docx to Scrivener. All that transfers over is my original work.
Hope there is a way to accomplish this.
Thank you, Chris
Hello Chris. I’d suggest using File > Import > Import and Split to bring that material into Scrivener. That command should give you the ability to retain the comments.
You might find that having Word convert that document to RTF before the import goes a bit more smoothly. RTF is Scrivener’s native file format, so having Word convert the material might give you slightly better results.
Please remember, however, that Scrivener can import the marginal comments, but any material that uses Track Changes will need to be reconciled in Word before you import it.
Hi Ruth, thank you for the fast response.
I went through the docx and accepted or declined all the added or deleted tracking edits. I kept the comments (those little boxes that when clicked on show the comments). Then I exported to the docx as an RTF to my desktop. The comments don’t get saved.
I’m not very familiar with tracking. Is it possible the comments are also considered Track Changes that need to be reconciled, hence not getting saved to the RTF?
My goal is to compile all the edited docx into my Scrivener next draft for revisions and then work the revisions using the comments made by the book coach. It would be great to have them all in one spot rather than using two screens.
Thank you for your time,
Chris
That’s interesting. Are you on a Mac or a PC?
You might need to go to Scrivener > Preferences > Sharing > Import on a Mac (File > Options > Sharing > Import on a PC) and review the settings there.
And, you can try the File > Import > Files command instead of File > Import > Import and Split to see if that will bring the comments in correctly.
Comments should be able to import, although I recall that a senior colleague recently encountered a help ticket where an editor’s comments simply would not import into Scrivener. We tested that document on a PC and Mac and had differing behaviors.
If needed, we can do some testing on the Word doc for you to see if we can figure out why it’s not importing as expected.
If on Windows, did you look for the comments in the Inspector under Comments & Footnotes? It’s the last icon that looks like a callout.
Thank you so much for the help. I tried several things this morning and there is a happy ending. Here’s what worked. I am using a Mac.
All the files are stored in Dropbox some as RTF but most of them are Docx. I was opening the the docx in dropbox then exporting it to my desktop (RTF and also tried Word) the comments were not exporting to the desktop RTF. Hence when I imported to Scrivener they weren’t there.
So following your instructions Scrivener File >Import > Import and Split I then instead of trying to import off the desktop went to dropbox and imported directly from dropbox by single clicking to highlight the file, clicked import and viola all comments imported nicely in red boxes. It works for the files saved as docx and .rtf in dropbox.
Your instructions were perfect I added the extra complication of trying to first save it from dropbox to my desktop. I would never have figured out the import and split so happy I reached out and you were there to help.
Thank you Ruth, I appreciate your guidance and Thank you Kevite 57 for checking in with your suggestions.
Happy Tuesday,
Chris