Icon linked to/based on Label or Status

Scrivener Wish List
1

A feature I consistently find myself wanting is something like this:

The ability to have the document icon dynamically change when the Status (or Label) is changed. I would find this useful because I like to have an immediate visual cue as to what the status is of each document in my binder. I use the icons for this. I use a Green Flag for “First Draft.” A orange flag for “Second Draft”. A tick for “Complete/finished”… and so forth.

Whether it’s the Label or Status, or either/both, that can change the icon might need to be something the user decides in the settings. Personally, in my workflow, I’d be happy if it were the Status that had this functionality, but I suppose other people might find it more useful to have it tied in with Labels.

I simply refer to ‘Status’ in what follows:

This feature would require being able to set an icon for one or more statuses. I envision this being included as a panel in the Meta-data Settings….

It might be worth having an initial option to tick, such as “Allow status to change document icon?”

It might also require having options along the lines of,
“Keep previous icon when iconless status is selected? Or, revert to a default icon? or Prompt user?” (the prompt will provide the option to “Keep existing icon,” “Use default icon,” or “Select a new icon”)

This would be followed with an option to,
“Set default icon to use when an iconless status is selected”.

Obviously the exact logic of how to facilitate the user setting this up in a way that works for them will require some further thought. But what I’ve mentioned would, at first thought, work for me.

If the user changes the the status to one that has an icon associated with it, then the icon of the document will change accordingly. If they later select a status with no icon, then it will either revert to default, keep existing, or prompt… as per the option the selected in the above-mentioned options.

If any of the above doesn’t make sense, please ask.
Thank you for your consideration of this idea, and for the ongoing improvement of my most indispensable writing tool.

Jonathan

2

You can already choose to use Label colors in the Binder (though no Status or other Meta-Data indicators). View > Use Label Color In > Binder (F5) The icon doesn’t change, but the color of the label is applied to the document/folder line in the Binder. When you highlight the document/folder, most of that color disappears, but a colored dot is left on the end of the document/folder title.

Not sure if what you’re asking for is something that is in the cards, but this might be a possible workaround for you.

3

Thanks. I hadn’t noticed that, until just moments before reading your message… when after restarting my computer for a system update, I noticed that one of the projects Scriv reopened happened to be showing colours in the binder. Moments after noticing that, I am reading through your post, explaining to me what that is, and how to turn it on.
I shall activate that in my book projects, and rethink (likely switch over) the way in which I use Labels and Status. Ideally I’d want Status to have the capacity to change the icon. But for now, I could set up Labels with all my various statuses, and colour them in a way that makes sense to me. :unamused:

4

Yeah, it would be nice if there was something that could be done with the Status meta-data, but I’m not sure that’s even on the developers’ list of things to change.

Also, it doesn’t change dynamically, but you could always use custom icons for binder items. You’d just have to change them yourself when the status changes.

5

Thanks. That’s what I am currently doing, and hoping to not have to do if this feature suggestion were implemented. Time will tell. :question:

6

I’d love to see an option in Scrivener to automatically change a document’s Binder icon based on its Status.

For example, I often use Status to track progress through a draft: “To Do,” “In Progress,” “Done,” etc. It would be very useful if changing a file’s Status to “Done” could automatically change its Binder icon from an unchecked box to a checked box.

Ideally, this could work through a simple mapping system in Project Settings, something like:

  • Status: To Do → icon: unchecked box

  • Status: In Progress → icon: pencil / draft icon

  • Status: Done → icon: checked box

This would make the Binder much more visually useful for tracking progress at a glance, especially in larger projects with many scenes, chapters, or research files.

I know icons can already be changed manually, and labels can provide color cues, but having icons respond automatically to Status would make Status more powerful and reduce repetitive manual updating.

Thanks for considering it!

7

Hi.

(Not to dismiss or diminish your request in any way or form.)

If you don’t currently use labels, you can swap labels and statusses, and have the binder color documents, per status.

. . . . . . .

You may also design your own icons, and use them rather than the real status metadata, if you don’t actually use the status for other functions (filter, search and the likes).

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8

This is something (or similar) I’ve wanted. I’d hope to automate it with BTT/KM, but you can’t gain access to a document’s Status via the menu, though you can change its icon. It seems an odd omission.

(I use Label for Arc, so that’s already taken.)

9

To add a little background to the discussion here, and the original request: icons are designed to visually indicate the type of a thing, which is very unlikely to change in the course of an item’s existence. Then, that they couple nicely with document templates—which is how we can construct a more complex concept of a type of thing—instead of changing all over the place depending on whatever metadata settings the item is currently set to, it should make more sense that they work the way they do.[1]

Tinting icons on the other hand, with the setting for adopting label colour, is what is designed for indicating the more transient qualities of an item. It is directly bound to the metadata you use to set that quality to, rather than being chained off of something else entirely.

If you decide to use the Label for something more static, that is fine, you can use this tool for whatever suits you best—but you are having to make that choice of using the one thing that is meant to dynamically adorn the binder (and everywhere else the icon is displayed), or any of the other things we can tint with the Label. Whether that adornment is for information that rarely changes or frequently changes depends on the demands of the project, or your preferences.

I’ve mentioned it elsewhere, but given how useful the Label is, I will sometimes even change its role throughout the lifespan of the project, to best capitalise on its capabilities at different phases of the project. Early on I often use a traffic light status setup so I can easily see what areas of the binder are pure outline, partially written, or completed. Later on once everything is “green”, then continuing to use the valuable Label for that information is a waste, and I transition to using it for other matters that might matter more at that phase (perhaps specialist editing tasks, or even topical declarations).

By all means, use whatever tools feel best, nothing is right or wrong here, but as with all things if you use a tool designed to do X really well, for Y, expect it to not be as elegant as other things that do Y really well. There is nothing wrong doing Y a little less-well though, if that’s what you really like! :slight_smile: I’ve seen plenty of custom icon sets people have made for things it was never optimised to work for, and it works fine, go for it! It’s just understandably not as nice as the Label which is optimised for this task.

These days, post macOS 15.x, that is no longer as difficult to automate, as ⌃⏎ will bring up the context menu for a selected item, which will then have label, status, and list-type custom metadata fields available in submenus. On the Windows side (for AHK) some keyboards have a key for bringing up the context menu, but there might even be a way of triggering that key code for keyboards that don’t have it.

Back in the day, I would use Keyboard Maestro’s ability to click on a part of the window, relatively to the edge of the window, combined with the trick to type in the status/label you want, to select it, and Return to set it. The most reliable way of doing that was to open the item in a Quick Reference window via that menu command, where the status and label buttons have a static position relative to the bottom right corner which never changes. After setting it, the macro then closes the window. The inspector cannot be relied upon for that, since you can change how wide it is (plus it gets messy trying to macro your way into figuring out if it is already open or not).

Perhaps for some things this is still the better way, as it readily works from both group view focus as well as text editor focus.

  1. There is an exception with the “todo” checkbox icon set, but this is a legacy thing from the days when custom metadata was limited to text fields. You can now create your own actual checkboxes with custom metadata that can be sorted by in the outliner, searched for globally or even used to filter compile lists. ↩︎

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10

Status isn’t available from an Editor’s context menu, though.

This is the reason I don’t use Status, but instead use icons, which I can change by automation. It’s the visual cue in the Binder I want. It would be ideal to keep icon ans Status in sync, because it’s easier to search Status in the Outline. Very much an edge-case, obvs.

11

I think it got missed that the second paragraph, following what you are responding to, was an alternative method that addresses that, rather than a continuation of the first technique. In fact I used the second method specifically because I wanted it to work from anywhere and it gets messy trying to get from an editor to a group view and then back again with a macro—too many variables.

It definitely is an edge case, but you can also definitely achieve the result you want with Keyboard Maestro.

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