I discovered I don’t like waiting until the Beta has expired because I’m always afraid I’ll screw something up with a manual uninstall/reinstall. 
So, next time, I intend to open the Beta and trigger the update before it expires (I hope).
Anne
I’ve been using the betas and RC’s for well over a year. Whenever a new version is made available, a notification comes up on screen (usually well before the current version’s expiry date) and I click to accept the update.
This has always worked perfectly well until moving up last week from RC18 to RC19 when Scrivener wouldn’t start after the update. This glitch was apparently due to a mix-up at L&L as explained by tiho in a short post. So I just downloaded the full version and installed again.
Based on my experience, I would say just update as soon as the new version is announced.
Not necessarily.
That’s true if you shut down Scrivener from time to time. It’s just that I tend to simply leave it up at the end of the day, so I don’t get the notification.
OTOH, each day one of the first things I do is check this forum for the announcement regarding the release to see if I’m up to date.
If you leave the program open, you can always use the ‘check for updates’ feature within the program itself.
The problem I had with the RC version - I was using RC18 and didn’t write for a few days due to having my Covid vaccine and feeling like crap afterwards. The next time I went to write, RC18 had expired and 19 was available.
RC18 wouldn’t open at all (so I could install the update from there as I normally do), nor could I export my app settings before installing RC19 manually. As such I lost a lot of my editor settings and had to reset it all manually.
Hardly a show-stopper but it was still inconvenient. I’ve now made a backup of my app settings, just in case.
Probably not worth L&L doing anything about this so close to official release (if we’re to believe the hype), but it’s definitely something your average user should prepare for, just in case.
Just one tiny point that may be worth emphasising: it’s worth trying to remember to back up your settings before the beta expires, so that you can re-import them after uninstalling the old beta and installing the new one. That will usually save some time. (I just wasted mine by uninstalling before I’d backed up my settings…)
To add to @jje’s point, whether you’re on the beta or a paid version, it’s a good habit to periodically back up your Scriv preferences. This back up will be useful in the event of an unplanned uninstall/reinstall due to system crash, system migration, etc.
Best,
Jim
To save your Beta Options and Theme Options:
F12 / Manage, at very bottom left / then, Save options to file (being sure to include OPTIONS in the file name), and also Save Theme Options to file (being sure to mention Theme Options in the file name, too).
On the subject of backing up settings, a question:
What gets saved when you save Settings vs. what gets saved when you save a Theme?
Thanks,
Thomas
Well, after you save them, you can open the resulting files directly with a text editor, and see the clear names of each of the hundreds of items in each.
The advice from TWOLANE about putting identifying names in the files is very important, as they both save as .prefs files,
So you are in some danger of over-writing if not careful, and anyway will be better off with a clear name (and probably a date) on the files, so you can find them later if needed – and keep it straight which is a Screen Prefs, and which is a Scrivener Prefs…
It would be good if Scrivener proposed such a name each time – an easy feature to add, for a change, not so?
Though I am no longer on a PC, if you are in an emergency situation like this one thing you could do is manually back date your system clock to an earlier date before the cutoff date for RC18, whatever that may have been. (You may also want to temporarily disconnect from the internet.)This way when RC18 checks the date on the system clock it still thinks it is valid and can be opened. Then you do whatever needs to be done and you can then reset your system clock to current time settings. This tactic has worked for me in the past with some applications.
I would strongly advise not doing this. This was a simple Windows hack some years ago, but more modern OSs like Win10 really hate this. You could screw up your security and OS updates etc and end up with much harder problems to fix than an out-of-date beta, solved with a quick re-install.
I must be a complete goon…this isn’t working for me. I’ve tried my laptop keyboard and my secondary peripheral… the only response I’m getting to F12 in any variation (Shift, Alt, Ctrl, Fn, open…) is the laptop’s default to enter sleep mode. Is there a way to access this through a menu instead? I can’t even find it with the Search Menu feature.
Use File > Options to launch the Options menu that Twolane’s referring to. Alternatively, Ctrl+comma should get you there.
The reason F12 doesn’t work is that your shortcuts are set for V3 (the default), and Twolane’s are set for V1.
You can change the shortcuts system by going File > Options > Keyboard > click the pulldown arrow to the right of the Import button. I’m not suggesting you do that, but wanted to let you know it was possible. 
Best,
Jim
Thanks for making the CTRL-, distinction for the new V3 menus. I’m somewhat of a dinosaur, and like the old CTRL key methods.
I’ll go back and try to edit my post to reflect that distinction. (Nope, can’t do it. My apologies for the confusion.)
Got it–thank you!
I tried opening a saved theme in notepad and got nothing intelligible. Any other suggestions? I would like to know what is in each one, too. I’m afraid to try anything new lest I lose the settings it took forever to set. Thanks!
Hi SophieKisker,
There are two options files that can be saved, the one with all the Options, and the one with only Theme Options.
We already know the contents of the first – it contains all the Options you see when you launch File > Options. See the developer’s reply in this thread: [url]What's the difference between those two? - #3 by tiho_d]
This ‘all Options’ file is the only one I care about. I save a version of it any time I change an option that’s important to me. I have these saved Options files named by theme, so I have different options saved for different themes. I utilize the saved Options file with releases of the latest beta. With every new beta rev, I do a complete uninstall and reinstall of Scrivener. I then apply my favorite theme and do ‘Load Options from file’ selecting the appropriate options file, and my options are all set to where they were prior to the uninstall. You might consider taking that approach, so you have your options backed up in the event you have to do an unplanned install from scratch.
I don’t bother with the Theme Options file. As far as I know, L&L has provided no list of what Theme Options are saved to that file. As they haven’t provided one for the Mac side, it’s reasonable to assume they won’t provide one for the Windows side.
My point is, don’t wait for that list of Theme Options to back up your options, because it may never arrive.
Best,
Jim
I took the advice provided upthread and compared the contents of the Options and Theme Options files. They are nearly identical. There are options saved in the Theme Options file which I would not consider theme-related. E.g., General\checkForUpdates, General\AuthorFirstName, AutoCorrection\enableAutoComplete, etc.
My guess is the Theme Options file is still very much early days and a work-in-progress, and will be greatly changed (reduced) prior to the final release. Or my understanding of the file’s purpose is way off.
So for the time being, I will stick to saving the Options file only and not bother with saving Theme Options, as currently there seems no point in it.
Best,
Jim
There’s nothing super special about Win 10 to make this a particular problem.
My process in a bind is fully quit any cloud services such as Dropbox change the date. Immediately open the date expired beta and update. Do not open any files on any programs while doing this.
Immediately the update completes, again, without opening any files, close open programs and correct the time. Reboot in case there are any cached items that may have the old date,
While its not generally a recommended process I’ve used it since the early Win days for various reasons. Of course the better process is to ensure you don’t miss the date in the first place.