I hope the topic title is not too confusing. I’ve searched the forums & handbook, but couldn’t find a solution.
In the Binder: if I create a new document within a folder (or a new sub-folder within a folder) that new document (or sub-folder) is always created at the very end of the list of already existing documents / folders.
E.g. I highlight the »research« folder in the binder, hit cmd N for new text, that empty text document will appear at the very end of my list of research documents. Same with folders. Is it possible to make the new text appear at the top of the list? In my instance, I put my editor’s feedback notes in my research folder and I naturally want the most recent ones to be above the older ones.
It’s just a small hassle, but I have the nagging feeling that I’m just missing something obvious here …
At the very top, no, but you can easily select the top item in the list, make your new item there, and then hit ⌃⌘↑ to move it there.
Personally though, I’d try to get used to the bottom of the list being the latest thing rather than top, since that’s how the software already works. One thing you could consider doing is using a sorted Outliner view. Add the created date column to it and then click on the column header to sort by it (click again to reverse the sort, and a third time to disable sorting). The downside is that sorting like that is very transient, it’s a limitation in the design for reasons I do not recall—could be performance related, as way back in the day sorting was very slow.
thanks a lot, the shortcut (that I didn’t know) makes life much easier. The outliner column is a good thing, too (I have one for the draft, but not for the the research folder). Regarding getting used to a new way of thinking … that’s becoming harder and harder, a good sign that age is finally catching up …
I hear you! I prefer top=newer as well, and that preference isn’t going anywhere, that’s how I sort my email client views and such. But in Scrivener I have had to force myself to get used to bottom=newer, mainly on account of the awkwardness of creating new items at the top of any stack. To be fair, it is understandable, as most use cases for the outline are not to produce bucket lists, but in the structuring and writing of a linear work. Chances are very high that if you select “Chapter 18” and hit Return to make a new subsection, you want to start writing at the bottom of the chapter, not the top.
Otherwise, in general purpose outlining—if we are to keep things simple—most tools create new items at the top of the child stack when a parent node is selected, simply because it avoids the create+move dance, and there is already a perfectly good way of creating an item at the bottom of the stack: select the last child.
It is one of those cases where Scrivener’s take on the outline is slightly tilted toward a specific outcome rather than leaving things purely open ended.
Glad to hear the shortcut helps though, I love those shortcuts and use them all the time. They move paragraphs around as well, in v3.