What are the rules for where a new file (aka document) opens when I Proj. > New [text/document]?
It would be nice were the new file to popup in a QR window, particularly when the Binder is preoccupied with a search result, or at least otherwise at the TOP in the Binder’s Research folder. (A configurable location would be nice.)
The point is that when a new file is initiated, it be readily available for input, not an alt-tab or farther away.
If the Editor pane has the focus when you create the new document, the new document will appear in the Editor pane.
If the Binder or Outliner has the focus, then the behavior will depend on your Navigate → Binder (or Outliner) Selection Affects setting.
The location of the new document in the Binder will be immediately under the current document. If the Binder is showing a standard Collection, then the document will be added to the Collection. However, if the Binder is showing a Search Collection, the document will only appear if it satisfies the search criteria.
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Not all people want this. For instance, some people outline their projects by creating each document in the Binder before editing any of them. These people would be very annoyed if the Editor yanked the focus away every time.
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Thx. Kewms,
I’ll need to remember these: In my case however, since I do a lot of file navigation through the Quick Search, the whatever passively previously selected Binder item will dictate the position of the new file; if the item is a folder, the position is inside it, at its bottom/end.
Interesting otherwise. (I construct my “projects” differently, from notes and texts already written.)
Most of this is documented in the user manual PDF, incidentally, in §6.3.1, under subheading Figuring Out Where Things Will Go.
I’ll need to remember these: In my case however, since I do a lot of file navigation through the Quick Search, the whatever passively previously selected Binder item will dictate the position of the new file; if the item is a folder, the position is inside it, at its bottom/end.
There still are some rough edges that might make the result a little unpredictable. As you’ll note from the docs, this is supposed to be quite simple and straight-forward, and work the way you describe, I think. Items are created contextually, always, from where your cursor is—be that in a custom metadata field from the inspector, or the outliner in a collection, or a copyholder in the right split. The new item should never be created from some other selection entirely, or transport your cursor away from where you started.
Whenever that happens, it’s a bug (and we know about it).
It would be nice were the new file to popup in a QR window, particularly when the Binder is preoccupied with a search result, or at least otherwise at the TOP in the Binder’s Research folder. (A configurable location would be nice.)
So coming back to this, there already is a feature that works a lot like that:
- From any open Quick Reference window, click the bookmark button in the sidebar.
- Click the
+button in the footer of that sidebar to set up your “new note” location. I have an “Inbox” folder at the top of almost every binder for stuff the land in. Make sure to tick the Do not ask again checkbox at the bottom of the dialogue to set that.[1]
So that’s pretty much what you want I think. Keep that window open for whenever you have a quick thought. It’s pretty easy to get back to it at a new session, or if you close it: use the shortcuts for Navigate ▸ Open ▸ as Quick Reference (to take what you’re currently working on into a window) and then Project ▸ Project Bookmarks (whose shortcut becomes a toggle for the sidebar when using a QR window).
The point is that when a new file is initiated, it be readily available for input, not an alt-tab or farther away.
Without any qualifications, as stated here, I would strongly disagree with that (but maybe I misunderstand). It is important to remember that Scrivener is an outliner, which means the outline views (of which the binder is a simplified version), are meant to be just as much places where you think out loud and even write, as the main editor. If every time I pressed Enter to create a new item I was whisked off to some other area of the project window it would become a completely different piece of software. Something more like a database or a file manager.
To circle back to the top: the design goal is to respect where you put the cursor, maintain it across actions where possible, and never transport it around the UI based on some assumption of what you might want.
You can later change this location, or remove the setting to have it always ask, in the
Project ▸ Project Settings...window, under Special Folders. ↩︎
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