Is there a way to open a document (through a link) in another Scrivener Project, without opening the other project, given that Scrivener is already running?
No. Clicking the link will launch the other project, then take you to the linked location.
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At best this could only be done in a read-only fashion, but it would be fair bit of work to make it look right, considering styles will need to be loaded, potentially other media from the project if images are linked. None of it would be impossible, but it would mean loading more of the project than you might be looking for (if this is mainly an issue with load times).
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Alright, I was thinking in terms of what’s useful to a series, like sheets of common characters’ details, as one example, that I wouldn’t want to keep up to date in multiple books (each being a respective project). I currently have three books in one project. I can already see how having many more can become unmanageable, and have tried the character bible project route, with links from the WIP which results in a second instance of Scrivener opening the character bible project.
At the end of the day any link to outside of Scrivener will result in some or other app opening.
Exactly. You might not care, given that multitasking is not really a challenge for most modern computers, but fundamentally something needs to be available to serve the linked file. Whether that something is the current project, a second “story bible” project, or a third party application is really a matter of personal preference.
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Unless it is a performance issue, I think having more than one project open at a time is a decent way of working. You get more by that, such as being able to jot down notes that might be pertinent to the whole group of books using those notes. If it’s a screen space issue, consider how compact a Scrivener project window can really be (all the way down to a flat rectangle that only contains text and a menu within its borders (or other editor view content). All of the toolbars and sidebars can be turned off, making it no more than Notepad in appearance.
Save that as a Layout for when you’re using this project as a reference for other projects, and another that uses a more conventional setup so you can switch back easily (as it does take about half a dozen menu commands to get it that minimal). Here’s a screenshot of how that could look, on a laptop screen. For that screenshot I left the editor header & footer bar on, but those can be removed as well.
Thanks.
I have a Character List which is dragged to Project Bookmarks.
Each character’s name is a hyperlink to the Character Sheet in a Resources project.
I call the project Resources because “characters” is only one element shared between multiple projects.
Since I’ve set links to open as QRPs there’s no need to set any layouts as all I get once Scrivener has opened its second app launch is the Character Sheet for the character I clicked on without a visible Binder or Inspector on the QRP opening.
I have a 13.6” 4K laptop, and where necessary, I use a 23” 1080p external monitor.
I’ve also worked out how to switch windows between displays without losing the optimal size between the disparate monitors, as Scrivener doesn’t auto-right-size as Office apps do between my screens.
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