Hi, I’m new here and new to Scivener. I’m trying it out and my first question ist: Could you please help me with the “keywords”?I’ve read the tutorial but still don’t understand what they’re actually for and how to use them. My mother tongue isn’t English, so that might be the reason. Would someone be so kind and explain it to me?
Thanks in advance
viomey
Keywords are one of the more vague forms of meta-data in Scrivener, which might be why they are not immediately clear as to their purpose. There is no purpose to them, all by themselves. They are not like labels, which can be used to colour item icons or index card pins. A lot of people use them to add searchable phrases to a document, if a document discusses a thing but does not actually state that thing in the text itself. A very good recent example provided by a user on the forum was a paper on plants. The text of the paper did not state the Latin name of the plants, but the author wanted to be able to search by Latin names, so used the keywords for this. Novelists might find it useful to add references to places, people, and plot arcs by using keywords. I’ve used keywords quite a bit for an extended form of status. Since the Status drop-down is kind of linear (you can only have one choice at a time), I sometimes need more indicators of precisely where an item is in the overall workflow. Does it need graphics still? Then I add a keyword, “needsGraphics”. A saved search can automatically gather everything that has “needsGraphics” keyword, and now I have an efficient workflow.
So think about keywords in terms of their flexibility. They can state things that are otherwise unstated. They are relatively out of the way, which means you can have lots of them if you need without cluttering things up. With the keyword HUD, you can keep track of all the keywords that have been added to the project and quickly search for them—so consider that ability in your strategies too.
Hopefully this gave you some ideas. Ultimately if you end up using the feature, it will become your own. There is no specific method that was “meant” to be used in terms of keywords. They are quite flexible.
Thank you so much…yes, your explanation gives me a good idea. The only and I’m sure more simple question for you ist: How do I apply them? I mean how do I physically do it?
This “You can add keywords by clicking on the “+” button, or by hitting enter while another keyword is selected. You can also assign keywords via the Keywords HUD” doesn’t mean anything to me 
.
Which “+”? What is HUD? Where’s the difference between the keywords in the black box and the inspector?
Well, maybe I should get to know Scrivener in general a bit more and maybe I will understand automatically…
As you’ve noticed, there are two places for keywords. The “black window” is the Keywords HUD. This is meant to be a central repository for each individual project. Each project has their own Keywords HUD, and it keeps track of all the keywords you have created for that project. Here is a practical example:
As indicated, click the “plus” button and start typing to enter the keyword; press Enter to stop editing. The keyword is now assigned to that document. If you click on another document in the Binder, the list will go empty, but if you click back you’ll see that keyword again. Hopefully that demonstration illustrates how keywords are assigned to individual documents.
You might have also noticed, if you have the HUD set up the way I did in the screenshot, that as soon as you pressed Enter to stop editing, the new keyword popped up in the HUD. The project is now tracking this keyword—but in the HUD it isn’t assigned to anything. That’s just a list for your own reference. Here is what you should see so far:
Now let’s try the drag method. Click on another document in the Binder so that its empty keyword list is now shown. Now click and drag the “Apples” keyword into the keyword list for that document, from the HUD.
Now the “Apples” keyword is assigned to the second document as well.
The method mentioned in the help, regarding pressing Enter while another is selected, is a useful tip for easily adding lists of keywords. You don’t have to click the “plus” button every single time. Just select the “Apples” keyword, and press Enter. Start typing in the second keyword. Tap Enter again to stop, and Enter a second time to start a third keyword.
Note as you do this, they keep getting added to the HUD. You can drag many keywords from the HUD at once, too. Just Cmd-Click on each keyword in the HUD to select the ones you want, and drag them over to the Inspector pane to add them.
And it also is an excellent place to build the entries that will wind up in your INDEX if you intend to add one.
Thank you so much for your effort. I’m working on it now…and you’ve been of such great help… 
Many greetings from Rome and and thank you…
Maybe just add that ‘HUD’ is an acronym for Head Up Display; a term borrowed from the cockpit of modern fighter jets that have a clear piece of glass inside the windscreen where vital information is projected – the idea being that the pilot shouldn’t have to look down in the cockpit but keep his eyes on where he’s going…
The Mac HUD is a floating, semi-translucent window that can be dragged anywhere and always stays on top of other windows.
Best,
Joachim