On MacOS that is also a Recents menu item (as well as the in-my-opinion-more-useful Favorites menu item).
I may be missing something about this request, but isn’t this already a thing available to the New Project window? There is a button along the bottom for re-opening recent projects, that is linked to the main File ▸ Recent Projects... submenu.
On Windows this is a necessary thing (if you don’t like the re-open previous setting), on a Mac, not so much given how Mac software is perfectly fine loading without any active windows given the global menu bar. I.e. you can turn off re-open recent projects, and turn off the option to show the New Project window when nothing is open, so that when you launch Scrivener nothing at all happens except loading the menu—and from there you have the Recent Projects submenu, as well as the Favorite Projects submenu, for those things you always want available even they drop off recents.
That is exactly how I’ve used Scrivener for years on a Mac. In the Windows version I use the New Project window option because that’s all there is.
I.e. what would be the advantage to having another optional window that does what the main menu already does, or does what another window already does?
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[quote=“AmberV, post:6, topic:135933, full:true”]
I may be missing something about this request, but isn’t this already a thing available to the New Project window? There is a button along the bottom for re-opening recent projects, that is linked to the main File ▸ Recent Projects... submenu.[/quote]
Yes, I also mention that in my post.
I hope it doesn’t sound snarky, but just because that’s how you been doing things for years on Mac, it does not mean that that has to be the only way of doing things.
Simply to make selection of what document I want to be working on faster, so I don’t have to go to a sub menu every single time I open Scrivener. You could use the same argument you have for the template chooser, yet that is for some reason prioritized over actively worked on documents, and could just as easily be delegated to a File → New → Choose template submenu. Why does that dialog have to be there, yet the one I suggest not? As I mention above, I really doubt people start new documents every single time they open Scrivener, so my solution would likely be used much more often.
This is a good point. I’ve had the Chooser thing switched off forever, because starting a new project is rarely what I want to be doing when I launch Scrivener.
A Chooser that offered Favorites, Recents and New (from template), would be more useful to have come up when Scrivener launched sans project.
It is not that this would be a huge savings for me or anything (I am always hitting the Favorites menu on launch), but it arguably makes a more sensible, functional Chooser design for the way Scrivener is actually used.
Not to diminish anyone’s fun here, but if it is only a matter of choosing which project to load without having Scrivener first (uselessly) load the previous project, why not simply dedicate a little corner of your desktop to shortcuts to these projects that you may double click ?
I have been doing it like that for years and have no reason to complain.
Under windows, for when you want to create a new project right off, Shift+clicking Scrivener’s icon on your desktop or taskbar takes you directly to the new project panel without loading the last opened project. (This panel also has a recent projects list.)
→ You need to hold the shift key down for a while for it to work. Don’t just Shift-click-release.
So:
If you want Scrivener to load a specific project: either double click its icon on your desktop or use the OS built in recent list. (Or alternatively, take the longer route, Shift-Click Scrivener’s icon and use the new project’s panel’s recent projects list.)
If you want to create a new project: Shift-click Scrivener’s icon.
If you want to load the last project, launch Scrivener, do nothing else about it. (That’s a setting in the options. The very first option of them all. )
If you uncheck this option, you’ll get the new project panel (with its recent project list) every time…
So all this to say that every possible situations are already covered, imo.
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<humor>
Having said that, he proceeded to crush it, totally crush it. 
</humor>
[EDITed post-mortem to clarify intent, fwiw]
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I am glad that that is how you work. But I don’t use my Desktop as a springboard for opening my often used files, as it would become a complete mess in a very short while. It also looks awful. My desktop is for short-term important things, that needs to go somewhere else within a few days.
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All of these options are slower than having your projects presented immediately. It also still doesn’t answer the question on why there’s a template chooser in the first place, when it is not really needed.
Yes, it is covered, but I don’t see it solving my problem from post 1 at all. This is not about wether you are able to do something. It is about saving time, and using the opening window for something actually useful.
I replied to this. (?)
And there is still simply this :
P.S. I have nothing against your idea. Just that it is already there.
Perhaps you should create a mockup of what you mean. It seems that we don’t understand.
The way I currently understand it, all this is to remove one click, one single click in the template chooser panel, to show the list of recent projects.
That’s true.
@Thain (if you don’t want to do it manually) pretty much can easily be done with an automation app. Whenever you open Scrivener, the recent project menu opens automatically, the mouse goes there too, so all you have to do is click on the project you want.
No app always works exactly the way you want it to. You just have to put up with that. But with inexpensive additional software (almost) everything can be customized. 
I registered an account to start with, just so I could look through the forums for this very topic and respond if it was there.
I think this is a great idea. I start Scrivener, and after the first maybe 2 times running it, EVERY time I use the “open Recent” widget on the bottom of the screen, thus ignoring all the much prettier template stuff above. A “tab” for recent projects would make me happy.
Hello Keith, thank you so much for your time and efforts.
- I’m very messy il my way of working, and I work on lots of projects simultaneously. It would be nice (for me) to have some kind of “projects browser”, that shows all the projects in the main folder, with some kind of content view.
- We have to name the project before writing, but very often the content changes and we want to change the title. We can “save as”, then go delete the original folder, but a way to rename a project would be very nice and less error prone…
Thank you
(sorry for my poor english)
(and I’m on Windows, if it matters)
The “browser” you’re looking for is File Explorer, the default file management system for Windows users. Keep (save/move) all your projects in a common folder you create, like Scrivener Project in the Documents.
In File Explorer, you will now have all your projects listed in a common folder as folders – only applies to Windows again – with a SCRIV extension. With Scrivener closed, rename any project folder to a new preferred name. Then open it by double-clicking on it. Among the list of files will be the project file (with a SCRIVX extension) of the folder you renamed, though still with its old name. (Don’t worry about that.) Double click on the SCRIVX file and it will open with the new name you allocated to its SCRIV parent folder.
This meets both your requests, managed by Windows, and neatly tidies up your workflow.
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Please refer to this post above for the official response to this request. This thread also has a lot of discussion on how to use Finder/File Explorer or other system tools more effectively.
Regarding renaming, you can just do that in your file manager (on Windows, rename the folder, and be sure to keep the “.scriv” on the end, the software will rename the file your double-click on to load it, automatically, to match the folder name). Using Save As actually creates a whole new copy, which may well be contributing to the confusion.
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When opening Scrivener, it would be really nice to be presented with a view of the recent projects like this:
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Or easier when in current project to have available recent choices and can set the number, I chose 10.
On the Mac, I’ve configured a smart folder in Finder.
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This is EXACTLY what I had I mind. Thank you for the mockup!
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Whenever I hit the Scrivener icon in the macOS application bar, I do wish the ‘Project templates’ startup box had the option of adding a default setting to display an existing projects folder or favourite existing project files. That way I could seamlessly open the app, see my .scriv file, click on it and start writing. I realise that I could set Scrivener to open up the last open Project automatically when the app opens or to simply open my file from Finder, but having that extra step when starting the app each time to click on ‘Open an existing file’ button feels quite annoying. I only create new project once in a blue moon, so it feels like a superfluous extra step each time I open the app. Am I missing something obvious, or am I an edge case?
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