Prompt before deleting an item?

[KB]

Hi,

Because this gets a surprising number of reasons (none of whom seem to have noticed the parts drawing your attention to this in the tutorial, Help file and FAQ ), the next version changes the shortcut to cmd-delete, the same as in the Finder, so it is less easy to do by mistake. There certainly isn’t going to be a confirmation panel, though, as that would be most annoying in my view, especially seeing as the document isn’t actually deleted. Hopefully the keyboard shortcut change should resolve the issue for the majority of cases (though I personally find the new keyboard shortcut more annoying than just hitting delete…).

As for whether it has been covered elsewhere:

A quick forum search on “delete” brings up the following topics on just the first couple of pages:

Are you sure you want to delete?

Un Delete?

Also, in the very first step of the Tutorial project, “Part 1: Basics”, “Step 1: Beginnings”, it says the following quite clearly:

The “Trash” folder speaks for itself; whenever you delete a document it ends up there. Documents aren’t deleted completely until you select “Empty Trash…” from the File menu. (This means you can’t accidentally destroy your files by, for instance, hitting the Delete key by mistake—if this ever happens to you, you will find your files in the Trash folder ready for rescuing.)

(That sentence is emboldened in the original tutorial.)

The Help file says the same under the description of the Trash folder (which can be found if you search for “delete” in the Help file:

Whenever you delete a file in Scrivener (by hitting the Delete key, for instance, or by selecting “Delete” from a menu), the file is not actually removed from the project but is instead moved to the Trash folder.

And finally, the FAQ, both in the Help file inside Scrivener and in the FAQ & Tips & Tricks section of the forum, has the answer to this question, too:

I accidentally deleted a file in the binder and undo doesn’t work! How can I get my work back?

Relax. It’s in the Trash folder in the binder. Scrivener doesn’t permanently delete anything until “Empty Trash” is selected from the File menu (which will ask you to confirm the action as it is permanent). Just drag the file out of Scrivener’s Trash folder back to where you want it.

All of those are good sources to go to in order to find the answers to such questions - not that I mind answering them here too, mind, it’s just that this one comes up a lot more than I ever would have expected (hence the shortcut change).

All the best,
Keith