Is any content (PDF, JPG, PNG) imported into Scrivener a copy of the original? As in, are they in the project until I delete it and unaffected by my deleting the original?
My apologies for not searching the answer to this question. I haven’t used Scrivener in some time because I haven’t had the spoons to relearn it. (I am contemplating using Scrivener to consolidate genealogy research.)
Yes. With the exceptions of linked images and the Research Files as Aliases function, a Scrivener project is entirely self-contained.
No worries, we’ve all been there! When you import files into Scrivener, it creates a copy of the original, so you’re good to go! Deleting the original won’t affect the copy in your Scrivener project.
The keyword here is import. This creates the copy. Other methods may not.
May I point out that sometimes in genealogy, you may prefer to’link’ to a document/item because you DO expect it to change, and ideally you only want to make the edits in one doc/pic/chart/spreadsheet.
Examples could be a family group sheet, a pedigree chart; a research log in Excel; a photo you may want to edit/crop later; a comparison chart of say census details or conflicted vital records.
In these examples, if you link to those documents on your hard drive, all the edits you make to the originals will also be displayed when you click on your links in your project. I also prefer to set them to open in a QRP (Quick reference panel.)
Ooh. This is good to know. I’m mostly trying to figure out a way to sort all of the photos and documents I have. Thought I could create a heirarchy of family folders to house everything and wanted to make sure anything I put in there wouldn’t disappear if I deleted it.
You can also edit things that have been fully imported, via Navigate ▸ Open ▸ in External Editor. This will use the system default editor for the type of file it is, so a picture might open in Photoshop, a PDF in Acrobat, spreadsheet in Excel, etc. Changes you make will be saved back into the copy in the project.
The main advantages to linking are keeping the project size smaller, as it only has to store the link to the original rather than the whole thing, and for cases where you anticipate wanting to access the files frequently without having to load the project—or to do batch operations on files, such as resizing hundreds of images at once.