It’s never been clear to me how to manually rename a project. I’ve seen some (off-forum) advice that says you can rename the .scriv folder, but that doesn’t seem to address the issue of the .scrivx file the folder contains. Should I rename that also, matching the folder name? Or will it be automatically renamed after opening? I’m unsure. Help with this?
(Yes, I know Save As does the same job, mainly, but I’d like to know if that’s the only way to rename a Scrivener project from the standpoint of its filename.)
Hello Thomas. On my Win10 PC, if I rename my .scriv folder and then double-click on it, the .scrivx file will still have the old name. But, if I then double-click on the .scrivx index file, I’ll see its name change just before Scrivener opens the project.
You might consider saving a copy of the Tutorial from Scrivener’s Help menu and then test renaming it a few times to see if you’re getting similar behavior before trying that with a project that you care about.
Thanks, Ruth. Is there any rewriting of the data along with the renaming? IOW, would a manual renaming of the .scrivx file to match the folder name work just the same?
I do it often.
It is safe.
Unless you linked to a file from this project inside another project, nothing to worry about.
No.
The file would revert to the folder’s name.
(You’d have no reason to anyways, since the file would technically already be of the folder’s name…)
If what you meant is rename both yourself, beside it being a waste of time, I don’t think it’d cause any issues, as Scrivener doesn’t seem to care much for the .scrivx file’s name. It just looks for a scrivx file inside the project’s folder, matches its name to the folder’s and fixes whatever paths needs fixin’ and that’s it.
Renaming only the scrivx file would have no effect whatsoever.
Thanks. I’m not looking to do this — I just renamed my latest project using Save As. But I did want to understand the inner workings. I was afraid some DBs were being rewritten as well, and that touching the .scrivx name would mess with that.
The difference/advantage of manually renaming the folder/project, is that you don’t end up with two versions of your project to later get confused between.
“Save as” spawns a new version, leaving the original untouched. Unless you’ve got good reasons to do it (renaming a project not being one), it is best not.
The only thing the project might use the folder name for is if you leave the Title field blank in the compile metadata tab. When you do that, it falls back to chopping the ‘.scriv’ off the end of your folder name and using this as your work’s title. So at most that is something to be aware of, so you don’t end up accidentally sending out an advance reader copy called “Working Title 2023-06-28 Group 3”. Few people will encounter that though, because when you create a new project it automatically uses the folder name you specify as text in the title field. Thus it will go on using the original name until you change it yourself.
Otherwise it is references to the project by that name where you might see implications. “Recent Projects”, “Favorite Projects”, and links between projects (such as dragging an item from one project’s binder into another’s Project Bookmarks list) all depend upon a stable path and name.
Few people will encounter that though, because when you create a new project it automatically uses the folder name you specify as text in the title field. Thus it will go on using the original name until you change it yourself.