Don’t get me wrong - I love the Scrivener app and have used it extensively for the past three years or so. However, I do have one small gripe and suggestion (that I may have previously submitted): Please provide a simple “Save as…” option under the File Menu. I am a fanatic about backing up and frequently use the “Backup Project to…” feature but in addition to forgetting precisely where my the “Save” file resides, there are times when I might want easily to save my entire database to a different place with a different name. For example, it turns out that I’m creating various versions of my current book. If I could simply “Save” with a different name to a given drive, I would have a complete copy of my original that I could then modify as Version 2, then rearrange it. As it is, I have to create a new database and copy everything from the old one. I guess this is OK but nearly every application I use has a familiar “Save as…” option. No muss, no fuss. I apologize if you’ve addressed this grumbling in the past and explained why you choose not to provide it or that it may be an upcoming feature. There simply are times when I’d like a really easy way to save what I have in an immediately identifiable spot!
No worries, this feature is slated for the next release and works quite well. There will be three major ways to save: force save, which just saves the project in place; Save As, working exactly how you described that you would like to see it working; and of course Backup To, for staying in one project and spooling off new copies as you work.
This is coming in version 2.0, and is only missing from 1.x for boring technical reasons.
In the meantime, if you can’t remember where your project is located, just ctrl-click on the icon next to the project name right at the very top of the window (this works in many OS X programs).
If you need to save your project to a different location, you certainly don’t need to create a new project and copy everything into it. Just copy and paste the file in the Finder, and open the one from the new location (this is effectively all Save As does internally).
Hope that helps.
All the best,
Keith
Thanks for the rapid and very encouraging replies! DCS
Oh, and one other thing pertaining to this workflow: some people prefer to do this sort of thing right in the project itself. Rather than creating a bunch of derivative projects and trying to keep track of them all, they’ll just select the Draft folder and press Cmd-D to create a duplicate copy of the entire book. This can then be named something descriptive, or you can use Scrivener’s notes field for the new folder to mark down what is going on in the revision. Now you can re-arrange the Draft in whatever fashion you like. If for some reason you don’t like the results, you can revert by replacing the contents of the Draft with the original duplicated copy (or create a third copy to save your attempt before replacing it).
The advantage of this technique is that you only need to have one copy of all your research information floating around on the drive. When you create entire project duplications in the Finder, you are creating a lot of redundant info when for the most part, the only thing that really needs to be backed up or saved as an iteration is the Draft.