Scratch Pad formats: rtf vs. rtfd

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
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I use both Mac and Win versions of Scrivener, and find the ‘scratch pad’ feature to be useful for keeping running & miscellaneous notes. I place a folder called “Scrivener Scratch Pad” in my DropBox folder, and link it via ‘preferences’ to both Mac and Win versions.

The problem is the auto-generation of the .rtfd format for a scratch pad file in Mac; this format is not recognized by Scrivener for Win, and will not display or open. However, if the scratch pad file is created in Win, it is an .rtf format, and Mac version will list & open it. Once an .rtf note is created, it can be edited & revised in either Win or Mac, and it will retain its .rtf format.

(I will assume that the Mac version of Scrivener will probably not revert to .rtf format, nor offer an option [please??] of either .rtf -or- .rtfd for scratch pad files?)

I find myself using AbiWord (Win) or Bean (Mac) to open/add/revise the .rtf format scratch pad files in DropBox; later, Scrivener scratch pad will auto-display these entries. It’s a very convenient way for me to keep a folder of notes universally available with or without Win or Mac Scrivener open. The only caveat is to avoid making those .rtfd format scratch pad files with Scrivener for Mac.

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Hi,

The main reason Scrivener for Mac creates RTFD files is so that you can edit them in other apps on the Mac. Most Mac apps - including TextEdit - don’t support images in RTF files, so if you edited them externally you would lose them. I don’t rule out an option, though; let me ponder on it.

All the best,
Keith

3

Thanks, Keith, for the comment. I imagine I’m fairly alone by sharing a scratch pad folder between Win and Mac … so an option for the Mac Scrivener version to choose between .rtf or .rtfd format seems pretty low priority.

I run OSX Tiger on my Macs, and for years have used a nice little notefile utility called EasyNote X by John V. Holder. It uses both .rtf and .rtfd formats. I keep the Scrivener Scratch Pad folder inside the EasyNote collection and find it extremely handy there. They play nicely together. I use a separate .rtf editor in Win to access the same files, when I’m not running a Scrivener project.

(Note: EasyNote X won’t run under Lion; both it and I have dropped out of the OS triathlon. :confused: )

Thanks again.