Hi, I am working on something with multiple documents and was wondering if there is a way to create a separate scratch pad for each one.
Someone with much more experience may come along and correct me, but since I’m here procrastinating I figured I’d respond. The Scratch Pad works on a project level, so you just have one per project, though you can use the dropdown box at the bottom (showing “Destination”) to create a new document or append to an existing document all or any selection of your scratch pad notes. (If you create a new document with the notes, it will be titled “Note [timestamp]” and put in a folder Scrivener creates entitled “Scratch Pad Notes” down at the bottom of your Research folder in the Binder.) Much of the beauty of the scratch pad lies in it being a floating utility window, so you can keep it always accessible wherever you are in Scrivener, regardless of what other windows you have open, and you can have it available even when you’re viewing a different program (provided of course that Scrivener is running in the background). So you can easily jot notes while reading a webpage or working on your DVD or whatever.
If you want to create notes specific to your individual documents within the project and keep them as notes rather than part of the document, you can open the Inspector panel and use the Document Notes in that. Those will stay attached to that single document.
Hope that helps a little!
There are really three levels of notepads in Scrivener, and which one to use depends on the context of the notes, but given knowledge of all three I doubt you’ll find yourself lacking a place to put your thoughts.
As you’ve already partially identified, and MimeticMouton has explained, the Scratch Pad specialised as a collection tool. You can easily put it on the side of your screen and use it to aid in the collection of research material, or periodically jot down ideas as you work elsewhere. Just what you would expect from the term “scratch pad”. In the future, the scratch pad will be even more specialised in this way: it will cease to be a project-bound tool and operate on its own, letting you capture ideas even before you’ve opened the project—or before you build one.
The next level is Project Notes. These are a little tucked away, but you can get at them by opening up the Inspector and switching the note mode to Project, using the small drop-down menu above the notepad area. These are notes which are relevant to entire project. They are the things you’ll want access to no matter what you are currently editing, but would still like immediate access to in the Inspector. In the future, you’ll also be able to edit these notes in a separate window as well, increasing the visibility of the feature and letting it fill in the gap of a project-note-window, which will be vacated when Scratch Pad becomes a more universal tool.
Lastly, there are the document notes themselves. Actually, anything in the Binder can have notes, so it’s a bit of a misnomer to call them “document notes”. If you load up a photograph and turn on the inspector, you’ll see you can add notes to that photograph.
You could argue there is a fourth form of note-keeping—simply making a new document in the Binder and turning off “Include in Draft”. These are nice for the types of notes you’d like to see alongside the manuscript itself. Perhaps your chapter summary paragraphs right at the top, so when you click Edit Scrivenings you get your ideas along with your words.
So as you can see, they all have their subtle advantages and disadvantages. Some can be visible anywhere, others require you to change editing sessions, and some don’t even need a project to be open at all.
Thank you so much. This was so totally helpful 