Is there a way to create a Scrivener Link to a document in a different Scrivener project? This feature would be extremely useful for me, since I work on multiple scripts where some of the characters keep reappearing, and this would be a great way to navigate easily back and forth between linked information and to avoid entering redundant information in both projects.
I know that the menu Edit > Scrivener Link doesn’t offer this option, but would it e.g. be possible to enter an external link with some special syntax to achieve this?
There isn’t a good way to do this. The best you can do is just link to the whole project as a file reference, in either a Document Reference or Project Reference table. The problem is mainly technical in nature, but it is something we have on the list to look at for the future. Right now, and for this reason, many people who are writing serials or related works sometimes just work in one big project. For example an author writing a trilogy that all uses one central universe bible might have all three books stored as top-level folders in the draft. The rest of the binder is then available to each book. Approaching things this way for scriptwriting would be no different, with each script stored in the draft in its own folder. In the compiler you can easily flip between folders to do a focussed compile rather than outputting the entire thing, and selecting a compile target like that will also tune the Project Statistics feature to only consider the selected folder as “the work”. So it’s quite workable, even though the program was originally designed for only one work per project.
Thanks, Amber! This sounds like quite a good compromise. Now I only have to find out how to merge the two projects without copying and pasting each single document (and the synopsis, meta-data, document notes, references etc. separately). Copying and pasting whole folders (or at least whole documents with all meta-data) across projects doesn’t seem to be possible, or is it?
Ah that part is very easy, fortunately. Just open both projects at once and position them so you can drag items from one binder to another. This procedure tries to be as smart as possible about it. If meta-data tags are matching it will try to keep them in parity (but do double-check the list based ones like label and status); keywords will migrate; and all notes and snapshots will stay attached.
So, obviously this technique works great when Part IV ends up not really being so much about Parts I-III, and needs to be its own project, too.
For bulk merges, you can use File/Import/Scrivener Project to bring another project binder in wholesale, even the Trash. Project Notes and any Project References are the two things you’ll need to handle manually.
This is awesome AmberV. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.
I’ve been converting a graphic novel to a screenplay, and had been duplicating the comics, brining them into a split view in the screenplay project, and working on the screenplay. A few times, I saw a little thing in the original that I wanted to adjust, and had been leaving the other project open so I could switch back to change both. This potentially helps that mess.
One further question… what if you are using the screenplay template in one project and the comic template in the other project. Is there a way to flip templates back and forth? (For example, say I finished the screenplay, and decided that I wanted to add another comic book to the series. Could I flip back to the comic template so that I could all of a sudden be working on a new comic in that same project, then maybe down the road, I want to convert the new collection of comics to a sequel, could I flip back to the screenplay template? I know I can get into screenplay mode easy enough, but the comic template is very convenient for making those comic pages in the binder etc. I think it would be rough to do a whole screenplay in the comic template and visa versa.)
I’d recommending forking the project if it needs to go screenplay. Use File/Save As... then convert the project to screenplay and make sure the element translation worked well. Presumably at that point, research and background data will no longer be evolving as much, or what evolutions are necessary for the adaptation would not pertain to the original anyway, so having a central research pool would be less important.
Just open both projects at once and position them so you can drag items from one binder to another. This procedure tries to be as smart as possible about it. If meta-data tags are matching it will try to keep them in parity (but do double-check the list based ones like label and status); keywords will migrate; and all notes and snapshots will stay attached.