With everything about Scrivener being as terrific as it is - four years now of being my absolute favorite software ever - I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that what I’m asking about here isn’t something I’ve failed to learn to control properly. Apologies if this has been addressed, elsewhere in the forum.
When I search for a word in a project, Scrivener duly lists the documents in which the word occurs in the Binder pane. When I click on one, instead of presenting the highlighted word, Scrivener lands on some random section of the doc, and it is necessary to scroll up and down through the document to find that highlighted instance. When documents are long, that forces a bit of what seems to be an unnecessary interruption.
Anyway, certainly not a big deal, but is there some setting I ought to be adjusting so that search results appear in the windows when the document is selected instead of having to subsequently scroll around in the document? Or, if not, is this something that can be considered for a future upgrade?
Thanks for the kind words! When you load a document, it scrolls to the last caret position so you can pick up working where you left off. However, running a project search loads the search term into the regular Find/Replace, so once you’ve selected the document, you can quickly jump to each instance of the search term in the document using Cmd-G (Find Next).
Though… just curious, why is that last remembered position favored over where one is trying to go, which is to the highlighted search word, requiring the extra step you provided of cmd-G?
Again, just curious, so if this is just wasting time explaining something to an ignoramus, I understand.
The position is remembered for the document. There’s not a distinction between loading it from the regular binder or loading it from a standard collection or from a search collection. Scrivener doesn’t “know” where you’re trying to go when you load the document–and if you think broadly about it, there’s no guarantee that you even do always want to go to the first instance of the search term when you load a document out of a search collection. You could’ve searched for a term that you know is found in the document just as a means of quickly accessing the document; I do that frequently. Or you could have a collection built on a specific term without wanting to always go to that term in the document when you’re working in the collection.
So, Cmd-G and Cmd-Shift-G seem a reasonable method to quickly get to where you want to go, if the search term is where you want.
Search in both guises - Document wide, and Single document, are still flawed in my view, as I described in another thread in September.
Yes the Cmd G thing is useful. But a document that would jump to the first instance would be a LOT better.
Don’t get me wrong…as I have said hundreds of times Scrivener is GREAT. And search is fine … for modest use.
I do a LOT of searching as I write. So many things have to be checked back through many many times. These are some of the things that would help save a LOT of time.
a) Document Wide Search shows all documents containing the word. But they are all listed with no context. They don’t show which chapter they are in, and checking that uses a lot of time. What would save a LOT of time for a writer like me would be to abandon the idea of just showing the documents with that word (even though that seems initially like a logical way to do it) and instead keep the existing Binder view, but make the documents containing that word a different colour or something like that. I would still see which contain the word, but I would know exactly where in the manuscript and in the chapter stricture they are and I am.
b) Cmd-G is a complete pain in the butt, as Americans say, to keep pressing … I’m getting a Repetitive Strain Injury from it …
c) Single Document Search is also an issue, and something I use so so so much.
Firstly the default and non-adjustable window size is WAY too big ! I have NO idea why. It’s always getting in the way of the Synopsis or other sections. After all 99% of the time it is only used for one or three words.
Secondly when you click out of it, and then go back … it doesn’t work. You have to use Cmd-F again to get it to start working again.
Thirdly a major improvement would be to incorporate a small simple search field at the top of the document … similar to how it is implemented in Safari, with a small next/back set of arrows.
In the normal course of working on a small document these things are small fry. But for writing a 90,000 word book,as I am doing for the second time with Scrivener, I would love to see some improvements when an opportunity arises.
Hi,
First of all, i would like to say it is my first contribution to thie forum. I have discovered Scrivener a month ago and fell in love with it !
It fits almost perfectly my wishes, the only things i think could be perfected rely in the search mode, and i concur to certain remarks from saoir
(i confess, this discussion could have its place in the Wish List rather than Feedback forum 8) )
1- Cmd-G is cool but I think it could be improved by adding next/previous buttons in the search view ; an image is worth a hundred words so i join a concept-image of this idea
2- i also think it could be useful to keep track of the context in which documents are in (i.e. by optionally showing the document tree of results in the search view) (cf. image)
