I am a lawyer, and an enthusiastic user of Scrivener. I am trying to take my usage to the next level.
I have a folder on my Mac where I store various statutes and cases. When I am preparing a case, I will copy the relevant documents from that folder to the project.
What I would like to do is to create a link between the folder on my computer and a project template. The idea is that I would have access to everything in that folder from each project. As well, when I added new cases or statutes, I would download them to the folder, and they would then be available within projects without the necessity of importing them to each relevant project.
Does anyone know if this is possible and practical? I have gone through the documentation, and have done a search in the forum, and have not been able to find an answer. If anyone knows the answer, and/or can point me to a place where I might find an answer, it would be much appreciated.
Incidentally, the relevant files are in PDF format.
You wouldn’t be able to create a link to the folder, but you could add a bunch of PDF files as links into a project template for future use. The File/Import/Research Files as Aliases command is what you are looking for. Folders in Scrivener are not like normal folders (really, they are more like text files with a folder icon that act a bit differently for navigation and compile purposes) however, so they don’t map well to filesystem folders and thus are not straightforward to link to. The best way to link to a folder is the References table in the inspector. That can hold a link to anything. You double-click on a Reference icon to load it in the default application (Finder in this case). So it’s handy and right there, but not displayed in the project binder.
Thanks for responding so quickly. I suspected that was the answer, having checked out the reference option as well.
I guess I need to use a practice project and make sure it works the way I would like. I need to make sure the references include the current version of the folder, with all files added since the reference was created. I also need to make sure the references will transfer to a new project if they are included in my template.
Yes, unless I misunderstand you there shouldn’t be a problem with that. Anything that you can put into a project can be put into a template. Templates are in essence merely frozen projects. Alias linked references use the Mac’s alias system to link to them, which is quite robust. You can even move or rename the original PDFs and the link should still work. Those references in the inspector sidebar, on the other hand, are static paths. Once you link to a file or folder on the drive, you can’t move or rename it without breaking the link. It’s not hard to fix though.