(version 1.8.6) After saving my project under a new name for the second time, suddenly Research is the templates folder and Templates is just an ordinary folder. I checked in the first two versions of the saved project and Templates is as it should be.
I looked in the manual and in section 8.5.1 it says I can select Project > Set Selection as Templates Folder to correct this, but the Project menu has no such entry.
I also did a search on this forum because I was sure I’d read something about this very thing, but I can’t find it. I even tried using Google (“template folder” site:literatureandlatte.com) to find the exact phrase, but still nothing.
When a template folder already exists in the project, as in this case, you should see Project > Clear Templates Folder. That will remove the “Templates” setting from the folder, allowing you to select a different folder and then choose Project > Set Selection as Templates Folder.
There’s been some discussion in this thread about the templates folders shifting in projects since 1.8.6. It definitely appears to be a new bug, but so far we have not been able to figure out what is causing this in order to fix it. Any info you can add (here or in that thread) that would help us reproduce the problem reliably would be much appreciated!
Ah! Okay, that explains why I couldn’t find the discussion on template folders.
After reading through all the posts about this and making a few observations, I’ve come up with an idea that might help track this down. The image (see link below) shows a change in the icon for the Templates folder and this icon isn’t something I’ve found elsewhere in Scrivener.
When I select the Templates folder, the context menu item “Convert to File/Convert to Folder” is greyed out which makes me think that somehow the folder/text flag is being tromped on, leaving that binder item in limbo where it’s neither a folder nor a text document.
How it got like that:
Research was set as the templates folder
I moved all my template items to the Research folder
I made a new folder, named it Research
I moved all the Research items (not the templates I’d just moved there, just the ones that were there originally) to the new Research folder
renamed the ‘old’ Research folder as “Templates”
I suppose I should have left it at that, but after reading your post about using Project > Clear Templates Folder, I tried it to see if I could unset, then reset the folder. Well, it unset, but now when I select my Templates folder and go to Projects > Set Selection as Templates Folder, it’s greyed out.
I should also point out that the Binder item that’s got the kacked flag (in my case anyway) was originally called Research. That’s not saying that the original Templates folder doesn’t also have something weird going on with its flag.
I just created a new templates folder (called it: Templates Folder) and moved all my templates in there, did Project > Set Selection as Templates Folder. No problem.
But then tried to move the old templates folder (the one with the funny icon) to the Trash. That option is greyed out in the context menu. This makes me think there’s definitely something fishy about the nature of that original templates folder (that whole ‘flag’ thing I mentioned)
.
Thanks for following up on this. The folder with that icon is the default Research folder. It’s one of the three special folders in Scrivener, along with the Draft and Trash, and cannot be deleted nor have any text contents of its own (thus it can’t be viewed in single text mode, converted to a file, etc.). It also shouldn’t be selectable to become a Templates folder (nor can you set the Draft or Trash folders to be a templates folder). All of that is normal and unrelated to the bug with the “Template Folder” setting getting applied to the wrong binder file, beyond the fact that the bug caused the Research folder to be marked as the Templates folder at one point.
Right, other than the three special folders (and anything inside Trash or the Draft) can be set as a templates folder, or there need not be a templates folder in a project at all. This has worked just fine up until 1.8.6, so it’s pretty clear there’s something that changed in that version which is causing the project to mis-ID the template folder, but not at all clear what that is.
Add > New From Template > ( Any Folder Structure Template )
Move the new folder from the top level into any other folder.
Select any other item in the project.
Attempt to add a new template, the template location has changed to the folder above it.
If you go back to step 3, and instead of doing step 4, do step 3 again with the same context menu.
Now do step 4 together, and the template location will move up two folders. etc…
So sorry for the late reply; I could have sworn I had responded to this. Thanks so much for the reproduction steps. We believe we’ve gotten this fixed for the next release, which is currently available as a beta. If you’re interested in testing it out, be aware that the beta uses a new file format and projects created there or upgraded to that format will not be able to open in earlier versions of Scrivener.
