Back in 2009, someone asked for more splits on the editor, an idea that was dismissed for reasons I don’t fully understand. I would like to make the case for an editor that can be split into at least three columns.
As a scholar, my main job is moving information in two steps: original sources => my notes => my draft. A big attraction of Scrivener is the idea that I can do all of this within a single application, at least if–as is increasingly the case–my source takes the form of a PDF. Unfortunately, with only two views of the editor, I must constantly switch what I am seeing.
I would like to read the PDF in the leftmost column, take notes in a central column, and write in a third. And yes, sometimes I would like four columns. For example, the PDF may have endnotes, so I’d want to see part of it in column 1, and a second part in column 2.
Ideally, all of these columns would be part of one window when I have a sufficiently large monitor, but could be split into a separate window if I am working on two smaller monitors.
Any hope? Or must I run a separate PDF reader alongside Scrivener?
You can use QuickReference panels to view more than two documents alongside one another. Scrivener’s two editors can be linked to one another, one opening the other, something that wouldn’t work with more than two, and there are other constraints at the moment. More splits is on the list as a possibility for version 3.0, although it’s not something that comes up as a request much, but in the meantime, this is what QuickReference panels are intended for.
Thanks for this quick reply. I will give that a try.
The manual’s section on Splitting the Editor (14.4) has a cross-reference to splitting documents. Perhaps this would be a good place to include a cross-reference to quick-reference windows as well.
May I also add a request for a three-way split (or more? sigh happy dream!) to be considered if possible? I can quite see, as far as my totally utterly basic knowledge of how software works, allows, that this is not an easy idea. But I often find myself wishing very hard for this function. I do use quick reference panels, but I find the obscuring of my other work (a real issue for me on the 11" screen in particular) frustrating and also the change of appearance jarring. Please don’t get me wrong - I appreciate the feature and am glad it’s there, but I still crave that extra column (even if it were perhaps read-only or something? I have no idea if that would be easier or not!)
Hope this doesn’t count as just a ‘+1’! I really haven’t the knowledge to make any helpful suggestions as to how it might be done, just to say that it would be so helpful to me if it could!
As I said above, it’s on the list of possibilities for 3.0, but nothing has been decided yet, and it’s certainly not possible just to shoehorn into 3.0 as it would involve significant rewrites to huge chunks of the interface and backing code.
All the best,
Keith
Of course, I understand and thank you! I never thought or meant to suggest either that it would be easy or that you weren’t considering it! You’re the most responsive and helpful developer I’ve ever come across, so how could I fail to appreciate that Whatever 3.0 contains, I look forward to it!
Whatever 3.0 contains, I look forward to it!