I can sync my Mac and my iPad fine, using the standard Dropbox method.
I know there’s no Scrivener for Chromebook, but as long as I’m fairly careful I can add rtfs/txt/whatever files in the .scrv project file. Is this likely to go horribly wrong if I add it to the MacOS/iOS synching? Or is there a way to make it fairly solid?
(I’ve had a look at the support pages and the forum and can’t find anything quite the same as this)
Thanks in advance.
“Sync with External Folder” is probably the safest way (see: “14.3 Synchronised Folders” in the manual).
Thanks - I’ll investigate.
You probably could but you should NOT. Added files will not be included in the Binder. Search indices will be out of whack. Really you do not want to that. And those are the obvious things that you could damage. If you meddle with the internals your Project could become unusable.
Thanks, that was the kind of thing I was worried about. So really, my only option for a Chromebook is to go the Linux route, buy and install Crossover and then buy and install the Windows version of Scrivener. I think I’ll stick with using it on my Mac and iPad. It’s fair enough - developers can only support so many platforms, and synching is complicated.
Some Reddit posters had a workflow involving writing (in the sense of typing) in any app at all (Google Docs, Word, whatever) then saving it to the cloud and cutting and pasting into Scrivener on desktop or iPad. That could work for sessions bashing out words in a coffee shop, not so much for re-organising material.
just checking … do you need all that complexity? takes time and attention from writing.
Or use “Sync with External Folder”.
How does that work bearing this…
You probably could but you should NOT. Added files will not be included in the Binder. Search indices will be out of whack. Really you do not want to that. And those are the obvious things that you could damage. If you meddle with the internals your Project could become unusable.
… in mind?
It’s made specifically to avoid manually poking around in the project files.
Well, ideally I’d like to be simple, but realistically, there will be times when I want to use my Chromebook for writing because I’m not at home. My Mac Mini is lovely but it’s a desktop. My iPad is lovely for media consumption but the more I try to use it as a faut-laptop, the more I hit its limitations for that role. And Scrivener isn’t great for me on an iPad, because Scrivener’s strength is organisation and iOS gets painful when you try to start moving things around. I’m not willing to spend £1000 on an Apple laptop because apart from Scrivener, I can do everything I want with a £250 Chromebook.
And then synching requires running a virtual platform, and anyway it’ll be slow and complicated not very solid. I’ve tried using various flavours of Linux at various points over the last 20 years and they really do get distracting. ChromeOS is the least distracting one, so running another Linux version, then a virtual box on top of that… no thanks.
Basically, it seems to be easiest to have a bunch of documents open on a Chromebook do a bit of cutting and pasting when I’m back at my desk.
I’m confused. So how do I work on them without using Scrivener? Isn’t that poking around?
See “14.3 Synchronised Folders” in the manual for more details, but basically it’s an alternative sync method provided by Scrivener (and thus safe) for such use cases. You can edit the synced files (txt, rtf, fountain, etc.) with any editor that can handle them. Scrivener takes care of slurping them back in.
So you’re saying
… is wrong?
Reepicheep is right. However, that was the answer to your original idea. Which is dangerous.
“Sync with External Folder” is the alternative.
Just checking. You are using the iOS version of Scrivener and still find trouble moving things around? I find it’s easy and pretty much the same as macOS Version of Scrivener. Or are you digging into the internals with File app or something?
Sync with External Folder is the (one and only) supported method for editing your project outside of Scrivener.
With a three-way sync, I would recommend using a hub-and-spoke approach. That is, treat the Mac version as canonical and make sure it’s current before syncing either of the other devices.
Among other things, the Mac offers a wide range of robust backup tools. Making sure the data gets there and is subsequently backed up will help reduce the risk of data loss.
Yep, on iPad, I’m using the app to do everything. It’s the iPad form factor more than a Scrivener issue - a small screen and works differently when you drag and drop because it’s iOS not MacOS and I personally find it more awkward for much typing. I prefer a laptop experience for anything more than typing short posts and emails really.