I’m a long-time Scrivener user for personal projects, but now I’ve started to think it could have some potential for some collaborative creative work in my business I’m running. The model I’m thinking of is having two separate scrivener files, each maintained on different machines, with external sync set to a shared Dropbox folder that both users will have access to. From what I saw in the video demonstrating folder sync to send content to Notebooks for iPad, it appears that running both simultaneously won’t cause much of an issue, aside from snapshotting to make sure work isn’t lost.
Since they’d be managed in two separate Scrivener files, would there be any serious corruption issues to worry about, aside from the fact that notecard text wouldn’t be synced? Trying to think of a way to maximize everyone’s creative flexibility while contributing research to the same project.
Important Note: This feature is not intended for keeping two versions of the same project in sync and should not be used in such a manner—you should never try to sync two different projects with the same folder. Rather, this feature is intended to allow you to edit or share project files with other applications or on other platforms, and then to have any changes made to the shared files reflected in your Scrivener project. It also cannot be used to perform structural or outline order modifications, just simple text content modifications.
What most people are talking about when they refer to using Scrivener on Dropbox is placing the project directly in the folders that Dropbox manages, letting it sync the project to the server, and then accessing that project from another machine. Do read §13.6 in the user manual (and your colleague should as well) if you intend to go that route. There are easy ways to make a mess of things that are inversely very easily avoided.
I hope I’m in the right place; I see that this is an older thread. I am a Scrivener newbie using a Mac and I’m collaborating on a project with another writer who’s using Windows 7. The problem I’m having is that the file structures don’t seem to be 100% compatible. The Mac opens my Scrivener file in Dropbox with no problem and brings up the current version of the project. The PC opens the Scrivener file as a folder. When we drill down and open what we think is the project (it has the same name as the Mac Scrivener file/folder, but it lives one level down with a bunch of other files: Files, Quick Look, Settings, etc.), we get a version that is several days old. The green box is ticked in Dropbox and the date and time show that this is the latest version. We are having trouble moving forward and would like to find a solution. Any ideas (we’re using the latest versions of Scrivener) would be much appreciated
This is what projects look like on Windows. Even on a Mac, they are actually folders like this with all of those files that you saw on the PC. If you right-click on a project and select “Show Package Contents” you should see an identical layout as on Windows. The only difference is that the Mac is capable of making a folder look and act (for the most part) like a file. It’s likely a good many things you think are files on your computer actually are folders with a bunch of files in them. You should probably download a copy of the Windows user manual if you are helping them learn the software. There are some key differences like this. They need to load the project by double-clicking on the .scrivx file inside the project.scriv folder. Do note at the time of this writing there is a bug whereby Scrivener needs to be open when you double-click on a .scrivx file, otherwise it will refuse to open the project (though at that point it is open so it will work if you try again).
If you suspect the Windows Dropbox copy is older than the Mac version, make sure Dropbox isn’t paused on the PC. Beyond that I don’t know what to tell you. Scrivener doesn’t really have anything to do with whether or not Dropbox keeps files up to date across the board. If you’re having problems with it, you’ll probably have more luck asking on the Dropbox boards.
Make sure you don’t have any files with the word “conflicted” in their name. That’s a sure sign that one of you had the project open and/or edited it before changes were synced to their dropbox folder.
I’ll have to take a look at the app itself. It doesn’t really say what it means by “Scrivener Sync” and there is no web site for it that I can find. The closest I could find to information about it was an article written a while back discussing the name change from “RichText Edit”.
In a general comment though, I would say unless you really need rich text editing, the plain-text editors are probably going to be more solid as complete software, given that they can spend their development time on features rather than rich text. That’s just a rule of thumb though, and if they are using the HTML editing engine then they could get a rich text system built fairly easily and focus more on features. I’ll have to get back with you.
Hmm, interesting. I can’t test it out because I’m getting a Dropbox error when I try to link it to the app, but it does have a “Link with Scrivener” selection choice. Given that this leads to a Dropbox screen, I wonder if it does do minimal .scriv package parsing? If anyone knows it would be great to hear, because I can’t get it to work.
At any rate it does appear to be using the HTML text engine, so they have had a chance to code in some decent features. For 99c it’s certainly a bargain. Even if it doesn’t do what we would probably all want it to do.
Here’s the info from the README on that app, if it helps…
Bruce
How does Scrivener work with Textilus?
You can sync your Scrivener documents with Textilus using the Dropbox cloud service:
You need to install Dropbox and have a Dropbox account in your computer.
Tap the “Link with Scrivener” option in the Textilus tools menu and link with the service using your account. A new local folder named “__ Scrivener __” will be created in your documents picker view. In the cloud side, a folder with the path “Apps/Textilus/Scrivener/Draft/” will be created too. Please, don’t delete that remote folder.
In Scrivener, choose the “File -> Sync -> with External Folder” option in the File Menu. A panel will be opened.
In that panel, choose your “Shared Folder” using the path from the “Apps/Textilus/Scrivener/Draft/” folder created in step 2. It should be similar to “/Users/PeterPan/Dropbox/Apps/Textilus/Scrivener/”
Choose the Rich-Text (RTF) format for external Draft files.
Click Sync and you’re all set
Those steps need to be done once per project. Once they are done, you can access the project in Textilus on the iPad.
You have to sync manually your Scrivener project with the option “File -> Sync -> With external folder now” every time you want to update your changes to the Dropbox folder and Textilus “__ Scrivener __” folder.
Textilus supports only the “Apps/Textilus/Scrivener/Draft” Dropbox folder. It doesn’t sync with files in subfolders or other directories in your Dropbox account.
Textilus automatically deletes empty folders so if you don’t have any document in the “__ Scrivener __” folder, it will be removed from the document picker view and Dropbox will be Unlinked. Our advice is to have always a document into that folder.
It doesn’t work because Scrivener creates a subfolder called Draft in the Draft folder created by Textilus. Also, the Notes folder cannot be synced. I don’t understand why they can’t implement Dropbox folder access as in Writer, or Byword and many other apps
Thanks, I for some reason couldn’t find the help file. Okay that’s weird, that’s a lot of process involved. Or to put it another way, I don’t see why coding a UI process for attempting to automate the folder sync layout is any less work than implementing a freeform folder and file navigation system where one can then just peruse their Dropbox account and load Scrivener generated RTF files from whatever projects they please.
I have got Textilus and Scrivener syncing working quite well (and with the added complication of running two DropBox accounts on my Mac!) It has been blissful for Nanowrimo-on-the-go.
I did run into the two-Drafts-folder issue. I had to initially allow Scrivener to sync inside the Drafts folder, as it insists on an empty folder.
Then I manually moved everything up a level and got rid of the now-empty extraneous Drafts folder.
I think I then possibly had to resync and change the address in Scrivener - I can’t fully remember - but it’s working perfectly now.
I believe the entire issue would be resolved by Textilus not creating a Drafts folder, just apps/textilus.
I just found this app today, it looks pretty good. Must see to use. But native synchronization with Scrivener is always good to take. Therefore delete the Draft folder created by Textilus on Dropox and let Scrivener create the folder Draft and all is good.
I gave it a try but it works only up to a point for me. If I make a change with textilus (say a new file) and now I want to sync those changes back to scrivener, I get a whole new draft folder in the textilus/draft folder. Nothing new appears in the Scrivener project. I guess I could import the new file in Scrivener, but what if I make changes with textilus in existing files? I don’t see how this could possibly work. Out of curiosity, anybody has a workable solution that can be decently described and reproduced? I don’t see it.
EDIT: I take it back. It does work, as long as you sync with the option ‘sync with external folder now’ in scrivener. Obviously, you can only sync one project, and forget your notes folder. Still, rather suboptimal for me.
I have been trying Textilus on my iPad with Scrivener and was having difficulty getting it to sync correctly. They emailed back the following suggestions, which straightened things out with the sync, as well as a note that their next update will include multiple Scrivener project access and other goodies:
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They just updated it and it does seem to be working well. I only did some quick testing. From what I can tell, it’s flawless and flexible now. May be best iOS option until Scrivener for iOS comes out. BTW, Textilus is iPad only, not universal.
This may have been covered already, but I couldn’t find it. Hopefully a quick question: My current workflow is Scriv file in Dropbox editing from iMac and occasionally a MacBook – no problems there following standard best practices. Now I started using External Folder sync, editing occasionally on the iPhone and it seems to be working just fine going back and forth between the two macs and plain text editing as long as I cross my 'i’s and dot my 't’s all my machines are keeping up with what I’m writing. The Scriv file in my DB folder syncs to Plain Text folder that’s also on Dropbox.
In the past, I believe that it was so that the external sync of a Dropbox housed project would only work on the one computer that originally set it up, isn’t that correct? I’m currently using the latest beta of Scrivener – has the sync behavior been changed in some of the latest updates?
I just wanna make sure I’m not diluting myself into thinking my workflow is good while I’m introducing some whackiness that rears it’s head later.
I work on two computers and something went awry with the synching of the files through google drive.
I tried being very careful not to open the project before drive synchs, but when I opened on computer #2, the work I did last on computer #1, was gone. Then when I went back to computer #1, it was gone there as well. It seems to have taken what was on computer #2 and overridden!
The good news is that I looked on google drive and it seems to have two “conflict” files that correspond to the times that problems occur.
The problem is that when I attempt to download it, i get the following error message from Scrivner
Add .scriv file extension to package?
The project package ‘Downloads’ has no file extension. Scrivener for OS X requires that the project package has the .scriv file extension.
In order to open this project, Scrivener will add this file extension to the project now. (This will not affect your ability to open the project on other platforms, where the .scriv package will still appear as a regular folder.) Continue?
I then press continue and get the following error
The document “[doc title[Conflict 1] (1).scrivx” could not be opened.
The file system would not allow Scrivener to add the .scriv file extension to the project package, so the project cannot be opened. Please check your permissions.
I am terrified as this represents quite a bit of work. If anyone can help me I wold be much obliged.
