I am collaborating on a big project by exchanging chapters of a book with a coauthor who edits them, after which I import them back into the main project and then trash the old version. Commonly the snippet <$Scr_Ps::0> (or ::1) shows up in the imported work in figure captions (I have figures in the manuscript that are linked to files). I delete these and it doesn’t seem to harm anything, but I wonder what these characters mean.
How are you sending them copies? Are you using the folder sync feature (which would automate all of the import/export stuff for you), or File ▸ Export ▸ Files...?
To answer the basic question, this is a style marker tag that Scrivener uses to denote where styles stop and start (probably a caption in this case). They should be stripped out when exporting, and reintroduced when importing, so if that isn’t happening properly it would help to know your precise procedure.
And if you have the time, do check into the folder sync feature! It’s quite nice for this kind of collaboration as you can throw that into a share folder and their edits will be synced into your project when you open it, and the folder will be updated for them with your edits too. The documentation for this is in §14.3, Synchronised Folders, in the user manual PDF.
Amber, I’ve tried to use folder sync but if fails because it hangs, as discussed here. The current workflow is as follows. Let’s say it’s my collaborator’s turn to work on Chapter 5. I open a new project and use Copy to Project to put that chapter in the new project. That goes into a shared folder on Dropbox. He works his magic, and then I import the project back with File…Import…Scrivener Project. I take a look, and if all is well then I drag the new chapter up into the Manuscript and trash the old one. The only glitch is that the file paths are different because they are absolute, but that’s easily fixable with a search-and-replace, as you explained here.
This workflow is working well for us and I would recommend it. Styles are necessary in this project because the compiled output has to be in Word format with Heading1, etc.
I will continue to just delete the extraneous style tags. Thanks for the info.
ASIDE: It seems like your workflow could be well simplified by using Drag & Drop.
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To copy a chapter out for edit, just use drag and drop. Don’t keep creating new projects each time. Just update the one Chapter-Project that you have in your Dropbox folder. To make a chapter available for your co-author to edit, drag that chapter from the Master Project into the Chapter-Project. (This will create a copy of the chapter.) Close the Chapter-Project. Done.
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To copy an edited chapter back to the master project, just use drag and drop. To pull in an edited chapter from the Chapter-Project to the Master, don’t use project import. Just drag the chapter from the Chapter-Project binder to the Master Project Binder. (I am betting that this would avoid the anomaly that you mention.)
Maybe I am missing some virtue of the less direct procedure you are using.
Have you updated since reporting that crash? We fixed all known problems with export and folder sync at this point, and you should try again in version 3.3.1.
That said, if you both have Scrivener then I wouldn’t use that tool at all. It’s better when you’re working with someone who doesn’t have Scrivener.
You are almost doing what is the most efficient way to collaborate in my opinion, but not quite! Instead of creating a small self-contained project, send them the whole thing. They work on the parts they are supposed to (you could use labels or keywords to indicate that), and when they send their edits back, use the same Import Project command—only when you try it this time you’ll note a dialogue box offering to merge the changes. This form of merging will be done in place, so no dragging things around and so forth. It’s a kind of sync, using two copies of the project that can be edited independently.
I will continue to just delete the extraneous style tags. Thanks for the info.
Well it will be nice to know how that is happening in the first place, especially if all of this is happening between copies of Scrivener projects using nothing but Scrivener to edit with.
First things first I would make sure you’re both up to date, and see if they are using Windows as that might introduce a variable that would be missed otherwise. We can go from there in figuring out why it is happening, but what would help is to know if it always happens in the same places, and whether you could demonstrate how to make it happen at will.
Been away from this topic for awhile, but the $Scr tags keep randomly appearing. Below ------- is a piece of text from a chapter that had this history:
- Dragged from master file into a “Chapters for editing” scriv file.
- Edited by coauthor.
- Dragged from “Chapters for editing” back into master file.
The <!$Scr_Ps::1> tag is commonly found adjacent to text formatted as figure captions, but here it showed up in 2 of 6 bullet points.
This is not a big deal (I simply search and destroy these when exporting to Word for the editor).
<!$Scr_Ps::1>Until this point we have dealt mainly with lithosystems that fit into the plate-tectonic framework that governs major Earth systems. Most of the following make sense and are understood at some level:
- magmatism at oceanic ridges and at subduction zones
- hydration and metamorphism of oceanic lithosphere at ridges
- <$Scr_Ps::1> • high-P/low-T metamorphism in subduction zones
- <!$Scr_Ps::1> • thermal metamorphism of rocks around plutons
- regional metamorphism and deformation during continental collision
I’ve sent you a private message with some stuff you can do to help us pin down what is going on. I’ll update the thread with findings if we do.