Workarounds: Seeing where a doc sits in the Binder?

Scrivener
1

Hi everyone,

I am asking for help in knowing where I am in the Binder.

Without creating any ire from the esteemed developers of Scrivener as to why we cannot edit a doc and have the Binder show specifically where that doc lies inside of our projects (I understand the whole philosophy behind Scrivener and, as expressed many times by Keith, I understand why it is not a good idea to have the Binder blink each time an editor window switches docs – this philosophy is fundamental. I buy that point.)

But my purpose here is to throw out to the community a question, a question as to which workarounds have “worked”. I personally don’t find it useful to enquire about the Path. The Path tells me about the hierarchy that would bring me to a doc in the Binder IF I KNEW HOW AND WAS WILLING TO TAKE THE TIME TO TRACE THAT PATH but I usually don’t want to take the time by going back to the Binder to trace the Path, clicking folders, finding which folders are in the Path, sometimes, oftentimes, clicking the wrong folders, etc. I’m not good at using Path information to spot my place in the Binder! Instead, I typically simply want to know where, in the Binder, is the particular doc I am working on. To trace a Path through the Binder is often difficult and involves many steps: couldn’t we have a command --Reveal Specific Document – that, instead of showing every Binder document in our Scrivenings Session instead shows the Specific Binder Document that our cursor sits within? This would be a narrow “REVEAL IN BINDER” command, and it would be VERY useful to me :smiley:

So, I throw the question out to my fellow Scrivener lovers: What is the best way to work if I need to often ask, “where in my Project is my current Doc?” Might there be some sort of split editor, where the first editor is in Outline Mode, and the second editor is in Text Mode, and I could associate the current Text with the current line in Outline — but, unfortunately, despite trying, I haven’t been successful in putting together that type of layout.

Ultimately, I wish to be able to ask instantly where I am in my project (at the Binder level) when I edit a line in a document. I don’t want the Binder to continually give me the location of my doc, but I do want to be able to “ask” the Binder “where is the doc I am currently working on?”

I understand this is currently not the easiest thing to do in Scrivener. But I do know something more: Scrivener is the best software I have ever used, period, in thirty years of Apple and Windows. I love Scrivener. I only hope to discover a new way to use it.

Happy new year to everyone,

Phil

2

Err … have you tried Cmd-Opt-R (View > Reveal in Binder)? Or doesn’t that do what you want? I don’t quite understand.

Martin.

3

Hi mbbntu (Martin), thank you,

I do use that command which reveals in the Binder all of the documents in a scrivenings session. However, I want to reveal the one and only particular document that I am editing. I want to go to the heart of the matter. I want to ask the Binder a simple question: Which document am I currently editing? Or, to put it another way, Dear Binder, where is my cursor presently located, in which specific document?

As an aside, I do not want the Binder to continually update the location of the Editor. NO! That would be bad as Keith has pointed out many times in this forum. Still, I would like, on various occasions while I’m doing my edits, still, I would like to be able to locate WHERE IS MY CURRENT EDITOR DOC in the Binder.

I envision this new command as something similar to the Reveal in Binder command. But, as an option, instead of revealing the entire Scrivenings session I am editing, an Option-Reveal-in-Binder command would enable me to see, highlighted in Binder, the exact location of the document I am presently editing.

Hi Keith. Can this be done? Such a command – to let me see where I’m at – would help me. It would be a joy. I can’t, with all my enthusiasm, find a way to do this without you modifying the code of Scrivener to let me query, “where in the Binder is the presently edited document?”

Phil

PS Happy New Year. Scrivener – always my favorite.

4

I’m a bit confused here. If I click on a few different items, selected randomly throughout the project, and press Cmd-1 to view them as Scrivenings, when I move the insertion point around between sections of this session and press Cmd-Opt-R, it already does what it sounds like you are asking for. It highlights the item that the insertion point is located within, not the entire session? If I want to highlight the entire session I switch to Outliner and select everything first.

5

Yes, I’m equally confused. If I have a scrivenings session open, and the cursor is in the main editor window somewhere, hitting Cmd-Opt-R results in a “highlight” of the relevant document in the Binder (though the focus remains in the main editor window, if I remember correctly). If the document where the cursor is placed happens to be inside a folder that isn’t open in the Binder, the containing folder(s) spring open to reveal the document. I can only suggest that you try it. Your descriptions appear to be exactly what Cmd-Opt-R does.

Martin.

Actually, while I was checking I just came across some strange behaviour. Cmd-Opt-R isn’t working for me, but the menu command is. I’ll investigate and try and find what is causing this. It would seem likely that some sort of utility is “stealing” the hot keys.

Edit: OK, found the problem – it was a KeyBoard Maestro macro that I downloaded today! Silly me.

M.

6

This obviously wasn’t the shortcut problem Martin was seeing, but in case it addresses the OP’s problem, when in a Scrivenings session, the Reveal in Binder command from the Editor header will reveal all the documents if they are a multiple selection or the container, if it is a composite. Reveal in Binder from the View menu, the Opt-Cmd-R shortcut, will reveal the single item within the session that has the focus (i.e. where the insertion point is).

7

Yes, that was the problem I was having! I thought there was a way to reveal only the single doc I am editing and not the whole Scrivenings session, and you have reminded me. “Reveal in Binder” from the header bar behaves differently than “Reveal in Binder” in the Menu. Thank you, thank you! Problem solved, and as is often the case, Scrivener already had what I was looking for :smiley:

Happy new year,

Phil