I apologize in advance if I am asking something you’ve already discussed… I couldn’t find anything about it on my first - maybe superficial - browsing. This is my question: I work with a friend on the same Scrivener project. We would like to access it from our two different computers at the same time. Is it possible? If yes, how is it done?
Not possible at this time with this version of Scrivener. A project can only be open on one device at a time.
The user manual PDF thoroughly documents the best collaboration process in §5.3.2, under subheading, Merging Projects Together, starting on page 75. The basic technique is described, and tips for collaboration are given, starting on page 78. Here are some discussions referring to this approach in a more brief, summary manner:
- Multi-user cross platform use by collaborators
- Seeking advice about cross-platform collaboration
- Collaboration Workflow for Spousal Writing
And here are some older threads on the topic. If you aren’t comfortable with the more modern “import and merge” approach, or are on Windows with both machines and do not have that feature yet, then the following advice will help. All you need is one Mac to operate as the “host” though. The Windows version is fully compatible with the workflow, it just lacks the actual merging/sync technology.
Some prefer this approach anyway, you just have to be way more careful about it since you don’t want two people opening the project at once. With Import and Merge, both people can work at the same time and sync their independent changes together on a regular basis.
I’m new here and I’m wondering if there’s a way to share a Scrivener document with my co-author. It’s hard to believe such a feature doesn’t exist. Does anyone have experience or advice on this? How do you manage collaborative writing in Scrivener? Thanks in advance!
There are plenty of good discussions to peruse above, and join in if you have further questions about anything specific. There are countless ways to share work, mainly because Scrivener isn’t the kind of program that bottles up your work into a black box and then has to reinvent basic capabilities to allow you to do things. It uses regular old “documents”, saved wherever you choose to save them. Put them on a thumb drive, zip them up and attach them to email, host them on Github even! Sharing your work is thus a basic as sharing a folder of files with someone. You don’t need special technology to do that.
But there are a lot of tools for making that process even better, depending on what you’re trying to do.
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