Scrivener’s Navigate menu lets you move around in your projects even if elements like the Binder and Inspector are hidden.
Many people use Scrivener in its default layout, where the two sidebars – the Binder at the left and the Inspector at the right – are visible on either side of the Editor, the pane where you type text.
But if you hide the Binder and/or Inspector, or you want to use Scrivener in a minimal layout or in Composition Mode, you can still navigate your project using the Navigate menu.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the Navigate menu, and discuss many of the ways you can use this menu to move around in and view different elements of your Scrivener project.
View it the way you want
One of the great things about Scrivener is its default view, which shows you the Binder, Editor, and Inspector. You get an overview of all the files in your project in the Binder, the sidebar at the left. You can access items in any section of your draft, in your Research folder, and in other folders that are part of your project. In the right-hand sidebar, the Inspector, you can see synopses, notes, metadata, and more.
One of the other great things about Scrivener is that you can hide the Binder and Inspector and focus on writing in the Editor. You can hide lots of interface elements of Scrivener to create a minimal writing environment.
And another great thing about Scrivener is Composition Mode, a one-click distraction-free layout that puts your text front and center, and darkens everything else on your screen.
Why the Navigate menu is important
When you’re in the default Scrivener three-pane view, you navigate your project by clicking; all the main interface elements are visible, and you can access anything in your project quickly. But if you’re in a minimalist view, where you only see the Editor, the Navigate menu lets you quickly jump to almost anything in your project.
If you use Composition Mode, a Go To menu is available from the Control Strip if you move your cursor to the bottom of the screen.
But, for other minimalist layouts, the Navigate menu is how you can move around in your project. Click Navigate, choose Go To, then choose your Draft folder. You can choose any item in that folder and it will display in the Editor.
What you can do with the Navigate menu
This article won’t be exhaustive, because, as you can see in the screenshot about, the Navigate menu can do a lot. But we’ll highlight some of the more useful menu items in the Navigate menu.
Go To
As seen above, you can use the Go To submenu to jump to any item in your Binder, any bookmarks you have saved, or collections you have created. At the top of the Go To submenu are two commands to go to the previous document and the next document. These are useful if you have been browsing elements from your Binder using this menu and want to switch back and forth between items. If you use these often, learn their keyboard shortcuts:
- Previous Document: Command-Option-up-arrow (Mac) or Alt+Shift+Up (Windows)
- Next Document: Command-Option-down-arrow (Mac) or Alt+Shift+Down (Windows)
Reveal in Binder
If you’ve been flitting around in your project using the above commands, you might want to see where your currently visible document is; or you may want to move it, split it, duplicate it, or otherwise act on it in the Binder. Choose Reveal in Binder to show the Binder with the current document selected. This works for documents visible in the Editor, but also for documents in Quick Reference windows (see below).
Open Quick Reference
A Quick Reference window is a small window that you can display for almost any element in the Binder, which allows you to view a file in a simple window to check details, update information, or more.
You might want to open a file in a Quick Reference window to check what a character said, read the description of a setting, or verify some other element to ensure continuity. The Quick Reference window is smaller than the Editor, and stays visible until you close it, unlike using the Go To submenu, which opens your selection in the Editor. So you can have multiple Quick Reference windows open along with the file you’re working on in the Editor.
Inspect
The Inspect submenu gives you quick access to the seven sections of the Inspector: Notes, Bookmarks, Metadata, Snapshots, Comments and Footnotes, Synopsis, and Keywords. Think of this command as doing the same thing as showing the Inspector and then clicking on one of its elements or icons. Learn about the Inspector and its various elements in this article.
As you can see from the Navigate menu, there are lots of other options available, and this menu is quite versatile. This menu is especially useful if you’ve hidden certain of Scrivener’s interface elements. Section A7 of the Scrivener manual goes into detail on the many commands available in the Navigate menu.
Kirk McElhearn is a writer, podcaster, and photographer. He is the author of Take Control of Scrivener, and host of the podcast Write Now with Scrivener.