Use Scrivener’s Project Bookmarks to Easily Access Research Files

When you’re working on a complex Scrivener project and have lots of research files, you may need to access some of those files regularly. You can go to the Research folder in the Binder and open a file, but you can also use project bookmarks to quickly access the research files you use most often. Scrivener even has a window that displays project bookmarks so you can keep them handy at all times.

In this article, we explain how project bookmarks work, how to manage them, and how to access them.

What are project bookmarks?

Bookmarks are links to files, both in your Scrivener projects and outside them. Like bookmarks to websites, you can use them to access files easily. In Use Bookmarks in Scrivener Projects to Link to Internal and External Files, we explain how to use bookmarks in Scrivener.

There are two types of bookmarks: document bookmarks and project bookmarks. Document bookmarks are linked to specific documents, and you can view them in the Inspector only when a document containing those bookmarks is selected. Project bookmarks are different. They are not linked to any individual documents and are accessible no matter what you are viewing in your project. They are especially useful for accessing research files, since you may want to refer to these files often to check information, such as dates, information about characters, descriptions, and so on.

You can view project bookmarks in several ways: in the Inspector, by clicking an icon in the toolbar, or by opening thee Project Bookmarks window. This window can stay open, making it easy to access project bookmarks at any time.

How to add project bookmarks to your Scrivener project

You can bookmark any files in your Binder, external files from your computer, and URLs. There are several ways to add a project bookmark to your project.

• Click the Bookmarks icon (arrow in screenshot below) above the Inspector, then click the Bookmarks menu and choose Project Bookmarks. Drag any item from your Binder to this section of the Inspector.

• If an item is in your Binder, you can right-click it and choose Add to Project Bookmarks.
• Or you can select an item and choose Documents > Add to Project Bookmarks.

If you click the … menu above the Bookmarks section, you have three options for adding bookmarks:

• Add Internal Bookmark. You can navigate through the sub-menus to choose any item in your project to add as a project bookmark.
• Add External Bookmark. This displays a dialog asking you to enter a title and a URL. This is a good way of adding a bookmark to a web page.
• Add External File Bookmark. Choose this if you want to bookmark a file on your computer. Navigate to that file and select it.

How to view project bookmarks in your Scrivener projects

There are several ways to view project bookmarks. The first is to click a bookmark in the Inspector; its contents display in the pane below the bookmark list, if it’s a file type that Scrivener can display. This doesn’t give you a wide view, but it can be useful if you just need to check something quickly.

Note that on Mac, web archives, which are web pages saved to Scrivener, display in the Inspector and the Editor. On Windows, only URLs display.

The second way to view project bookmarks is to click the Bookmarks icon in the toolbar. If you don’t see that icon, read How to Customize the Scrivener Toolbar to learn how to add it. When you click that icon on Mac, a popover menu displays showing your project bookmarks. Click one to open it in the Editor.

On Windows, clicking the Bookmarks icon display a small window. You can display this window on Mac by clicking at the top of the popover and dragging it down from the toolbar. You can also access this window from the Project menu. On Mac, choose Project > Show Project Bookmarks, or on Windows Project > Project bookmarks.

This window is practical because you can keep it visible while you work and while viewing other content in the Inspector or Editor. Here’s what you can do with bookmarks in the Project Bookmarks popover and window:

• Click a bookmark to display it in the Editor.
• If the Bookmarks list contains a folder, click the small triangle at the right of its name to display the contents of the folder and choose an item from the menu. Some templates have built-in bookmarks for the Characters, Settings, and Notes folders.

If you right-click a bookmark, you can choose from several options. In addition to options to add new bookmarks, which are available from the … menu, you can open the selected bookmark in the following:

• If you open the bookmark in the Current Editor, this replaces what’s in the Editor, and works the same as clicking the bookmark.
• You can choose Open in Other Editor, and Scrivener opens a second editor with the window split. Editor splits allow you to view multiple files at the same time. Read See More of Your Project: Splitting the Scrivener Editor to learn more about Editor splits.
• If you choose View on Copyholder, Scrivener opens the bookmarked item in a copyholder, a special type of Editor split. See Use Copyholders to Extend the Scrivener Editor to learn how to work with these.
• If you choose Open as Quick Reference, Scrivener opens the bookmark in a Quick Reference window. See Use Quick Reference Windows to View Multiple Parts of Scrivener Projects.
• If you choose Open in External Editor, Scrivener will open the file with whatever app on your computer is the default for viewing and/or editing that file type.

You can also reveal the item in the Binder, copy a URL if it is a web archive or link, rename the bookmark, or delete it.

You can expand the Project Bookmarks window to a Quick Reference window by clicking the small square-with-arrow icon at the top right (Mac) or bottom right (Windows) of the window. This makes the Project Bookmarks window almost like a mini Binder, where you can view your project bookmarks in the left sidebar and their content in a larger pane to the right.

If you have a lot of research files, this window is the best way to access them, because you can keep it visible while you work. Bookmark files you use often or key research files, then open this window and move it to the side. You can switch between Scrivener’s Editor and this window as you work, checking information, copying text, and so on.