Literature and Latte

I'm looking for a little guidance, any insight would be much appreciated.

My laptop (running latest Scriv3) has decided to act up at a pretty critical stage in my current project. The keyboard has become temperamental. If it decides to quit working altogether, I have a much older laptop (mid 2010 13", running Yosemite) that I can move to while the main machine gets repaired. That old machine will, of course, only run Scriv2 (it has 2.9 installed).

My plan is to use the Export > as Scrivener 2 project command at the end of each day to Dropbox, with the date added to the filename to prevent confusion. Then, if the main machine goes kaput, I can seamlessly open the project on the old one and keep working there. Once I get the new machine back, I will then re-convert the project to Scriv3 format and carry on.

To me that seems a foolproof way to ensure no loss of working time, but maybe I'm missing something or misunderstanding the Export as Scriv 2 project command. I'm basing this on the uderstanding that Scriv2 will not be able to open a Scriv3 project on its own. It's probably worth noting that the project does not otherwise live on Dropbox.

Thanks for any observations.

That should work.

Note that if you're forced to Scriv 2 you'll lose anything Scriv 3 dependent – things like styles, custom metadata that's not text, project compile formats, section type assignments, etc. If it were me, after my newer machine came back from the shop, I'd do a snapshot of my S3 project and copy/paste changed files and drag/drop new ones from the S2 project so as to lose as little of that stuff as possible.

But that's me . You'll make your own assessment as to which method is less of a PITA. If you choose the re-conversion method, I'd suggest making sure that you're storing custom compile formats on the computer rather than in the project before you send the newer Mac to the shop.

Hope this helps!

And it goes without saying that you should also be keeping a current backup/duplicate of your Scriv 3 project somewhere other than on your ailing machine. Because even though your plan sounds good, you will still want that security.

gr wrote:And it goes without saying that you should also be keeping a current backup/duplicate of your Scriv 3 project somewhere other than on your ailing machine. Because even though your plan sounds good, you will still want that security.

It does indeed, though I appreciate the reminder . I have several different back-ups of the hard drive, in different locations.

Silverdragon wrote:Note that if you're forced to Scriv 2 you'll lose anything Scriv 3 dependent – things like styles, custom metadata that's not text, project compile formats, section type assignments, etc. If it were me, after my newer machine came back from the shop, I'd do a snapshot of my S3 project and copy/paste changed files and drag/drop new ones from the S2 project so as to lose as little of that stuff as possible.

But that's me . You'll make your own assessment as to which method is less of a PITA. If you choose the re-conversion method, I'd suggest making sure that you're storing custom compile formats on the computer rather than in the project before you send the newer Mac to the shop.

Hope this helps!

Good points, thanks Silverdragon. I have a distinctly lo-fi approach to Compile, and don't use styles or section layouts (the latter are on my list to explore further), so won't lose any custom formats. Will keep the snapshot/copy-paste approach in mind though.

You're welcome! Just trying to think of things that might trip me up in the same circumstance. But you seem to be good to go!

The closer you are to the end of the project, the more likely you are to need the Compile command, and the more painful switching back and forth will be. Note that it is not possible to Compile in Scrivener 3 without using Section Layouts.

Katherine