Another Split view suggestion

[jgould]

Keith,

Would it be possible to add a way to add a third split view to the editor? I'm working on a rewrite of an essay for an english class (The program is just as useful for academia as it is for fiction writers, IMHO) and I tried to do a three way split (A vertical split between to create two columns, and then a horizontal split at the bottom.) This, obviously didn't work as the software has no way to render that type of a display. I've already had a few instances where that type of layout would have been useful.

I love Scrivener and do all of my writing (both academic and for fun) in the program and it excels at every task I've thrown at it. I'm actually glad that I had an early beta version (0.7, in case you were wondering) eat 10K of my words during NaNo the first year I both attempted NaNo and used the program.

Thanks for having the vision to write such a great piece of software that I recommend to everyone that I think could benefit from it.

Josh

[Hugh]

A Quick Reference pane will give you a third - and, in some ways, more flexible - view.

H

[jgould]

I thought of that, but the floating window would just serve to get in my way. My biggest issue by far is remembering which document I'm working in when I change the document in the binder and what I was writing is replaced by the resource I just looked at...

[KB]

Remember you can use the history arrows in the editor to go back to the document you were last looking at; you can also use the View > QuickReference panel to call up a QuickRef panel without touching the binder (you can also use the synopsis finder to open QR panels).

There's no way of adding a third split at this point because currently the two split views have special relationships with one another and this is all hard coded. It would take a radical rewrite of many aspects of Scrivener to allow for more splits. (For instance, consider the current ability to choose which editor the binder affects, or the way that you can set up the corkboard in one editor to open the selected document in the other - all of these features rely on there being two editors. I'm sure solutions could be found, but it's not a matter of just adding another split without everything else breaking.)

That said, I'll certainly consider this for 3.0.

All the best,
Keith

[jgould]

Thank you.

Another suggestion for the QR panels: Can you make them more HUD like (like the keywords panel)?

Josh

[KB]

You can choose to make QuickReference panels look like HUDs via the Appearance pane of the preferences. You can make them float over other windows by going to Window > Float QuickReference panels.

Hope that helps.

All the best,
Keith

[davidblistein]

Is there a HotKey for opening a doc into QuickRef window directly instead of it simultaneously opening in an Editor Window? Am I not getting the following instruction from the manual ?

1. Select one or more documents in the sidebar or a view and tap the Spacebar.
If more than one document is selection, multiple QuickReference panels will be
opened at once.

I.e., When I do this, as soon as I select the first doc it opens in a window. Is there a key I could be holding down to go directly to Quick Ref. (Seems I knew this once.)

BTW: While looking for this, I may have found a typo in the manual. Page 274; 2/3 down the page. The Hotkey for floating and unfloating a QR window is Command-Control-Q right? Not Command-Option-Q??

Thanks. David.

[davidblistein]

Wow…not only had I asked this before…but there's a whole discussion on it and why it won't work and easy workarounds—primarily locking the editor which is easy. Can't believe I forgot. Age is a terrible thing to waste.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10067

BTW 1: Still might want to see if I'm right re that alleged typo.
BTW 2: the QR is such a great feature I get closer every day to finally getting a monitor to go w/ my laptop....

Thanks for Scrivener as always.

[jgould]

I've found that locking the editor, even with the selection in preferences is set so that "binder affects other editor" doesn't always preform the way that I *think* it should. Sometimes I have to select the other editor and then what I was trying to display there.

Slightly annoying, but it works when you don't have enough screen real estate (which I often don't, even on a 24" 1080p external display... It's worse on my 11" Air...) Maybe if I had a second monitor I could actually use the QR panel, but I'm running the MBP on the 24" Monitor in closed clamshell mode...

Josh

[Clea]

Another suggestion would be to copy the information you would like to see in that additional split and paste it in the 'Notes' section of the instpector of one of the other two. It is not the most flexible of arrangements, but you can both view and edit it at will without the HUD issues, and if you collapse both the synopsis and the general section it is useable even on a fairly small screen.