Feedback on Group Scrivenings mode for structured writing

[philm]

Hi everyone,

The following feedback comes after getting some excellent technical support from the forum (see my earlier topic http://www.literatureandlatte.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9629 )

Here's my issue. I make heavy use of Group Scrivenings mode. Furthermore, I need to edit only the documents destined to be compiled. That was very easy to do in Scrivener 1.5, but neither I nor the friendly folk who replied to my earlier post can point to an equally simple method in Scrivener 2.0. I concluded my technical support request by accepting the need to use Collections as the best available method for collecting the various to-be-compiled documents in a project, and then viewing the Collection in a Group Scrivenings editor window. With an hour's practice, I've gotten better at this workaround, but here's my feedback. This feels like a workaround . Though Collections will be great for many purposes, building a Collection takes a lot more mouse clicking than did the earlier method, and more importantly, I find myself missing the previous freedom given to me by 1.5 to choose any folder in the Binder, give that folder an option-click, and then presto, view only the to-be-compiled items in a Group Scrivenings display. You see, I'm constantly switching between folders, and I really liked the way I could view just the to-be-compiled children of any of the many folders in the Binder.

What to do? Well, above all else, I will never, never, ever, give up on the key to the magic kingdom! Scrivener fits my needs better than any other writing software I have ever used, Mac or Windows, since the days of Apple II and Windows 95, and I've tried many. Scrivener somehow knows how to pull words right from my typing fingers, and boy, I need all the help I can get. Secondly, I'm not asking Keith to add features to Scrivener 2.0.

In short, I'm giving this feedback simply to learn how to make the best use of Scrivener 2.0. These are my two questions:

1) Am I'm missing something simple. Is there a more streamlined workaround than building Collections of to-be-compiled documents? Is AppleScript an option that might help to crunch together the multiple clicks needed to conduct a search, build a Collection, and view the results in the editor? Or (my wish upon a star) is there an undocumented key command for narrowing a Binder selection to send to the editor just the to-be-compiled documents?

and

2) Do other users feel like me? I originally began interspersing to-be-compiled and not-to-be-compiled documents when I learned how the 1.5 Structured Story Development Template works. This template was presented to the forum back in 2007. http://www.literatureandlatte.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1241
Though I don't use the template precisely as it was given to us, I have made heavy use of the trick of filling up parent folders with preliminary notes and then removing those folders from the to-be-compiled bunch when the children folders and documents have grown up to become compiled text. Inspired by that template, I came to rely on 1.5's quick and easy way to structure my project around the to-be-compiled status flag of folders and documents. Has anyone else used that approach, and if so, could you please explain how you've adjusted to Keith's wonderfully welcome release of 2.0?

Thanks in advance for any answers, tips or suggestions.

Regards to all,

Phil

[KB]

There is certainly some transition involved between 1.x and 2.0, as some things have been sacrificed for the greater good of a more intuitive and integrated interface. There were very few users - as far as I could tell from user feedback - who used the scrivenings include/exclude options, but a very great many who came on the forum confused because they expected scrivenings to be synonymous with the corkboard and outliner mode. I made a conscious decision to get rid of the scrivenings options for the sake of simplicity and to keep everything better integrated. I do understand that this won't be to the taste of all users, but I'm afraid that this is part of the new design.

All the best,
Keith

[philm]

Thanks for clarifying that Keith. I do like the better integration of Scrivener 2.0. I have already taken good advantage of how simple it is to display the same binder selection in three different formats (outline, corkboard and text editor).

Let me ask you, if I may, whether there is a way to skim off more than the top enclosure in a Group Scrivenings? Navigation preferences lets us toggle between including or not-including the topmost enclosing group. How about skimming away all of the folders in a Binder selection and only viewing the enclosed documents? Is there a way to do that?

Best regards,

Phil

[alanterra]

Keith

Just the point of view of one user:

I had to do some complicated changes on a set of documents, moving stuff from various sections to other sections that followed them based upon the contents of the sections.

Between smart collections (to find the sections that needed changing), then going back to the Binder to find the sections that followed, and then building a static collection, I was able to do this pretty painlessly. The fact that Scrivener was simple, orthogonal, and predictable more than made up for any special purpose features.

It is when you are trying to do something complicated, and the steps to accomplish it are obvious, that you really grow to love a computer program. (Let me just say I have never had that kind of relationship with Word).

Cheers

Alan