Just for the record, I today paid for and submitted a technical support incident to Apple, providing them with a sample project using Scrivener’s save/load code, and asking whether it is possible for such a set-up to support Versions, and if so, for help in implementing it. I’ll let you know what I hear back (it will probably be some weeks before I get anything solid).
All the best,
Keith
Fascinating!
As a side remark, ForeverSave will get an update to make it fully compatible with Lion, as its developer has announced. The software’s future is still uncertain but until there I believe several programs will not provide the new features for some coding difficulties that Apple ends up omitting.
Keith,
Thanks for your attention to these posts. This is why I continue to advocate to students and professors (and any other writers I encounter) engaged in writing to use Scrivener. I am in the process of converting my son who will edit two student publications (newspaper and magazine) at his university this coming academic year. This type of support gives me confidence that the final product will be thoughtful and in the best interest of the users. As a new Scrivener user, I have been so impressed with the level of interaction between you and the other users, and the quality of feedback to make the product even better. I’ve converted all my dissertation writing to Scrivener. I don’t see using any other product in the future for my writing needs.
Ten
Thank you, Ten, much appreciated - and many thanks for recommending it to students and professors (and to your son!).
All the best,
Keith
Yes, thanks Keith for your engagement with your users. And, now that I read this thread, feel free to ignore my post about versions at the level of rtf docs not .scriv files in the wish list section. Sorry to bother you. Keep up the wonderful work.
It wasn’t ignorant at all! The trouble always is that Apple demonstrate all of these things and bandy around phrases such as, “It just works,” leaving the rest of us to work through the finer distinctions. It certainly wouldn’t be obvious to an end-user why you can’t just launch individual files into Versions. Basically, though - to add to what I said in my other reply - Versions and autosave are inextricably tied, so Versions can only show all the data that is autosaved, and the main document/project window as its interface. We can hope that Apple expand this in the future though…
Thanks,
Keith
I’m just going to throw in my vote to say I’m anti-Versions in Scrivener.
Scrivener does fine the way it handles the saving of projects already. I would rather not meddle around with it.
One other nail in the Versions-for-Scrivener coffin I’ve found is that (according to an Ars Technica article I just read), the older “versions” of the file you’re working on are stored in a directory at the root of your boot drive. So even if Scrivener is somehow able to implement this feature, the older copies of the documents would not be contained within the Project.
Edit: here’s the link where Versions storage is explained: arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/20 … -internals
Yes, that article is entirely correct - Versions don’t travel with files if you send them to someone (which makes sense seeing as you probably don’t want other people to see your earlier drafts) or move them to another computer. They are all stored in a hidden directory that is very difficult to access on your hard drive.
I wonder - would it be possible to ring-fence the Drafts ‘folder’ in any project and make it accessible under Versions? That’s where the writing gets down, after all. So, parts of the project could have support for Versions switched on and off except for the Research folder, which is typically too large…
I’m just thinking out loud here; I have insufficient technical nous to know whether this is feasible or not. I usually compile my Scrivener files and finish them in Pages, so Versions kicks in there, anyway.
Not really, the problem is that this technology doesn’t at all work with Scrivener’s mechanisms in general. If it were possible to switch it on for just one item, let alone one section, in the Binder—it would theoretically be possible to switch it on for everything.
I’d like to add a hearty ditto. The level of customer interaction and the commitment to keeping Scrivener at a high standard is very appealing. And it inspires a level of trust and creates a community of people who just want to pass the good news on. 
I tried versions on Pages and found it extremely confusing and also rather dangerous. It’s very easy to lose track of what version you’re actually dealing with in my opinion. Much easier simply to save a copy as ‘Version1’ or something and go back to that if needed. Or learn to use Scrivener’s excellent and very powerful Snapshot facility.
Lion is crammed with so-called clever ideas that don’t appear as clever in reality for me, such as resuming app windows which is another great way to discover you’re working on the wrong file, especially as it will pull up a deleted or unsaved file out of nowhere without making it very obvious. I don’t think Scrivener needs Versions at all. Not for me anyway.
I have to admit that I’m not a fan of Versions myself, now that I’m a few months into using Lion. It drives me batty in TextEdit especially, where my notes are often temporary, and where I often want to use Save As.
This may be off topic but I am wondering which Mac OS version is best to run Scrivener under at this point?
I have not taken the Lion plunge yet. I like some of the features but have been waiting to see what software limitations it might impose. Sounds like any Lion issues with Scrivnener have largely to do with Lion features which do not exist in earlier versions of the OS not being usable, not issues hindering the general use of the software?f
I haven’t seen any issues upgrading from SL to Lion. Full screen mode is rather nice with Scrivener too - gets everything else out of the way.
Scrivener has been updated to take full advantage of Lion, so there should be no issues. We’ll be releasing a 2.2 update next week that should iron out any lingering issues, though.
All the best,
Keith
With the exception of a few special features that only work in Lion (full screen mode being the largest), I wouldn’t say there is a huge difference between OS versions. That decision is going to come down more to the rest of the OS and other tools you use. If you still use any Rosetta applications then you might want to hold off as long as possible. There are still some utilities and such that are flaky in Lion. Overall though it has been a pretty stable release for me once I paired things down. My first installation was just a regular upgrade and that was a royal mess. Once I did a clean install and only selected applications for their compatibility, everything went fine.
By the way most of the Scrivener+Lion bugs you hear of can be solved by downloading the public beta. I never see any of these bugs.
Chiming in here a bit late, I admit, but I just want to throw my vote in for NEVER implementing Versions, even if it becomes possible. (If it does, and you do, please include a method for opting out of it.)
I agree whole-heartedly with bodsham on this: