Seeing Dropbox right...

[AmberV]

UUIDs are something on the long-term plan for improvement/consideration; nothing firm on that, but it isn't off the table last I checked. Back when the original project system was designed, Dropbox didn't even exist and UUIDs were rarely used---syncing was something nobody outside of IT circles thought about. At this point it would take major redevelopment and carefully planning.

The checkout method works fine so long as only one person opens the project at once. Creating new chapter folders/files/whatever is something you would do in your personal offline project, and then drag them into the collaborative binder when you have it open. New IDs would be issued when that happens. Dragging between binders doesn't retain the original IDs. To keep your offline version fresh, you could use the Save As feature when ever you are done. This would simultaneously give you a new copy with all updates, and close out the collaborative project.

[fallingmagpie]

Just got around to reading this, interesting stuff.

FWIW, I use DropBox as a backup for everything (nothing collaborative though). At the risk of being mildly techie:

I've got a file called copyscriv.bat which just has these three lines to delete my Dropbox backup folder, recreate it empty, and copy everything from my Scrivener docs folder (whic has my projects and backups) to it:

rd /s /q C:\Users\dmh\Dropbox\Scrivener
mkdir C:\Users\dmh\Dropbox\Scrivener
robocopy /E C:\Users\dmh\Documents\Personal\Writing\Scrivener C:\Users\dmh\Dropbox\Scrivener

I put copyscriv.bat into my Startup folder so it runs every morning when I turn my PC on, and I never have to worry about it

[narrsd]

It's a long time since I've looked at this thread, but took a moment this evening, and I think this method from Ioa is the best of any heard.

Should really work for collaborations - or even for keeping track of what you're doing as a single writer, if needed. It's technically sound, and usable by anyone without needing to know that.

You just have to keep it in mind and use it....

A[nother] way of doing this is to have everyone share a .scriv project on Dropbox and have a strict schedule on when you can open it; or an effectively way of communicating if it is currently open. Scrivener will try and protect you from opening an opened project, but its better to have a system. Then a method of using labels or some other obvious meta-data flag for "check-out" is important. You check out pieces of the outline and mark them with your name; drag them out of the project and into the binder of your offline working project. You work on them and when you are done, you drag the pieces back into the collaborative project and remove the check-out. Labels are pretty good for this, since you can tint icons and such with the colour. Give each person their own label and now you know when something is out, and who has it, so they if they forgot to check it back in or never got around to editing it, you can ask and clear it. It's not strict, and it requires cooperation and communication, but it can work well.