A very helpful post, but at this point my head’s spinning like Apple’s beach ball. I’m a writer who has used Macs since they were invented, and Scrivener nearly since it came out, and try to keep up with technology but it’s hard. Right now I’m exploring two uses: (1) I’d like to sync notes I take on my iPad to my MacBook - and (2) I’m ready to pay for either MobileMe or Dropbox for backup, storage, and I had hoped - syncing.
If I give up the idea of syncing my Scrivener-created novel, are either/both of these sources better for Scrivener backups? And, (this probably needs to go elsewhere,) will I be able to take notes on my iPad and easily incorporate them into Scrivener (have 2.0 and Pages)?
No one’s replied to your post Lou, so I’m going to have a go.
I use DropBox for back-ups. With Scrivener 2.x it’s very easy. In the Preferences > Back-Up pane, you simply set your back-ups to save to your DropBox folder. Not only do the back-ups go to my (free) space on the Dropbox servers, they are also promulgated to my Windows computers. I have never used MobileMe; I was put off by early adverse publicity.
You can also use this system to have your projects on more than one Mac computer. This is of course not actually synching between the computers themselves and you should follow the guidance in this thread in relation to closing Scrivener on one computer before opening on another, allowing time for the cloud synch to take place before switching off etc etc.
You can indeed take notes on your iPad and incorporate them into Scrivener. Dropbox is involved in some methods of doing this. This is true synching and is well covered in the Scrivener Manual and in the videos at the foot of this page on this site.
I’ve used both MobileMe iDisk and DropBox to store zipped Scrivener backups. Both work fine. As is repeated throughout this and other posts, with Scrivener the important thing to remember is to NOT work directly with networked files – rather to use network disks to store zipped backups that are moved to desktop and unzipped EVERY time before use/opening.
Thanks to you both for the info. I’ll get one or the other soon for backup and get busy reading the Scrivener manual. Also working on increasing my wireless speed. Then, I MUST stop trying to keep up with technology and get back to writing!
Sorry, I don’t know how I couldn’t see it, but the tip it’s OK - alias created, Scriv bkups folder backed up on Dropbox, ok, that’s fine; now, only my second question is pending:
And is it possible to create a similar link from a folder (for example, Folder1 - no Scriv projects there, only doc, rtf, pdf and so on) located in my Documents folder, to Dropbox folder, instead of moving Folder1 inside Dropbox?
thanks again
g
Hi Ioa,
just started using Dropbox, not for syncing, just another backup - beside TimeMachine external disk - for stuff I’m working on right now, and I’ve found this tip from this thread:
I’ve pasted it in Terminal, but nothing happened (I’ve already moved Scrivener backup folder in Application support/Scrivener - it was in Documents folder - and Dropbox folder’s path is Users/giovanni/Dropbox (maybe - forgive me, I’m not very skillful with Terminal commands - the problem is there’s another line when I open the Terminal and paste your line - then tried pwd to know where i was, probably not useful
You have mail.
host82-50-dynamic:~ giovanni$ ***(already in terminal, pressed Enter)
host82-50-dynamic:~ giovanni$ ln -s ~/Library/Application\ Support/Scrivener/Backups/ ~/Dropbox/ScrivenerBackups ***nothing happens in Dropbxox, no alias creation
host82-50-dynamic:~ giovanni$ pwd
/Users/giovanni
host82-50-dynamic:~ giovanni$
Could you please give me a little help?
And is it possible to create a similar link from a folder (for example, Folder1 - no Scriv projects there, only doc, rtf, pdf and so on) located in my Documents folder, to Dropbox folder, instead of moving Folder1 inside Dropbox?
thank you very much for your help
giovanni
MacBook Pro 13" 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac Os X 10.6.6, Scrivener 2.0.2
Yes, that’s all the command you pasted in does, it makes a link from a folder to another place on your disk (which just so happens to be inside the Dropbox folder and so thus it syncs).
To use this command for other folders, you’ll want to note where to put things in the command:
ln -s ORIGINAL NEW_LINK
With that structure in mind, take a look at the original link code and try to see how it all fits together.
The “-s” part should always be left on, as this is what tells the “ln” command to use symbolic links. You don’t want to use hard links here.
The easiest way to enter path names is to make use of the Tab key. Start typing in “~/Doc” and then hit tab and then continue typing in the next folder name and so on. The NEW_LINK part is what you want to call the link and where. To keep things simple, I’d just leave the last part off. When you specify and existing folder as the last argument, the “ln” command will use the name of the ORIGINAL path automatically. So:
ln -s ~/Documents/Folder1 ~/Dropbox/
Will create a symbolic link, “Folder1” in the Dropbox folder.
Another way of entering path names for stuff that already exists is to drop a file into the Terminal window. It will paste in the full UNIX path right where the cursor is (so make sure you’ve already added the space).
So, just to go through the recommended technique, say I were writing a book on two computers in two locations, and wanted to always be working on the most current version using Dropbox, at the end of each writing session, I’d:
Save the project as a Scrivener file as usual in its customary place on Computer A.
When it’s finished saving, Backup File to - and insert a .zip version into my Dropbox.
Wait a few seconds to allow it to finish saving
Close Computer A, put it away
Later, at my other writing location, I would open computer B, open the Dropbox folder
Drag the most recent zipped backup file onto my desktop
Unzip that file to extract my most current Scrivener file
Open it in Scrivener, and start the cycle over again.
That it? Sorry to be such a relentless doofus, but I don’t want to screw this up!
Yep, that works! If you’re using 2.0, you can set the project to automatically backup when you close, and point that backup to your Dropbox folder. Scrivener also autosaves (periodically while you’re working–every 2 seconds of inactivity, by default–and when you close), so thus your first two steps can just be automatic, making this easier. To adjust your backup preferences, go to Scrivener>Preferences:Backup. Just make sure that on each computer your backup location is set to the same location in your Dropbox folder so that when you move the project back and forth it will continue with the same set of backups.
[size=85]Edited the completely loony thing I said earlier about the backup location. My brain was off in “sync with external folder” mode. Not what we’re talking about here, though if you’re going to be using that with a project you’ll be running on multiple computers, you’ll need to ensure the file path to the external folder is the same on each machine.[/size]
How can 99 cent iOS programs sync with a live program on the mac? There has to be a library kit out there that could be put into Scrivener that does what those programs do. The mac and the iOS programs all find each other on bonjour, and sync up the data automagically.
Couldn’t Scrivener do that? Open Scrivener on the macbook, open it on the mac, click sync on one of them, and they find each other on bonjour. Then, they compare notes for the project being synced.
Conflicts (where a scrivening was changed on both machines) could be resolved with snapshots and the fancy new redline in 2.0, no?
It’d be a slick solution apropos of Scrivener and the mac!
Well, if that is all you want, you can already do that. Mercurial and Git are probably the two best ways to take two divergent Scrivener projects and merge their deltas. This isn’t a trivial thing to design (and only barely easier to implement the abstract concepts in your own program—at least you don’t have to design the equations and wrestle with the logic, but you do need to at least understand what they are going on about, if you intend to use them correctly), however.
thanks, but that stuff looks like svg and stuff to me, and inherently looks like something that will mangle my data if I have to drive the car behind it. Maybe I’m too simple in my approach, but I see iPhone apps that sync to the desktop and maybe I don’t understand enough to know why there’s a problem in my expectation, but it seems to me like Scrivener should be able to manage this automatically within itself.
From a user perspective, that’s what I’d like to see, a button that I click in the project menu and Scrivener looks on the local network and sees that another computer has Scrivener and the same project open and those two start talking amongst themselves and sync up. There’s a program that does this for iPhoto libraries, there’s a program that does it for iTunes, and heck, even iTunes itself will compare your library with a shared library.
Like I say, surely there’s something tricky, but that’s why you guys are the schizznick because 2.0 is slick. I think the slickness of 2.0 combined with my having seen far inferior programs demonstrate this automagical sync between devices makes me think there’s a key you guys don’t have that these other guys have found and implemented.
Repositories and large management programs, and frankly anything that requires me type “make install” in terminal inherently is too clumsy for something I’m looking to do after typing and drinking scotch. There’s a recipe for disaster in it… but I can click a button and let the computator do its thing – because I see other programs do that.
The document vault/repository thing just seems so unmac-like and unScrivener-like to me.
But, you’re right, and I have no doubt that those things can do this stuff – they just seem like driving a cargo barge when I know there’s a ferrari and sharp curves available.
I got turned off of Dropbox after it completely destroyed a .scriv bundle. I started looking for a solution that would keep them intact… I found Sugarsync (http://www.sugarsync.com) that has been working for me for some time working with live files, but after reading this thread, I’m more than likely certian if I’m going to get hit with a disaster, it’s going to be after I’ve closed Scrivener and already made the backup .zip so I have those syncing upstream now as well.
I had something happen the other night that caused my to have to do a hard shutdown on my MacBook (primary writing machine for now, Planning on replacing it with an 11" Air… (Maybe the 13" as I like the resolution of the screen a little better… ) and it complained about the file possibly being open on another machine, and I knew it wasn’t. After reading this thread about the nice file renaming that DropBox does, I decided to peek into one of the bundle files, (It’s currently open in Scrivener on my MacBook) This is what I see: Click for large view
Where is says “user (From Samantha).lock” and then under it “user.lock” I’m assuming that it’s save to go in and delete the files that are (From XXX)? (Samantha is the current name of my MacBook)
I decided to open a diffrent project, and this is what greeted me in it: Click for large view
I assume the same is true with this file as well? (it appears that all of the (from…) files are older as well… (Kira II, and Kira-Mini are older names for the two computers (Kira-mini was the mac mini), so I’m assuming that I had named my MacBook Kira II at one point…)
Yeah, the userlock files are created by Scrivener when you open a project and deleted when you close it. If the project doesn’t close properly–as in the case of forcing off your computer–the file doesn’t get deleted, so when you reopen the project Scrivener pops up the warning. You can just ignore it and carry on in this case, since you know the project isn’t open elsewhere. Presumably Dropbox renamed your userlock file (and the others) and so they didn’t get removed properly.
Ok, That’s what I did. My Mini was sitting idle at the time so it had to have been the forced shut down. The only thing I’m wondering about now is the (From $NAME) files. I’m going to have to do that manually in each project, methinks…
(Sorry, edited the above because I submitted too soon.) Yeah, maybe it’s worth checking the project file in Dropbox occasionally and seeing what it’s doing. I don’t know if that’s something that would happen all the time or if it’s only occurring when there’s a glitch in the sync process.
I’m leaning toward a fluke in the sync process. One would think that this syncing thing would be more… seamless… it’s worked out for the most part.
I know I came back to Scrivener after it crashed and I lost 10,000 words during NaNoWriMo in 2007 (This was somewhere along the x.7 release line, called Scrivener Gold). I decided that it wasn’t worth two cents and went back to Nisus Writer. 2008 I tried 1.x and was impressed and bought it and now I’m on 2.0 and I’ve recommended it to people… What can I say, a great program, It tends to be open on my MacBook.
Probably a fluke. Also I noticed that your second example was an older Scrivener project, so I don’t know if there’d be any difference there–not in the process itself, since it’s all still a bundle, but just as far as the binder files and so on, since they’ve changed for 2.0. I may test this out later when I’m procrastinating further on my writing.
Going back to an earlier point in this thread about Scrivener seeing the whole bundle as one file, someone in the giant thread on syncing suggested using a disk image to achieve this. You can store the disk image in Dropbox and open the project in one step with an alias on each of your computers (in the dock or on your desktop or wherever you like), then work, close the project, and eject the disk. Since you want to be closing your projects anyway when you leave on one computer (and it sounds like you’re already in the habit of this), it’s not much more work than just keeping the .scriv file on Dropbox, but it keeps Dropbox from viewing the project as a thousand little files.
I still have a handful of projects that haven’t been updated, that one just happens to be one of the ones that hasn’t been…
[EDIT} The first file was one that has been converted, all of the old files (the (From…) are prior to the conversion.
I mainly work off the MacBook and do some minor things on the Mini (it has a 19" monitor…) I’m actually more concerned about leaving a project open on the Mini and then trying to open it while I’m in the field…
Hmm… I wonder if I changed the names of the Machines and that is what has caused the (From…) files to appear. (or I deleted the computer from the sync group and that is what did it…)
) and it complained about the file possibly being open on another machine, and I knew it wasn’t. After reading this thread about the nice file renaming that DropBox does, I decided to peek into one of the bundle files, (It’s currently open in Scrivener on my MacBook) This is what I see:
