Even better UI: Scrivener
Continuing from last week’s ideas for Scrivener’s corkboard, here are some suggestions for the rest of the application.
Preview when configuring a compile
When it’s time to get my writings out of Scrivener, there will often be a lot of back and forth to get the output just the way I want it. It would save a lot of time if there was an instant preview when configuring the compile settings.
Link to media files
If I drag a movie into the Research folder the entire file is moved into the project. This makes the project file way too big, so instead I create aliases of movies and import them. This works fine, but I lose the ability to play the movie inside Scrivener. It would be nice to have the option to link to media files instead of importing them. I know you can link to files in “Document References”, but then they are hidden away somewhere in the Inspector and easily forgotten.
Export files by drag & drop
I have collected a lot of PDF files in the Research folder, but if I drag them out of Scrivener and onto the desktop nothing happens. I can export using File – Export – Files…, but dragging is quicker and more intuitive.
Automatic syncing
When I open a project that has been synchronised with a folder and there are changes in that folder, Scrivener very helpfully informs me of this and asks if I want to synchronise the changes back into the project. But if I make changes in Scrivener and then close the project without synchronising with the folder first, which I often do, nothing happens. It would make for a better workflow if the synchronisation occurred automatically when opening and closing the project.
Enforce format
This is just nitpicking really, but there could be an option to enforce one text format for a document. That way I can forget about how the text looks and focus on the content. All this boils down to is make “Paste and Match Style” the default action when pasting and dragging text.
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