Scrivener For Dummies

Working with the Root Folders

Despite the fact that roots are low on a plant, a root folder is a folder at the highest level. Think of a plant’s roots in the ground. They start from one central point and then branch out from there. Your files are organized in the same way.

Root folders are the top of the root ball. You can’t delete them, but you can change their names and icons.

Every Scrivener project starts out with three root folders:

Manuscript (Draft): Where you store the files that you want included in your final manuscript. No matter how you have it organized, when you export your manuscript, Scrivener combines the files from this folder into one long document. (You do have options for exporting a partial draft, which I cover in Part IV.)

Only text and folder files can be contained within the Manuscript folder; however, images can be inserted into text within a document, just like in a word processor.

Depending on the project template you chose, the Manuscript folder may have a different name, such as Draft or Screenplay.

Research: Holds all your, well, research, including non-text files, such as PDFs, image files, and web archives. You can also create or import text files that aren’t part of your manuscript and add subfolders to further organize your research files.