Making Duplicates of Binder Items

The Duplicate feature lets you make an exact copy of an item, including all its settings, contents, and metadata. You may want to make a duplicate if you want a copy of a scene before you revise it — although I recommend taking a snapshot, instead (see Chapter 19). Alternatively, you can use duplicates if you want to create a series of folders that have the same properties so that you can use them for a new project or project template.

You can choose to duplicate an item by itself or copy the item and all its subdocuments.

Duplicate with subdocuments

When you duplicate with subdocuments, Scrivener makes a complete copy of the item and all the items it contains, so if you duplicate a folder, all the documents inside that folder are copied, too.

To use Duplicate, in the Binder, select the item that you want to copy, and then choose Documents⇒Duplicate⇒With Subdocuments and Unique Title (in Windows, the option is simply With Subdocuments).

On the Mac, this option creates a new file with the same name, but the word copy appended to the end. In Windows, the new file appears with the name ready to edit.

To duplicate with subdocuments, you can also right-click a file in the Binder and choose Duplicate from the contextual menu that appears, or press Command+D (Control+D in Windows). The item and any subdocuments are copied.

Duplicate without subdocuments

Choosing to duplicate without subdocuments doesn’t copy subdocuments or provide a distinguishing title for the new file. To use it, in the Binder, select the item that you want to copy, and then choose Documents⇒Duplicate⇒Without Subdocuments.

On the Mac, this option creates a new file with the same name. On Windows, the new file appears with the name ready to edit.