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.

Trash: Items that you delete from your project end up in the Trash folder. When the Trash contains files, the icon for Trash looks like a full trash bin. Files in the Trash appear in search results (Chapters 17 and 18 cover searching), but their icons are ghosted — meaning they appear faded — so that you can easily tell that they’re deleted items.

To empty the Trash, right-click the Trash folder and choose Empty Trash from the contextual menu that appears. Just be sure you’re ready to get rid of those files because after you empty the Trash, they’re gone!

In addition to the three root folders, you can add as many folders as you want at the root level. Some project templates even come prepopulated with additional root-level folders.