The Scrivener Inspector: Bookmarks

To open your Bookmarks window, click this little icon in your Inspector (note, in PC or an older version of Scrivener, it looks like a stack of books, but if you hover over with your mouse, the word “Bookmark” should appear just the same):

So now that you have it open, what to do with it?

Importing Bookmarks

The idea behind bookmarks is that they allow you to sort your research, or anything really, so that it displays next to the part of your WIP where you need it most.

For example: I’m working on a book about a crazy sea captain hunting a white whale (okay, I’m not really, but I borrowed Moby Dick for the purposes of illustration). I have a bunch of research (which I have collected in my Research folder in my Binder), but I’m currently writing a scene that takes place on land and I want to be able to reference a map without searching through all the images of whales and boats.

To keep just the research I need at hand for this particular chapter, I can add it to my bookmarks by clicking on the little wheel icon here in the bookmarks section, and choosing the image I want from the Research folder.

Alternately, you can just drag and drop things from the Research folder in your Binder into the space there where it says “Drag in documents or external files to create bookmarks.” Yep. Super easy.

You can even drop other chapters in there, or character studies. Anything in your project can be bookmarked for easy reference while writing.

Working With Bookmarks

Here’s what it looks like with the map file bookmarked. I dropped the arrow there to note that you can change the width of the windows by clicking and dragging.

You can add as many items as you want to this bookmark list. You can remove them by clicking the “-” to the right of the drop down menu wheel.

Personally, I’ve never used the options to link directly to an external bookmark or file. I like to put everything in my Research folder in the Binder. Everything. Then I just group them into the Bookmarks for each chapter so I can find what I need easily while I’m writing.

Research

Just in case you’re scratching your head and saying “this looks awesome, but how do I get research into the Binder to start with?” let me just add that you simply Control click the Research icon in the binder:

You can also just drag and drop images to the research folder directly from your desktop or web browser. Because Scrivener is awesome.