How to Use Scrivener as a Reference Library

Greetings Story Empire readers! This week we continue with another use of Scrivener’s Inspector – Document References .

Just as a refresher, the Inspector is turned on by clicking on View in Scrivener. Slide down the menu to Layout and click on Inspector in the fly-out menu that is displayed (for keyboard command enthusiasts use CTRL + Shift + I).

The Document References are accessed using the second from the left button located at the bottom of the Inspector.

To toggle between Document References and Project References click the up-down arrows.

There are several other controls for the Document References. To Add/Remove references click on the +/- buttons. The + button reveals a menu that allows adding internal references from the project as well as external references (Look-up and Add or Create), all of which are pictured below:

The Add Reference Menu Displayed

 

Add Internal References Menu Displayed

 

Adding An External Reference Displayed

Personally, I’ve been using Document References of late when writing posts. If I start researching aspects of my post then I add the references that I find which are usually external. So when I add the external reference I give it a title that makes sense and the web link to the page. This way I can access the information or add the link into a post. To add the referenced web link to your document, double click on the reference to open it. Then copy/paste the page link that’s opened into the your document via Scrivener’s link command.

Using references can also be used in various types of writing besides blog posts. The internal project references are also very valuable for larger projects, especially those involving research. Non-fiction writers can especially benefit from this function of Scrivener.

What writing research you do can benefit from using Document References? Please leave a your thoughts and questions in the comments section and I’ll answer as soon as I can.  Thanks for visiting Story Empire today.